senate will come to order and i'm very pleased today to have the prayer being given by the guest chaplain from the great state of michigan from mason michigan to reverend timothy title from first united methodist church and mason michigan through your wisdom oh god you have shared out of your abundance and gifted with minds to think and a spirit to our we are grateful for the opportunity to serve our country as elected leaders and servants guide our elected officials as they debate and discern and may our senators speak your great counsel and be mindful of the needs of our communities states country and world in this time let us be ready him and be guided by the principles that led the founders of our country to pursue liberty and justice for all continue to be with all those who are in harm's way today and guide our nation and  continue to look for peaceful ways to resolve conflicts both near and far this and all things in your holy name really just several years ago upon the suggestion and urging of our former colleague senator bob smith of new hampshire as we pay respect to those stars and those stripes the news just that that senator smith actually initiated the place that we do each month now and added we pay that respect to the flag itself the news this morning of the events in iraq bring new strength into the patriotism reflected by the senate for that flag and indeed for our country today our military forces are to be commended for their dedication to eradicating the terrorist visits to iraq i've had the opportunity to see first hand the amazing work that our soldiers are doing there on the ground of our military proud of the tremendous work they are doing and thank them for their efforts and their sacrifice for us each our was a man who was responsible for the beheading the killing of hundreds indeed of many innocent children and women and men he was responsible for the death of many equally importantly the operational head of al qaeda in iraq bin laden called him the prince of al qaeda reportedly he masterminded the operation the financial infrastructure the financial under strategic support for the terrorist network while we all know there are insurgents many many insurgents who remain in iraq this is surely a major major blow to the terrorists who threaten the safety and the security of iraq in the united states it's also a significant day in the formation of the government of iraq the appointment of the ministers of defense of the interior and the national security a major step forward of the prime minister and most of the cabinet have been in place for about three weeks i think thirty seven have been in place with the completion of that cabinet today a major step forward so it's been a good morning these developments are major steps forward and although as we all know many many many many challenges remain to say that i'm more optimistic of than ever that a free and stable iraq can be achieved but let me very quickly update our colleagues over the course of the day and run down our schedule in a couple of minutes we will start the one our debate prior to the cloture vote on the death tax repeal therefore that first was expected to begin sometime between about ten forty five and ten fifty regardless of the outcome of that cloture vote will then have the final debate prior to the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the native hawaiian bill that is set for twelve forty five this afternoon the rest of today's schedule will depend on the outcome of those two cloture vote we hope to have additional vote this afternoon on fourth district judges that are on the calendar as well as to the debate and a vote on the schwab nomination to be u s trade representative remind everyone that last night we filed cloture on mine safety a mine safety and health nomination and that is are a testament to the bravery and skill and the determination of those dedicated men and women on the frontline calley got a hard thing for me to say about any human being but he got what he deserved anyone who aligns himself with him should know that they could wait a similar fate as long as they engage in care i was very pleased to hear minister interior minister makes it that much closer to when we can start drawing down troops there and so i look forward i hope in the near future and i'm confident that will be the case we'll be working on a defense authorization bill  which is something that we need to do i would also mr president just say to through the chair to this thing which majority leader and i think this is important for a  we're trying to work something out on the way to get the immigration reform bill to conference with the house i know that a lot of people think that we spent a lot of time on minutia all this procedural stuff but that's the way it is and people are going to have be patient what we're trying to get is a vehicle to go to the house and also one where we're not we have insurance is that it will be president also our being in the senate the problem is one person can throw a monkey wrench random process we have to try to work it out so no wrenches are thrown in as president i would ask the distinguished majority leader lifelong united methodist i'm very proud of him he's associate pastor of the first united methodist church in mason michigan and one of our brightest and most engaging young leaders in the community and so i'm so pleased that he is here today he's been very active in the mid michigan community and served in a number of different leadership positions in the mason area united way the mason ministerial association the wesley foundation the st francis retreat center the west michigan conference leadership team and a host of other organizations after eight years with the first united methodist church reverend carroll was recently appointed by the wesley foundation to lead the campus ministry at michigan state my alma mater as well as estate tax is a tax paid by two out of every one thousand americans it is not a tax that will affect the vast majority of americans because they have not accumulated enough  wealth in their lifetime to be subject to the tax it is a tax that is imposed on the very wealthiest the very richest people in america it is a tax which is imposed on their state after a certain amount is exempt up to four million dollars is exempt for a couple under current state tax and that number is scheduled to rise but the republican majority believes that this tax is unfair they believe it is unfair to ask the wealthiest people in america who have accumulated millions of dollars to pay any tax to the government on that accumulated wealth when they die they say that's fundamentally out unfair they come to the floor of the senate with a sense of outrage that we would ask wealthy people in america to pay taxes and so they proposed elimination or reduction of this tax dramatically to the point where it will add substantially to the deficit of the united states of america this is not a tax cut for the wealthy it is a tax deferral by reducing or eliminating the tax on the wealthiest they passing the burden of taxation on to those in lower income groups so in their a lemon a sion of the death tax they are creating a birth tax which means if you happen to be born in america and you're one of the nine hundred ninety seven out of a thousand who don't pay the estate tax you will have a bigger debt and a bigger burden because the republican majority believes that the wealthiest should be spared paying taxes people who have had the good fortune of living and succeeding in america should be spared according to the republicans any responsibility to pay back to this great nation for the benefit that they have accrued during their lifetime a sense of outrage on the republican side of the aisle that somehow we would impose this tax and they have created this vast mythology about the estate tax they translated into a death tax suggesting to every american that when you die you must pay taxes that is just plain false only two or three out of a thousand people who die each year pay any such tax and yet the average person on the street believes the government's going to come and grab whatever small amounts they have kept together for their sons and daughters and take it away in tax collection it's not true it's false it's misleading it's deceptive and who is pushing this great effort to eliminate this estate tax well will it surprise you to know they are the fattest special interest in washington d c an analysis has shown and these numbers are nothing short of amazing that eight hundred families in the united states of america with a combined net worth of one hundred eighty five billion dollars eighteen families compain net worth one hundred eighty five billion dollars have spent two hundred million dollars lobbying on capitol hill to repeal this a state tax why they're going to make a fortune because their fortunes will be protected from being taxed this is the ultimate special interest bill this bill has nothing to do with the average american the average american family the average american form or the average american business it is about the wealthiest people in america flexing their muscles and pushing through on capitol hill the most outrageous piece of special interest legislation in modern memory and the republican majority is pushing this to the floor with a straight face we want to eliminate the death tax well what does it mean for the families behind wal mart gallo wine campbell soup and other countries companies it means that if they are given full repeal of the estate tax these families will collectively net a windfall these eighteen families a windfall of seventy one billion dollars that's what this is about and who will end up paying for our children we will take the money which we are not going to collect from the estate tax and end up borrowing and who will loan us the money more and more the bush administration goes overseas to borrow the money in china korea the all of sheiks the loan us the money but there are strings attached do you remember the dubai mort steele think there's a connection between these middle eastern oil giants now buying into the american economy and what we're doing on the estate tax it's directly linked there are bankers there are bargains shores they sell us oil why because the republican majority runs up the biggest deficits in the history of the united states of america when president bush took office the national debt was five point eight trillion dollars accumulated debt in the history of america five point eight trillion five years later the national debt is knocking on the door of nine trillion dollars and if they continue to eliminate taxes on the wealthiest people in america the debt will be eleven trillion dollars eleven trillion dollars for the students who are watching this debate on television in the galleries through c span let me tell you this effort to find a benefit for the wealthiest families in america to absolve them from paying debts for the success that they have experienced in this country is going to be visited on our children and grandchildren where is the fairness and where is the justice where is the sense of outrage that we would give this special interest piece legislation such a priority on the floor of the united states senate why wouldn't we consider changing the tax code so that average working families can deduct the cost of college education for their kids isn't that something good for america isn't that a greater value than to say to the super rich in america we're going to spare you from paying seventy one billion dollars in taxes over the life of this repeal no from their point of view you don't think about the families putting kids through college you don't worry about the situation where we have so many americans forty six million infected uninsured without health insurance today you don't with the reality of funding education you focus your attention and the time of the republican majority on repealing a tax on the wealthiest super wealthiest people in america warren buffet is the second richest man in america he said you know what's going on here it's class warfare and he said you know what my class is winning well they sure are and today the republican majority will try to put a victory on the board for the richest people in america why do we do this well for some it's a matter of philosophy they happen to believe that the rich get richer america will be better off that's been a philosophy around this country for a long long time i come from a different point of view i think the strength of america is in its families it's in those families getting up and going to work every day doing their best to keep their families together to save money for their future to put their kids through college it's in small businesses that take risks and sometimes fail but when they succeed build into a business that gives them a chance to to hire more people it's in family farms that's the strength of america these other folks have done quite well we went to the floor bureau incidentally the new york times did and asked them name us a single example of a family being forced to sell its farm because of a state tax liability not one single example from the american farm bureau they couldn't find one i did the same thing in illinois not one farm that has been lost because federal estate tax liability oh you'll hear them crying and moaning and whining and rending their garments about how this is needed to save family farms and they can't come up with a single example in america where a family farms been lost by the estate tax according to the congressional budget office only a hundred and twenty three family owned farms and one hundred thirty five family owned small businesses would pay any estate tax all with a two million dollar level across america pay any tax at all let alone risk losing their business or farm this has been exaggerated to a point which is shameful to think that at a time when we're facing the biggest deficit in the united states when we're involved in a war where we're asking our sons and daughters to risk their lives for america that we are going to make those who are comfortable more comfortable by sparing them their taxes that we're going to welcome home the soldiers by saying thanks for serving america incidentally here's a larger national debt for you to carry the rest of your life i urge my colleagues to defeat this effort to repeal the estate tax i am not going to recognize for ten minutes senator from arizona is recognized for ten minutes thank you mr president this president we're going to have an opportunity here very shortly to do something historic and that is to begin consideration of a process by which we can either eliminate or substantially reduce the impact of this most unfair tax of all the estate tax on small businesses on family farms on americans of all stri who worry that they're going to have to pay up to half of what they have put into their their life savings their their business their farm to the united states government in a state tax it has been found by gallup surveys and other surveys that the american people believe this is the most unfair tax and by percentages sixty seventy percent all agree that it should be eliminated to some extent there's a there's been an argument here that i've got to address because it's a straw man and that argument is that this is all about helping the most to wealthy families in the united states that's not correct and here's why what we have proposed is that immediately upon going to the house bill that there be a cloture vote on that bill which frankly i think all of us in this chamber would agree is doubtful of passing that is to say that there aren't sixty votes in this chamber to permanently repeal the estate tax that's what the senator from illinois was talking about we all know that as a result the majority leader has made an absolute commitment and i reaffirm that that immediately following that vote the majority leader would lay down a substitute a compromise if you will that provides that the estate tax will be substantially modified but not repealed and it will be modified in a way that will help those who because land values have been increasing or because they put all of their money into a small business would be either required to pay substantial amounts of money to plan for a potential for paying the estate tax paying lawyers and accountants and buying insurance and the like or would be responsible for a substantial estate tax bill would give them relief from that obligation but would still say that the wealthiest families the warren buffet's and others who were mentioned here a moment ago would still have to pay a substantial amount of estate tax the specific proposal that will be offered provides that there will be five million dollars exempted and that that would be indexed to inflation and that after that the capital gains rate would be the rate that would apply to states that would be taxed but that when you get to the super rich that the senator from illinois was talking about those that i think would have to agree a thirty million dollar estate would would probably qualify in that category anything above that amount would be taxed at a thirty percent rate which would bring in obviously a substantial amount of revenue given the wealth of some of those estates so we're not really here debating whether or not it's going to be either all or nothing a permanent repeal of the estate tax or the status quo what we're really talking about is going to a process by which we consider a compromise which will in fact tax the most wealthy but will allow those small businesses and farms the opportunity to continue their existence i think it's interesting that there is a suggestion here that this somehow wouldn't really help the small business or the family farm well let's quote some actual data here for example the center from illinois challenged us to show just one farm that had to sell property in order to pay the state tax ok here's one salmon and pain in georgia not too far north of atlanta georgia the farm had been in their family since the early eight hundred when their father died in one nine hundred sixty eight they had their first experience with the death tax but then sam's mother was still alive and it was manageable when she died six years ago they had to pay close to four hundred thousand dollars in the estate tax their land had increased in value so in order to pay that tax they had to sell part of their farm to local developers including an airport and here's what sam payne said at a certain point sell off too much land on your farm get so members and nearly twenty percent of the farmers responded to a survey that said if they had to pay federal estate taxes in the previous five years forty four percent said they'd have to mortgage the farm to pay the death tax twenty eight percent said that all or part of the farms business would have be sold thirty nine percent said that any plans for growth would have to be delayed or canceled and here's a pernicious aspect of this a lot of people spend a fortune just trying to avoid the tax in the first place seventy seven percent of the farmers reported that they had to spend money each year on estate planning forty percent said that they pay more than ten thousand a year thirteen percent more than twenty five percent more than twenty five thousand a year five percent pay more than one hundred thousand dollars a year that's a real impact the same kind of impact on small business we can we can provide if you want to have examples of that i gave an example yesterday minority business is the most hard hit areas of robert johnson the founder of black entertainment t v said elimination of the estate tax will help close the wealth gap in this nation between african american families and white families and hispanic survey the impact of group l l c surveyed hispanic family owned business owners twenty percent of the hispanic family business owner said they'd have to sell their business or property in order to pay the estate tax only about half of the responsibility that they're prepared to deal with the death taxes if the principal owner dies i mention black owned businesses surveys conducted by the family enterprise center of kennesaw state college and the center for family business at loyola university found ninety percent of black owned businesses family firm say that paying a state taxes make growth of the business more difficult eighty seven percent of black on family firm say paying a state tax makes the survival of the business more difficult nobody that's run a small business or family farm or that has accumulated wealth perhaps simply by the growth in the value of real estate will argue that this is not a matter of concern to them but  as the wall street journal editorialized today it's even people that appreciate the fact that it won't apply to them that favor repeal i'll just quote from this editorial and ask unanimous consent that it be inserted in the record americans favor repealing the death tax not because they think it will help them directly they're more principled than that two thirds of the public wants to repeal it because they think taxing a lifetime of thrift due to the action of it is unfair and even immoral they also understand that the really rich won't pay the tax anyway because they hire lawyers to avoid it and that's the point of this argument that we heard a moment ago a lot of the super rich don't care that's true there are certain people in name here but they've they've been named who support continuation of the tax they have the wealth to plan around it to buy the expensive insurance you just heard me quote from small business owners minority business owners and farmers who say they can't afford to pay year after year the cost of that insurance and the estate planning of all of the  groups there's only one group that i know of that that opposes what we're trying to do here and that's the insurance industry and why not because they make money off of it so if we're talking about special interest legislation let's understand that the special interests that we're trying to protect here are the family owned businesses the family farms the minority business and the special interests that are fighting us or the big insurance companies and the state planners that make millions of dollars every year  member of the clinton administration has said that the american people pay each year about the same amount to plan against paying the estate tax as the federal government collects in revenues from the estate tax so in effect it's a double tax and sure the super wealthy don't care because they have enough money to plan against them but what we're going to do in this proposed compromise is to make sure that they pay but that the people that get caught simply because of the increased value of their property or their business will not have to pay a present i also ask unanimous consent to insert in the record an article by harvey rosen from the market watch dated june eighth which makes the point that the american people benefit when we reduce the rates on the estate tax because it enables capital formation by on for newark and that the economy is better off as a result of the reduction of these r the state tax that's big enough to collect substantial revenue is also big enough to have a substantial negative impact on effect on saving and the economy that reducing the rate will benefit the economy the bottom line is this m president we're going to have an opportunity to vote yes on cloture to take up the house repeal bill for those who believe in full repeal the next vote would be to support full repeal presumably that won't pass the next thing that will happen in the majority leader has made this crystal clear and i will reiterate this commitment is that we will have an opportunity then to vote on a proposal that senator baucus and senator lincoln and senator bill nelson and ben nelson and others of us have been working on to provide a substantial exempted them out five million dollars per spouse the capital gains rate to apply to whatever has to be paid but when a state hits thirty million dollars from then on it gets hit with a thirty percent rate that is a fair way to help the people at the lower end of the spectrum and yet collect the revenue from those very very wealthy estates that we all agree can pay a part of this estate tax yes i'd be happy to feel the center from a point or are you aware of the fact that you know a lot has been made that we're going to borrow money to pay for this tax but the fact is is the tax gap the amount of money that's not collected that so the federal government is close to four hundred billion dollars a year the other side of that is there's over two hundred billion dollars a year that has been proven to be wasteful are fraudulent only misspent by this government with our condolences and our observation each year that's six hundred billion dollars we wouldn't be dip a thing this tax if we were doing our job in terms of oversight and i would just tell you just in terms of improper payments are you aware of the fact that there's over a hundred and fifty billion dollars a year paid out by the federal government to people who do not deserve it have not earned it and yet have manipulated the system to get and i'm not talking about poor people i'm talking about contractors and the point i'm wanting to make with you is we wouldn't even be having a discussion on the principles of this tax because it's not needed because we're not doing our job in terms of oversight so there's six hundred billion dollars that we would put us in a surplus by two hundred billion right now including the cost of the war if we would just do our job and i just wonder if the senator was aware that madam president we've been made of that because of the great work of the senator from oklahoma pointing all of this out and in helping to lead the effort to collect this money that could be collected and to save the money that the government is is wasting and that senator knows that we support fully his efforts in that regard and intend to pursue it and that madam president will conclude my remarks by simply saying that we have an opportunity to do something very historic for an awful lot of folks in this country who deserve the release and i hope that my colleagues will give us that opportunity by supporting the cloture motion when that comes up in another half an hour or so not this is an interesting debate in some ways a very troubling debate because i want to talk a little about fiscal policy and where we find ourselves you know want to do that is it's almost as if this place is disconnected just disconnected from what's happening night before last i sat down in eighty five until about one in the morning one thirty in the morning working on the emergency supplemental appropriation request roughly ninety billion dollars for iraq afghanistan a partial portion of it for katrina none of it paid for emergency spending ninety billion dollars  takes us to something very close to four hundred billion dollars over these recent years none of it paid for not many weeks ago we had on the floor of the senate a proposed seventy billion dollars tax cut that passed wasn't paid for just cutting the revenues i voted against that so we're spending money without covering it with cutting taxes are dead at this point is eight point six trillion dollars at the end of two thousand and six we will add over six hundred billion dollars to the indebtedness just this year alone in fiscal policy we will add over seven hundred billion dollars this year alone in trade deficits that's different than the fiscal policy that's the policies budget combined this year we likely will be in debt by one point four trillion dollars just this year everybody understands this is completely off track and dangerous so what's the business today about cutting some taxes again and what's going to come behind this a  tax cut bill coming from the finance committee it's unbelievable it's almost as if somebody pulled the plug out of the socket so there's no current coming through here by which people can think straight go to the hometown cafe or hometown restaurant and ask some folks sitting around the table what do you do next you're choking on debt that's up to your neck fiscal policy budget that rate that eight point six trillion dollars fiscal policy debt going to it's going to go in the next five years to twelve trillion dollars almost twelve trillion dollars we expect and so what do we do next we say we know what we have to do we ought to get rid of the death tax now there is no death tax of course a function of a clever pollster paid handsomely by people with a lot of money to come up with a monitor that would allow them politically to cast this into the water and have a float so it's a death tax my colleague who just spoke spoke at great length about the death tax clever interesting but it doesn't exist there is in fact a tax on inherited wealth in this country very few americans pay it currently the exemption is two million dollars for a husband two million dollars for a wife if you don't have four million dollars in net assets in your family don't worry about the issue of the estate tax that's going to three and a half a piece that's seven million dollars if you're not above seven million dollars don't worry about it and oh by the way notwithstanding those exemptions if one spouse dies the other spouse owns everything one hundred percent exemption and there is no estate tax doesn't matter what the status were worth billions doesn't matter the other spouse owns it there's a one hundred percent spousal exemption so this ruse of suggesting there is a quote death tax is an unbelievable ruse but the most interesting hoax of all is this small business issue and family farm issue and i won't tell you why it's a hoax i came to the floor the united states senate twice and offered amendments twice the last time i offered the amendment it would have completely repeal the estate tax obligation of any small business and any family farm that was passed from the parents to the children the lineal descendant to continue to operate the business of the farm no matter the size if that small business or farm no matter the size were passed to the parent from the parents the children january first two thousand and three it would have forever been exempt from an estate tax it would have just taken that issue off the table fifty four members of the ny state senate voted against that including the people who are here today crying crocodile tears over small business and family farm issues when they had the chance to do this they didn't want to do it why that not the purpose the purpose of this issue is to say to the richest the wealthiest americans we want to help you my colleague just said well we're going to craft something that's a little bit of a modification he didn't tell you that the modification  to craft lose eighty percent of the money eighty percent of the money but his real interest and the interest of most of the folks who are speaking is to repeal the death tax a tax which doesn't exist now we're at war with war up to our neck in debt eight point six trillion dollars of debt heading towards twelve trillion dollars in debt a budget policy completely out of control a trade policy that is wildly out of control and at war and one of those who have the majority in this chamber decide they ought to do the president the majority in this chamber the majority in the house what's their next step cut taxes for the wealthiest americans me tell you what warren buffett says about this warren buffett is a an interesting guy second richest man in the world but a really public spirited man he said if this is class warfare my my side is  winning support this at all in things not here's what he said he said the estimated worth of forty two billion dollars i guess a remarkable man he says quote i personally think that society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what i've earned if yes if you stick me down in the middle of bangladesh or peru or someplace you'll find out how much this town is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil he said i think being here is what is allowed me to be successful and by implication we owe something back let me read what franklin delano roosevelt said in one of the spires side chats remember now we're at war and my colleagues decide that the most pressing priority is for them to remove the time burden from the wealthiest people in this country the ones worth billions of dollars that's their biggest priority here's what franklin delano roosevelt said at another age when we were at war quote not all of us can have the privilege of fighting our enemies in distant parts of the world not all of us can have the privilege of working in a minister's factory or shipyard or on the farms or in the oil fields or mines producing the weapons or raw materials needed by our armed but there is one front and one battle where every one of the united states every man woman and child is in action and that front is right here at home in our daily lives in our daily tasks here at home everyone will have the privilege of making whatever self denial is necessary not only to supply our fighting men but to keep the economic structure of our country fortified and secure do you see any urge at all by the majority here by the white house any urge at all to call this country to action for some public spiritedness but what we need to do together we have soldiers dying on the battlefield and we're sitting downstairs in the capitol building to one in the morning appropriating money for those soldiers for their munitions for their trucks and tanks and battleships and we won't pay for the majority party says we won't pay for it even as we spend money we won't pay for we see them bring their highest priority than for the senate and that is tax cuts for those who are very well the wealthiest one percent of americans no own a bigger piece of the pie than the poorest ninety percent added together and that gap is growing and this legislation will once again decide to expand the inequality of income in this country that's going to say this  come to this floor talking small businesses and family farms had a chance to vote for the repeal of any estate tax obligation for any transfer of any family owned business or any family owned farm and that full repeal would've been effective on january first two thousand and three fifty four members of the senate voted no and i dare say almost everyone speaking today in support of this legislation because they believe it will help family farms and small businesses when they had the chance to do it voted against it and that tells you a little something in my judgment about what is really at stake is anybody here ever seen a hearse pull a u haul i don't think so you can't take it with you we're on this earth for a relatively short period of time we are blessed to live here here a unique spot on this planet and this in my judgment requires of us some responsibilities so i know some don't want to lose anything they don't they want take it all with them but you can't take it all with and the question is should at least some of the large us that those who have been most successful in this country have accumulated in their lifetime should at least some of it very tax because most of it represents accumulation of assets that have never ever born a tax growth appreciation of stock that has never been taxed should that not also contribute to this country's defense contribute to this country's well being the answer is yes i hope we will decide  the right thing and reject this proposal this president and from texas how much time is remaining on our side seven minutes forty five seconds then republican side madam president i would like to unanimous consent that that time be divided in the following way senator sessions for three minutes senator de mint for two minutes forty five seconds and senator hutchison for two minutes and that each be  notified of their time when they come to that line that kind of protection center from alabama and texas and now we're just we're called that over a year ago twenty four senators  signed a letter that i produced asking senator frist the majority lated to bring this bill out he has worked hard to find the time and here we are i would call and set the record straight that the death tax is eliminated percent a confiscatory right the american people the american heritage is one of sightings in frugality and the briley in the right to own private property and leave that property to whoever they choose on their debt and that's why coffers that is the definition of a bad tax the very definition of a good tax is one that simple and fair and low cost to collect this one is exactly the opposite causing all kinds of  gymnastics to avoid it finally and more importantly it savages growing closely held businesses madam president thank about a my friend i met on the traveling alabama on three motels he and his two sons they met with me and told me they were paying eighty thousand dollars a year for a life insurance policy because when that father died it took that much life insurance eight thousand seven thousand a month to pay the death tax they are competing with the big guys powered johnson's holiday and mary trying to really get up there but every much they are  paying seven thousand dollars that could be used to pay down the mortgage on their motels and build that competent business that's why it's impacting adversely our country it's against sitings it's events for a galaxy and and  it i got a call from robert johnson just yesterday had a black entertainment network he's competing with c b s n b c fox they basically he's trying to do well he's got a family he never pays a death tax holiday and never pays a death tax it's a small closely held businesses that are expanding have no cash are investing in their next new motel to compete with the subjected once again to the tired old democrat song that republicans are trying to help their rich friends even though the other side has said only two or three out of every thousand americans pay this tax they think we're doing this to get vote even though they say only a small number of americans pay this tax the majority of americans believe it's wrong because they know what senator sessions was just saying about a family owned hotel chain that it's not just those who own it who will suffer if it's going up and sold that it's all the people that work for it so the question today is really when someone dies in america should their property and possessions go to the government or should it stay working in a family business or farm in producing jobs in this country one point i'd like to make in a short period of time is this estate tax does not benefit the average american does not help poorer americans in fact it takes their job just to deal with the death tax and we've heard these figures before lawyers and accountants fees from thirty thousand one hundred fifty thousand life insurance policies senator session just mention appraisal cost tax preparation the cost of the ailing with this is actually much more than the revenues in this chart here it reminds us that the revenue from the death tax is less than twenty five billion dollars a year but the economic cost to our country is estimated at eight hundred forty seven billion lost in capital investment because of the death tax a loss of over one hundred thousand jobs per year and over ten billion in lost income the american people are not stupid they know that while this tax may hit the the the wealthiest of americans that most of us as americans work for those family businesses or farms it makes no sense to break up these businesses and send the money to the government where it will not be nearly as effective  we would be breaking up family farms and ranches all over this country that's what the death tax has been doing for years in fact america has the highest death in the world we say we are a country of small to the next generation thirty percent of family businesses today pass to the second generation thirty percent make it to the third generation because the property in a business is worth much more value produces the debt walked away from the american dream the american dream is if you come to this country you can work hard and you can give your children a better chance than you had the american dream is that you can start with nothing and you can build something if you work hard and you have a good idea but to walk away from that because that family business it breaks up the prices over three dollars a gallon in nevada minimum wage raising your we're not doing anything on that here republican dominated congress to a tax credit but you could get a benefit for sending your kids to college we're not doing that a deficit approaching nine trillion dollars we're doing nothing about that stem cell research to give hope to hundreds of thousands if not millions of americans with diseases such as parkinson's alzheimer's diabetes lou gehrig's disease we're not doing anything about that prescription drugs for everyday americans and for seniors nothing none of these things are before the senate we're going to talk about something today that affects two tenths of one percent is not high on the agenda of people in there that i think that we're wasting precious days on divisive issues when there are so many other matters of deserve and demand our attention why aren't we doing something here in the senate to address the issues that affect ninety nine point eight percent of the american people i haven't talked about intractable war in iraq it rages on our soldiers continue to fight valiantly heroic performance has not been matched i don't believe by the fact that we have fifty billion dollars that we need to spend to get the military to the position it was in when the war office the national debt represents a birth for our children our children's children and their children the senate doing nothing to relieve the burden of birth well we know the answer the majority of republicans don't intend to fix these problems because so many of them are that it's their obligation as rich people in america who have received the american dream to pay these taxes but there are few who feel that way and senator durbin indicated eight hundred billion dollars are people who are pushing this legislation running full page ads in newspapers around the country let me talk about concerning the  it comes from foreign countries so that's about a trillion dollars over ten years we can expect the national debt to increase by a trillion dollars for twelve thousand and two tenths of one percent at the most the second myth is that we need to repeal the estate t that this senate will not focus its attention on two tenths of one percent of the american people and leave two hundred eighty five million people still wondering when we're going to get some health insurance reform what we're going to do something to do for health care stem cell research when we're going to do something about education costs there i can't imagine our senate would do this with for you can see we're going to focus on two tenths of one percent and leave everyone including the folks wanting minimum wage out in the cold as they have been for years this is unfair i would hope that we would not and his granddad we're building that business into a trusted reliable family business that exist today but when michael's dad passed away six years ago in two thousand the business was put on the brake the family at that time all of a sudden was forced to pay nearly four hundred thousand dollars in death taxes and almost had to sell the business they worked so hard to put together to pay for the tab michael says he hopes to pass that lumber company on to his children his grandchildren his life what he's worked for to give them that sense of family pride and community that pride in community that his dad passed but like so many american families his dream is threatened by what has come to be known in my they decided not to trust their fate to the tax man they sold there in east tennessee car dealership so that if one of them were to die suddenly the other one said they would have to pay those exorbitant taxes that burden wouldn't fall on their shoulders they didn't want that buzzard picking away picking apart that drain that they had built together fred heineken's parents and force they didn't know about that kind of tax planning hi nicky of the north tennessee wrote to the knoxville new just this saturday and i quote current law allows a four million dollars deduction for a couple that may be true if they die at the same time such as in a plane crash but not if they die separately as most couples do i learned the hard way because my parents died a couple years apart without a trust when my mom died in two thousand and three i wrote a painful check for over three hundred thousand dollars to the federal government this required the sale of property that had been in the family for over fifty years fred like so many people not only had to write that unexpected and huge check to the federal government in order to pay he had to negotiate the sale of his parent's property at one of the worst moments in anybody's life and that is the time of their their death the passing of his mom back to the floor today it is time to bury it it is time for it to go in a few moments we will have a vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to h r eight and we need to be very clear about what this vote here in a few minutes  in favor of returning the death tax to the pre two thousand and one confiscatory rate of fifty five percent an exemption about only a million dollars per person back in two thousand and one we passed a gradual he's out of the death tax real real progress and under that two thousand and one economic growth tax relief and reconciliation act that tax is scheduled to disappear in two thousand  but under the terms of this compromise legislation after two thousand and ten it comes roaring back with that tax level of fifty five percent in twenty eleven that's why we need to act we need a permanent fix and that's what this vote is all about last spring the house passed a bill to make full repeal of the death death tax permanent they did so with a strong bipartisan support over a year has passed and that's now it is time for us to a to understand why we already pay enough taxes over our lifetimes whether it's a water taxi a gas tax a payroll tax or utility tax a cable tax a property tax a sales tax an income tax we are taxed every minute of our lives we're taxed on that first cup of coffee in the morning to the time we flip the lights at bedtime in fact we're taxed so much that one nonpartisan organization points out calculate that the first five months of the average american salary is confiscated by the government if you're an enterprising entrepreneur who's worked hard to grow a family business or to keep it maintained that family farm your spouse and children can expect to hear the knock of the taxman right after the ground reaper so now this out i'll argue that the death tax is a critical stream of federal revenue and that in any event it only hits the super rich neither is evidence shows that widespread estate tax avoidance is accounted for the death tax net zero to negative tax revenue worse yet the death tax may be responsible for the employees because they want to but because they have to and the eco reverberate through an entire community now just yesterday i heard from farmers in western landowners on the farms and them are cash poor they own land handed down from their parents they know there's no easy way their children can continue to work the land if they're subjected to this death so rather than wait for the death to pick apart their family farm they made plans to that family in the past when congress enacted the death tax it was at an extraordinary time of war when the for president was to raise temporary bonds but after the war was over the death tax would go away repealed but creators for saving for investing and succeeding the death tax tells people it's better to consume today than to invest for the future consume today rather than save for the future to spend now and leave nothing for later and then make it unfair of every ten of this year i said that the senate would debate and decide the fate of the death tax and that time is upon us and i urge my colleagues to cast their vote in favor of cloture a proceeding to allow debate on elimination of the death tax if we don't the death tax prevails america's family businesses lose and so here in just a few moments again this is a vote on the motion to proceed to allow debate will require sixty votes on this very important issue if we get and i hope that we do get those sixty votes i expect that we will see a cloture motion on the underlying bill and if that underlying bill is not successful i think that we would need to gather together to have a compromise legislation and would expect about on that as well i eight to make the repeal of the estate tax permanent signed by seventeen senators by unanimous consent a mandatory quorum call has been waived the question is is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to h r eight mr buy no mr nelson nebraska  are there any senators who wish to vote or change their vote if not on this the a's are fifty seven the nays are forty one three fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative the motion is not agreed to under the previous order there will be twenty five minutes for debate debate equally divided between senator from kansas mr roberts and the senator from new york mrs clinton was present said it will be an order senators please take your conversations off the floor senators please take your conversations off the floor senators please take your conversations off the floor and more importantly what we can do about it you will see behind me here a picture of a crowded emergency hospital at port riley kansas during the one thousand nine hundred eighteen spanish flu pandemic actually took the lives of more than six hundred thousand americans and fifty million people worldwide however my colleagues may not be aware that the first human cases of the spanish flu in the united states were discovered in my home state of kansas can't find them and fort riley kansas on the morning of march eleventh nine hundred eighteen accompanied cook reported to the camp infirmary and he was complaining about a bad cold by noon over one hundred six soldiers suffering the same bad cold also reported to the infirmary and these complaints of bad colds turned out to be the first cases of spanish flu in america within weeks why that influenza had spread to places as far away as camp and cock lewis and sherman even the several several hundred prisoners at san quentin by this summer the flu had raged around the globe killing scans of thousands of people this flu was so severe missed present and damaging that attack plans during world war one had to be altered or post bone because there were shortages of healthy man to battle the spanish flu did continue to spread all throughout ninety ninety it reached its death toll of nearly fifty million people worldwide general suspend center is not an order had on kansas our nation and the world it's almost on imaginable that starting with that one company clock fifty million people worldwide died i'd like to tell a different story about a public health success in march of one nine hundred forty seven the city of new york faced an outbreak of smallpox when three cases appeared at a local hospital on april fourth new york city began a mass vaccination campaign to prevent further cases from occurring you'll see behind me a photograph of red cross volunteers waiting to receive a vaccination against this deadly disease over the next month more than six million people were inoculated against smallpox the largest mass vaccination in u s history even president truman who was scheduled to visit new york during this time received a vaccination through the cooperative efforts of local government employees public health workers and an army of volunteers an outbreak was averted back sedations took place at hospitals schools police stations frequent press bulletins helped to ensure that people knew what was happening and where they could go to have themselves and their families vaccinated our national public health system was able to respond both quickly and efficiently to contain this disease as a new york city health commissioner reported in the american journal of public health later that year never before had so many people in one city been vaccinated in such a short time and on such short notice thanks are due to the press and radio for giving so generously of their space and time to bring necessary information to the public had it not been for them and the intelligent cooperation of the public the generosity of private physicians and volunteer workers notably from the american red cross and the american women's voluntary services and former air raid warden groups from world war two it would have been impossible to achieve this remarkable record senator roberts and i are here on the floor today because we believe happened century later we face a similar public health issue the looming threat of pandemic influenza has caused our federal government to begin mobilizing for when not if but when avian flu hits our shores we're investing in research for a vaccine stockpiling medications and trying to develop plans for mass vaccination but if recent history is any indication we may not be able to muster the same response as we did in one nine hundred forty seven when americans were still on a kind of war footing or had a mentality of of working together what is worrisome to me when i think about our country's preparedness is the fact that we are not even prepared to deal with the season al influenza that we face every single year you know since two thousand we've had four shortages of seasonal influenza vaccines we've seen senior citizens lined up for hours to get flu shots unfortunately we've seen some unscrupulous distributors trying to sell the flu vaccine to the highest bidder and millions of americans have chosen not to get vaccinated despite the clear preventive effect of the vaccine so this is something we want to stress and that senator roberts and i have been working on together to try to come up with some practical solutions this is a matter of preparedness not a partisan issue this is a matter of planning a matter of ensuring that our health care system can respond both to the annual flu outbreak and to the threat of a pandemic flu and we believe we have a lot of work to do just highlighted the need to be prepared for both seasonal flu and a potential avian flu pandemic as is absolutely critical some believe the potential avian flu outbreak could be as lethal as the one nine hundred eighteen spanish flu you can watch or read the news any more as a matter of fact without seeing a report about real concern for the flu actually reaching our shores in reality human cases of avian flu have already been discovered in ten countries three years ago there exercise at the national defense university and that exercise was called global tempest apple you name the exercise simulated a worst case scenario flu pandemic and participants from several federal agencies and other members of congress took part in the event we all serve as advisors to the president the exercise showed mr president firsthand how quickly our public health system and real critical infrastructure services can be simply overwhelmed how communication can easily break down and how panic can take called amongst the public we were forced with a difficult decision of having to determine where limited medical supplies and personnel should be targeted how the federal government can sustain the private sector and try to mitigate the real economic effects of the pandemic and if and when the department of defense should be called in to taught us a valuable lesson we must be prepared at all levels to deal with a large scale public health emergency such as the pandemic flu this system must be able to respond in any type of crisis but more importantly this system must be ready to respond before the crisis really begins as chairman of the senate committee on intelligence and a member of the senate agriculture and health education and labor  committees all three i take this threat of flu pandemic very seriously and view it not only as a public health concern but a concern in regard to our national security now senator clinton is a fellow member of the health committee she shares these concerns however we do not want to stand before our colleagues and our constituents those watching today and cause any panic or any alarm there have been no cases the avian flu virus in the united states nor has there been a human transmission of the disease in a form that could fuel a pandemic instead we stand here together before all of our colleagues today hoping to motivate our colleagues and all of us to take the necessary steps to make sure we are adequately prepared should be in flu take hold in the united states we believe there are some weaknesses in our system that we must strength business community universities health providers hospitals school administrators many other stakeholders who came together to make sure that qantas is certainly prepared in the event of an influenza pandemic we identified the steps that be taken at the state and the local level to plan for and respond to a plume pandemic at the federal level senator clinton and i took the lead last october and we introduced legislation to help strengthen our nation's fl vaccine system the influenza vaccine security act which we introduced takes a comprehensive approach and includes several provisions to improve our vaccine market and the delivery system for us for the seasonal flu but it also provides the framework that is absolutely critical during a pandemic flu virus is absolutely right we believe it is critical to ensure that our basic seasonal flu vaccine production and distribution system is capable of delivering vaccines to all who need them especially with the threat of an avian flu pandemic looming over us of people die in our country every a year from seasonal flu and it makes sense to us that we need to get that system absolutely as a fission as it needs to be so that then we could handle a rapid vaccine production mobilization and delivery challenge in the event of pandemic flu because we don't have a system through which to track vaccine we cannot ensure that supplies reach the highest priority populations including seniors in the chronically ill those who should get vaccinated as early as possible in any given flu season now many physicians and other providers have contacted us to express frustration at their continuing inability to accurately predict at which point they may be able to provide needed supplies of influenza vaccine to their patients you know we do this in other parts of our economy we routinely use tracking devices to trace deliveries of other goods in the private market but yet we still cannot predict when a vaccine order placed in the summer might actually be provided to a doctor's office or a hospital or another place where the flu vaccine can be administered so our legislation the influenza vaccine security act a tracking system through which we could better trace the distribution of vaccine from the factory to the provider and we could identify counties with high numbers of priority population then with that system in place we could easily determine in times of shortage where the vaccine was most needed and then facilitate distribution to those areas all of this could take place in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks as it does now the tracking system in our legislation builds upon the current private system of distribution it has received support from vaccine manufacturers and public health groups linking instrument information through a national database can be done in a manner that does not jeopardize free market competition but actually assists it now it simply makes sense to establish a tracking system for vaccine distribution that can be used in both seasonal and pandemic events and to have that system already operational rather than to rely on untried mechanisms in an emergency situation when we would already be facing all the model multiple challenges of delivering health care now we recognize that many entities in our states as well as around the country may not have the technology or infrastructure in place right back to being tracking system that's why our bill also creates a demonstration program that authorizes the centers for disease control working together with state and local health departments to provide demonstration grants to health care institutions to assist them in information technology upgrades to allow these institutions to improve their ability to report and track flu vaccine dissemination president senator clinton and also recognize the very critical need for domestic based vaccine manufacturers and an increased production capacity in the end bad of a polluted actually in shortage or some kind of a public health emergency that would require a mass need for vaccines or any other  countermeasures that's why our bill improves the ability of the current manufacturers to remain in the u s market and encourages more companies to enter the market with domestic based production facilities we provide grants to manufacturers for technical assistance from the food and drug amount and grants for capital improvements in technology for the capacity of production our bill also addresses the need to quickly find  medical professional in the event of an emergency we require the centers for disease control and prevention to work with our state and local health departments to develop a registry if you will of medical personnel who can provide services during a public health emergency such a system was required under the bioterrorism act passed by congress four years ago but there is still no working system in place this is simply unacceptable we must have a system that can easily identify doctors and other health professionals who can assist during a public health emergency that just makes common sense especially during an emergency that affects many areas across state lines this will allow our federal state and local officials to move quickly and efficiently to provide immediate care to those in need now during hurricane katrina and its aftermath i heard from many doctors and other health professionals across my state of kansas and i'm sure their center from new york did likewise who wanted to volunteer their time in the gulf coast area however their desire to help those in need was hampered by the inability of government officials to easily identified a doctor who was grid anshul or other health providers from other states who could provide care this is why senator clinton and i now stand before our colleagues today to stress that we can no longer wait for the development of such a registry of medical personnel we are working and will continue to work with the health committee to make sure this is a priority and the bioterrorism also believe that reforming the flu vaccine requires demand for vaccination so this bill increases the funding for c d c s educational initiatives and sets up grants through state and local health departments and collaboration with health care institutions insurance companies and patient groups to increase vaccination rates among americans but particularly among priority populations the elderly the chronically ill and those for whom the seasonal flu is a particular risk now we've made progress between one thousand nine hundred nine and one nine hundred ninety flu vaccination rates among senior citizens doubled from thirty three percent to sixty six percent of the population but we need to get those numbers up even higher to try to meet the healthy people twenty ten goal of having ninety percent of our seniors receive an annual flu vaccine and so we've got to get more information out to people about why this is important this especially critical if we are confronted with pandemic flu because many people last year wanted to get a seasonal flu vaccine because they thought it would protect them against pandemic flu they you know that the information was not clear and it wasn't getting out in the right way so we need to do more to help find reliable sources of information in communities and i want to add another point about the funding for research that we're advocating we think we should have new vaccines based technologies such as cell based technology you know we rely on production methods that haven't kept pace with the advances in medical science in order to make a vaccine today strains of influenza virus are cultivated in chicken egg that's a non sterile environment and many of the contamination problems we've seen over the last several years every zulfi because of this cultivation process so although we still have to rely on this technology senator roberts and i would like to expedite the effort to increase research into safer faster more rely methods of vaccine production i have to emphasize again however it is not research alone that will help us we can research in the laboratory but then not know where the vaccine is how to track it to how to get it to where it needs to be how to have good information sources etc robert said about the the war game that he participated in there was a lot of confusion so we're trying to cut through that and topple research efforts with the development of a system to track and distribute both seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccine that's present over the last serval months the distinguished senator from new york and myself have worked with our colleagues on the health committee to try to include the provisions of our bill we discussed today in the public health security a bioterrorism preparedness and response act and that's the reauthorization of that bill or that we discussed here today are absolutely relevant and critical to these discussions we hope it's not whole we're going to insist that these provisions will be included in any legislation approved by the committee and the attention and focus on planning for a pandemic flu but we also believe that a few more steps need to be taken to make sure that we are ready this is why we are urging our colleagues to consider our legislation the influenza vaccine  security act and support our efforts on the bioterrorism bioshield two bills i want to thank senator clinton for all of our hard work and dedication and leadership to this issue and i urge my colleagues to think about this and to support this legislation and i thank you for their time and mr president i want to thank senator roberts he brings to this issue the concern that he faces every day on the intelligence committee and i agree with him absolutely this is a national and homeland security issue as well as a health and economic one and i hope working with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the help committee we can ensure that these provisions from our legislation will be included within the reauthorization of the bioterrorism and public health emergency bill we believe and outs of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure and we stand ready to work to move this as quickly as possible so that we can get the system in place that we can work on during seasonal influenza time and be prepared for a pandemic flu mr president i thank my colleague senator roberts and hawaiians and so forth and for the purposes under the previous order the time until twelve forty five p m shall be equally divided between the two leaders for their designated as present the republican w founding a person's right to determine whether he lives and freedom or in slavery fifty years ago race could still determine where a person could live has taken into account when dealing with the effects have been detrimental if not devastating and for that reason as president kennedy once said has no place in american life or law unfortunately today the senate is considering a bill that would wreck the progress we have made toward a colorblind society asked one forty seven the native hawaiian government reorganization act would not only direct the government the government to establish a government based  treatment based on race the fourteenth amendment reads all persons born or naturalized in the united states and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the united states and of the state wherein they reside no state no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the united states nor does not jurisdiction the equal protection of the law the fourteenth amendment was quite clear the way this bill tries to maneuver around its unconstitutional by classifying native hawaiians via the federal indian law system and creating a new tribe of native hawaiians but this new tribe is a shell game native hawaiians have never been viewed as an indian tribe including when i was overwhelmingly voted for statehood in nineteen fifty nine as recently as nine hundred ninety eight the state of hawaii itself acknowledged that the tribal concept has no historical basis and why specifically the state of hawaii wrote the following in a brief to the us supreme court this is what the state of hawaii had to say at that time for the indians the formally end appendant sovereignty sovereign entity that govern them was the tribe but for native context of hawaiian history that was in the briefs of the state of hawaii itself in a case in nineteen ninety eight mr president the senate should be an institution that brings america together country by the way mr president have i mentioned that not even the people of hawaii this bill according to a poll conducted by the grassroot institute of hawaii sixty seven percent of hawaiians oppose it two thirds of the state s overwhelmingly oppose this bill based upon that survey those survey results the u s commission on civil rights conducted public hearings on s one four seven they oppose it and recommend against its passage they oppose it because because they believe it is racially discriminatory and divisive this is what the commission on civil rights had to say about this measure the commission recommends against the passage of the native hawaiian government reorganization act or any other legislation that would discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and further divide the american people into discrete groups according to corded varying degrees privilege and it should be pointed out that it seems that private interests who commented on the bill opposed bill ms johnson went on to say that if this bill passes i will be forced to choose on which side of the fence stand i will choose the anglo american tradition of the right of life liberty property and the pursuit of happiness this will prevent me from recognizing all that is why you and me i consider the akaka bill to be a proposal to violate my rights let me share with my colleagues some of the testimony of advocates  why is literally an american outpost in the pacific completely reflecting the american scene with its religious variations its cultural business and agricultural customs and its politics and former interior secretary fred wrote to the senate committee and nine hundred fifty nine is truly america in every aspect of its life but mr president i sure hope that's true in the sense that being american means we do not define and divide people by race but we transcend that every american regardless of race has a full freedom to excel that is why people of all races from all over the world they leave behind what they have known and start new lives here because we are multiracial multicultural and because of the misfortunes that have transpired when this country has looked at its citizens through the prism of race we must not turn racial preferences and to law as this bill would have us do so mr president i believe the way forward for our country is for the government to focus less and less on right not more and more to treat people has led the way in proving it so let's do our best to get this country to a point where truly has no place not when it comes to our government or to our promise of equal justice under the i'd be a lot of ten minutes out of that twenty one minutes without objection the president speak on the native hawaiian bill but first i want to say that earlier today we witnessed an important victory in the war on terror and in the continued march of freedom and democracy in iraq  like saddam hussein was a mass murderer i'm not sad to say that he has made his last video i could not be more proud of our men and women in uniform our military and intelligence services and of those individuals who participated in this particular operation our intelligence and military forces have demonstrated their exceptional abilities and reminded us yet again that through patience and resolve we will continue to win the war on terror and advance the cause of freedom around the globe so i would like to say to our military forces and our intelligence community serving all around the world we support you we are proud of you and we know that you will continue to keep up the good work this president yesterday when i came to the flo spoke on this legislation the so called native hawaiian legislation i indicated that i had profound concerns about the constitutionality of the bill and i might add that it is not sufficient for members of congress to say that oh the courts will clean up the mess after we pass the bill indeed it is our responsibility to uphold and defend the constitution as members of the united states senate yesterday we heard a few hours of discussion from both those who support and those who oppose the bill i've made no secret of my opposition simply put i cannot and i will not support a bill which vary with whose very purpose is to divide americans based upon race and which is clearly contrary to our fundamental american principle of equal justice under the law the bill would create a separate race based government for native and alliance of tix to the exclusion of all other americans and because of its very focus on race the legislation creates particularly troublesome constitutional problems in fact it appears to be designed to be an in run around the united states supreme court decision in the year two thousand seven to two decision which struck down the ancestry requirements for voting in the for the office of native hawaiian affairs trustee the court found that because ancestry was a proxy for race that the election was in violation of the constitution and particularly the fifteenth amendment to the constitution justice kennedy writing for the majority makes clear why the very purpose of it  s one forty seven creates broad constitutional concerns and i quote one of the reasons race is forbidden is a forbidden classification is because it demeans the dignity and the worth of a person to be judged by ancestry instead of by his or her own merit and essential qualities an inquiry into ancestral lines is not consistent with respect based on the unique personality each of us possesses a respect the constitution itself secure in its concern for persons and citizens some say that this bill simply equates native hawaiians to indian tribes but congress cannot simply and arbitrarily create an indian tribe where they do not exist asked the constitution does not authorize congress to make indian tribes out of subsets of americans who have no relationship whatsoever to an indian tribe the supreme court has been clear that congress may not insulate a program from the constitution strict scrutiny for legal distinctions based upon race by and i quote bring in a community or body of people within the range of this congressional power by arbitrarily calling them an indian tribe in addition the fourteenth amendment precludes the use of race in making appointments something clearly contemplated by this bill and this bill perhaps most clearly raises constitutional concerns and in its direct contravention of the supreme court's ruling in rice the legislation would require that the department of the interior manage a special election in which eligibility depends entirely on race as i pointed out before the court made clear that racial restrictions relating to native hawaiians is prohibited by the fifteenth amendment and summary and its attempt to pigeonhole native hawaiians as equivalent to an indian tribe and to create a governmental entity based entirely on race set up bill one forty seven runs counter to the express letter and certainly the spirit of the constitution unfortunately despite these clear constitutional problems it seems that some in the senate are content to acquiesce to accept passing an unconstitutional bill while passing the buck to the courts to bail us out and yet just two days ago my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were talking about what they thought was wasting time on defending marriage a basic institution perhaps the basic institution in our society and yet they're willing to spend a week debating a measure that has little chance of passing and that flies squarely in the face of the constitution i find these inconsistency is difficult to reconcile the sponsors of this legislation last year wrote a dear colleague letter that suggests that any constitutional inquiries should be left to the courts the implication of which is that congress should not concern itself with the build constitutionality i could not disagree more when i came to washington and i like the rest of my colleagues swore an oath to uphold and defend the constitution of the united states that pledge is non negotiable and does not allow much less require me or any member of the senate to defer our obligations to pass legislation that reasonably appears to be within the four corners of the united states constitution congress is required to uphold the constitution as our judges more importantly it is imperative that we pass legislation that furthers the principles of the constitution rather than dissolve them the constitutional commitment to equal justice for all would be undermined should we choose today to endorse the creation of a race based government this is not a question that should be passed off to the courts we should decide right here and right now mr president i urge my colleagues to vote against cloture on the motion to proceed if they're serious about working on issues that really matter i urge them to allow the senate to move on to consider other pressing business  government a reorganization act of two thousand and five i begin by expressing my deep appreciation to the co sponsors of this legislation and to the senators who spoke in support of bringing this bill forward for debate i want to especially thank the senators from senator from illinois senator obama and the chair of the indian affair the ranking member of the vice chairman of the indian affairs committee senator dog and four for their support and i also want to thank the senators from alaska who shared their experiences and concord thirty five years ago when i last going native sought to address similar issues when congress inactive the alaska natives claim settlement act it is really ironic that the same law gillan use against that bill which has been incredibly successful and has served to unite rather than divide the people of all eyes are being used against all efforts today to bring parity in federal the united states had a status as sovereigns that existed prior to the formation of the united states based upon the recognition of that preexisting numerous rulings of the last two hundred and fifteen years the us supreme court has repeatedly held that the legislation enacted to address the special concerns and conditions of the native people of the united states is constitutional and does not constitute discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity because the sovereign status of the indian tribes is the basis for the government to government relationship the tribes have with the united states the court has consistently drawn a distinction between legislation that addresses the conditions of native people of the united states and legislation that addresses conditions of specific groups whose members are defined only by reference to their race or ethnicity according to the court decision the united states has a political and legal relationship with indian tribes that is not predicated on race or ethnicity but rather sovereignty the status that the constitution recognizes in indian tribes was later extended to alaska natives in their capacity i know the senior senator from of the center of a noise is going to address this more when he speaks but i want to comment on it disturbing conclusion that was made by some of my colleagues yesterday some are efforts to recognise native hawaiians perceived as american native  a proud proud to be americans a number of native hawaiians in the how in national guard returned from operation iraqi freedom this spring after having spent eighteen months away from that my efforts to ensure justice and parity for vii's indigenous peoples are being characterized as an american i beg to differ federally recognized native government does not cause an indigenous person to lose his or her status as an american citizen the concepts are not mutually exclusive i would like to remind my colleagues of the five hundred fifty six native government that have federally recognized government the government relationships with the united states i don't see anyone characterizing all native american brethren as being un american to do so in this case is another injustice to indigenous peoples not only from hawaii but from all great nation the from tennessee good good friends that i admire argued that yesterday that this bill is about i agree it is about sovereignty within the bounds of existing federal law the political and legal relationship between native hawaiians and the united states already exists as evidenced by the one hundred and sixty federal statutes that have been enacted to address the conditions of native hawaiians federal policy of self government and self determination allows for a government to government relationship between indigenous peoples this is not new it exists right now between the united states and five hundred fifty six by the united states the fact that the kingdom and crew did non natives within its government does not make it a non native government it is clear that the kingdom of i was a pre existing native government is a homeland for a native ally and that's what makes them different from other ethnic groups that's what makes them like the five hundred fifty six native government federally recognized and engaged in a government to government relationship with the united states this bill and bodies the goals of this nation fanous justice liberty for all a federally recognized government to government relationship with the united states does not make native hawaiians an american being made of all wine an american are not mutually exclusive nor more than being american indian or alaska native and being american five hundred fifty six native governments enjoy this relationship the question is why not native hawaiian only argument that i am hearing is that native all wines are not native enough and i beg to differ this is why the veil needs to be brought to the floor for debate this is melting pot perhaps the greatest melting pot in the united states and i agree however i like to think of it not as a melting pot where everyone loses their in dave individuality but i would like to think of it as a rainbow each color of the rainbow represents a different culture the more we are in touch with our culture and tradition the brighter and more vivid is the color taken together we combine to make something very beautiful my colleagues however would rather everyone be melded into one color monotone i believe where our intelligent articulate beings who are able to celebrate our nationality in addition to preserving understanding and practicing our culture and traditions one of like ali referred to statehood and i suppose as agreement that native hawaiians would not be treated any differently from any other citizen the debate transcripts from the constitutional convention of one hundred fifty which developed the constitution that was used in one nine hundred fifty nine when avicii became a state clearly show an effort to protect native hawaiians and their culture the one hundred fifty constitutional native hawaiians in an attempt to offset the tremendous decline in their numbers and to ensure continuing the continuation of the culture the convention also adopted a provision accepting  compact with the federal government to continue the trust obligation associated with in line homes commission act and providing that congressional consent would be required for an amendment to decrease lacie benefits or alter lissie qualifications inclusion in the in the constitution as early as nine hundred fifty shows recognition of native hawaiians as why is indigenous peoples and reflects the widespread support for the preservation of native hawaiian culture custom and tradition unlike many of the other western states the whole via admissions act not only provides for the protection of land set aside under federal law for native hawaiians but further directs that revenues from the land ceded back to the state are to be used for five purposes one of which is the betterment of the conditions of nato alliance i would also like to address the report issued by the united states commission on civil rights the u s and civil rights which was established to serve as an independent bipartisan fact finding agency to investigate and report on the state status of civil rights in our country the g a o is just issued a report highlighting the commission's lack of policies to ensure that its national product that's briefings reports and hearings are objective and that the commission is sufficiently accountable for decisions made in these projects take this issue for example in january the commission determined that it would hold a briefing on on this legislation we are considering the commission failed the commission failed to consult with the havarti state advisory committee which is composed of experts on civil rights in how by this is not a new issue in fact whole i stated advisory committee has previously is your three reports addressing the political and legal relationship between native hawaiians and the united states a state advisor committee members tried to put this a paper in the process and their efforts were rebuffed this was not a case of being overlooked this was a case of being sh addition provisions of the amendment would discuss during briefing during that briefing yet in may of this year when the commission voted to issue its report based its decision on the bill as reported out of committee not the bill we will actually be debating and voting upon in addition the commission's report has no i'm now as has no findings in it the report is a summary of testimony made by witnesses and a conclusion that the legislation is race based again on alice's no findings further upon reviewing the transcript it is clear to me that the majority of the commissioners were not familiar with the vice history been helpful yet their efforts were rebuffed the two commissioners who dissented read the bill they read the bill that was obvious in dissent which actually analyze the bill and of eyes history i really question such actions as they leave me with little doubt that there are those who use this process for political reasons at the detriment of our why is indigenous peoples and the people of why my conclusion is supported by the recent g o report criticizing the commission as lacking policies to ensure objectivity in its hearings and briefings and the current ability in its conclusion regarding the commission's commitment to fulfilling statutory regulatory obligations to the state advisory committee this saddens me greatly as many of us have had tremendous respect for the company and i repeat we had tremendous respect for the commission but that respect is based on our reliance on the commission as an independent bipartisan fact finding agency there was little independent bipartisanship or fact finding in the commission's consideration of this legislation that an agency with such an important mission would succumb to a political agenda is disgraceful and offensive last night the department of justice issued a letter expressing opposition to s one four seven this is understandable and of course not surprising that ministration voiced these concerns last july that prompted three months of negotiations with of is congressional delegation and governor with the department of justice office of management and budget and the white house those officials the results of those negotiations is s three zero six four which is a majority leader put on the calendar this week if the senate yesterday demonstrated this agreement over there those constitutional questions i guess and if the legislation is enacted would right really be left to the courts to decide the state and federal government until negotiated i asked my colleagues who have only had the time to listen to characterize a sins of the bail and sound bites and perceive the impact to actually take a look at this bill it is not often that we can get almost every policy maker now via to agree on an issue except for two people in the state legislature every other policy maker in avicii support authorizing a process floor of the reorganization and recognition of a native hawaiian governing that the for the purposes of a government to government relationship we are the people who deal with this every day i ask you at a minimum to give us an opportunity to share more information about this with you don't make your decision based on someone else's characterization of the bill if you have not taken the time to read it and understand it the people of our native non native deserve more than that to give us the current are you courtesy of at least a debate on this bill mr chairman i have heard the opposition and i again i say that we have had good relationships and would will which will continue and i want to voice the reasons why we need to s because as we pledge daily under god with liberty and justice we do this i yield the floor mr president i want to begin as i began yesterday by expressing my respect for the senators from hawaii and it is a genuine it is a genuine respect and i also want to begin by making it absolutely clear that there is no question about whether hawaiians including native hawaiian american alliance including native hawaiians are american as good americans or any american and that is why this bill is a bad  to become american and distinguished themselves as american that is the reason why we should not move forward to allow a small group of hawaiians who live in every state in the nation to form a new governor of new government a sovereign entity which would be empowered to negotiate and it was said yesterday on this floor the question of secession from the united states the question of transfer of land to this new entity the question of the transfer of money to this new entity and the question of civil and criminal laws to this new entity when we began this discussion many senators were saying wait a minute you're mischaracterizing this it's not about sovereignty it's not about land and money it's not about race but i think we've clearly established i believe it's a fair characterization of what the senator from why is just said that it is about sovereignty clearly about race because you can't be a member of this new government unless you have native hawaiian blood maybe only a drop of blood so it's based on race so the only possible argument to justify doing what no group of american citizens would ever be allowed to do in the united states is that this is just another indian tribe just another tribe and i want to address the united states law of course does recognize native american tribes and the contention here today from the senators from why is this is just another try now that's a different contention than the state of why you made just a few years ago in one thousand nine hundred eighty there in the case of rice versus kai it's on  the brief of the state of hawaii said the tribal concept quote has simply no place in the context of hawaiian history now this is what the state of hawaii said in yesterday the united states department of justice assistant attorney general the united states wrote a letter to the majority minority leaders of the united states senate saying that the administration strongly opposes this piece of legislation it first discusses its objection the constitutional objection to creating a race based government which clearly violates our constitution and turns that original model of this country one for many upside down but the letter from the assistant attorney general goes on to say while this legislation seeks to address this issue by affording federal tribal recognition to native hawaiians the supreme court of the united states has noted that whether native hawaiians are eligible for tribal status is quote a matter of dispute unquote and of considerable moment  difficulty the assistant attorney general goes on given the substantial historical structural and cultural differences between native hawaiians as a group and recognize federal indian tribes tribal recognition is inappropriate for native hawaiians and would still raise difficult constitutional issues i ask unanimous consent to include in the record the letter from the assistant attorney general with charge that the united states civil rights commission didn't review this carefully i would ask unanimous consent to include a letter from to senator court and cornyn from a member of the commission peter  personnel writing in his individual capacity who details the careful attention he says that the commission gave to the legislation and he says in addition quote i maintain that it is the worst piece of legislation the commission has reviewed during my tenure unquote i asked consent to put that in the record as well without objection so mr president what what what do we have here  on the issue of just another tribe under the united states law as we have said several times there are specific requirements for the recognition of an indian tr united states government does recognize those drives but it has not created any trust this would be the creation of the establishment of a new sovereign government here's what the law says a tribe must have operated as a sovereign for the last one hundred years native hawaiians have not it says tribes must be a separate and distinct community native hawaiians are not they live in every state in the united states of america hundred sixty thousand live outside hawaii only twenty thousand live on the native hawaiian homeland it further say hundred quote the tribal concept simply has no place in the context of hawaiian history mr president in the history of our country as it grew  developed there have been many wrong the man who who wrote our constitution setting our high goals were only men and women didn't even have the right to vote in the united states until one hundred years ago those who wrote the constitution locked out the press press would say today that is a wrong those who wrote the constitution many of them own slaves that was a terrible wrong but our history is filled with reaching high goals to address and correct those and doing it as a nation as america all of us together we don't we're proud of our nation out of where we come from but when we become americans as hawaiians did in when they became a state in thousand fifty nine we pledge allegiance to the united states of america and this bill would create a new competing government that's what's wrong with this bill it is the wrong way to write whatever wrongs may have happened in hawaii thank you mr present so it is not that my colleagues will vote no on this but perhaps are other way that the congress can help the distinguished senators from hawaii address wrongs which may have existed in a wide body of that law means anything and of the constitutional prohibition against making distinctions based on race means anything then we should not be authorized a new government capable of negotiating secession land civil and criminal penalties americans which is why this bill should be rejected thank you chris and i'll use my leader time now the senate is recognized as president i've had the good fortune to serve here in washington almost a quarter of a century and i've had the good fortune of serving with wonderful people both when i served in the house when i have had the opportunity here in the senate and as i look back over the are two of the best everyone knows because i've stayed here on the floor how i feel about hand in a way i have never ever known a person i have more respect do think about that a man who has earned the highest award this country can give a medal of honor who served in the military mr president we live in a country that is a federal government what does that mean it means as i learned in college that you have a central hole divided among self governing party what are those governing party it's the state of nevada it's the state of florida is the state of tennessee and it is the state of hawaii four one of the two new kids on the block along with alaska but take nevada as an example the state of nevada has twenty twenty two different indian just as a native american indian that endured a lot a whole lot while they've done so much that is a native with such quiet dignity president recently the president of the united states george w bush submitted the name of judge john roberts the chief justice of the united states chief justice roberts was confirmed by this body because of his intellectual background and primarily because of his conservative views over engine affairs and that authority reaches the shores of hawaii to one further to say that the constitution gives congress not the courts many things up and said about what this bill will do and will not do and some were rather outrageous i must say for example up it was all of you that this bill will establish a precedent for the recognize government to govern relations with aboriginal indigenous people because of their preexisting sovereignty over the lands for all european contracts none of the groups that t the letter from the department of justice was mentioned it was sent to on the georgia leader last evening last year the justice department engaged in extensive negotiations and discussions for nearly two months with officials of the white house the justice department or m amendment there is no question that this legislation would and i believe for the first time in our history create a new separate independent race based government within the borders of the united states of america the only argument that could possibly justify such an offense to our constitutional tradition and our original motto that says that when we become americans we're proud of where we came from but we are prouder of being american is that native hawaiians are just another indian track but the government of majority lead to the majority leader as well the copy to the minority leader yesterday said tribal recognition is inappropriate for native hawaiians and would still raise difficult constitutional issues and i have outlined in my remarks how native hawaii hawaiians do not constitute just another tribe there may be wrong is to address a mr president this is the wrong way to right or wrong and i would urge my colleagues to vote no i yelled for the whole time has now expired on the previous order the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture we do understand senators and accordance with the provisions of rule twenty two of the standing question is is that the sense of the senate debate on the motion to proceed to ass one forty seven bill to express the policy of the united states relationship with native hawaiians and to provide a process for the recognition by the united states of the native hawaiian governing entity shall be brought to a close the s and nays are mandatory under the rules the clerk will call the rol johnson mr kennedy can't well  yeas are fifty six the nays are forty one three fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative the motion is not agreed to without objection without objection under the previous order the senate will proceed to executive session to consider on block the following nominations which the clerk will report nominations to the judicia no lawrence coleman of new jersey to be united states district judge for the district of new jersey peter g sheridan of new jersey to be united states district judge for the district of new jersey thomas ludington of michigan to be united states district judge for the eastern district of michigan shown at cox of michigan to be united states district judge for the eastern district of michigan debate on these nominations shall be allocated as follows ok mr president from michigan is recognized president i would ask unanimous consent that i use one minute of senator leahy's ten minutes without objection so ordered mr president i'm very pleased that the senate will be voting today on to michigan jurists time lovingston and shawn cox the president is nominated to the federal bench for the eastern district of michigan both of these jurists unanimous unanimous well qualified ratings from the american bar association to serve as federal district judges we're fortunate that we have jurist such as judge ludington judge cox devoted to public service i believe both will bring character and judicial temperament and integrity to the eastern district of michigan i congratulate these jurists and their families on their nominations and i are outstanding attorneys and well qualified to assume a position on the bench in the senate as recently confirmed two nominees for this court a new jersey judge recently served as the chief of the public integrity section at the department of justice he led a team of thirty attorneys who investigate and prosecute political corruption cases nationwide mr hellman has a reputation for taking on crimes that undermine public confidence in our political system no matter how political or controversial he steps up to the task and does it well before he went to the justice department mr hellman served as deputy chief of the criminal division of the u s attorney's office in new jersey an assistant u s attorney for the fraud and public protection division his work has not escaped recognition he received the attorney general's award for fraud prevention in two thousand and four the executive office of the u s attorneys directors award in one thousand nine hundred eighty six and in one nine hundred ninety nine and the department of justice experience and knowledge like mr hellman peter sheridan is a product of a new jersey education also graduating from seton hall law school and receiving his undergraduate degree from st peters scholars both these people know new jersey well and are part of the culture in character in new jersey and we're delighted that they're going to accede to the bench if approved here as we expect and hope mr sheridan has spent the last decade as a name partner at a fireman trenton new jersey graham curtain and sharon and prior to that he worked in private practice at some other law firm and has had a strong record of public service  served as director of the authorities united for the state in new jersey vice president and general counsel of the atlantic city casino association and attorney with the port authority of new york and new jersey mr president i would note that if the senate approves these two nominees then this year alone we will have confirmed new jersey nominees for the supreme court the third circuit court of appeals and the district court of new jersey and i hope the good working relationships that allow this accomplishment will continue for the remaining they can see on the third circuit court of appeals and for future nominations as well i had the honor of introducing mr hellman and mr sheridan to the judiciary committee and today i'm proud to endorse their confirmation hire as my colleagues to support them as well as the floor center from new jersey as recognized as a president i rise today  support of the nominations of peter sheraton lawrence tillman to serve as united states district judges for the district of new jersey the confirmation of a judge to a lifetime appointment is a byte of responsibility given to this body by the constitution and one that i take very seriously that's why i'm pleased that our final two nominees from the package of four from new jersey have come before the senate today each of the four was favorably reported by th judiciary committee back in april their confirmation would be a testament to the cooperation and collaborative effort between the senators from new jersey the senate judiciary committee and the white house while we work together to select a qualified independent and diverse judges we can fill these positions expeditiously and work in a bipartisan manner that benefits not only the state of new jersey but also the nation both nominees before us today are graduates of cigna whole school with graham curtain and sheridan for the past eleven years and is currently a director of the firm sharon is an experienced trial lawyer hearing on numerous occasions before the very court to which she is now nominated i am confident that his addition to his law degree he also has a master's in law from new york university mr hellman served as an assistant u s attorney for nearly a decade before becoming deputy chief of the criminal division most recently he worked as the chief of the public integrity section of the u s department of justice where he spearheaded the government's case against jack after a loss of stillman has twice received the director's award the highest award given to an assistant u s attorney and in two thousand and four he received the attorney general's award for fraud prevention the american bar association has rated mr hellman as well qualified for this position and i must concur with that assessment there is truly no higher calling in the calling  public service that's why i'm so pleased to see people of this quality who are willing to serve our nation in the administration of justice i want to thank chairman and ranking member of the judiciary committee for moving these nominees through the process so fairly quickly i hope the u s district court for the district of new jersey can serve as an example of bipartisanship and cooperation in getting mutually agreed upon judges confirmed without dispute i look forward to each of our four nominees serving on the federal bench and know that they will so we're waiting for senators to come back to the floor of the business at hand now in the senate the senate the nomination of four judges a couple of judges from new jersey we heard from the new jersey senator also two judges from michigan judge luding and judge cox the michigan judges we expect senator debbie stabenow now to make her way to the floor also we expect to hear from the chairman and the ranking member of the senate judiciary committee that would be senator specter and senator leahy as the se moves along on these nominations this afternoon and again we're waiting for senators to come back to the floor on these nominations for several judges for judges being nominated no lawrence hilma nominated to be a u s district court judge for the district of new jersey and peter sheridan also nominated to be a u s district court judge for the district of new jersey couple of michigan judges also judge thomas ludington and judge shawn cox both nominated to be district court judges for the eastern district of michigan the house at this hour working on a spending bill for foreign operations in two thousand and seven also we are expecting later on this afternoon outgoing representative tom de lay former majority leader tom de lay may be making his farewell remarks from the floor of the house our coverage of the u s house always on c span next day or in the other body the house of representatives they will begin debating one of the most important communications issues facing our country and that is the future of the internet since the other body will begin that discussion shortly and we have had a debate beginning in the senate commerce committee here in the senate chaired by senator stevens who works out cooperatively with the center in a way i want to take a few minutes and talk about why i think this issue is so important and what the stakes are for our country we all understand what has been so exciting about the internet it has been a tremendously democratizing force ensuring that in every  america opportunities are there for americans to learn to be able to tap the opportunities of the free enterprise system to secure health care an extraordinary array of opportunities and the reality is with the internet after you have paid your access to charge to use the net you go where you want when you want free of discrimination because you have paid that one charge your original access charge unfortunately today there are huge communication lobby consisting particularly of some of the major phone companies and some of the major cable companies who want to change the way the internet works today in effect what they would like to do is make consumers and businesses in our country pays tomorrow for what is free today what happens today when those small businesses are consumers pay their internet access charge they can go wherever they want whenever they want on the internet without racking up extra charges and without facing discrimination unfortunately these big communications lobbies would like to change that you see their report for example and distinguished business publications like the wall street journal they talk there about communications up plans that they call a pay to play where if for example you were going to go to a variety of web sites under some of the approaches apparently you'd have to pay every time you went to one of these websites if you wanted to get good quality service i don't think that's right i think that's discrimination i think it's discriminating against consumers i think it's discriminating against small businesses and i think it will do extraordinary damage to the inherent beauty of the internet which is that it's been all about a fair shake for every american for every consumer now in an effort to spin this discrimination by the big cable companies and the big phone companies against the consumer the big lobbies are gate engaged in a huge advertising blitz by my back of the envelope calculation these big lobbies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertisements to convince the american people that discrimination and these extra charges that they would face on the internet are actually good for them if it's so good for the consumer why are these lobbies spending millions of dollars on these advertisements to tell the american people about this discrimination was so good wouldn't consumers have been interested in paying higher prices a long time ago it's hard to open the pages of a newspaper or turn on the television without seeing an advertisement urging people to stop congress from quote regulating the internet one trade association has even placed ads in airports around washington d c hoping senators and representatives traveling back to their states will see them i can't imagine the executives of these large corporations would commit such large sums of advertising if they didn't think that these kinds of advertisements would pay off handsomely in profit groups display a copy of my legislation the internet nondiscrimination act the only thing accurate about this ad is the top page of my bill that's got my name on it clearly says the internet nondiscrimination act but just about everything else is dead wrong what they've done is falsely add up what looks like hundreds if not thousands of pages to my bill this demonstrates what my legislation is all about here is the reality mr president here's what they say i've proposed here with the big communications lobby oughta describe as the real world a piece of legislation that is fifteen pages long the bill that i have introduced a fifteen page bill doesn't look like anything along the lines of what the big communications lobbies are spending such vast sums on there's an even more disturbing misrepresentations in this that it says stamps off at the top regulation my legislation is about regulation all i want to do is leave the internet alone i don't want it to be subject to discriminatory changes changes that would hit the american consumer in the pocket i think any fair minded american who looks at my record will see that i've never sought to regulate the internet on the contrary when i came to the united states  i was a leader in the effort to keep the internet free of the criminal tory taxes fought to keep the internet free of regulation nine trying to keep control of the internet in the hands of the american people and not for americans in this country to pay tomorrow for what is free today if you look mr president you would think that neutrality is some newfangled of that threatens the internet the fact of the matter is that we have today and the internet has thrived for slightly because it's neutral it's thrived because consumers and not some huge phone company earth some huge cable company get to choose what they want to see and how quickly they get to see it i want to make it clear that those of us that are fighting to keep the net neutral which means that when you go to your browser you go where you want when you want after you pay that initial access to large we're not interested in regulating anything the people who want to make the changes they're the ones who want to meddle they're the ones who want to put their hands on the internet so they can keep all of these extra charges on the american people right now we've got small businesses in tigard oregon one who's got a web site where she her products to people all over the world if these big lobbies have their way shall have to pay a new hefty fee so customers can continue to have the same access to your website that's not right the consumer after they pay that initial access charge ought to be able to go where they want when they want and to make them pay morrow for what they get for free today after they pay that initial access to charge is wrong as this debate goes forward and i think colleagues are are waiting to speak i had anticipated spending a bit more time on it but i think there's bad  all mr president we ought to keep internet free of discrimination we ought to protect consumers against multiple discriminatory excess charges and the next time somebody sees one of these ads good work i rise today to support the nominations of judge john cox and judge thomas law to the united states district court for the eastern district of michigan both nominees will bring law the university of michigan and has over twelve years of private practice experience judge thomas ludington has served on the forty second circuit court for middle and county since one nine hundred ninety five  served as chief judge of this court for the past six years judge loving him as a graduate of the university of san diego school of law and albion tollygunge after graduating from law school  currying kendall law firm for fourteen years he also served as president of the firm before he left to join the michigan circuit bench i want to thank senator specter and senator leahy for working with me working with senator levin to bring these two truly qualified nominees to the floor of the senate i look forward to continuing to work with them on issues related to the michigan district court in the sixth circuit court of appeals two p m having arrived the question occurs on the nomination of no lord stillman to be the united states district judge for the district of new jersey four nominees is there jackson to that request without objection  order is there is sufficient second there is a sufficient second question occurs on the nominations no large hilman to be the united states district judge for the district of new mr cochran ms collins mrs feinstein mr martinez mr menendez mr nelson of nebraska mr rockefeller mr sessions mr burns mr burns  mr sarbanes mr sarbanes  mr byrd mr byrd  mr coleman mr coleman  mr by mr by  are there any senators in the chamber who have not voted or who wish to change his or her vote are there any senators in the chamber who is question occurs on the nomination of peter sherrod to be the united states district judge for the district of new jersey to have been ordered the clerk will call the role  stabenow now mr steven the senators in the chamber who have not voted who wish to change his or her vote if not on this vote the ayes are ninety eight the nays are zero and the nomination is confirmed thirty minutes from north dakota north dakota recognize recognize that i believe the senator from alabama wishes to be recognized be happy to proceed following those two the senator from iowa i strongly support the nomination of susan schwab for u town let me get my speech the senator from iowa is recognized it's almost seven months to the day since the senate unanimously confirmed to be deputy u s trade representative during colombia and has been actively engaged in the ongoing negotiations of development around the world trade organization given her strong background in trade policy it's not surprising that that officer in the u s embassy in tokyo and her first job and was as an agricultural trade negotiator for the office of u s trade representative ambassador well the importance and the challenge of advancing the trade interests of u s family farmers and also as a sense of experience working for the congress of the united states the very committee policy that was from one nine hundred ninety five through the year two thousand and three and then as president of the university system of the maryland foundation as well as serving as vice chancellor  are members of the world trade organization mr president we need to achieve progress in doha round negotiations soon if we're going to succeed in getting an agreement before to me as chairman of the committee but i think i would speak for the entire united states congress on point we're also in the process of negotiating free trade agreements with a number of important trading partners including south korea and they are going to represent terrific challenges these are going to represent new challenges for particularly in addressing regulatory and other non tariff barriers to trade central that our bilateral negotiations with south korea malaysia and other nations conclude in time to be considered under trade promotion authority what you know expires july next year in addition it's important that our next trade representative continue to encourage meaningful regulatory reform in other major trading partners and especially mexico's obligation under nafta and the world trade organization regarding the importation of u s agricultural products and china's obligations to protect intellectual property rights separately i expect that bilateral agreement to the world trade organization will be concluded on a strong commercial meaningful term and will not be right to meet some artificial deadline russia must demonstrate its willingness its ability and its commitment to abide by world trade organization rules i think it's important that we remind over the past decade our economy has created a net of two million jobs each year and in two thousand and five our employment rate dropped to four point seven percent which is well below the average is  seventy s eighty's and ninety's an important part of our economic success is due to our trade during the last decade our exports have accounted for about one quarter of u s economic growth and jobs created by exports are estimated to pay thirteen to eighteen percent more compared to jobs unrelated to export with respect  approximately one third of the acres plan states are exports and are in service sector which accounts for almost seventy percent of the u s economy is anxious to break down barriers to our exports of around the world today services export account for a little more than a quarter of the total u s exports of goods and services so breaking down barriers to our services exports would go a long way towards helping us improve our trade deficit therefore mr president i think we in the congress need to recommit ourselves to securing improve market access for our exporters and the doha round the goes asians and by means of bilateral and regional trade agreements i'm confident that ambassador will effectively meet each of the many challenges that she'll face as our next trade represent advance an ambitious trade agenda and would expect her to consult under the law trade promotion authority with our committees when we ask her to and when she thinks it's necessary for her to make advances to us on that sort of a communication because consultation between us prior to a negotiation being signed is the basis for the success and the opportunity to get such an agreement through the united  present senator from alabama president last night the united states military as we know now working hand in hand with their iraqi counterparts located and kill out terrorists we know who this terrorist is he's a brutal terrorist who has repeatedly encourage violence against americans and iraqi citizens aus and laurie is credited with ordering kidnappings beheadings and killing thousands of innocent civilians with insurgent attacks al zawahiri was the operational mastermind of the al titan network in iraq as president he sought to destroy america and our coalition partners to create a al solari was performed by our dedicated professional armed forces in concert with our coalition partners our military service members should be commended for their remarkable effort in eradicating the enemy of a proud of the success of this operation but even prouder of the job that our armed forces have accomplished in their commitment to peace and stability in iraq mr president although this is a positive development and significan in the global war on terror our fight in iraq is far from over we're making significant strides for already getting terrorism developing a free government and reviving the economy but iraq will not become a democracy overnight while our involvement continues to be our resolve mr president must remain strong we must remain mr president focused on our fundamental goal preserving the freedom and security of the united states this is an enormous challenge that will take the determination global cooperation and fortitude to succeed i'm confident the united states will triumph over global chaos and tyranny as it always senator from north dakota think the i think the chair let me indicate as a member of the finance committee that we had hearings on the schwab nomination and let me stipulate that she is well qualified for the position that she is a lovely person well educated and well trained with all that said after her testimony before the finance committee i decided reluctantly that i would oppose her nomination i want to share just very briefly with the members of the body why i made that judgment mr president michele came before the finance committee i put up a chart showing what's happened to the trade deficit of the united states the trade deficit as we all know has soared to over seven hundred billion dollars last year i had another chart that showed what has happened to the trade deficit with mexico since the nafta agreement before the nafta agreement we had a trade surplus with mexico over several billion dollars now we have a massive trade deficit with mexico and i asked the schwab is this a successful trade policy and her answer was yes i told her if this is a success i'd hate to see a failure because this trade policy is proving to be a disaster for the financial he the united states we're spending seven hundred billion dollars a year more in purchases than we are in sales a country can't do that for very long mr president then i asked her about agriculture trade policy and i asked her about the strategy of our trade ambassador going into the trade talks and making unilateral concessions offering to cut our support for our producers by sixty percent on the notion that then the other side would make concessions to us i told her this is the strangest way t that i've ever seen unilateral concessions on the hope that the other side will follow suit who has ever seen that in a negotiation that's like going to the car dealership and agreeing to pay the sticker price why would you ever do that mr president this was told me this is actually a smart trade tactic a negotiating tactic that you make big concessions on the front end then you get tougher at the end well i don't think that's smart i think it's a disaster we're in a sick circumstance in which the europeans provide five times as much support for their producers as we provide for ours five times as much as they account for more than ninety percent of the export subsidies in the world we're about one or two percent so they've got us outgunned they're seventy or eighty to one and our idea of a negotiation is the go to make major unilateral concessions and then hope the other side gives  well what happens what happened with this strategy did europe then follow and make major concessions in response to our no they made none they made none mr president i very much fear that we are pursuing a trade agenda that is simply not working and i would present as exhibit number one record trade deficits the biggest in our history and growing dramatically as exhibit number two nafta we signed up to the nafta agreement our leadership told us in this country well this is going to be a great success and at the time we had a positive trade balance with mexico now our trade deficit is measured in the pans of billions of dollars a year this is a trade policy that is not working and i cannot support as our trade ambassador somebody who clearly believes that it's a success how could anyone define this as a success oh mr president i have reluctantly concluded that if we were to have a vote and apparently this will be in a voice vote i want to clearly recorded that i would vote no i thank the chair and you know before mr president senator from north dakota is present i understand there is an order with respect to my presentation on this ma thirty minutes mr president this reminds me a little bit this chamber of madam to science wax museum looks like there are people here except there's no movement month after month after month we hear the results of unbelievably bad trade agreements that pull the rug under america's workers and farmers pull the rug out from under our economy bring up th highest trade deficit in the history of this country ship american jobs overseas even as we import cheap labor through the backdoor and no one says a thing no one doesn't think so we today have a proposal on the floor  any other country what does this mean this means that we are selling part of our country every day to those who live outside of our country it's called the selling of america we are deciding that it's all right every single day to have a trade deficit of two billion dollars a day and that means that we import products more than we export to the rest of the world and we pay with those it for those imports with our currency or debt instruments and the result is at the moment the bank of korea holds two hundred billion dollars of our currency the chinese seven not just about selling america piece by piece it's about shipping american jobs overseas and undercutting american workers all of the same time winston churchill once said the farther backward you look the farther forward you can see someone look back to civil better it is surprising to me that we have the nomination of a trade ambassador on the floor of the senate and no real discussion save that for that my colleague senator conrad no real discussion about the merits of where we're headed this country is dangerously off track with while we inflated and mushrooms trade deficits and it's getting worse much much worse not better and there's not a whimper here in the congress about it's not a big part of the reason is that the folks who work here are not going to have their jobs outsourced no one wearing a blue suit and suspenders and hangs around here is going to have their jobs that the china if that were the case of course we'd have a change in trade policy immediately but nobody loses their job here and for that matter no journalist loses their job that's why all you read for example in most of these major newspapers is in support of this trade policy that as you can see is a massive failure i mean this is a huge failure just to take a look at a portion of it two hundred billion dollars of that seven hundred billion dollars with china alone just with the country of china and you can take a look at what's happening there dramatic growth so here's the trade strategy that we're currently working on exploiting good american jobs and importing cheap labor we just finished the importing cheap labor with the immigration bill two weeks ago didn't support that i voted against that and i voted against the trade agreements that have allowed us to export good jobs i've gone through a great length on for the senate a range of issues and let me just use a couple just to describe what's happening and what our trade agreements are about the fact we're not negotiating a trade agreement with career so let me talk about automobile trade with korea see if anybody cares about that see maybe if this new trade ambassador would care about that last year we got seven hundred thirty thousand eight hundred sixty three cars coming in on ships from korea so they loaded all these korean cars on big ships sail across the ocean and offload in seven hundred thirty thousand korean cars in the united states guess how many american cars we were able to sell in korea seven hundred thirty thousand oh no no four thousand two hundred ninety nine percent of the automobiles on the streets in korea are produced in korea why they don't want to merican vehicles or they want to send their vehicles here for sale in the united states but they don't want our vehicles sold in korea this imbalance exists does anybody care about it doesn't mean a thing to most people what it means to a lot of families of course is they've lost their jobs united auto workers have lost their jobs but nobody cares much about that because nobody in this chamber is going to lose their jobs because of this imbalance in automobile trade japan ninety five percent of the cars driving in the streets of japan are produced in japan why don't we export more cars expand they don't want them they like china and many other parts of the world including korea want to exercise their right to send their products the american marketplace but they sure don't want to have their marketplace wide open to that which is produced by american workers that's the last thing they want but we're exporting all right in fact we're exporting quite a lot the biggest export interesting enough by volume america's biggest export by volume is waste paper make of that waste paper now we go back a few decades one hundred seventy years so the largest american corporation was general motors in most cases people who went to work for g m worked there for a lifetime that was their job they were going to retire there and they did work there for a lifetime got good pay good benefits good retirement thirty years later these are just corporations america's wal mart average salary according to published reports about eighteen or nineteen thousand dollars a year a substantial portion their employees have no benefits and of those that are eligible for health care benefits they pay double the amount that most employees of corporations would pay for health care and many of those who do have full time jobs at low salaries can't afford the benefits that are offered so have we made progress in these thirty years and oh by the way with respect to wal mart seventy percent of the products on their shelves are from china and wal mart will tell some of their suppliers you need to close that american company and move that to china because the only way we're going to be able to sell it here for the price we want purchased wham o corporation you know it's about a movement with companies deciding we can't afford to produce an american team or we want to pay american wages would want to pay us workers decent wages we want to produce and shenzhen china for thirty three cents an hour where we don't have to worry about health care and don't have to worry about retirement and so all of that's moving around here and very quickly we've seen four to five million american jobs gone from our country and i noticed in the newspaper that the chinese purchased lose the hula hoop and frisbee for god's sake and so when will is gone but what about the steel worker in america what about the textile worker in america about the metal flat metal fabricator what about the family farmer what about the software engineer because their jobs are gone in increasing numbers and alan blinder who's the former vice chairman of the federal reserve board said this recently in the foreign affairs newspaper the foreign affairs magazine an article are roughly fourteen thousand manufacturing jobs in this country all of them potentially subject to outsourcing in addition to that there are service jobs that are subject to outsourcing in combination there are forty two million to fifty six million jobs in america that are subject to being outsourced to other countries china indonesia sri lanka bangladesh and more because american companies have discovered that this whole planet of ours as a billion to a billion a half people and perhaps more where if you move the technology in the capital you can employ people in other parts of the world for pennies you can hire kids you can work twelve year olds twelve hours a day and pay him twelve cents an hour and then you can ship the product to toledo or fargo or los angeles or to lansing michigan and say to the american producer and the american business american worker compete with that compete with that the fact is you can't compete with that and should be asked to compete with  we fought for a century in this country for the standards of production that have made this a great place and allowed us to expand the middle class i've spoken before and i know it's repetitious but james spider he died i said of lead poisoning while he died because he was shot fifty four times to any cell and she died she was shot you know why they were shot because earlier in this century they were standing up for the right for people to organize for workers to be able to organize we finally have a country in which workers are able to be organized without having to go to prison they do that and shining you know and i've got the names right here of people sitting in prison in china because they wanted to organize workers for a fair deal we did that in this country we signed the fair labor standards act we established a minimum wage we gave people the right to organize and we did a whole series of things child labor laws that have established the conditions of production that produced a burgeoning middle class and produced the strongest economy in the world has ever known and now it is systematically being taken apart oh i know it's hard to see day by day but you watch what's happening in this country to the good jobs the jobs with security the jobs that pay well the jobs with benefits one by one one thousand by one thousand yes a million by million they're leaving this country and no it's not just the bottom rung of the economic ladder it's also engine ears it's software producers and it's others and nobody here seems to care very much this congress certainly doesn't this congress supports all that this congress supports giving a tax break to companies that ship their jobs overseas you show me a company that fires all the american workers and ships their jobs to china and i'll tell you that this congress supports giving that company a tax break one point two billion dollars a year our current tax code spends in tax cuts to companies that ship the american jobs overseas it is unbelievable i've offered four amendments in the senate to shut that perverse tax breaks down and i've lost four times in two thousand and five go anderson who's one of the top executives at general motors dealing with parts and supplies he called three hundred eighty of their parts and suppliers together and he he called the executives of the parts suppliers to a meeting and he said to them you need to be building your automobile parts in china to reduce the cost in other words move those jobs offshore get rid of those american workers delphi which used to be the largest general motors parts supplier they were paying workers twenty six to thirty dollars an hour with benefits well that's over there in bankruptcy of course blamed on the workers nobody's talked about the executives and what role they might have had in bankruptcy they say what they really want to do is outsource all that jobs and the jobs they would keep here they want to pay eight to ten dollars an hour i'm just wondering how you create a country with a growing middle class and a healthy consumer ability to make purchases in this country if jobs are going off elsewhere search of pennies an hour i b m lay off thirteen thousand people they're going to ship them to india and they say to their workers oh by the way this is in no way a comment on the excellent work you've done later you job is gone the question is what are we building here and what does all this mean the reason i mention all of this is all of this comes from trade agreements we have all of these trade agreements we create an agreement with mexico called nafta we turned a very small trade surplus into a giant deficit with mexico pretty unbelievable when you think about it and my colleague says that the current nominee believes that the trade agreement with mexico was a huge success or she's not lost her job to outsourcing either but it is not a success by any standard the trade deficit with mexico the trade deficit with canada the trade deficit with europe with japan with korea with china it's a disaster and nobody seems much to care now i want to talk a little about this notion of free trade free trade is it sounds like it sounds like such a wonderful term free trade freedom free trade means that you want to you want to substitute that which we have fought for and build that which people have died for that which people have debated for a long long time what are the standards of production what is being an american all about what is protecting children what is a fair wage what is a safe workplace what's the right to organize work it's trading all of that in and saying none of that matters the largest corporations can pole vault over all of it and move their factory to shenzhen china and we're taking apart that which we've built for a century that's what these trade agreements are doing and i've already shown you the readings of the trade agreements are an abysmal failure but in addition to that the trade agreements and i want to describe the ugly side of free trade called the sweat shop in jordan the one trade agreement that was slightly different and i give credit credit to president clinton because they negotiated the free trade agreement with jordan and it was the only trade agreement the only trade agreement that had standards in with respect to workers rights and so it was a a step forward now but not a giant step but at least a step in the right direction what has happened since that time but what we've discovered about this issue is the new york times has written article based on some work by the national labor committee they've done some some terrific work investigating what's going on in jordan with whom we have a free trade agreement it was supposed to have created the gold standard for labor protection for workers signed in one thousand nine hundred nine but what has happened since then is jordan has flown in so called guest workers from countries like bangladesh and china to make products in jordan for exports to this country so we see products in stores like wal mart talking in our targeted others that have now we know come from sweatshops in jordan under our free trade agreement and here's how the new york times describes these sweatshops propelled by a free trade agreement with united states apparel manufacturing is booming in jordan exports to america soaring twenty fold in the last five years that another way of course this undermines the workers in the textile area in the south in the united states but some foreign workers and jordanian factories that target garments scuse me that produce garments for target wal mart and other american retailers are complaining abysmal conditions twenty hour days not being paid for months and months being hit by supervisors being jailed when they complain these factories in jordan are flying in planeloads of workers from the poorest countries like bangladesh to work in near slave like conditions they also fly in chinese materials and in this case textiles for those manufacturers so what you come up with is bangladeshi workers working up to one hundred twenty hours a week in sweatshops in jordan piecing together chinese materials to be shipped to the united states under free trade agreements that's what we're engaged with and free trade agreements i don't think so there is no enforcement at all the workers have testified they were forced to work far below minimum wages promised one hundred twenty dollars a month in many cases not paid at all one worker paid fifty dollars for five months of work it's pretty unbelievable to see what's going on and then people say well we're surprised it's kind of like the french police going on in the world now i'm going to introduce legislation in fact at the end of my presentation today dealing with these issues of sweatshops and how we try to respond to them and my legislation was established substantial civil penalties penalties rather for the import of sweatshop goods when sweatshop factories abuse it workers for profit the best way to attack the problem is to take that profit away and if the federal trade commission determined that overseas factory was producing sweatshop labor it would issue an order prohibiting importation from that factory violations would carry a civil penalty and each separate violation be a separate offense  second the bill that i'm introducing would allow u s retailers u s retailers the right to sue their competitors and u s court if their competitors are sourcing their merchandise from these sweatshop factories and we define what the sweatshop factory is you know that look this is the b trail of american values american standards and american workers when we allow this sort of thing to happen and i feel very strongly that as we come here to talk about trade today and the nomination of a new trade ambassador that we have to talk a little about what's going on in the real world i have described previously so many stories i was going to talk about maytag today you know the maytag repairman who has nothing to shorts and t shirts all over america and they have these people dressed up as greats red grapes and green grapes what on earth they mean who on earth would dress up as a great i guess a jobs a job but who's dancing in grapes suits these days so that was the way they advertise these american this american underwear well guess what it may still be all american underwear just not made here anymore it's all gone they danced right out of this country for them is gone just gone but it's not just for the the best example i know is poppy bicycles there now by the way a chinese company actually got rid of all their ohio workers fire them all because they made too much money eleven dollars an hour they've now become a chinese company or you can still buy em here and they still produce a product that they somehow call american it's just that they're made in china i happen to know where they are made in china they are made for thirty three cents an hour and all those american workers lost their jobs who had a long career making healthy bicycles at the largest bicycle plant in the world they were told your career is over you make too much money at eleven dollars an hour so bicycles are gone to china no by the way if you had a bicycle years ago you know that there was an american flag decal on the front that's gone too now it's a decal of the globe and oh by the way the last day of work and happy bicycles the last day for those workers when their jobs left for china i was told by one of the workers of huffy when they left the parking lot as he drove their cars out of the parking lot on the last day they all left a pair of empty shoes in the space where their car sat and it was a way of saying to the company you can move our jobs to china but you're not going to be able to fill our shoes that's how much they cared about their jobs little red wagon radio flyer but there's not a kid around has written that little red wagon course that was a an american first century going to china and the list goes on and on i could talk for hours about companies levi's are not one levi made in america but all american jeans not one para levi's made in america you're wearing tony lama boots you might be wearing boots made in china by the way the list goes on and on and  the question is for this nominee for the u s trade and basters job what does it matter do you care whether these jobs are gone from our country do you care whether americans are now asked to compete against those in other parts of the world that make thirty three cents an hour you care about that you care that our workers are asked to compete against young kids some of them locked in manufacturing plants some of them hand weaving rugs some of them whose finger tips  were scarred by putting sulphur on the fingertips and lighting a saw for in order to preserve scar once they're using the needles on the rugs and they stick their fingers it won't bleed if you care about all that if so how about a trade policy that stands up for the interest of this country yes i think we ought to trade yes i think expanded trade is good for our country but it must be and has to be fair trade you cannot say to companies all right we have decided over a century what the conditions of production are in this country that represent a growing middle class and a growing economy and a humane way to do things we've decided that but you can avoid all of that by just deciding to shut your american manufacturing plant moving jobs elsewhere and if somebody messes with you when your plant is moved overseas and they want to organize workers for better wages you can get the government to throw them in prison and if somebody cares about you putting poisons in the water and the air pumping effluence and pollution of the water in the air you don't have to worry about that because you can do that with impunity and if somebody says you can't hire children you don't have to worry about that that you can put kids in your manufacturing plant and if somebody says oh she's going to come you say there ain't no sh here i can do what i want here and by the way when i get the product produced i'm shipping it to the united states of america because i got store shelves to fill and i got american customers and want low prices oh i know that the same customers that are going to drive a korean car to the store are going to wear their italian shoes are going to wear their taiwanese shirt their chinese slacks and they're going to wonder where all american jobs went i'd like to ask one of these days when we have a change in the u s trade embassadors job what they really think success is you really believe that this hemorrhaging on reading selling america two billion dollars a day to foreign governments and foreign enterprises really believe believe that can continue it cannot that just cannot continue and oh by the way the strategy that i described earlier that i think doesn't add up for our country is a strategy by which we tell companies you can export good american jobs and you can import cheap labor that was the immigration bill the last portion exports good jobs import cheap labor i'm saying that doesn't add up but at least a portion of that exporting good jobs importing cheap labor is now attended to by a desire to decide when you export good jobs and import cheap labor you can run your profits to the cayman islands you don't have to pay taxes to this country this little house i've told my colleagues before is a five story building called the ugly house in the cayman islands this five storey white building on church street in the cayman islands is home to twelve thousand seven hundred forty eight corporations yes that's right oh they're not there that's just a it's just a figment of someone's imagination lawyers have established this address for twelve thousand seven hundred forty corporations forty eight rather corporations for one purpose that is to avoid paying u s taxes  some believe all you think about it so export your jobs import your product here sell in the united states and run your income through the cayman islands i'm just saying none of this adds up and none of it works mr president i agree with my colleague who described a while ago his opposition to this trade and best ride i don't believe that the nominee is disqualified i just believe there's nobody that cares much about this anymore and that's that's pretty troublesome because i don't think this country will show the kind of economic strength that expands so that our kids have jobs good jobs that pay well with benefits in the future i just don't think and i don't think it's going to happen i wish i was wrong i don't think i am and yet all of this continues in a giant silence nobody seems to care very much we'll just continue doing this little bit of america every single day we keep shipping jobs elsewhere not think much about it because we can buy a cheap product walmart and they'll be just fine be happy i'm just saying i don't think this adds up for our country's future i don't support this nomination just because i want a nominee at the u s trade embassadors office is going to stand up for a trade policy that is fair for this country fair trade a colleague just came in the chamber who comes from a state that has a lot of ranching we're not getting beef into japan at the moment that's a different story it's it's unbelievable with the kind of trade deficit we have a japan we can't get beaten in japan let's just assume that that problem resolved tomorrow every pound of beef that would go into japan would have a fifty percent tariff on it over sixteen years after we had a beef agreement with japan that's just a tiny little example beef to japan that would be considered a failure by any standard a fifty percent tariff after a decade and a half after base agreement but we just blithely go on acting as if this is fine be happy we'll be fine just drive the drive to wal mart and pick up an etch a sketch issues so long while ago i was on the floor of the house of representatives when there was a joint session of congress and fellow name lech walesa was speaking to the congress the joint session lech walesa told the story was pretty unbelievable story of course i had known from the history books but he told us this he said it was a saturday morning in a shipyard and dance colon and he had been fired from his job as an electrician from this shipping company or this this this plant and he went back into the shipyards on saturday morning to lead a labor strike against the communist government believing that workers ought to have the right of self determination and he went back in to lead the strike against the communist government and they seized him that saturday morning and brutally beat him leave him beat him bloody took him to the edge of the fence with that and that was the height with barbed wire and threw him over the barbed wire fence into the dirt on the other side of the fence he lay there in the dirt bleeding face down having been beaten severely he told us wondering what he would do next as he lay there and wondered what to do next he finally concluded what he should do is pick themselves back up and he climbed back over the fence into the shipyard right back into the shipyard that morning kenya later this unemployed electrician was identified by the doorkeeper the us house as the president of the country of poland not an intellectual not a military leader not a business later just an unemployed electrician with the guts to take on the communist government for a free local labor movement they call it solidarity we all celebrated solidarity what a wonderful thing it was we supported solidarity he said to us this we didn't have any guns the communists had all the guns we had no bullets the communists had all the bullets we were workers armed with an idea we were armed only with an idea and that is people ought to be free to choose their own destiny what is the idea here what is the idea in america by which we fought for a hundred years for the basic standards by which we expanded the middle class safe workplace and decent wages the right to organize what is that idea and does it have value now what have we forgotten that idea and is there someone willing to stand for that idea today i hope so i don't believe we ought to decide that that which we created is somehow unworthy as we look to the future of this country and believe that we ought to continue to build a place that's better for our children we want to place all of us want to play so we can turn to our children and grandchildren this better than the place we that we inherit that ought to be the goal so i you know look i'm i don't intend to ask for a recorded vote but i do not support this only because i think we're headed towards a trade strategy and we're in the middle of it for some long while now that is enjoying this country going to ship jobs overseas as i said when i started alan blinder a respected by chair the federal reserve board says there are forty two to fifty six million american jobs at this point that are potentially subject outsourcing even those that are president senator from wyoming much time here on the side chairman of the trades have committee on the finance committee so i've had the opportunity to to deal with some of these issues for some time i was also chairman of the foreign relations subcommittee on asia in the pacific rim so these are areas that i feel strongly about and fortunately i've had a good deal of opportunity to visit with susan schwab president's nominee for the united states trade representative obviously this is a very important position one that bob portman has had and i think over the past nine months that he's been there are years he's done an excellent job of representing the united states in a situation that's not a united states is a little different than most other countries in the world a c s a little differently they expect more from us than we should be able to we should be but nevertheless that continues to be the case so we have to to equality and fairness and that's what it's all about based on my discussions with her and listening i think that she is an outstanding selection that we've talked about her background  and certainly she's well prepared to do that her credentials i think speak for herself and that's very important in this issue trade is very easy to talk about and some of my friends on the other side talk about it's all bad there's nothing right  it there's a lot to trade you have to figure out has a lot to do with that we have a lot of demand for overseas goods here and of course we're the biggest buyer in the world and therefore we're the biggest trader in the world and  t deals a little differently now that doesn't mean we should not have fair and equal treatment and that's what we seek to have and that will be the task that she undertakes and i think she will be a strong voice for american trade policy and i think that's excellent and i'm so pleased we are the largest trading nation in the world in the world is changing as you know twenty years ago it was quite different everyone was fairly isolated  were moving now with the kind of communications there are the kind of transportation available there's billions of dollars moving around the world every day and it becomes quite difficult to countries are changing very fast you deal with china today much differently than you did ten years ago and will have to in the future so foreign trade is not an easy matter to deal with i think what we need to see and do see is fairness and frankly that's a little difficult in the world because everyone thinks we're such a prosperous country that they should have special treatment but our effort has been to have fair trade and that ought to be what we do and that's what we're seeking i about that and the fact that there were a lot of the largest countries and the largest trading country in the world should not give others unfair advantage about that we need to trade in a fair way and i think that that's what she's committed to do is certainly i supported for that we're the largest trading nation in the world and so of course where the target of most everyone who wants to increase their sales we also however have some opportunities to increase as well and we're doing some of that demand because of the size of our economy of course is large and and and we are interested in doing those kinds of things  is going to happen and it's going to increasingly happen as time in the world becomes smaller simply because of our relative communicating and our ability to to move around the world  will become smaller and so the challenge is how we can treat with these other countries many of them think oh you're the big rich country we ought to be able to give you give us a lot of things that really are not be what we deal with we have to be dealing and so it's important it's an important thing ninety six percent of the world's consumers live outside of the united states so in the terms of our production we need to be involved in world trade and we need to make it fair and that really course is the challenge it's always interesting to you know to be critical of everything we do in trade but the fact is particularly in some of the commodities we have in my state of wyoming trade is where we are and selling our markets somewhere else so we need to we need to understand that then we need to work and again the key is trade in that's what we talk about finding ways to open the world markets to our goods and to our services and we ought to be able to enter in the market on the same basis and if anyone else and at the same time hold others to the same considerations that we have when they come here we need to pursue a both a bilateral negotiations in the course that's what we're doing and we need strong leadership to do that and to represent our interest in these discussions and i think that's exactly what w be able to do and we're making progress gentlemen mention the fact that the cowboys and japan well that's the problem frankly is not a trade problem as much as it was a mad cow disease problem and it's been handled and we're working at getting that done our best potential and the largest growth we've had in the beast in industry and exports has been in asia and that's where we are now we've been able open up the markets in australia been able open up the markets and in south korea and we had the markets pretty much open in japan till the mad cow disease thing came along and now we're in the process hopefully of getting them open again and that's very important and we need to continue certainly to do that so we need strong leader to represent our interests and i think i think that's exactly what will get with susan schwab and that leadership will will be what we need and i think portland has been a very good job and she has worked with him of course and getting into this position so we we need to have good leadership to walk away from some of the bad agreements and tough agreements that we've had the world is sometimes difficult to deal with but susan schwab will provide that leadership during her testimony before the finance committee of which i am a member she stated and i want to quote it will take more than a willing spirit to forge a good trade policy in the next five years it will acquire us to keep the multilateral process on track in the w t o to negotiate commercially significant free trade agreements and to enforce vigorously the terms of these agreements and t uphold the rules of trade unquote so that's what we're really faced with is east the smaller countries these countries that frankly are generally have less economic strength than we do always want special treatment  you guys can afford that but we need a spare trade and that's what trade is all about and that's why it takes a leader to do that so i'm very pleased that she is there and that she's willing to do this she's well trained to do it and she further stated to her success may require and again i quote an on the sometimes blunt but always respectful exchange of views along with a willingness to compromise when possible and the strength to stand firm when necessary the strength to stand firm when necessary to me that is probably the most important element of the trade negotiations that we enter into is to be able to stand firm on what we agree and we ought to be in a position to do that when we're as big a buyer as we are we also need to have some muscle in the other side and we can do that and i'm pleased with the commitment she's made to reach out and listen and consult with members of congress on both sides of the aisle engaging in congress in a bipartisan way upright and throughout the process will be crucial and she will do that understands this and i'm confident that she will follow through so i look forward to working with her moving forward and one of the important elements of our economy and that is world trade and doing it in a fair manner present will resume legislative session thank you ask a period of mourning businesses senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes without objection you know