the senate is still not in order i will say editors please take their conversations outside of the senate doesn't the senator from mississippi may be heard will senators please take their conversations outside of the senate so that the senator from mississippi may be heard government can work to help to the citizens who been disadvantaged by a storm when members work together in a bipartisan manner the senator from louisiana will be able to explain briefly the base and then to that she authored i would simply like to thank her for agreeing to incorporate two very important amendments into hers one is with regard to the bonus depreciation piece of the gulf opportunity zone act known as shorthand as the go zone because of bureaucratic delays and simply because of the magnitude of hurricane katrina people who would like to take opportunity of the go zone bonus depreciation have not been able to commence the construction because it simply has been impossible to do so the wicker cochran amendment which the senator has agreed to incorporate into her amendment was simply move the commencement date goes on construction i would also point out that she's graciously agreed to add brownback and roberts amendment which will help the the  small town of greensburg kansas which was completely devastated in a storm recently and so i urge all senators to vote in favor of this simple change in the date on bonus depreciat and once again i thank the senator from louisiana for agreeing to this the question is on the amendment center from tennessee for the sake of consistency i do want to raise a point of order that this amendment bolides section two zero four senate resolution twenty one mr president pursuant to section two of four of concurrent mr feingold mrs feinstein mr roberts voting in the negative corker demand brag and file and the point of order is moot move reconsider that without objection literally that on the table without direction this present ration is on the amendment i'm sorry all those in favor say aye aye aye aye all those opposed no the eyes do have it the amendment is agreed to without objection mr president majority leader and senator dodd is going to be here as will senator baucus for the offering amendments have no votes on monday that's been long scheduled the republican leader i'll work out what is going to happen on tuesday a couple of alternatives i discussed briefly morning and we are i have a clear vision ready to file whether we do that or north wednesday and thursday the pope will be in washington d c and will say a mass it's my understanding that mass will begin at ten am will be a lot of traffic problems or so a huge number of people are expected to be at that so we'll have a window so that members and staff who want to attend the mass will be able to do that it won't be for all day but i would assume will all work  with those who know the schedule better than i and will have a window on thursday but they will have to work and thursday afternoon thursday evening and on other issues friday has there's been a long scheduled time for a senate democrat return democratic  treat we're going to take going to richmond virginia so that's the general view of what we're going to present to discern a you'll be happy deal i blew the masses the thursday after if i'm correct not next week are from tennessee this president this president to clarify he wants to he he objects to the wind power part part of the wind power and he wants to second degree just he just wants to make designers in tennessee and montana thank him for that that's all i want to do i want to make sure that i'm highly protected and someone another center doesn't get ahead of me in terms of the second degree  unanimous consent request now pending reserving the right to object madge us to inquire of whoever will be managing this amendment the next one how long they will go forward with the discussion on this amendment i'd just like to be added after it's all over with for five minutes to present a wholly different from then it doesn't have anything to do with this issue serving the right to object may i say the scent of montana i would like to follow the senator from nevada for five minutes for the purpose of offering a second degree amendment that if you could sponsors to this amendment since we senator cantwell and i introduced the freestanding bill yesterday and there were we now have already twenty eight of our colleagues who are co sponsors of the bill and we expect that many more will be added to or co sponsors the bill will want to be added as co sponsors to this amendment just very briefly and i would like to share my time with the senator from washington who has shown great leadership on this issue the amendment that we are proposing mammoth dealing with renewables we know that this country has an energy problem we are too dependent on foreign sources of energy too much of our energy is polluting our air and concerns about climate  change around the world and this amendment addresses both of those concerns as well as it is stimulative to the economy there's over one hundred thousand jobs that we're trying to protect with this amendment we're talking about solar power we're talking about geothermal we're talk talking about wind energy we're talking about biomass there are many different renewables that we're going to help with in this amendment and at a time when our country is it war in  places where we're sending over one hundred dollars a barrel oil we're spending billions and hundreds of billions of dollars from our economy to support people who aren't necessarily friendly to the united states of america so it is very important that we as the senate act now on this amendment to help the united states become less dependent on foreign sources of energy as well as cleaning up our environment it's a national security concern it's an economic concern and it's an environmental concern so i'm very pleased to be introducing this amendment today we can vote on it next week but but i think it's very critical that this be part of the package and that is why why does it need to be done today why is there such an urgency a lot of this type of energy production it takes a long time you have to have plenty of time in the future to set these projects up on the financing of these projects and we've been told by a lot of the industries if there is a certainties a lot of these industry we're going to go away and we don't need to be doing that at this time we need to be encouraging renewable energy development and i'd like to yield a couple minutes to my friend the senator from washington who was the lead sponsor of the bill that we introduced yesterday mr president center from washington mr president i thank the senator from nevada for yielding me some of his time this is been a big priority on this side of the aisle to get clean energy tax credits so that we can continue to stimulate investment in wind in solar in energy efficiency in a variety of other things fuel cells biomass geothermal the list goes on and on we've tried for time this is the fourth time we've tried to get this legislation three other times we've become within one vote so we're here today with more bipartisan support for a proposed solution and my colleagues in the chairman of the finance committee has worked very hard on this legislation in general and the concept of trying to push for these tax credits but we are at a critical point in fact i have said to my colleagues that rome is burning that is that we are at the  of projects actually getting canceled having been in business i know what it's like to have your first quarter earnings reports and then have to show some forward advancement to your investors about your projects that's where we are and because we aren't g certainty in the tax code to these investors they are going to start canceling projects so we cannot wait another month another two months to get about this task so if we want to give certainty to the markets to continue to invest in alternative energy to take some of the pressure off of rising cost of energy now is the time to act so i hope my colleagues will think about the bipartisan nature of the fact that we have failed three times and have come one vote short to try now to help our own economies in our states and in our country by saving this investment cycle give the predictability so that we can keep one hundred thousand jobs working so that we can get renewable energy produced and invested in in two thousand and eight and so that we can have the production of c o two reducing inner g supply and get that going now i could say to my colleagues it's almost we're almost at a point where the united states is so far behind with what other countries are doing that we're not even going to be able to claim that we are leading in this area if we do not get about the task so if the votes are here let's start voting to say that floor after one just brief comment once again thanks great leadership senator from from washington i look forward to to all of our colleagues joining us on this vote in a bipartisan way next week thank you mr president center from tennessee improve the amendment offered by the senator from nevada and the senator from washington as i listen to their talking their concern is for emerging technologies the businesses that are that are trying to develop emerging technologies to have time to plan and so they offer a one year extension of the production tax credit which gives a for the most part one cents per kilowatt hour to those emerging technologies i would propose along with senator kyl that we make it a two year extension for emerging technologies and the way we would pay for that so that it would not be any more expensive than the proposal that they have offered is to do with wind what we have already done with solar take it off the list of two cent per kilowatt hour technologies and put it on the one cent list in other words we would be tree creating a two year extension of the production tax credit for renewable technologies and we would be treating wind the same way we treat open loop biomass small irrigation power landfill gas trash combustion qualified hydro power wave entitle and when w receive one since i think it makes much more common sense today if we want to encourage emerging technologies to treat them the same is specially because wind has had a preferential hundred ninety two what has happened mr president is wind has gobbled up all the money most of the money that has been spent through the production tax credit and almost and very little has gone to any of the other technologies the taxpayer has spent an enormous amount of money to build large wind turbines in this country according to the joint committee on taxation we are committed to spend another eleven point five billion dollars over the next ten years for wind power are alone even though wind power produces less than one percent of all of our  electricity and only and less than three percent of our clean electricity nuclear power produces nearly seventy percent of our clean electricity that is no nitrogen no sulfur  mercury no carbon for those concerned about climate change if we were subsidizing nuclear power at the same rate we subsidize wind power for clean energy we would be spending three or four hundred billion dollars over the next four years for nuclear power so when has been gobbling up the available money for renewable energies we have spent an extraordinary amount of money on when wind has already proven where it where the wind blows it works its competitive and where it does not blow it's not competitive in the southeastern united states for example there is one wind farm because of the generous when subsidies this wind farm on the top of a lovely mountain buffalo mountain in tennessee last august in the middle of the drought when we were all sweating and turning up our air conditioners was operating ten percent of the time it makes no sense to pay big subsidies to people in chicago to build wind farms in places where the wind doesn't blow so what we are suggesting senator kyl and i are let's take the available money let's extended two years the production tax credit and let's let some of it go to open loop biomass more of it go to small irrigation pal more of it go to landfill gas and trash combustion and qualified hydro power and wavin tidal and it would also go for when this means that the wind part of the tax credit would be for two years and wind would still receive about a billion of the six billion of this six or seven billion that the ensign can't will amendment would would would consume so i would ask my friends to seriously consider this not as an unfriendly amendment to renewable energy but that is a friendly amendment i've met with a lot of people who say we desperately need some certainty in business well two years is twice as much certainty as one year and there is no reason at this stage of development of energy why wind which is well proven where the wind blows and which is been subsidized so heavily would we believe improve the ensign cantwell amendment by doubling the time that the production tax credit is available to to renewable emerging renewable technologies incentive provisions to accomplish that objective they've not been successful for various reasons some because they're paid for and people would like to pay for it and others because it not paid for for example last february we passed a energy tax incentive package very similar we also know that the other body is probably not as friendly toward passing this because it's not paid for not as friendlies as body and so we start we want we hope the president signs this package i'm so important so vitally important for the reasons everyone's mentioned and i fact i'm i'm even more worried about it than probably some other senators i was worried about is that if i say to washington we're not getting these passed but i committed to find a way sign of montana just made and i say this in the same the same spirit in which he has expressed his remarks this is a housing well you get eight thousand people a day in foreclosure eight thousand just since we started this debate twenty four thousand of our fellow citizens lost their homes twenty four thousand people lost their homes i agree listen energy independence critically important but this isn't a christmas tree here there are ways of doing these energy bills other  under the impression we want to get out of here with a housing bill that could make a difference in people's lives why are we taking on matters here that run the risk of tying up this process for weeks on end and a conference with the house i matters they disagree with that are not paid for to make it a presidential veto and as a result of that we watch even more people lose their homes if the housing bill thousand bill and so with all due respect to the office moment i want to pose every one of them here on out so we can get this bill done we've got more to do this is not all inclusive bill a lot more needs to be done frankly not doing enough for people in foreclosure in my view made that speech for a year now on this matter we finally got to a point where we've come together in a bipartisan fashion to deal with housing and all of a sudden i find myself dealing with every other issue in creation here because we haven't had built it moved along for whatever reason but don't make people losing their homes that are kind of be suffering pay the price because we haven't dealt with these other issues this is housing the center of montana is absolutely correct and i intend to stand with it we may lose and i hope we don't because we've run the risk of having just one effort to make a difference on housing fall apart with all due respect to the authors of the legislation and i agree with all of mama's substance of this this is not the place and times it is issue we need to deal with house mr president the center from florida mr president because this is the mortgage foreclosure prevention act just what the chairman of the banking committee is brought a on ourselves what's the underlying bill and this senator state has the second highest number of foreclosures in the country is why i ask consent that we just set aside the pending amendment and i call up amendment fo without objection mr president under current law you can invade your retirement fund for one k fun in order to purchase a  without paying the ten percent penalty what this amendment is is if home ownership and keeping someone in their home is a valued value in america and they're about to have that home taken away because of this foreclosure crisis then it seems to me that we we don't want to amend the law to allow them to take money out of their retirement fund in order so that they  can forestall the foreclosure and stay in their home that's what this amendment does and allow someone to withdraw up to twenty five thousand dollars from their retirement fund without paying the ten percent penalty and that has to be used for the purpose of foreclosure prevention purpose and that's like paying on the principal or interest payments that's like refinancing or a mortgage modification and to make sure that people don't abuse this where limiting it for a two year period and we're dished only go to say the money that you bring out to help you so you don't go into foreclosure if you put the money back into your retirement fund within three years you're not going to have to pay the income tax on it so it is a direct tailored amendment to try to help people do what the underlying bill which is to prevent foreclosures i'm joined by my colleague from minnesota who wants to speak on this summit this president with senator from minnesota this president arrives to join my colleague from florida to speak on behalf of our amendment number forty four twenty three i i want to start by thanking first the chair of the banking committee sen dodd and senator shelby for for bringing us to this point people losing their homes i hear it like we all heard it we went back over easter break and so for senator dodd and senator shelby to come together in a bipartisan way and to give us this opportunity to do with this senate should be doing i expressed by my deep appreciation also to senator baucus the chairman the finance committee and senator grassley ranking member for working with us on this amendment it is it is one of those things that goes to the heart of what we're trying to do today as friends and i do ask unanimous consent for senator martinez creators of co sponsor this amendment without objection president during my travels back home housing forums over the course of the last year we are all meeting more and more folks who are in very desperate straits in their effort to keep their home minnesota writes number two in the number of sub prime mortgages in foreclosure minnesota who would have thunk but that's the reality it's across the country i was at a forum in st cloud in the central part of our state earlier in the year i met a nurse by the name of terri roth it was a woman who had two jobs  bought a house and it was in need of repair she had a pretty good mortgage had a solid mortgage low interest rate and didn't have the will want to actually to quit one job to go back to school want to improve herself improve  what she found herself in a situation with a mortgage had doubled the value of the house was less than the value with the additions she had lost now had one job income in half she's in big trouble his woman has worked  life it had put aside some money for retirement what she did is she tapped into that and then she paid a penalty on it trying to save for a home that was what she had the problem is across the nation  now looking to use their retirement savings to save their homes and they get hit hard with a ten percent early withdrawal phenol think it was an article in usa today ran a piece in style four hundred one k s have to save homes and the article focuses on this very problem how americans are getting slammed with taxes and penalties as they try to keep their homes this present i ask unanimous consent that at the conclusion of my remarks of this article be inserted in the record without objection its president these are the stories my friend from florida and been exchanging we've had conversations about this the personal accounts stretch from the gulf of mexico to the great lakes these are the reasons we called to take up this commonsense cause this president we continue to work on this critical bipartisan legislation to address the housing crisis center nelson i believe that one more way can we can responsibly help homeowners is to temporarily way this ten percent penalty for with rolls up to twenty five thousand dollars or many would also waive ordinary income taxes as a senator flores indicate if the homeowner pays back the withdrawal within three years of making it so homeowners are provided with a strong incentive to make their retirement savings whole again this present this amendment isn't a silver bullet i don't know if there's a silver bullet in terms of the up to the crisis that we're dealing with but along with other after that it helps those who we want to help homeowners who are in big trouble and in doing so this champ relieve can prevent an unnecessary foreclosure from happening a foreclosure not only hurts the family but hurts the entire community when houses in our foreclosed in vacant it affects everyone's house in the surrounding area affects the neighborhood as a former mayor i looked at neighborhoods that we've built up during my time as mayor and i fear now that those those same names are being torn down to one down by the very crisis that we're in that we're facing so bottom line this bill is about homeowners helping themselves or the temperature sent penalty is well intentioned that we don't want people to be using retirement savings during their working years times like this require us to recognize that sometimes such rules need to be flexible in order to serve a greater good both on a homeowner level the community level i believe that makes sense and able those who can to keep their homes all cleaned up to the  homeowner to decide whether it makes financial sense to turn to their retirement savings to keep their homes at the very least however those who decide to do so we should not penalize them for trying to keep a roof over their heads and want to remain part of the community have called home mr president t urge my colleagues to support this common sense and much needed relief i yield the floor mr president just to close with a couple of sentences as the chairman of the banking committee and so will instruct us for most americans their home is their most valuable asset and we ought to be adopting policy through interacting law that allows them to be able to this effort and having been involved years ago in the creation of the individual tyrant accounts going back in the early one nine hundred eighty s the value of encouraging people to set aside hard earned income for for retirement for health care for education is the motivation mention one concern i have to both of you here way on the floor and i and i don't question all the motivations behind it there's nothing in this amendment that of course would require that any right now what we're trying to get is these lenders to write down the size of these mortgages to wa different arrangements so that we the they borrow could afford the mortgage what concerns me here is that while we're using this retirement income or these savings accounts to help meet these obligations there's no commensurate responsibility on the part of the to try and reduce that cost so at the end of two years you may end up with exactly the same levels of the money goes into the pockets of the lender but at the end of the two years we're still faced with the size mortgage we had before and that homeowners in the vat is very same position they're in today so i might give some thought i don't have any quick idea where how we try and tie this together to see if we can incentivize that lender and that mortgage to also write down the cost of part of that or to restructure the way so that that person facing foreclosure would be able to handle this these monies with them be a lot would really be of help to them but if you don't do anything about the size that mortgage all the conditions of it all i've done is kick the can down the road for two years and then also then watch that retirement income get exhausted now you can put it back but it seems to defeat the very purpose what we're trying to do and that is to get work out and i've had an awful time over the last year as my two colleagues know we started a year ago with the stakeholders and asked them in fact we set up a set of principles for right now and unfortunately cordon bodies only one percent of the lending institutions have done that new year tragically in my view we've been a very different position had they done otherwise so i'm very suspicious about their willingness to do this and merely providing additional resources to them coming out of people's hard earned money although you vied a good idea  money back in i'd like to think about a way in which you might incentivize that lender that will work out that person could use these resources to stay in the home merely a thought to consider over the next couple of days as we go forward as president president senator from montana savings vehicles in the first place to warrant an exception it will last for two years because after all hole is pretty close to retirement if they want to should save for retirement of these terror groups of saving their home means dipping into the can we then create some ideas between our respective stance yours finance the banking committee our individually and see if we can come up to something to address the issue th pleased to work with the chairman and my colleagues i would ask the chairman the finance committee i think one of the things that we did kind of addressing a piece of this issue had to do with the tax consequences if a mortgage was us eight hundred fifty thousand and we took it down and it was taken down two hundred thousand by by agreement in the past that fifty thousand was a taxable gain and i believe just recently again these a little piece of the building blocks we took that building block and said hey if you're knocked it down to want to want to one hundred thousand and fifty thousand i understand is no longer taxable gain is that correct correct so so we are approaching the i think that all these pieces fit together and in the end again no silver bullet but if we can come closer to addressing the full range of concerns i think that we positively have already moved with the leadership myself because it's my view there are never silver bullets there's always major effort to find lots of different pieces lots of different sequences and steps to address a difficult problem but this is rather one of those art minds be of i  this president center for south dakota what is the is there a unanimous consent agreement that's i believe the unanimous consent agreement is place expired correct like to ask you know answer request if i would let the senator my colleague go before me and then i could speak at whenever he's finished or at eleven o'clock their marriage action here crisis out there that needs to be addressed i would also argue that first of all course this being the senate that we oftentimes consider amendments to bills that aren't necessarily related to the the underlying base bill but secondly that there probably isn't an issue that impacts the folks that i represent south dakota anymore than does the high cost of energy granted as you travel across the country in this is true in my state is is i think in every state people are  closely what's happening with the subprime mortgage crisis and the senate in the congress is reacting to that with the legislation that is currently on the floor but if you look at it in the context of the broader economy and what is impacting the pocketbooks of americans every single day certainly of south dakotans there is no question that high energy prices are impacting the lives of everybody that i represent south dakota we are a very energy dependent state whether it's fuels we drive a long distances we're a farm economy souls inputs are very important to our economic wellbeing we're cold weather state and so of course electricity is in very high demand both during the winter during the cold weather season but also during the hot weather season in the summer and it seems to me that if we're going to address the economic issues that affect this country right now that we cannot do that without taking a hard look at what we can do to make energy more affordable to people in this country and so i would argue to my colleagues who have made the point that this is in fact a housing bill that notwithstanding that is the basic focus of this bill that when we look at addressing the economy and i think in the broader context that's what this whole discussion is about is how can we bring relief to hardworking people in this country who are struggling with the economic pains created by the housing crisis by high energy prices by high health care costs those are all factors that impact the pocketbooks of everyday americans so i think that the discussion of this renewable energy extender amendment is perfectly appropriate in the context of this debate and i would also say with respect to the senator from montana who has worked very hard and along with iowa senator grassley on a an energy package that would extend many of the tax incentives that are in place for renewable energy we have had that legislation now on the floor of the senate several different times and have been unable to reach that magic sixty threshold it's necessary to to end a filibuster and to move forward with the legislation and so i would argue that every opportunity we have we need to move forward with this debate about energy and what we're going to do to lessen our dependence upon foreign sources of energy to make energy more affordable to more americans and so i think it fits perfectly within the context of this debate and i would also say that if i it with regard to some of the extenders that are impact that will impact those who are energy production in my part of the world i would particularly interested in the wind energy tax credit the production tax credit the two cent per kilowatt hour tax credit that applies to wind that i've talked to investors who are looking at wind energy projects across this country and who are prepared to invest capital to build wind energy production but can't deal with the uncertainty that exists with regard to federal policy the wind energy production tax credit expires at the end of this year and if we don't do something in the very near future those who are looking at making investments that investment capital is going to dry up we can't afford to have that happen at a time when we have an increasing and growing demand for energy across this country we're trying to look at the whole issue of greenhouse gas emissions and and carbon emissions and find new renewable forms of energy that will help address our energy needs in a in a clean  environmentally friendly way we cannot afford to allow these tax incentives for renewable energy production to lapse at the very time that there is investment sitting there on the sidelines waiting to invest in when wind energy production and solar energy production but with that with the lack of certainty that exist today because of the pending expiration of these production tax credits that investment very well could end up staying on the sidelines and not be made and that would be a very tragic outcome i would argue mr president for our country and so i would hope that every opportunity that we have here in the senate and frankly there won't be that many opportunities regrettably i think this year on legislation that i actually is going to pass through the senate to attach these types of amendments the center for montana has said that there will be a tax extender bill moving later i hope he's right i hope that we have an opportunity a window down the road to get some of these tax measures that are expiring addressed but if in fact that doesn't happen or if it happens later in the year sometime in the summer we're going to miss a lot of opportunity a lot of capital investment in wind energy and other types of renewable energy production that we otherwise would get if we had some certainty with regard to what the policy is going to be and so again in as much as there are jurisdictional objections being raised by the senator from connecticut with regard to this bill being a housing bill from senator from montana regarding the need for to do this later on on a piece of legislation that might be a tax bill moving through the finance committee and ultimately out to the floor i would simply make the case to my colleagues that time is important here timing really is critical with respect to whether or not we're going to continue to have incentives in place economic incentives for investment renewable energy and frankly based on the conversations i've had with those who are looking at making those types of capital investments in wind energy and other forms of renewable energy production  they are very concerned that congress has yet to act and i would say i would much rather see a multi year extension of the production tax credit for wind and some of the other renewable energy tax credits then doing this for a one year because i don't think that provides the long term certainty that's necessary but i would much rather have a one year extension than face the prospect of this production tax credit expiring at the end of this year and us not addressing it and seeing a whole lot of capital investment otherwise would be made into these areas production stay on the sidelines and continue to go down this path of increasing dependence upon foreign sources of energy growing demand for energy here in the united states and a need to to lessen the the greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere and us new is doing nothing about that and so my fear is that if we don't act now perhaps this thing gets punted down the road perhaps it doesn't get addressed this year in which case the production tax credit would expire and that would be a tragic outcome tragic result i think for this country and for the goals that we have when it comes to renewable energy and so mr president i guess i would simply say to my colleagues who are going to hear objections raised on procedural grounds about dealing with these production tax credits in the context of this particular bill that we need to look at the broader picture here we've got an energy crisis in this country we have those who want to invest in renewable energy projects that would help address that that would meet all the goals that i just mentioned about clean energy about lessening our dependence upon foreign energy and frankly the argument that was made by my colleague from tennessee senator alexander with regard to wind energy being a more of a localized regional issue that's predominantly true but so is oil production you know there are lots of parts of the country that don't have certain energy sources and yet we all rely upon all those energy sources for our energy needs in this country and we happen to have an abundance of wind in the upper midwest which i frankly think has been underutilized but it has the potential to meet the energy needs of people not just in south dakota or north dakota nebraska or minnesota but all across this country and we need to maybe making the investments in those types of those types of energy sources and we need to have policies in place that would create the economic incentives incentives for that to happen and so i hope that in spite of the objections that will be raised on some procedural grounds so moving forward with this that absent action to date and having seen in the past looking historically at what's happened as this this wind energy production tax credit over time since one thousand nine hundred two when it was originally an acted every time it comes where it's about to expire or does expire you'll see this peak investment when it's in place when it comes to where it's running out the investment falls off tails off expires it's put back in place and it takes off again we need to even that out so we don't have these peaks and valleys that we have consistent policies in place that will provide the certainty and the necessary incentive for those who want to invest in these types of energy sources to be able to do so so i hope that we will pass the ensign amendment and put it on this bill the objections been raised at the house that this could derail the housing bill frankly mr president the house has voted on not on one occasion but on several occasions already for these very same renewable energy tax credits and i suspect that they would welcome the opportunity to have that vote again in the house of representatives i hope it will be part of this package because it does address a fundamental issue when it comes to our broader economy and that is the high cost of energy that is plaguing and harming and impacting the pocketbooks of every single american i urge my colleagues to when we have this vote which i assume will be sometime early next week to vote yes thank you mr president i'd like to call up my men meant amendment forty three eighty two from arkansas mrs lincoln proposes memon number forty three eighteen mr president the amendment that i'm offering today is a very important amendment because we are all here because where concerned about the crisis that exists in  the the mortgage industry and certainly in home ownership but more importantly we want to prevent it from happening again we want to make sure that we are providing information to homebuyers and others counseling in a way that really makes a difference the myth that i'm offering today will encourage our employers to provide group legal service been a fit with an emphasis on real estate counseling for their employees great group legal services plans have been around since the one nine hundred seventy s and are intended to do exactly what the center for responsible lending says should be one of our very top priorities in this effort to deal with the housing crisis we should be encouraging and incentivizing preventive legal services i want to make sure mr president that my colleagues understand how important has been if it is for our nation's employees but take employees in rural areas and low income areas where access to lawyers might be scarce we should be giving the average american homeowner access to legal advice so that he or she can feel confident in the mortgages that they are getting into and so that when you know god forbid things do go wrong that they can receive advice about what their rights and responsibilities are dealing with foreclosures and what options are available to them in dalian with their crisis section one twenty of the internal revenue code has lapsed mr president that section of the code was intended to provide a tax incentives so that our employers would offer group legal service plans to their employees since it has lapsed virtually no new group legal benefit plans have been created and many employers are dropping those that do exist we should be encouraging these plans mr president because i provide our working americans with access to the legal advice that they need that they deserve and that they often cannot access these legal services would provide mortgage the risk the review of mortgage documents it would work with lenders to modify the loans it would create forbearance agreements it would assist in the restructuring of loans and it would provide cancel in foreclosure litigation when that is needed these are all complex transactions that require significant legal counsel and linemen that will help ensure that america's homeowners particularly those that are hard working american families and those homebuyers that they can get that much needed advice we've provided this advice and certainly the services as i mentioned earlier and since the seventy's through this benefit where employers can actually pull their their resources in providing these this type of advice and service to their employees i want to thank all of not colleagues mr president that have co sponsored this important amendment many of us have worked on and a separate bill and we feel like this is absolutely an appropriate in the proper place to put this incentives but senator smith and sen mr president i also want to say a very big thanks to all of the groups that have endorsed this amendment the american bar association the american prepaid legal service institute the international union  of me and the life all of these groups have recognize how important it is to be able to provide these legal services to hardworking american families and particularly at a time when they may be affected in their homeownership in the difficulties and challenges they face in the problems that exist in the mortgage industry right now this is a critical component of the assistance that we can provide them and to have let it lapse and to see that it virtually no longer exists is something that we can correct and i hope that we will with this amendment so mr president i thank you for the time here and ask i also want to say a special thanks to my chairman chairman baucus and ranking member grassley who have worked with us on this issue along with chairman dodd and ranking member shelby has done such a tremendous job in organizing and and putting together in an expeditious way the effort that we have here to really address these issues that working families are facing and so i want to thank them and their staff are working with us and we look forward to being able to move our amendment and i hope that my colleagues will join me in support of such an important amendment a vehicle as well as a component that we already know works because we've had it in this country for quite some time in providing the legal services to working american families we want to continue to see that happen thank you mr president and i yield the floor mr president before you know the floor i ask unanimous consent to lay aside the pending amendments so that i may call up an amendment on behalf of senator snow three mr president the amendment that senator snowe is offering here with several other colleagues is an amendment that really focuses on what we passed and maybe what have had had much leadership here in the senate on this issue under present law however mortgage revenue bonds are allocated with a small state set aside the ten billion in the current package is allocated only based on state populations as we know the economic downturn and housing collapse do not necessarily correspond to the population of states and those of us that come from smaller states recognize that and also recognize the benefits that have been provided in the underlying law that that that exist in that small state set aside the snow amendment adds enough additional bonds so that large sites will still receive their due under the allocation of the ten billion by population but small and rural states also receive their allocation based on a small state set aside under the current law i think it's an important point that we've noticed in terms of what the underlying law does and has done effectively and making sure that we incorporate that into what we do moving forward in the legislation that we have here this amendment only cost about one hundred thirty four million but it means an awful lot for small and rural states in order to make sure that they have equity in being able to access the resources that their homeowners need and that their states can provide th revenue bonds so i urge my colleagues to support this fair and reasonable amendment which will be a good addition to the read the mortgage revenue bond provision in the underlying bill thank you mr president and i get the floor you i ask that the further reading the manner be dispensed without objection thank you mr president i really appreciate the support earlier today of an amendment that senator cochran senator vitter and senator wicker brought forward for the people of the gulf coast thousands and thousands and thousands of homeowners responsible homeowners homeowners that did not  exploit opportunities for fancy dancy mortgages homeowners that took just a regular standard mortgage had actually pay their mortgage off kept insurance their whole life and then in two thousand and five two storms hit the gulf coast and literally have wiped out the a net worth literally great deal of net worth of hundreds of thousands of families in the gulf coast and the reason that i continue to come to the floor is because the stafford act which would normally come if you would to the rescue of people in our country in this situation is wholly inadequate for either the initial recovery or the long term rebuilding it's not just what mary landrieu says a senator from louisiana it's what secretary ch testified before our committee last week and i'm going to submit his actual quote to the record it's what chief paulson of fema said yesterday testifying before the committee and it's what the inspector general of the homeland security department said yesterday testifying before a committee so this is my dilemma as a senator from a state that has had an unprecedented disaster i would have been happy to receive the stafford act and just make it work for us but since it's not working for us i'm kind of inventing things as we go along trying to take appropriate and responsible advantage of other bills that come along that actually might be appropriate for our situation i'm trying not to ask for too much but only what we need but since the structure that we have is not applicable i have no choice so i've been waiting for a year and a half to get a housing bill on the floor so we could make some of these changes and i really appreciate my colleagues being understanding and supportive and everybody's been just terrific as i said earlier this week we've had some terrible situations in detroit and in california las vegas sacramento thousands and thousands here in san bernardino california but as i said you know some of these homeowners could have gotten themselves in trouble i mean they might have done things they shouldn't have done i don't know maybe some people were victims of fraud that will be worked out i hope through some of the legislation that we're passing but the reason i pull this up here is to say that even in the worst area in the country right now which is detroit dearborn michigan according to these official numbers only four point nine percent of the houses in this whole area or are basically in foreclosure or threatening pending foreclosure i bring this contrast to show you that down on the gulf coast those numbers or dwarfed by what could traina and rita and the subsequent levee breaks did to our homeowners in st bernard parish fifty almost fifty five percent not four percent not ten percent not twenty percent but fifty four percent of the homes in st bernard parish had damage exceeding thirty thousand and some of these homes were only worth fifty thousand some were worth three hundred fifty thousand but that's basically completely damaged in fact the sheriff told me and the parish president that there were only five homes undamaged in the whole parish after katrina and rita after those waters went down five out of the sixty seven thousand people that live in this parish cameron parish is almost fifty percent of their households with complete devastating damage to their homes so if you can picture a place that doesn't have just a spattering of houses and we and emptiness but places that have blocks and blocks and miles and miles of homes that are empty and gutted with the windows and doors and the families go on people struggling to come back with a very inadequate federal framework right now to help them now we've sent out a lot of community development block grant money that after a lot of could torsion is that everybody went through we finally crafted a plan to give each of these homeowners if they qualify they had to prove they own the land they had to prove they paid taxes they had to prove that they were actually the right homeowner we gave them a grant no more than one hundred fifty thousand the average is about sixty for mississippi and louisiana our plans are similar but not the same but you can imagine mr president the problem with a family that oh own their house outright they had no mortgage it was worth three hundred fifty or four hundred of five hundred thousand and the most grant they could possibly get is one hundred fifty thousand so we're a far away from trying to make people whole and why should we try to make them whole again nothing that they did they didn't cause a hurricane some of them did not even live in flood plains and some of the some of the families didn't have flood insurance because they were told by their mortgage holder and their bankers they didn't need it they were told by the federal government they didn't need it so my amendment is an attempt to help these homeowners by not adding a penny to the underlying bill which is a wonderful thing that we don't have to add any money to the underlying bill because i know we're trying to keep the cost of all this down but all my men will do would be to allow there to be a third reason that bond could be issued at the state level in the underlying bill the first reason been which is a good reason is to allow first time homebuyers to buy up some of the homes that have been foreclosed on that are sitting empty a neighborhood so what a good way to kind of get these homes back in circulation to allow first time home buyers with limited incomes it's sixty five thousand dollars in my state i'm not sure what it is and everybody else is state but that would be a lot of families that are teachers firefighters nurses except for a not very wealthy but not poor middle class and families to come in and buy some of these homes that's a great idea i used to be the state treasurer i issue these bonds it works it's a happy thing when people can buy a home the underlying bill also allows these bonds to be issued to build more multifamily this is a desperate need in louisiana because while we spend a lot of time talking about our homeowners that have lost homes we had over sixty percent of the population in new orleans maybe between fifty and sixty percent that weren't even homeowners they were renters some of them were very wealthy renters they chose to live in very nice places but a lot of people in new orleans this my home town were poor and they couldn't afford a home and so they were renting their places have been destroyed and we now have a growing homeless population of just historic proportions so the underlying bill that gives an opportunity to issue bonds to build multifamily is great we can build for the elderly which really need affordable housing in the country i also believe the underlying provision allows for the building of places rentals for the disabled which is also a growing need but what my amendment simply says is that there will be a third option for these bonds and it will help to refinance homes that have been destroyed in along the gulf coast in basically the storms of two thousand and five that is what the current amendment says but let me say that i am very open to modify my m m and if the leadership one has to do that to allow the use of these bonds to go to basically any home that was destroyed by a disaster in the whole country i think it would be a very good use of these bonds because as us said there are not a lot of there's not a lot of help outside of just general insurance that helps people to rebuild and if people have insurance fine they can rebuild their home from insurance proceeds but but many many many people who have their houses just joined by tornadoes or flash floods or hurricanes or earthquakes were not required to have insurance by the current law on a and if they've already paid off their mortgage even if they were required to have insurance they weren't required after they paid off their mortgage and so a disaster hits and there really is no way now this is not a grant it's not a give away is just an opportunity to provide mortgage lending for people that would want to buy some of these homes that have been destroyed they're not foreclosed homes they were destroyed and own basically now by in our case  government entities that are trying to research relate these properties back into the housing market so that's basically what my amendment does and i hope we'll have an opportunity of course is the day goes on to maybe speak about it more or to have a vote on it done next week whenever the senate about it so it's print the way to proceed forward and i thank the senator from connecticut as i was saying senator before you came in i think the senator  from the amendment that i'm offering now adds no cost to the underlying bill it just takes the mortgage provision piece and makes it applicable to trying to help homes that were destroyed in the disaster because right now we're trying to help homes that were just destroyed if you will by foreclosure situation we're also helping to build multi family housing which is great and then all we're asking in this amendment is just to basically add a third  voluntary not mandatory but voluntary on the part of the states if they want to include a disaster without adding any additional expense to the bill so i thank the senator from connecticut and i hope we'll take this out our folks in louisiana left as it ought to be and they are very fortunate indeed to have a fighting like mary landrieu in their corner and she's exactly right obviously this was a this wasn't just any disaster this was devastating and for those of us who've been there been there shortly after as i was the events and i've been down several occasions since then it still is stunning to me to go down and see the devastation that still exists and most disasters within weeks or months after the occurrence it's amazing how recuperative areas have common the tremendous efforts even despite the herculean efforts of many her state now that is the devastation still persists and certainly those who've lost their homes is the most devastating impact of all in many ways because that is the center of a neighborhood it's the ability of a family to survive to stay together all of the elements and qualities we like to attribute to being an american family association with our homes and the fact that so many have been destroyed as a result of these disasters is something all of us are mindful of and if we're not isn't real easy and it reminds us on a daily basis of it we thank you for that and we're going to certainly do anything we can do to accommodate and be supportive of this effort as she points out it doesn't expand the program financially it operates within the financial constraints  memmott has been crafted right now is focused on the gulf states in those areas that were adversely affected my inclination is to keep it that way and that is as not to suggest that other states may not have similar or something that has occurred but i think because the uniqueness of what happened there that we need to recognize that in this in this effort and i would be a little uneasy about expanding it beyond that not that there's not with merit but i think particularly this case and this one occasion we're talking about it is a particular compelling case to be made and so once again we thank you for fighting on behalf of of our fellow american citizens who happen to be her specific constituents and we thank her for it over this weekend he will take a look and as any questions we have it we'll get back but i'll be urging senator shelby and others to be very supportive of this idea i think the senator from connecticut and i will follow his advice and keep merrily tailored and if he changes his mind to let let us know but i really appreciate the words of  and i know the absence of a court clerk will c objection mr president first i want to commend senator dodd and senator shelby for their work on this legislation in particular i want to congratulate them on the provisions already in the bill to help us service members and veterans and i also want to also want to thank senators a copy of the chair of the veterans committee and senator byrd the ranking member and their staffs the helping to clear this amendment of the amendment that i'm offering today will provide another piece of needed help to disable veterans trying to stay in their homes this amendment increases funding for a v a grant program that assists disabled veterans needing to what daft their homes to accommodate their disabilities as you know  president many thousands of soldiers are coming on from iraq and afghanistan as amputees who are blind who have a number of disabilities and this amendment attempts to address some of those veterans of america and the vietnam veterans of america it is also important to note that the policy changes we are advocating here are contained in the independent budget the document offered every year on that every year but many of the same  organizations it is also a policy that has the unanimous support of the majority members of the senate veterans affairs committee which endorsed this policy change in the two sept two thousand and seven and two thousand and eight views and estimates letter to the budget committee and other words mr president this policy in this amendment has broad broad support of veterans with certain severe service connected disability are entitled to want to known as specially adapted housing grants of up to fifty thousand dollars veterans with service connected blindness only or with was a loss of use of both upper extremities may receive a grant of up to ten thousand dollars the authors of the independent budget note that increases in these amounts have been sporadic despite the increases in real estate course that particular veterans returning from iraq and afghanistan a finding that the current v a program does not cover the cost of adapting their homes to accommodate wheelchair or loss of vision to create physical therapy space or the need to change this amendment increases the specially adapted housing grant to provide ten thousand dollars in additional benefits but those veterans eligible for the fifty thousand dollars grant and two thousand dollars in additional benefits but those veterans are eligible for the current ten thousand dollars grant so we are raising the cap on each program to sixty thousand and twelve thousand respectively according to  fiscal year two thousand and nine dismembered would cost about six million dollars mr president the senate is now debating and important piece of legislation to try and bring relief to so many of the middle income americans who are struggling to keep their heads above water in today's economy and crisis i think given the context of this bill certainly we can reach out to disabled veterans to adapt their homes so that they can try to live as full lives as possible the president i want to again commend senator dodd senator shelby and the banking committee for the pro that are in pro service member provisions already in this legislation and ask that my colleagues support the small additional benefit i except this should not require a recorded vote at all and i'm just telling my staff here that i have one of i'm one of six children my older older sister carolyn was born legally blind i remember i recall arriving at the house of representatives as a freshman member back in the early  supportive of this as well and again this is you know this is not a large amount it may not be a banner headline for someone but you're going to make a difference in the lives of some families as i'm individuals that may not be thousands even if this legislation at this juncture and i wait for instructions from the leaders how they want to proceed in the know what we're doing that i just know the absence of and a brief was here is the senate in a quorum call moving along today on this measure that was passed by the house the senate using this is a vehicle for the senate mortgage foreclosure relief package a couple of votes took place earlier today this morning there were votes on a couple of amendments one from debbie stabenow of michigan and one from senator voinovich of ohio both passing we expect no more votes today we don't expect votes on monday either new amendments will be offered and the majority leader senator reid has told us they are welcome to offer and debate amendments until monday we don't expect any more votes however here in the senate and till tuesday panel including the ambassador to the united states from jordan and the syrian ambassador to the united states discussing the iraqi refugee crisis and that live coverage continuing on c span and again we're waiting for senators to come back to the floor here and continue work on this bill passed by the house a tax measure the senate using this bill as their vehicle for their mortgage foreclosure relief package is a number of amendments being offered on the bill senator reid the majority majority leader saying he hopes to wrap it up by tuesday or wednesday next week following this housing bill we're told by congressional quarterly the senate will likely begin consideration of a public lands bill which combines about sixty bills that have passed the house and been approved by the senate an energy and natural resources panel also c q reports that in the coming weeks before the memorial day recess the senate could consider a bill that would reauthorize the food and drug administration as well as some legislation that regards regarding patent reform so that's a little bit of what's coming up live coverage always a gavel to gavel of the senate is right here on c span to