Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I rise to speak as the chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, to talk about the aspects of my bill, the parts of my bill that are in the supplemental. But before I do, I want to join with other Americans in extending my deepest condolences to the families in Connecticut, those 26 families who faced a tragedy of such enormity that it is impossible for the mind to comprehend and the heart to endure--the murder of 20 sweet, innocent children and 6 teachers who died protecting their children.

When we look at the photos of the children, we see in many of them the faces of our own families. We can only imagine the agony they are facing right now. I wish to extend my heartfelt support to them and also to all those who responded to the tragedy: those on the scene, the school principal who literally put herself in the line of fire to protect her students and tried to alert them through the intercom system; to teachers in the classrooms and a teacher's assistant who literally shielded them with their own bodies and their own know-how. Then there were the police and other law enforcement who went into the school, not knowing what danger and horror they would face or how they could rescue the children. There were the ambulance drivers who raced to the scene, paramedics, and even grief counselors needed counseling at one point.

In this situation, the families bear this incredible grief, but we all do too. Whether for those people on the scene, for those who have the permanent wounds of the bullet or those in Connecticut or those families who will bear the permanent impact of this tragedy, we lift our hearts in prayer for these victims and we lift our voices to end violence in America. We must look at ending violence in our country. We need to be able to look at the issues around gun control and ammo control, but that is only one aspect of it. We also have to look at issues related to mental illness because for those who suffer mental illness--whether it is those who have the illness themselves or their families who try to cope with it--they are often alone and helpless.

That is not by way of explanation or excuse for what happened in Connecticut or Colorado--what happens now all too frequently in our society. But there is a pattern, particularly of young men over the age of 18 and below 30 who seem to fall between the cracks, missing the help they need to be able to deal with those demons inside themselves. We need to be able to focus on that.

I agree with the President who said last night:

No single law--no set of laws can eliminate evil from the

world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our

society. But that can't be an excuse for inaction. Surely, we

can do better than this.

We must do more to protect our children and our communities, not only with words, prayers and vigils but actually with the deeds here.

So know I will join with my colleagues to reinstate the assault weapons ban. I plan to work with Senator Feinstein to introduce a bill that will deal with military-style weapons and high-capacity bullet clips. Weapons of war have no place on our streets, in our schools or in our homes.

For those who cry: Oh, it is regulation--we regulate food for our safety. We regulate cars for our safety. We need to now look at regulating guns. But know that, as I also said, we must also look at the issue of mental illness, particularly in young adults.

Our colleague Senator Lieberman is proposing a commission on violence. I am often skeptical of commissions, but I believe if Joe Lieberman headed up that commission and we looked at it, it would come out with an action plan. If there was a pledge to support the recommendations of that commission, I would also be able to support it.

We need to look at guns, mental health, and those things that glorify violence in our society or glorify that somehow or another guns are a solution to every problem we have.

Today, the funerals in Newtown begin. Our mourning will go on for a long time, but our work as well must continue over the days and the weeks ahead. I intend to work with my colleagues to change the law and change the culture of violence.

I also rise to speak on my commerce and justice bill. I want to focus on my national responsibilities as the chairperson of the Appropriations Committee on Commerce, Justice, and Science. I also wish to point out that Maryland was hard hit too, especially the communities in the lower shore and in particular the community of Crisfield. I will speak more about Maryland and what we faced during Hurricane Sandy tomorrow.

It was ironic that when the hurricane hit, we faced hurricane winds in one part of our State and a blizzard and nor'easter in another part of our State. So we had State troopers on snowmobiles trying to go in to rescue vulnerable populations in Garrett County. We also had our State troopers and guards on rafts and on swiftboats going in to rescue vulnerable populations being hit by the flooding waters and the horrific hurricane winds. Although we were not hit in Maryland the way New York and New Jersey were, we face damages too.

Up and down the Atlantic coast, there was tremendous damage. I am here to talk about the CJS portion of this urgent supplemental. It provides $513 million to repair, replace, restore, and rebuild our communities and our critical assets. In our case, the CJS bill is about restoring critical assets for Federal law enforcement, our weather prediction and weather facilities, NOAA, and what was damaged in our fisheries program. Even NASA's spaceport Wallops facility was damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

When a storm such as Sandy hits, it devastates everything in its path, including Federal facilities, such as the offices and equipment of our law enforcement agencies. Our Federal law enforcement agencies-- the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms--were also hit. We need to make sure we maintain support for these law enforcement agencies, and therefore we have in this appropriation $15 million for the Department of Justice to repair these facilities by replacing equipment and operational tools damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

This will also help FBI facilities in New York and New Jersey that were hit. The New York field office, resident agencies, and even labs and case record storage facilities were damaged. They are all important in dealing with fighting crime, whether it is terrorism, organized crime, or financial fraud. Sewage and mud destroyed the New York

field office mobile command center, specialized laboratory trucks, and evidence response team vehicles.

This appropriation also has $1 million to restore the tools the Drug Enforcement Agency needs to go after drug traffickers. Radio communications and the antennas to stay connected were damaged. The New York division's information technology system needs all the help it can get to be able to replace those 15 vehicles used for important kinds of forensic detection and wiretap that were lost to flooding or crushed by falling trees.

Also included in the appropriations is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, which will get $25 million. Flooding swept through the ATF offices in Brooklyn and Manhattan. It damaged communication, security systems, and other tools Federal agents need to detect crime, fight crime, identify the perpetrators of crime, and gather the evidence.

We have $10 million in here for the Bureau of Federal Prisons. Ten Federal prisons were affected by Hurricane Sandy, located in four States: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. We need these repairs to meet safety and security requirements to make sure the inmates are kept secure and the prisons are fit for duty. They will need $10 million to be able to do that.

Let's talk about the science side. Our Federal science facilities along our coast were also damaged. Repairs are needed in Federal laboratories, research facilities, and monitoring equipment.

NOAA needs $15 million for ocean and coastal equipment damaged by Hurricane Sandy. For example, 45 tide stations and data buoys were damaged. What does that mean? It is absolutely crucial for these buoys to give us the navigational information for safe navigation into and out of affected ports. The Presiding Officer knows, as the Senator who represents Washington State, how important access to a port is and how important the NOAA facilities are to help our ship captains and our port pilots have accurate and reliable data. They were damaged up and down the coast. They will need $63 million to repair and improve weather forecasting equipment and capabilities. Nine NOAA weather radio sites were damaged, including broken transmitters and antennas. Repairs are needed so they can be able to give us the right weather forecast even during a storm, to be able to give us the right information to protect our communities. For every mile we can be accurate, we will save $1 million in evacuation costs by the State, local, and private sector. Every dollar we spend that can provide accurate forecasting saves lives and saves money. In addition, even the NOAA hurricane hunter planes were damaged. We have three of them. Only one plane was able to work during the 2012 hurricane season. Two other planes desperately need repairs, and we are going to do it.

Also, we need to repair NASA facilities that were damaged along the coast. Beaches were washed away near the NASA launch pad at Wallop's Island. The launch pad sits steps from the beach, and workers had to stop testing the rocket that will be used to take cargo to the space station. After Hurricane Sandy, they said they had not seen this much damage in over 6 years. This is a very important facility. There were other NASA facilities that were damaged because of the impact and their closeness to the beach.

We also need cleanup. Entire coastal communities were washed away. The magnitude was amazing. Right now we have debris from storm damage that can be dangerous to fishing vessels, public health and safety, and to marine life. This funding is important for the communities hit by Hurricane Sandy and also for the west coast communities that are still struggling with debris. I understand in Oregon, Washington State, and in California they are still dealing with debris from the Japanese tsunami. I know the Senator from Washington State as well as Senator Murray have spoken to me about it.

We need to clean up what was washed up. It is important not only for the safety of our beaches but also so that ships have clear navigation. We are also going to be looking at coastal habitat.

Due to the hurricane, not only were people displaced but fisheries were destroyed as well. I am not equating the two, but for many of us who are coastal Senators, we know that the fisheries are an important part of our identity, an important part of the economy, and an important part of jobs in our communities. We call them watermen in Maryland. Our colleagues from New England call them lobstermen or fishermen. I know the Presiding Officer calls them fishermen. Whatever name we use, those men and women who work and harvest the sea depend on their fisheries.

There were several fisheries which were damaged because the storm created such an aquatic and habitat upheaval. Assistance is needed for our fishermen and our fishing communities which depend on this for their livelihoods to get help. We will be focusing in this bill on New England groundfish; Mississippi's--which was hit by another hurricane-- oysters and blue crabs; as well as Alaska and its salmon. Those who were affected at the salmon fisheries will benefit from this bill as will New York and New Jersey.

At the same time we will provide assistance to legal aid for mobile resources and disaster coordinators. There is a tremendous demand for their services to help people sort out many of the aspects of this. They help them with their benefits and their insurance. They need help just sorting things out when they don't have the documents they need.

We are going to have lawyers on the ground to work with the community. Legal aid will be doing this, and they will be also coordinate pro bono orders.

We see this bill not just as spending on these items, we see this as helping the communities get back on their feet and ensuring they have vital Federal services in law enforcement and the safety and protection of their community. We need to maintain the safety of our Federal prisons and make sure there is safety and access to our ports in order that safe navigation will be provided.

For every dollar we spend, we are going to be creating jobs. It is going to take jobs and human beings to replace and replenish our beaches. This is important. It is a jobs bill. When we talk about going in and stabilizing our prisons or helping with the New York field office, and so on, these are going to be jobs in construction, in office space restoration, and mold mitigation.

Item after item will help provide an opportunity that even men and women whose jobs were displaced because of this storm will have the opportunity to be able to participate in these Federal contracts to rebuild the very communities that they are from. I know we hope that happens.

After all of this, we are going to have safer beaches and safer navigation. We are also going to continue the excellent work that has been done by NOAA and weather forecasts. They gave us plenty of warning so that we were able to save as many lives as we could, but unfortunately we could not save those homes and we could not save those livelihoods.

This supplemental helps people get back in their homes, get those communities back, and hopefully we will restore those livelihoods. I look forward to ensuring that my aspect of the bill moves in an expeditious, speedy, and smooth way.

I thank the the ranking member, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. She worked with me on a bipartisan basis to put together my part of the supplemental. This will probably be the last bill she will help move. I appreciate her help.

I hope my colleagues, as they look at the overall aspects of this bill, will move it. Tomorrow I will be talking more about the FEMA and HUD aspects, particularly as they affect Maryland. I hope that as the lameduck moves along, we move in a bipartisan way to get our people back into their homes, back to work, and get back the faith that the Federal Government is on their side and responds to them.

The Senator and I thank President Obama for his leadership and giving us the right framework. We have it all lined up here, and we are ready to go.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, yesterday I had the honor of addressing the full Senate to pay a more amplified tribute to the gentlelady from Maine. I will miss her dearly and deeply. We have served both in the House and the Senate together. We have done real good things, including one of our finest bipartisan efforts in the area of women's health in getting women included in the protocols appropriately, the scientific way at NIH when we were excluded. We helped to advance the whole issue of more money for research for breast cancer and other diseases that are generally specific to women.

I will never forget the day when Good Housekeeping called and said that Senator Snowe and I were going to get an award. I immediately called my family and told my sisters that I had won the Good Housekeeping Award. Well, they thought that was hilarious. I have many awards for speaking, longest serving, but not Good Housekeeping. When I told them I was getting the award with Senator Snowe, they knew it had integrity, credibility, and was well deserved.

So I just want to, from the bottom of my heart, not only thank the people of Maine, who will express their gratitude for her service. She has a duty-driven approach, an uncommon sense to get the job done in a way that is inclusive and has benefited our entire country whether they be small business or the little people whose voices are never heard.

So we wish her God bless, Godspeed, and we hope to see her speaking out exactly on what she did today, a call toward citizenship and more bipartisanship and less partisanship.

God bless you, Senator Snowe.

Madam President, I wish to take a few minutes to speak about another sad situation in the State of Maryland. Today we got the terrible, sad news that it looks as though Bethlehem Steel, our biggest, largest, most famous steelyard, is going to close, and it is going to close forever.

Throughout the entire 19th and 20th centuries and through to today, Bethlehem Steel hired people, making it one of our largest employers, to build steel for our great iconic projects and to help build America. In its heyday in 1957, 30,000 steelworkers were there. They thought they had lifelong jobs in helping build steel. It was the largest single employer in Baltimore for decades. It made steel for everything from Campbell Soup cans to National beer cans. It built steel for refrigerators, toasters, and thousands of other products. During the war, Bethlehem Steel was part of the arsenal of democracy in which it built Liberty ships.

I am very close to the people at Bethlehem Steel. Members of my own family worked in this steel mill and they worked very hard. People who came into my father's grocery store worked at Bethlehem Steel. They thought they had a job that would last forever because America would need steel. It doesn't look that way, because even though those workers thought America would always want American steel, we looked the other way when foreign imports began to drive down our prices and drive down our steel mills.

We have to begin to rethink what we are doing in this area. America's steel and steelworkers protected the United States and our freedom.

At Sparrows Point they rolled gun barrels, made steel for grenades, shells and landing craft for airplanes and ships. We have to remember whose steel it was that truly built America. But do my colleagues know who the last owner was; not the most recent but the ones before that? The Russians. I am not against Russia, but I am against Russia owning America's tools of production.

What will happen to America if we need more steel to go to war? What about needing steel when we build our infrastructure? When American steelworkers built the great new Golden Gate Bridge with American taxpayers' dollars, the steel came from China. What are we doing to America and what are we doing to our manufacturing?

I think we need a wakeup call. We are busy holding up the entire Congress protecting tax breaks for billionaires. When are we going to start looking out for American jobs? When we are talking about this fiscal cliff, we are not talking about having the jobs component in it. When are we going to start talking about tax breaks so we can have an infrastructure bank, so we can rebuild America using American products? Why is it when we say we want it made in America, some call us protectionists? I welcome the label of ``protectionist.'' I am going to protect American jobs. I don't want them on a slow boat to China or a fast track to Mexico.

I might not ever get my steel mill back and Baltimore might not ever have those jobs back, but we have to get serious in our country. What are our priorities? We have to start rewarding those industries that make products in this country. Right now, our whole code is oriented to protecting people who make money off money. Let me tell my colleagues, we are already getting a big wakeup call in America.

I have fought for more than 25 years to reverse this tide against American manufacturing and for American steel and I am going to keep on fighting. But right now, as we go on debating this fiscal cliff, we have to make sure we protect the safety net. If my colleagues went with me to Dundalk and to Sparrows Point, people would tell us they want their job, and if they can't have their job, could they please have a safety net that protects them in terms of unemployment insurance and health care benefits so they have a bridge to get their family over this very hard time. I worry that during this fiscal cliff debate we are going to lose those benefits, but I will tell my colleagues that I will fight to not go over the fiscal cliff.

In the meantime, I say to the men and women at Bethlehem Steel: Thank you for what you did. You built America. You helped save America. You helped save Western civilization. We are going to try right now to save your safety net benefits. Go to that hall where you can apply for those benefits. They are still there. We still want to make sure you are eligible, but we want not only a safety net to get you over the hard times, we believe the best safety net is jobs in American manufacturing.

I am going to yield the floor, but I will not yield the fight for American jobs.

I note the absence of a quorum.

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I rise during this morning business hour to speak--particularly during this time of tension as we are looking at the fiscal cliff--to really use a few minutes to pay a tribute to two wonderful, outstanding Senators with whom I have served and who will be leaving us at the end of this term. They are wonderful women named Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, dear friends across the aisle. Although they were on the other side of the aisle, there was no great divide between us. We have known each other for many years.

I would like to say a few words about my very dear friend, Senator Olympia Snowe. I served with Senator Olympia Snowe in the U.S. House of Representatives and then in the U.S. Senate. Wow. What an outstanding Senator and Congressperson she has been, and I know we will continue to see Senator Snowe in some type of role in public service because that is just the kind of person she is. She is deeply, in her DNA, a public servant.

Senator Snowe has served her State of Maine and our Nation so well. She is one of our most respected Members of Congress, known for her civility, her sensibility, and her mastery of the issues. I might add that she brings that New England sense of a more frugal government but at the same time shows that you can do it in a compassionate, smart way.

I know her as a cherished friend, a dear colleague, and a crucial partner on so many issues. As I said, we served in the House and the Senate together. We worked on those issues I talk about, the macro issues and the macaroni-and-cheese issues. We fought for a better economy, particularly in the area of small business; a safer country, as we worked on the Intelligence Committee together; and a more efficient government. Also, we worked together on many issues pertaining to women. In the area of small business, she is

currently the ranking member on the Small Business Committee, with our other colleague, Senator Mary Landrieu. She knows the backbone of Maine's economy is small business, and she also knows it is the backbone of the American economy.

I have watched her day in and day out being concerned about her fishermen who were out there working in the cold waters off of Georges Bank for lobsters and the small shop owner on Main Street. From the potato fields and lumber yards to L.L. Bean, Olympia Snowe has stood for them but also for the big issues in terms of jobs in the Bath shipyards.

In national security, we have worked together to look out for our troops over there and to protect our communities from predators back here. She has been steadfast and true. It is a committee that meets often behind closed doors, but I will tell you, this is a Senator who continually looks after the safety of the American people.

One of the areas in which I have worked the closest with her is the area of women's health. You might be interested to know that Senator Snowe and I received the Good Housekeeping Outstanding Achievement Award for what we did to advance the cause of finding a cure for breast cancer. Now, when I called my sister and told her I was getting a Good Housekeeping award, she thought it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. When I told her I was getting it with Olympia Snowe, she knew it had credibility. I say that because what we did in working together was in medical research and in clinical trials.

You might be interested to know that when I came to the Senate, the only other woman Senator was Nancy Kassebaum--another wonderful person across the aisle. Women were not included in the protocols at NIH. Can you believe that? That famous study--take an aspirin a day, keep a heart attack away--was done with 10,000 male medical students. Not one woman was there. They regarded including women in research as presenting deviant results. We were known as the deviant results. Well, Pat Schroeder; Olympia Snowe; another Republican Congresswoman, Connie Morella from Maryland--we said this couldn't continue. So we organized across the dome, across the aisle, and we went across the beltway to NIH. We pulled up and we demanded answers, scientific answers, on why we weren't included.

The day we pulled up in our cars on a bipartisan basis, George Bush the elder appointed Bernadine Healey to head NIH. Then, again working together across the aisle and across the dome, working with Senators Kennedy and Harkin, we established the Office of Research on Women's Health at NIH. The famous hormonal replacement therapy study was done. It resulted in massive change in the way doctors treated women, and it has reduced breast cancer rates 15 percent.

So I say to all, when you ask, what did Olympia Snowe do, she would say: I worked on a bipartisan basis. And because of what she did, we did, we all did working together, men and women, House and Senate, we have saved the lives of women 1 million at a time. I think that is a terrific accomplishment. And no matter what Senator Snowe does, she can cherish in her heart that she did that.

But while we were busy doing the big picture, she helped me with an individual picture. We went to the refugee camps of Cambodia together, along with the Congresswomen. It was when the killing fields were at that time the highest. We saw the horrible consequences of war. We worked together to feed the children. We worked together to feed the children and care for the children.

I met a young girl in a refugee camp, in the Catholic Relief feeding camp. Working with Senator Snowe, we brought that little girl to the United States of America. She is alive here today, married and living as an American citizen.

So what did Olympia Snowe do? She saved jobs and she saved lives. I am proud to work with her, and we are going to miss her.

Then there is my good friend Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has just come to the floor. I am glad she is going to be here to hear what I am going to say about her. I hold her in such enormously high esteem.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is known for her competence, her strong character, and being an outstanding champion for Texas, an advocate for women, and a real patriot dedicated to serving our Nation. I too know her as a dear friend, someone deeply committed to creating that zone of civility among the women in the Senate.

When Senator Hutchison arrived in the Senate in 1983, there were prickly politics beginning to emerge. She came from the Texas Legislature and knew the dynamics of a rough-and-tumble legislative body. But as we worked together on something called the homemaker IRA, we said: Why don't we just get together to see if we can create a zone of civility? That was when we brought the women together for those monthly dinners. The rules were no staff, no leaks, and no memos. We talked about everything from hairdos to the hair-raising and how we could stop the global war on terror and fight the deadly scourge against breast cancer. We worked together, again across the aisle.

In 1992 we also worked to hold these power workshops to make sure every woman would know how to get started in the Senate, and we worked together on that.

The other thing Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and I helped establish was that we could disagree without being disagreeable. We, the women of the Senate, do not have a caucus because we represent States. That is what the Constitution says is our job--we are here to represent States. We also have different philosophies and viewpoints on governance. But we also know we can disagree without being disagreeable.

A story I like to tell is that during debate on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Senator Hutchison and I agreed on absolutely the same goal: equal pay for equal or comparable work for women. However, we disagreed on the means. Senator Hutchison had about nine amendments, and we duked it out here. We went earring-to-earring in terms of our debate, and the Senate commented on what intellectual rigor it had, what a sense of comity and exchanging of ideas. At the end of the day, we not only passed the legislation, but we did it in a way where everybody could feel proud of the process. Why can't we do that every day? Gee, I wish we could.

Then working with Senator Hutchison--and this is how we got started, was on the homemaker IRA. This was Senator Hutchison's idea. She came to me and she said: You know, Senator Barb, they are stay-at-home moms, and they are limited to only $500 that they can contribute to an IRA. If they have the money and if they have the will and the wallet, we should give them the same tax opportunities as if they were working in the marketplace because their work at home should be valued as well.

Absolutely. We changed that legislation. I have pending here legislation to permanently change the name of that homemaker IRA to the Hutchison IRA because she really did lead the way. I was an able ally, and we made a difference.

So I could go through item after item--the way we have worked on breast cancer together, the way we have worked on appropriations. She was my ranking member on Commerce-Justice-Science. We have worked together on the space program. We have worked together to keep our areas safe. From the start, we shared a personal commitment that technology and space could help America remain exceptional, a belief in supporting research and science, leading to new ideas that would be not only new areas that we would explore but new technologies for new products and new jobs. Yes, I visited her down at mission control, and I have been there during the great research we were able to see being done in that area.

Remember, the home of the Komen foundation is in Texas. Senator Hutchison was very clear that she wanted to be sure that she too was an advocate for women's health. We worked together on mammogram quality standards. Were you aware that in the early days--and I know that sometimes we sound like we built the Pyramids together when I tell these stories; it is both ancient history and a recent reality. If you went into a doctor's office 10, 12 years ago for a mammogram,

you might have gotten a chest X ray and they would have called it a mammogram. It was often given by untrained technicians. There were no standards for the equipment that it would really work the way it was supposed to work, and it was often uncalibrated and ineffectual.

Senator Hutchison and I worked using sound science, thorough hearings, working with the Institute of Medicine, FDA, and the National Institute of Standards. Now if you go into your doctor's office for that mammogram, you will see a certificate from your government that says this is a place where you know the technology will work and the people who will be giving it will be trained. You know, once again, this is early detection and screening, saving lives a million at a time. Isn't that fantastic? Again, across the aisle, we were able to do that.

We also did a book together. She was the leader in helping us publish our famous book, ``Nine and Counting.'' Maybe there will be time for another book, but when the chapter of the history of the Senate is written, we want to be sure that the chapter really includes a big statement to the work of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Again, in this institution it is the personal relationships built often on policy. I went to Texas to tour the space program with Senator Hutchison. That is where we heard about the National Space Biomedical Research Institute at Baylor. When I was there, I met Senator Hutchison's brother, who faced the same blood cancer disease Geraldine Ferraro faced. Gerry and her brother became fast friends, so Kay and Barb teamed up. Again we pushed research at NIH. You know, cancer knows no party. It knows no ZIP Code. It knows no ideology. But it knows that we need to work together to be able to do it. On that wonderful day of friendship, where we learned the best ideas that will come out of our work in the space program to deal with the dread cancer word, the kinds of things that we study in space will help us be more effective here on Earth.

Kay invited me to the Houston livestock show and rodeo. Now, I grew up in Baltimore, and you have been there many times yourself. You know it is a city known for its row houses, not for its rodeos.

Kay invited me to come to the rodeo in the Astrodome. Well, I showed up, to her surprise. I had little boots, a cowboy hat, and a vest. She put me in a buckboard, and, to ``Deep in the Heart of Texas,'' we circled the Astrodome together. I was in a buckboard, and she was on a palomino next to me. The American flags were waving, and so was I, yelling ``giddy up, little doggie.'' At the end of the evening, I was there munching on barbecue, affectionately called Buckboard Barb--and I have the pictures to show it. They are locked up. I don't widely distribute them. But it was a heck of an evening.

I say that because, again, out of that comes great friendships that also lead to paving the way to where we put our heads together to solve our national problems and to do it in a way where we get the best ideas from a variety of government approaches. And at the end of the day, we feel better, but America is better off.

I am pretty emotional, actually, when I think about Olympia and Kay. We have been together a long time. We welcome the Acting President pro tempore and your generation, but for those of us who maybe didn't build the pyramids--and I hope Senator Hutchison can say the same--there is a lot of meaning in a Latin phrase I learned in Catholic girls school many years ago: Exegi aere perennius: We will build a monument more lasting than bronze.

When Senator Hutchison returns to Texas again to find a new way to serve the people of this country, she will know that here in this institution, along with Senator Olympia Snowe, they built monuments to last far longer than any statues made of bronze. They made a difference in the lives of people, and they have done it in a way they can be proud of and for which we can all be grateful.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise to comment about some wonderful men in the Senate who are retiring on both sides of the aisle. Earlier today I spoke about my deep affection and sorry-to-see-go friends Olympia Snowe and Kay Bailey Hutchison, but I want to rise as the dean of the women in the Senate to say some very special words about very special men on both sides of the aisle. Because when I came to the Senate, it was only Nancy Kassebaum and myself, and yet we worked on so many issues together. There are really wonderful men here who supported me, supported our issues, but really stood up for those States and their communities.

Danny Akaka

I want to say goodbye, aloha, to my very good friend Danny Akaka, a wonderful man with whom I have served in both the House and the Senate. He has been a real advocate not only for the people of Hawaii but, wow, the way he stood up for the Federal workforce, the civil servants who do such a great job, the outstanding job he has done on the Veterans' Committee.

Lives are better off, particularly for our veterans. I want to say a wonderful goodbye and give a hug to him because he demonstrates that you do not have to be loud to be powerful.

Dick Lugar

I also wish to pay tribute to someone on the other side of the aisle, my very good friend and someone I admire tremendously, Senator Dick Lugar from Indiana. Who does not admire Senator Lugar, a gentleman, a scholar, I might even add a Rhodes Scholar, a definite advocate for Indiana, an incredible thought leader on foreign policy.

I am so proud of him and the work he did and the way he reached across the aisle to work with our colleague Senator Sam Nunn on their famous Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. They truly worked together to begin to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union and made the world a better and safer place.

We want to wish Senator Lugar a fond farewell and let him know he will be deeply missed. I certainly will miss him. I valued his thought, his counsel, his observations, particularly in the area of foreign policy. He taught me a little bit about foreign policy too.

Jeff Bingaman

I also want to say a goodbye to our friend Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, someone who has also brought intellectual rigor, a lawyer's insistence on thoroughness, and a real commitment to people. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with him on the HELP Committee, especially on the Affordable Care Act. I was proud to support all that he did, particularly in developing and focusing on the health workforce for the future.

I knew I could count on Jeff in the committee and on the floor as one of those men whom I refer to as a Gallahad, where men of quality always supported us women as we sought equality. Our initiatives to end discrimination against women in health care and in the workplace were some of our proudest achievements in working together.

Jon Kyl

I also wish to comment about Jon Kyl. I have worked across the aisle from Jon Kyl and I have been seated across the table from him at everything from Bible study groups to the Senate Intelligence Committee. We studied the words of the Bible together to make ourselves better, and we worked in our committees to make the world better.

We lived through September 11 and the terrible attacks that occurred in our country and the anthrax attacks in our offices. With his steady leadership, his resourceful mind, his can-do know-how, we worked together to get the job done. I was delighted to be able to work with him in a way that called forth our highest and better selves to look out for our country. I wish him the best in his journey.

Kent Conrad

I wish to comment too about Kent Conrad. Wow, what a numbers guy. Those charts--I loved those charts. But we have many other things in common besides a love of charts. We love baseball. We love the Baltimore Orioles and, I might add, an occasional polka at Blob's Beer Garden in Maryland. Now you know Kent. He looks like Clark Kent. And he is a Superman when it comes to the budget. But, wow, when they played ``Roll Out the Barrel,'' he was quite a hoofer.

Most of all, what I admired about him is the way he breathed life into the numbers. He not only wanted a more frugal government, but he was also passionate and compassionate about how we could use the power of the purse to improve the world and at the same time maintain sensible spending standards.

I am going to look forward to seeing him with or without his charts and maybe in a dugout.

Ben Nelson

I wish also to say goodbye to Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a brother appropriator. We salute him for his work for the people of Nebraska and the Nation. Using those committee assignments on Appropriations, Agriculture, and Armed Services, he looked out for rural communities and he stood up for men and women in the military. I knew he took it as a personal responsibility, the issues around personnel for our military, that they had the right pay, the right equipment, and we protected their benefits.

Herb Kohl

A comment about Herb Kohl, another brother appropriator, the very essence of civility. He brought a businessman's savvy with a deep compassion and commitment to the people of Wisconsin. Now we all know the Kohl family. They own basketball teams, they own department stores. I tell you,

that Herb, he understood retail, whether it was in politics fighting for the people and their day-to-day needs or the national policy of looking out for working families as they build their lives. He stood up for Wisconsin cheese, the Green Bay Packers, his basketball team. But most of all, he stood up for the people. With Herb, what a sense of honor. His handshake was always good. You could count on him. It was a binding contract.

Scott Brown

I wish also to say a word about Senator Scott Brown. Many of you know that I was a social worker and a child abuse worker. I want to say personally, I so admire Senator Brown's candor and being forthcoming when he shared with the world his own child abuse experience in his book, ``Against All Odds.'' He not only experienced the terrible thing that happened to him, but he went on to talk about how he handled this terrible tragedy. I must say, I compliment him. It was a model, that as a young boy this terrible event would not hold him back. I am sure his powerful words helped many others come into the light. As a former child abuse social worker, I want to thank him publicly for what he has done not only in this institution but to help other boys--and even girls--who also faced a terrible tragedy and refused to be a victim but went on to do well. I wish him well.

Jim Webb

Senator Jim Webb, the Senate's own marine and former Secretary of the Navy, I have known him for more than 20 years, since he was Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan. Well, in the beginning we fought on many issues, particularly gender equality. When Senator Webb was the new Secretary of the Navy and I was a new Senator, we had a different view on where women should be in the military, and we duked it out. But you know what. Over the years we came to know each other, respect each other, and appreciate each other's views. I so appreciate the fact that he is an unabashed, unrelenting fierce fighter for our men and women in uniform, fighting for them when they are on the front lines and when they return to the homefront.

I am so proud of the fact that I could vote for the 21st century GI bill for those serving in the military, to make sure that when they are on the front line, they get the education here so they will not be on the unemployment line. His bill was the most significant legislation for veterans since World War II. So I say to Senator Webb, semper fi, and God bless you.

Joe Lieberman

Then to my good friend, Joe Lieberman--my friend Joe, a true Independent. We have worked together on issues related to the Middle East and the safety and security of Israel. We worked to bring character education into our schools because we do believe that character counts.

Working with Joe--whether it was to help create national service, move national legislation, or to say that in our schools we should come to understand the need to teach respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship--wow, these were values that should be not only in our schools but throughout our country.

Joe has been so faithful to his religious beliefs. He has also been faithful to the Constitution he was sworn to uphold and to the people of Connecticut. I want him to know we so appreciate his service to Connecticut and to the country.

I wanted to be sure that the day would not end without me acknowledging these wonderful people who have given a big part of their lives to making this country a better place. I want to, in the most heartfelt way--I am so sorry we did not have a bipartisan dinner or party to be able to express this. I would have liked to have been in the same room, breaking bread with them, in order to be able to tell them how much we appreciate them, across party lines, across those lines that ordinarily divide us. They came from different parts of the country, they arrived in the Senate with different objectives, they will leave under different circumstances. But I want to again let them know that each and every one of them had a positive impact on me and I think a wonderful impact on the future of this country. So I wish them well. God bless and Godspeed.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation to rename the section of the tax code that is currently known as the ``Spousal IRA'' so that it carries the name of its champion--my friend and colleague from Texas--Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Senator Hutchison has been an excellent partner to work with on the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee watching over the nation's checkbook for investments in research, discovery, innovation, and law enforcement. We have sought to find the sensible center in addressing issues like cancer research, building a balanced space program at NASA, and most recently--on legislation to stop inmates from using cell phones in prison.

Senator Hutchison must be recognized for her long-standing advocacy for women. Her advocacy has been steadfast. We have worked together on the women's health agenda. We have mammogram standards in this country because of the Hutchison-Mikulski amendment. We have helped with breast cancer research funding because we have worked together, and I could give example after example.

But what I rise to discuss today is the very first issue that Senator Hutchison and I took on together--expanding the availability of Individual Retirement Accounts, IRAs, for spouses who work at home. Along with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, I am the author of the Spousal IRA bill.

I have always said that one of my principles is to listen to the people and the stories of their lives. My best ideas come from the people. The Spousal IRA bill was one of those kinds of ideas. This bill was a product of Senator Hutchison's personal experience before joining the Senate. After putting aside money for her retirement as a single working woman, Senator Hutchison found that she could only put aside $250 in an IRA once she married her husband.

This kind of policy, that discouraged women from saving for retirement, was completely backwards. Women tend to live longer than men. Women are more likely to take years off of work outside of the home because of family responsibilities. And women are more likely to work in jobs that don't have a pension.

When Senator Hutchison joined the Senate in 1993, she came to me to sign on as the lead Democratic sponsor for her idea to help women save for retirement. Together we worked to build support for this bill and after 3 years and 62 cosponsors, the Spousal IRA bill became the law of the land.

Suddenly, women weren't limited to $250, they could put away $2,000. All women--single, married, working outside the home, or working at home--could set aside the same amount for retirement. Over time, that amount has grown, and so it is not $2,000, but it can be $2,500 or $3,000 or $5,000, depending on a woman's age.

This law is important because it reflects the values of our nation, it rewards good parenting and families, and it recognizes that not all work is done in the marketplace. American families feel the pressure from all sides, paying for their children's education, their homes, taking care of elderly parents, and being prepared for unforeseen emergency medical care costs. What the Spousal IRA law finally said was, ``Moms and dads are struggling to do the right thing for their family, and they should not be penalized for staying at home.''

Earlier this year, an interviewer on PBS asked Senator Hutchison what she's most proud of in her Senate career, and she said the Spousal IRA. Senator Hutchison has a lot to be proud of, but we must recognize her work in fixing federal policy to help women save for retirement. We should amend the tax code so that women in America know that they're benefitting from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA.

Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation to rename the section of the tax code that is currently known as the ``Spousal IRA'' so that it carries the name of its champion--my friend and colleague from Texas--Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Senator Hutchison has been an excellent partner to work with on the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee watching over the nation's checkbook for investments in research, discovery, innovation, and law enforcement. We have sought to find the sensible center in addressing issues like cancer research, building a balanced space program at NASA, and most recently--on legislation to stop inmates from using cell phones in prison.

Senator Hutchison must be recognized for her long-standing advocacy for women. Her advocacy has been steadfast. We have worked together on the women's health agenda. We have mammogram standards in this country because of the Hutchison-Mikulski amendment. We have helped with breast cancer research funding because we have worked together, and I could give example after example.

But what I rise to discuss today is the very first issue that Senator Hutchison and I took on together--expanding the availability of Individual Retirement Accounts, IRAs, for spouses who work at home. Along with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, I am the author of the Spousal IRA bill.

I have always said that one of my principles is to listen to the people and the stories of their lives. My best ideas come from the people. The Spousal IRA bill was one of those kinds of ideas. This bill was a product of Senator Hutchison's personal experience before joining the Senate. After putting aside money for her retirement as a single working woman, Senator Hutchison found that she could only put aside $250 in an IRA once she married her husband.

This kind of policy, that discouraged women from saving for retirement, was completely backwards. Women tend to live longer than men. Women are more likely to take years off of work outside of the home because of family responsibilities. And women are more likely to work in jobs that don't have a pension.

When Senator Hutchison joined the Senate in 1993, she came to me to sign on as the lead Democratic sponsor for her idea to help women save for retirement. Together we worked to build support for this bill and after 3 years and 62 cosponsors, the Spousal IRA bill became the law of the land.

Suddenly, women weren't limited to $250, they could put away $2,000. All women--single, married, working outside the home, or working at home--could set aside the same amount for retirement. Over time, that amount has grown, and so it is not $2,000, but it can be $2,500 or $3,000 or $5,000, depending on a woman's age.

This law is important because it reflects the values of our nation, it rewards good parenting and families, and it recognizes that not all work is done in the marketplace. American families feel the pressure from all sides, paying for their children's education, their homes, taking care of elderly parents, and being prepared for unforeseen emergency medical care costs. What the Spousal IRA law finally said was, ``Moms and dads are struggling to do the right thing for their family, and they should not be penalized for staying at home.''

Earlier this year, an interviewer on PBS asked Senator Hutchison what she's most proud of in her Senate career, and she said the Spousal IRA. Senator Hutchison has a lot to be proud of, but we must recognize her work in fixing federal policy to help women save for retirement. We should amend the tax code so that women in America know that they're benefitting from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA.

Mr. President, I rise to honor the Holy Rosary Church of Baltimore as it marks its 125th anniversary.

Holy Rosary Church was consecrated on December 8, 1887. From the beginning, the church provided a spiritual home for new Americans who emigrated from Poland. My own family were parishioners from the beginning. The church was the center of the community. It was the school. It is where new Americans came to practice their faith in their new home. While facing all the challenges of life in a new country, Holy Rosary provided a place of comfort and spiritual guidance. The Church provided a place to practice the beloved traditions of their Catholic faith. It became one of the largest Polish parishes in Baltimore. Its priests were beloved in the community. The church also had a parochial school staffed by the beloved Felician nuns. They not only taught the three R's--religion, reading, writing--they helped young people get on the path of citizenship. They were a bridge between the old world and the new.

My great grandmother was one of those immigrants who worshiped at Holy Rosary. Like so many, she came with little money in her pocketbook, but big dreams in her heart for a new and better life. And that life was nurtured by the Polish American community at Holy Rosary parish. In the 1920s and 1930s, Holy Rosary parish was the largest of six Polish parishes in Baltimore and the largest in the Archdiocese. Over time, my family continued to attend Holy Rosary Church. My parents were married there.

Holy Rosary Church played a part in Baltimore's history. It is where we prayed through two World Wars and the Great Depression. It is where we prayed that the Iron Curtain would be lifted and Poland would be liberated. It is where we organized to help the Solidarity movement. It is where we welcomed Pope John Paul II to Holy Rosary when he was the Bishop of Krakow. That was the first time I met the Holy Father.

Holy Rosary was also where a stunning miracle occurred. It was where the Vatican recognized the healing of Fr. Ronald Pytel as a miracle through the intercession of Blessed Faustina Kowalska, one of the miracles that led to her canonization in 2000.

Today I honor the past, celebrate the present and have high hopes for the future of Holy Rosary parish. The members continue to live their faith of charity and hope. One hundred and twenty-five years ago the people of Holy Rosary came together to forge a parish community anchored on the beliefs of Roman Catholicism and the values of hard work, neighbor-helping-neighbor and patriotism.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise to speak on the pending nomination of Judge Paul Grimm on which we will vote shortly.

I am so proud to be here to support the nomination of Judge Paul Grimm. He is a stellar Marylander, he has an outstanding legal mind, and he has been nominated to serve on the District Court of Maryland.

Senator Cardin and I recommended Judge Grimm to President Obama with the utmost confidence in his abilities, talent, and competence for the job. The ABA agreed with us and gave him the highest rating of ``unanimously well qualified.'' I wish to thank Senators Reid and McConnell for breaking the logjam so that we could bring this to everyone's attention, and I commend Senator Leahy for the swift movement through the committee process.

I have had an opportunity to recommend several judicial nominees and I take my advise-and-consent responsibility very seriously. I have four criteria. My nominee must have absolute integrity, judicial competence and temperament, a commitment to core constitutional principles, and a history of civic engagement in Maryland, so the nominee is familiar with the life and times of the people they will adjudicate over. I mention these standards often because I mean it.

Judge Grimm does exactly that. He brings the right hard-working values to the bench, and the necessary experience, having sharpened his legal skills for many years as a litigator, a Judge Advocate General, a lawyer, a JAG officer, an indispensable asset to the District Court of Maryland, and as a chief magistrate judge.

Judge Grimm knows what it means to be of service to the legal profession, to Maryland, and to the country. He is a public servant first and foremost. His father was in the military. Judge Grimm started very early prosecuting courts martial while attending law school on an ROTC scholarship. He then served in the JAG Corps for 3 years beginning at Aberdeen Proving Ground and later at the Pentagon. But it didn't end there. He went on to serve as a Reserve JAG officer for 22 years, ultimately retiring as a decorated lieutenant colonel.

His life and resume are a display of civic engagement, from his service on numerous bar associations in Maryland, professional organizations, and, at the same time, he was a Boy Scout leader. He also helped young students in high school learn how to do a mock court.

Let's go, though, to his being a good lawyer. Judge Grimm is known as a trailblazer in the Maryland community. He is well respected not only for his extensive writing and teaching but his commitment to the improvement of the practice of law and the administration of justice. He has spent his entire legal career in Maryland, and he is absolutely prepared for service on the court and for the court. He has already served 16 years as a magistrate judge in the District Court of Maryland, and for 6 of those years he has been the chief magistrate.

Prior to taking the bench, Judge Grimm served 13 years as a litigator in private practice and handled primarily civil cases. He was an assistant attorney general for Maryland and a prosecutor in Baltimore County. Also, as my colleagues can see, his experience and service are unparalleled. Most recently, he served on the advisory committee for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure since 2009 and was later designated as the chair of the Discovery Subcommittee.

He has been honored by the ABA, the Maryland Daily Record, which is a kind of legal paper in Maryland, and he has been twice recognized by the University of Maryland Law School. By every index of what makes a great judge--absolute integrity, judicial temperament, legal experience, well regarded by peers and all who appear before him--I think this is a nominee we want to maintain a constitutional imperative of an independent judiciary, where judges come from the best background and have the best values. It is critical that we have judges who are able to do that, and I hope my colleagues join me in voting for Judge Paul Grimm.

I also hope with the other 19 nominees on the calendar, many of whom have been voice-voted through the committee, we also confirm those during this lameduck session.

Mr. President, I have completed my presentation on the outstanding qualifications of Judge Paul Grimm. I now yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, Monday, December 3, will mark the third anniversary of the imprisonment of Alan Gross by Cuba as a political prisoner.

In 2009, Mr. Gross went to Cuba on a USAID contract to assist the Jewish community in improving access to the internet by installing wireless equipment. He was arrested by the Cuban government and held for 14 months before being charged as a spy. After a sham trial, Mr. Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Alan Gross a Maryland native, is a former social worker who spent a quarter of a decade working in international development--helping people around the world. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Mr. Gross has lived in Potomac, MD for many years. I've met his wife on numerous occasions and her continued strength and focus inspires me. While her husband has been held in a Cuban prison, she has held down the fort and held the pressure on the Cuban government for its poor treatment of her husband.

Despite facing severe health problems and complications caused by his imprisonment, Alan Gross has remained strong. He has developed a daily routine to maintain his strength. Yet he has lost more than 100 pounds, has difficulty walking, and has a large mass behind his shoulder that has gone untreated. The information shared by the Cuban government about Mr. Gross's medical condition is incomplete and raises new concerns for his family.

Mr. Gross's family has also encountered substantial health problems of their own over the past 3 years and they are facing significant financial hardship. His mother has inoperable lung cancer and the family is concerned they will not have a chance to be together to say goodbye. The family's contact with Mr. Gross remains extremely limited.

I have been hopeful that America and Cuba could move closer together--in trade, in community connections, and for the individual families that have been separated. Yet, concern over the detention of Alan Gross has put a hold on efforts to improve relations and the case shows that Cuba is not serious about moving forward and has stalled any effort in the Senate to move towards normalizing our relationship.

President Obama has stated that until Cuba's current government improves human rights and freedoms, the embargo against Cuba remains in our Nation's national interests. What had become a yearly effort to modify the embargo was halted in the Senate this year because of the continued detention of Alan Gross. The Cuban government needs to heed what it has heard from Senators and now hears from me: if you unjustly imprison our citizens, we cannot and will not improve the relationship between our countries.

In a recent letter to the Cuban government, I and several of my Senate colleagues called for the release of Mr. Gross on humanitarian grounds. The government's response has called our request illegitimate. This is not the way to move forward. That is why I will join with Senators Cardin and Moran to submit a resolution that will apply additional pressure on Cuba to let Alan come home. I want to close by sending my continued thoughts and prayers to Mr. Gross, his wife Judy, and their family. I think of the challenges you are facing daily and I remain hopeful that you will all be reunited soon. Your strength and determination inspire me as you face difficult challenges.

I urge the government of Cuba to release Alan Gross immediately. I promise I will continue standing up for Alan and calling for his return home to Maryland.

Mr. President, I am not going to linger because there is much to be discussed on the Defense authorization. What I wish to talk about for a few minutes is about the safety and security of the United States of America, meaning our solvency and the demonstration of our ability to govern.

We need a sense of urgency about solving the fiscal cliff problem. We need to end the culture of delay in this institution. I am very concerned that as we talk about solving the problems of the fiscal cliff, there is this whole dynamic going on. There is this whole patter going on, from staff level to Senators. It is, oh, we are going to be here until Christmas Eve.

I think that is a disaster. I think it is a disaster for our economy, I think it is a disaster for the demonstration of our ability to govern, and I think it is a disaster for our standing in the world. We need to show we can govern ourselves, and we can put ourselves on a sound fiscal path with the right combination of growth, frugality, and ensuring a safety net for the most vulnerable of our citizens. I am here to say to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, both sides of the dome, and even the White House: Let's get the job done. I propose let's really conscientiously work hard to make sure we have a framework that we could vote on by the weekend of December 15.

Why do I want December 15 as a deadline? It is Saturday. Mr. President, you, yourself, have tweeted about--Oh, let's have Saturday as Small Business Week. We have had cyber Mondays. Let's have a strong economy closing of the week before Christmas.

I can tell you, Mr. President, if we show that we can govern and actually pass a bill by Saturday, December 15, that does exactly what I said. It shows that we have a sense of frugality and are on a path where we are solving our issues around debt, but we also have the elements that promote growth and ensure a safety net for the most vulnerable. We could do three things: We could show that we can govern. That would be very big in the mind of the public, that we could govern ourselves. It would be important to the public, and it would be important to the world, particularly those who lend us money.

It would be an enormous sense of boosting consumer confidence 10 days before Christmas. We would show that we are on the way to solving our problems. For those who benefit from either Federal employment or contracts with the Federal Government, there would be stability in their employment.

I can also say as to the stock market we could have a floor under the stock market, and we might even have a jump in the stock market. Just one-third of Americans believe Congress can be counted on to behave like responsible adults--only one-third. They have seen no compromise or cooperation. They have seen lip service. We don't need to be trading pet rocks over what we need to do, and we should not throw them either. We have to come together, both sides of the aisle, both sides of the dome, with the White House.

We do not lack in ideas. The content for a solution is not new. We have had excellent people working on this. We have seen Simpson-Bowles in a report, Domenici-Rivlin, wise heads giving us good ideas. We have had the supercommittee that fleshed out a lot of these issues and knows where the disagreements are. We have had the Gang of 6, the Gang of 8. Let's get to the Gang of 100 and pass this bill. I would be happy with the Gang of 51.

I want to be sure we know, because we do know, the ideas. We do not lack in ideas. What we lack is will and momentum to get this job done. My principles are simple and straightforward: No. 1, let's have a sense of urgency. No. 2, make sure when we look at cuts that we count the cuts that we have already done. For example, the $900 billion we have done in the Budget Control Act because that would also include the $450 billion that we have done in defense spending--the kinds of issues we have talked about. Let's also count the $550 billion that we did in reforming Medicare during health care reform.

We have had good words, now we need good deeds and swift action. Just think what it would mean to reach an agreement by December 15. Americans could see that we can work together. Think about the energy this would unlock to avoid a sequester. Think about what a signal this would be to middle-class people on Main Street as well as the people on Wall Street because business would have certainty, we would have consumer confidence, and we could have a new self-confidence about ourselves that we could govern.

The Presiding Officer and I represent a great State. We represent a State that has an innovative economy, from both the Federal Government and its great Federal labs, such as NIH, to its great national security areas, such as the Cyber Command at Fort Meade. Yes, they would be devastated by a sequester. So would our contractors, both defense and civilians. Great iconic institutions such as Hopkins would take a huge hit in not only research and development but in providing care to the needy, care to the desperate who come from all over the country to get help for a sick child or an aging relative or to get eyesight restored at the

Wilmer Eye Institute. Sure, I am for jobs in Maryland, but I am here trying to stand for America.

We need to show we can govern, and we cannot wait until December 24, that somehow or another this is going to be Santa Claus, because if we don't act soon, we are going to get rocks in our socks, and I think they would be well deserved.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, on behalf of the Maryland Congressional delegation, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate GEN Dennis Via on his promotion to four-star general officer and his assignment as the commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command. We note with pride that he is the first Army Signal Corps officer in history to achieve the U.S. Army's highest rank. We in Maryland remain indebted to General Via for his innovative and flawless leadership during the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command's move to Maryland's Aberdeen Proving Ground as part of the BRAC 2005 process. The Army and Nation are blessed by his extraordinary service in uniform.

Mr. President, today I wish to support the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. As a member of the Intelligence Committee, I know that cyber security is the most pressing economic and national security threat facing our country.

There still needs to be a sense of urgency in addressing this issue, and we must pass this legislation. Doing so will allow us to defend our computer networks and critical infrastructure from a hostile, predatory attack. Such an attack is meant to humiliate, intimidate, and cripple us. If we wait until a major attack occurs, we will likely end up over- reacting, over-regulating, and overspending in order to address our weakness.

The threat of a cyber attack is real. Our Nation is already under attack. We are in a cyber war, and cyber attacks are happening every day. Cyber terrorists are working to damage critical infrastructure through efforts to take over the power grid or disrupt our air traffic control systems. Those carrying out these attacks are moving at breakneck speeds to steal state secrets and our Nation's intellectual property. They are stealing financial information and disrupting business operations.

Cyber attacks can disrupt critical infrastructure, wipe out a family's entire life savings, and put human lives at risk. They can take down entire companies by hacking into computer networks where they remain undiscovered for months, even years.

FBI Director Mueller testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, stating that cyber crime will eventually surpass terrorism as the No. 1 threat to America. The economic losses of cyber crime alone are stunning. A Norton Cybercrime Report valued losses from cyber attacks at $388 billion in 2011.

I have been working on cyber issues since I was elected to the Senate. The National Security Agency--our cyber warriors--are in Maryland. I have been working with the NSA to ensure that signals intelligence is a focus of our national security even before cyber was a method of warfare.

In 2007, Estonia was attacked. Estonia was strengthening its ties to NATO, and Russian hackers swiftly struck back. They waged war on Estonia and threatened its government, rendered Estonia's networks obsolete for days. This attack was designed to intimidate, manipulate, and distort.

The cyber attacks on Estonia raised important questions. Would article 5 of the NATO Charter be invoked? Since the attack was on one member of NATO--was it an attack on all members? How would the U.S. and other allies need respond to future attacks? What would happen if America experienced a similar cyber attack?

As member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I served on the Cyber Working Group where we developed core findings to guide Congress. The need to get governance right, the need to protect civil liberties, and the need to improve the cyber workforce.

As chair of the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee, I fund critical cyber security agencies: the FBI which investigates cyber crime, NIST, which works with the private sector to develop standards for cyber security technology, and NSF, which does research.

As a member of Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I work to ensure critical funding for Intel and cyber agencies such as the NSA, CIA, and IARPA. These organizations are coming up with the new ideas that will create jobs and keep our country safe.

Funding is critical to build the workforce, provide technology and resources, and to make our cyber security smarter, safer, and more secure.

Yet technology will mean nothing unless we have a trained workforce. In order to fight the cyber security war, we have to maintain our technological development, maintain our qualitative advantage, and have our cyber warriors ready at battle stations. In order to develop our cyber shield, we need to train cyber warriors so they can protect our Nation. I have been working with Maryland colleges and universities to create world-class programs, a national model, and for training our next generation of cyber warriors.

I asked Senator Reid to conduct a cyber security exercise, which showed us in real time how the U.S. Government would respond to a predatory cyber attack of great magnitude. I asked for the Senate cyber exercise for three reasons. First, we need a sense of urgency here in the Senate to pass cyber security legislation. Second, we need to put the proper legislative policy in place. Third, I wanted to create a sense of bipartisanship camaraderie.

One example of the impact a cyber attack would have is the power outages caused by our freak storms this summer. We got a glimpse of what an attack on the grid would be like. At least Pepco has the ability to respond and restore and turn the power back on. With an attack on the grid we could lose the power to turn electricity back on because it was shut down by power manipulation. Imagine our largest cities, like New York and Washington, like the Wild West with no power, schools shut down, parents stuck in traffic, public transit crippled, no traffic lights, and 9-1-1 systems failing.

In the financial industry, the FBI currently has 7,600 pending bank robbery cases and over 9,000 pending cyber investigations. According to the FBI, the Bureau is currently investigating over 400 reported cases of corporate account takeovers where cyber criminals have made unauthorized transfers from the bank accounts of U.S. businesses. These cases involve the attempted theft of over $255 million and actual losses of approximately $85 million.

Hackers have repeatedly penetrated the computer network of the company that runs the Nasdaq Stock Market. The New York Stock Exchange has been the target of cyber attacks. In the future, successful attempts to shut down or steal information from our financial exchanges could wreak havoc of untold proportions on our economy.

In the 2010 ``flash crash'', the Dow Jones plunged 1,000 points in matter of minutes when automatic computerized traders shut down. This was the result of turbulent trading, not a cyber attack and the market recovered. But this is a micro-example of what could happen if stock market computers are hacked, infected, or go dark.

In November 2008 the American credit card processor RBS Worldpay was hacked--$9 million was stolen in less than 12 hours. The hackers broke into accounts and changed limits on payroll debit cards employees use to withdraw their salaries from ATMs. The cards were used at over 2,100 ATMs in at least 280 cities around the world, United States, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, stealing over $9 million from unsuspecting employers and employees.

This heist, one of the most sophisticated and organized computer fraud attacks ever conducted proves that you don't need a visa to steal someone's visa card.

From 2008 to 2010, a Slovenian citizen created ``Butterfly Bot'' and sold it to other criminals worldwide. Cyber criminals developed networks of infected computers. The Mariposa variety from Spain was the most notorious and largest. Mariposa infected personal computers, stole credit card and bank account information, launched denial attacks to shut down online services, and spread viruses to disable computers and networks.

Industry experts estimated the Mariposa Botnet may have infected as many as 8 million to 12 million computers. The size and scope of the infection makes it difficult to quantify financial losses but could easily be tens of millions of dollars.

Speaking simply, this bill does two key things from a national security perspective. It helps businesses voluntarily get cyber standards that they can use to protect themselves, and it allows businesses and the government to share information with each other about cyber threats. That is, to help ``.gov'' to protect ``.com.''

In a constitutional manner, these two things are not necessarily connected, but they can be. The reason why these provisions are such an innovation is that despite all the amazing talent and expertise that companies have, many are being attacked and don't know it. And this legislative framework gives the structure to allow for unprecedented ``.com'' and ``.gov'' cooperation.

There are also other several other key components in the bill focusing on research and development, workforce development, and FISMA reform.

Why do we need a bill to make some of these vital partnerships and exchanges happen?

Because, as I have outlined, America is under attack every second of every day. General Alexander, the head of NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, has said that we have witnessed the greatest transfer of wealth in history in the heist that foreign actors have perpetrated on our country. By stealing our secrets, stealing our intellectual property, and stealing our wealth. It is mindboggling. Take just one example. A theft by a foreign actor that took, among other things, key plans for our F-35 fighter. One attack on the Pentagon made off with so many sensitive documents that they would have filled delivery trucks end-to- end stretching from Washington, DC to Baltimore Harbor.

But don't take my word for it that this issue is urgent and that we need to address critical infrastructure. Who else says it is urgent? Experts from both side of the aisle do. Folks like former CIA Director Mike McConnell, DHS head Michael Chertoff, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James Cartwright, former cyber czar Richard Clarke, and many others have said we need to address critical infrastructure.

And our top defense and military leaders such as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dempsey, Director of National Intelligence Clapper, and again, GEN Keith Alexander. The threat is here and it is now. And if we do not act, if we let the perfect be the enemy of the good, then this country will be more vulnerable than ever before, and Congress will have done nothing.

This bill is not perfect, but I want to say upfront that Senators Lieberman and Collins have heard the critics and tried to incorporate their views. DHS's role has been criticized by many, myself included. I have been skeptical that they could perform some of the duties assigned in this bill.

To be honest, I still am skeptical, although less so than before, but I think this bill takes important steps to diversify the government and private sector actors involved. So we are not just focusing on DHS, but also the right civilian agencies in charge because in the end we cannot have intelligence agencies leading this effort with the private sector. Some would like to see that go further, and that is what the amendment process is there for.

We have had people in the civil liberties community worried about whether this bill could allow intrusions by the government into people's privacy. As a Marylander, this was a tantamount concern for me as well. If we don't protect our civil liberties, then all this added security is for naught because we would have lost what we value most, our freedom.

Again, I think the authors of this bill, especially Senator Feinstein, have made key improvements on issues of law enforcement powers and protecting core privacy concerns. I know not everyone is totally pleased. But I think this bill has made important strides to balance information sharing and privacy.

We all have been concerned that the business community has opposed a lot of key critical infrastructure elements of this bill. They fear strangulation and over-regulation. They fear that they will open themselves up to lawsuits if they participate in the program with the government. These are valid concerns, and I have heard them from Maryland businesses. I think this new bill has made the most strides in trying to accommodate business and

building a voluntary framework to allow businesses to choose protection.

Protection does not come without responsibility for participants, but I think this bill links the need for cyber security with appropriate liability protection and the expertise of our business community in a way that answers a lot of companies' concerns. We cannot eliminate all government involvement in this issue. That won't work. And we will lose key government expertise in DOD, FBI, and elsewhere. But we work to try to minimize it while maintaining government's role in protecting our national security.

I am so proud that the Senate came together in a bipartisan way to draft this legislation. The Senate must pass this legislation now. Working together we can make our Nation safer and stronger and we can show the American people that we can cooperate to get an important job done.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent for 10 minutes to address the Senate.

Madam President, last night when I went to sleep I was going over in my mind the speech I wanted to give here today--which is an important day in the history of the American space program. It is the day that President Kennedy challenged us to go to the Moon, to land safely on the Moon and to return safely as well.

When I woke up this morning I woke up to terrible news, to learn that our Ambassador in Libya had been killed by a mob. We've lost Ambassador Chris Stevens. We lost three others at the American Embassy in Libya. It is a terrible tragedy.

At the same time yesterday our Embassy in Cairo was stormed. Thanks to the vigilance of its leadership and our wonderful Marine Corps defending the Embassy, we lost no one in Cairo.

Madam President, I first want to extend to all of the families who lost someone in Libya overnight my extreme and definite condolences and sympathy. I am a little bit at a loss for words because these tragedies that happen to our men and women who serve at our Embassies happen all too frequently and then we say: A grateful nation never forgets; and then we go on to bash our Federal employees and our State Department people, saying: Oh, they have these cushy jobs in exotic places and they must be out eating brie somewhere.

We lost, at the Nairobi bombing, Consul General Bartley, head of our consulate service, who was serving there, one of the highest serving African Americans in our Foreign Service. His son interned there that summer, wanted to be like his dad. They died there. They died there. But he was at his duty station.

It has been almost 15 years. These men and women were serving the United States of America. They were at their duty station. They were trying to help Libya to rise up now to be able to create a government and be able to create opportunity for its own people, and they gave their lives. Ambassador Chris Stevens had already served two tours in Libya but wanted to go back again at this new moment in history, to stand up, to help Libya stand up a true government that was free and would give their people a chance at democracy and participating in a new Middle East.

And then there was Sean Smith, who was a 10-year veteran of the Foreign Service. He was an information management officer. He had served in Iraq. He is a father of two children, a devoted husband. We know what happened to them.

So we must continue our strong partnership with Libya after the fall of Qadaffi. But I call upon the new leadership: Call for calm, call for tolerance. If you are angry, there are ways to do protests and so on. You don't have to go around killing the American Ambassador when our Air Force flew over Libya and our President and our Congress worked to support this new government coming up.

And then there is Cairo. Because of anger over a video--I do not know about this video. I don't know its content but I do know the outcome-- that our Embassy in Cairo was stormed. They tore down our American flag. They replaced it with another flag. But it is the flag of the United States of America and our flag is in Egypt. Our flag is in Egypt because we are great allies to the Egyptian Government and great supporters of the Egyptian people as they come through the Arab spring--again, trying to create a new day and a new way.

I say to Ambassador Patterson and the entire staff, again: Our thoughts and prayers are with you. I was in Cairo. I know what they do every day. I know how, during the Arab spring many of them were locked in the Embassy, trying to keep our government functioning while their own families had to be evacuated. Some did not see their families for 3 weeks because they were inside, they couldn't leave, and we had the most massive evacuation of civilian employees in our history since, really, the beginning of some other armed conflicts.

So I say to those embassy staff, both our wonderful Ambassador, Anne Patterson, but to a lot of the little people who work at the Embassy, the people who keep the commercial commerce office open, the people who are doing the wonderful work with NGOs to show them how to build a free and new kind of society, and also to the foreign nationals who work in our Embassy--we think about you.

I say to the leadership in both countries again: Call for calm, call for tolerance. But I say to my colleagues here, we have to call for calm and tolerance right in this institution. We have to support our men and women in the State Department, our men and women in the military. All who serve overseas are representatives of the United States of America. Whether you are the Peace Corps or the Marine Corps; whether you are the Foreign Service or the commercial service or whatever--you are in the service of the United States of America, promoting our values, trying to help promote democracy and also trying to have economic and strategic cooperation.

I thank our Foreign Service staff. Many of them live in Maryland but that is not the point. They live in the United States of America. So I say to all, when you point your finger and say we don't need a government--I think we do need a government. And when we talk about standing up for our military now, in these tough budget times, absolutely we should. But remember there are others overseas who also carry our flag in very dangerous areas.

Let's start respecting the people who work for our government. Let's make sure they have the right resources to do their job and then let our President, our talented Secretary of State, help work with the other world leaders to do something to bring about stability.

I feel very strongly about this. I guess what you are hearing from Senator Mikulski is grief for what has happened in Libya, worry about what has happened in Cairo, tension about what continues to happen in the Middle East, and then frustration about what goes on here. When all is said and done--more gets said than gets done and what is said is often not very good.

The world is watching us here. We are supposed to be the greatest democracy in the world. Not only are we supposed to be, I believe that we are. But democracy begins with us. Democracy is not only something written on a piece of paper which are our founding documents but we have to live what is in those founding documents. We have to, first of all, start with civility, start with respect, start with conversations among ourselves about how we could truly work together to help our country and to help our country help the world.

50th Anniversary of President Kennedy's Space Flight Speech

This is what it was all about 50 years ago when a young President went to Rice University. The Russians were pounding their chests. They put something up in the air called Sputnik. President Eisenhower had responded. We were going to do something called the National Defense Act. We were promoting math and science to catch up with the world. Does it sound familiar? Then, also, though, our President wanted to do more and he went to Rice University. During that speech he rallied the Nation on why, as part of his vision of the New Frontier, why we should travel into space. That historic day he said:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in

this decade, and do other things, not because they are easy,

but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to

organize and measure the best of our energies and our skills.

That is how in a robust way we took a nascent space program and transformed it into a space superpower. It literally took us to the frontier of space and took us to a new frontier.

For those 50 years, America continued to lead the way in space and to keep space a peaceful area. Not to militarize space, not to colonize it for a single country, but to explore and along the way in exploring the universe to get to invent science and technology that would help transform our lives here.

America continues to lead the way in space. As an appropriator for the space program I am so proud of what we continue to do--what we continue to do in the area of space exploration, space and space science.

Look at where we are now. We are right up there in the space station. We have completed its development. We are going to do new research that has never been done before and we are part of our wonderful, gallant astronaut

program. At the same time, we have invented new technologies to explore the universe. The work for the Hubble Telescope is located in Maryland both at Goddard and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Most recently, we landed Curiosity on Mars, a robot the size of a Mini Cooper, that will tell us so much about our nearest neighbor. As President Kennedy might have said, I sent Curiosity to Mars not because it is easy but because it is hard and we are very curious.

Over the summer, we lost two of our great people--two of our great astronauts. We lost Dr. Sally Ride, the first woman to go into space, whom we so admired, and then we lost astronaut Neil Armstrong, who on July 20, 1969, took that giant step for mankind.

Tomorrow at the National Cathedral we will honor Astronaut Neil Armstrong, and later this year at the National Space Museum we will honor Dr. Sally Ride. We not only want to respect our astronauts of the past, we want to respect the astronauts of today and our astronauts of tomorrow. We want to respect all those wonderful young men and women who want to study space and aeronautics, who want to explore the new frontiers of today and will come up with new ideas that will lead to new jobs tomorrow.

We keep asking NASA to do the hard jobs, such as explore the universe, protect the planet, make airplanes safer and more reliable, look beyond the reach of Earth, develop those new technologies, and search for extraterrestrial life out there. Maybe it is out there, maybe it isn't--study Earth as if it were a distant planet. Maybe there is intelligent life on Earth. Let's look for that, and let's look for it right here. We need to continue to broaden our reach, to go beyond low-Earth orbit and also continue our research.

This year, there was a unique, bold partnership when a private company, SpaceX, sent cargo to dock at the International Space Station. No private company and few nations have accomplished that. This year, SpaceX will be joined by another private company, Orbital Science, which will launch from the east coast Spaceport Wallops. They are located in Virginia. It is a Maryland-Virginia cooperation. How exciting.

Our future in space will be built on innovation and discovery, whether it is the commercial rocket industry, the James Webb Space Telescope that will take us well beyond the work of the Hubble, new technologies, including fixing satellites or, again, that mission to planet Earth. New technologies don't just happen; they come from American ingenuity, but they are built through investments. They made America great and they made the missions of the United States worth imitating.

In the last couple weeks the Presiding Officer talked about an exceptional America. America is exceptional because of the daring and the do of people such as our astronauts, because of talented people who think and study and come up with new ideas and because their government backed them.

I wish to conclude by saying I am proud of what President Kennedy announced. Right here in this body two people teamed up. Actually, it was one person in this body and the other was a Vice President. It was an odd couple. Their names were Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Margaret Chase Smith. Margaret Chase Smith was once the longest serving woman in Congress. I now hold that record. Margaret Chase Smith, from Maine, was a devotee of the space program. President Kennedy set the goal. He gave it to Lyndon, his Vice President, to make the goal into a reality. The Vice President turned to Congress, and Margaret Chase Smith helped carry the weight of the Congress to put in the right policies and the right funding. Isn't that a wonderful story? It is a wonderful story we need to take with us, that when we work together with our President and both parties work across the aisle, that is the new frontier which takes and keeps America an exceptional Nation.

God bless our President Kennedy, all the astronauts who risked their lives, and everyone who worked to create these new frontiers.

I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.