To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1300 North Frontage Road West in Vail, Colorado, as the "Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Post Office Building".

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at 9:30 a.m., in open and closed sessions to receive testimony on the current and future readiness of the Army and Marine Corps.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to hold a hearing during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at 9:30 a.m., in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building. The purpose of the hearing is to evaluate the administration's proposal to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to hold a hearing during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The purpose of the hearing is to consider the President's proposed budget for FY 2008 for the Department of the Interior.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at 10 a.m., in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, to hear testimony on ``The Administration's 2007 Trade Agenda.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at 9:15 a.m. to hold a nomination hearing.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at 9 a.m. for a business meeting to consider pending committee business.

Agenda

Legislation

1. S. 4, Improving America's Security by Implementing Unfinished Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007;

2. S. 343, a bill to extend the District of Columbia College Access Act of 1999;

3. S. 457, a bill to extend the date on which the National Security Personnel System will first apply to certain defense laboratories;

4. S. 550, a bill to preserve existing judgeships on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Post Office Naming Bills

1. S. 171, to designate the facility of the USPS located at 301 Commerce Street in Commerce, Oklahoma, as the ``Mickey Mantle Post Office Building;''

2. S. 194/H.R. 49, to designate the facility of the USPS located at 1300 North Frontage Road West in Vail, Colorado, as the ``Gerald R. Ford Jr. Post Office Building;''

3. S. 219/H.R. 335, to designate the facility of the USPS located at 152 North 5th Street in Laramie, Wyoming, as the ``Gale W. McGee Post Office;''

4. S. 303, to designate the facility of the USPS located at 324 Main Street in Grambling, Louisiana, as the ``Coach Eddie Robinson Post Office Building;''

5. S. 412/H.R. 521, to designate the facility of the USPS located at 2633 11th Street in Rock Island, Illinois, as the ``Lane Evans Post Office Building;''

6. H.R. 433, to designate the facility of the USPS located at 1700 Main Street in Little Rock, Arkansas, as the ``Scipio A. Jones Post Office Building;''

7. H.R. 514, to designate the facility of the USPS located at 16150 Aviation Loop Drive in Brooksville, Florida, as the ``Sergeant Lea Robert Mills Brooksville Aviation Branch Post Office;''

8. H.R. 577, to designate the facility of the USPS located at 3903 South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, as the ``Sergeant Henry Ybarra III Post Office Building.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. in room 485 of the Russell Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing on the President's fiscal year 2008 budget request for tribal programs.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet to conduct a markup on Thursday, February 15, 2007, at 10 a.m. in room S. 216 of the Capitol Building.

I. Nominations

Beryl Howell, to be a Member of the United States Sentencing Commission.

II. Bills

S. 316, the Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act, Kohl, Grassley, Leahy, Schumer, Feingold.

S. 236, the Federal Agency Data Mining Reporting Act of 2007, Feingold, Sununu, Leahy, Akaka, Kennedy.

S. 378, the Court Security Improvement Act of 2007, Leahy, Specter, Durbin, Cornyn, Kennedy, Hatch.

S. 442, the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act of 2007, Durbin.

III. Resolutions

S. Res. 41, honoring the life and recognizing the accomplishments of Tom Mooney, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, Brown, Voinovich.

S. Res. 47, honoring the life and achievements of George C. Springer, Sr., the Northeast regional director and a former vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, Dodd.

S. Res. 49, recognizing and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the entry of Alaska into the Union as the 49th State, Stevens, Murkowski.

S. Res. 53, congratulating Illinois State University as it marks its sesquicentennial, Durbin, Obama.

S. Res. 69, a resolution recognizing the African-American spiritual as a national treasure, Menendez.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 15, 2007, at 2:30 p.m. to hold a closed hearing.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Special Committee on Aging be authorized to meet Thursday, February 15, 2007, from 10 a.m. to noon in Dirksen 562 for the purpose of conducting a hearing.

Mr. President, the House voted recently 405 to 2 to extend the current Internet tax moratorium which expires at the end of this month. They voted to extend it for 4 more years. I believe the Senate should do the same thing and do it before the end of the month rather than enact a permanent moratorium, as some want to do, because permanent action is likely to invoke a far higher law--the law of unintended consequences.

We can't imagine the future impact of the World Wide Web, and a permanent moratorium could produce at least two unintended consequences: No. 1, a big unintended tax increase, or No. 2, a big unintended, unfunded Federal mandate.

Here is an example of how a permanent moratorium could produce an unintended new tax. At the time the original moratorium was enacted in 1998, Internet access meant dial-up. Today, Internet access also includes broadband. Fortunately, Congress updated the moratorium definition in 2004 so that access to broadband is exempt from taxation.

Or, here is an example of how an outdated moratorium could produce an unintended, unfunded Federal mandate on States, cities, and counties. States and local governments collect billions of dollars in sales tax on telephone services to pay for schools, roads, police, and hospital workers. Under the old definition of Internet access, telephone calls made over the Internet might have escaped such taxation. That might sound good to conservatives like me who favor lower taxes, but most members of my Republican Party were elected promising to end the practice of unfunded Federal mandates--that is, those of us in Washington telling Governors, mayors, and county commissioners what services to provide and how to pay for them. In fact, Republican candidates for Congress stood with Newt Gingrich on the Capitol steps in 1994 and said, as part of a Contract With America, ``No more unfunded mandates. If we break our promise, throw us out.'' In 1995, the new Republican Congress enacted a new Federal Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, banning unfunded mandates.

Make no mistake, Mr. President, the permanent extension that is proposed would be an unfunded Federal mandate because it would not allow the grandfathered States--and there are currently nine of them collecting this tax--the ability to continue to make their own decisions about what revenues to collect. It would freeze into place forever an Internet access definition that might not be wise for industry and that might not be wise for State and local governments.

That is why so many people support the idea of a 4-year moratorium on taxation of Internet access. It has the support of the National Governors Association, the National Association of Counties, The U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the Multistate Tax Commission, and the AFL-CIO.

In addition to that, even though many in the industry would like to have a longer moratorium, the Don't Tax Our Web Coalition has written a letter to John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, saying that they prefer the permanent extension but that they believe the House-passed bill is a step forward and one they can support.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of the letter from the Don't Tax Our Web Coalition and also a copy of the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate from September 9, 2003, which makes absolutely clear that such a law would be an unfunded Federal mandate under the terms of the 1995 Unfunded Federal Mandate Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 49, legislation to name the postal facility in Vail, CO, after our Nation's 39th President, Gerald R. Ford, Jr.

I believe this bill is fitting as another means of honoring the legacy of President Ford, in large part because of his special connection to Colorado and the Vail Valley. I am pleased by the support it has received; all members of the Colorado delegation have co- sponsored the legislation.

In 1968 then-Congressman Ford and wife, Betty, first came to Colorado with their children to celebrate Christmas and to ski in the mountains at Vail. Like many other visitors, President Ford was inspired by the beauty of the area and found a connection to the land and to the surrounding community.

The Fords later owned a home and continued to vacation in Vail. When he became President, his vacations in Colorado helped introduce the world to the Town of Vail, and in fact, the family home was dubbed ``the Western White House.''

Vail residents knew President Ford and his family as neighbors and friends and are proud of their long association with them. President Ford served on the board of directors of the Vail Valley Foundation. Vail also serves as the home of the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens and the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. President Ford was beloved in Vail, where he was known to be a good neighbor, an avid golfer and a lover of the outdoors.

President Ford will rightly be remembered for his personal warmth, his decency, his interest in bridging the many divisions in America during the 1970s. My father, Mo Udall, served in the Congress with Gerald Ford, and while they were often on different sides in political matters--so much so that my father hoped to run against President Ford in the famous election of 1976--they were united by a common view that politics should unite people. They both were firm believers that in public life one could disagree without being disagreeable.

This is a credo I continue to believe in, and I commend the memory of both good men to this House, an institution they loved.

Coloradans, especially those in the Vail Valley, have come to think of him as the first President from Colorado because he was a great ambassador for the State, who established long ties to the people of Colorado.

As a dedicated public servant, President Ford served honorably in his years in Congress and in the White House. Most important, when America needed someone to reassure their trust in government after Watergate, he filled that leadership role with authenticity.

I believe President Ford's special relationship and legacy in Colorado should be appropriately recognized by naming the postal facilities in Vail, CO, in his honor.

I urge all members support the legislation today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of another down payment on thanking President Gerald Ford for his legacy, a legacy that really began, flourished and was all about this body. We are recognizing Gerald Ford as the 38th President of the United States because he did spend 2\1/2\ years as our President. But, uniquely, the man born in 1913 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was, in fact, a man of the House.

During his entire tenure in the House, he did not enjoy time in the majority. Yet his goal was to be Speaker of the House. He had no higher calling, never sought one, but accepted the one that was cast upon him.

At the time that he was selected to be Vice President of the United States, we were already mired in the Vietnam War and disgrace had been brought upon the Vice Presidency. It was Gerald Ford who came in impeccably honest, undeniably a man of the people and a man who was only for the people.

That is how he was selected, that is why he was selected, it is why the Senate and the House thought he was the only man for the job. Who would have known that just a short time, 10 months later in fact, he would find himself cast into an even larger role, another role that he did not ask for.

Yet that was who Gerald Ford was, a man who came out of athletics and out of university to serve in the United States Navy in 1942 because it was the right thing to do. He had represented a district that would have returned him to the House to this very day if, in fact, he were still alive.

Instead, he answered a call, a call that each of us in the House has answered by coming to this body. That was the call of service to the United States.

As I support this naming of this post office in the place he loved, in the place he skied, in the place that he called home for his immediate period after leaving the White House, I do so as the second man of the House that we are recognizing here today, first Congressman Lane Evans and then Congressman/President Gerald Ford.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 49) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1300 North Frontage Road West in Vail, Colorado, as the ``Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Post Office Building''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in consideration of H.R. 49, legislation naming a postal facility in Vail, Colorado, after the late Gerald R. Ford, Jr.

President Ford helped ease a Nation during tense times. But even before he was President, he was widely known in this Chamber as a man of great integrity and openness. Although never elected to the office of President or Vice President, President Ford was appointed to mend a bruised American psyche and maneuver our country through the only Presidential resignation ever, to help end the Vietnam War, and to help ease rising inflation.

He succeeded, and for that extraordinary service to his country his legacy should be remembered by all in our country and throughout the world.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the swift passage of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.