Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess today from 2:30 until 4 to allow Senators to attend today's briefing with Secretary Gates, Secretary Rice, and the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Mr. President, that was quite a letter. I must say, to be here for this historic moment, my heart is racing. We heard the letter from the President-elect resigning from the Senate. This is, indeed, a moment of passage in the Senate and for the country. By Senator Obama's resignation from the duty and responsibility the people of Illinois gave him, it is one more step for him to pick up the responsibilities of the Presidency of the United States. I will cherish this moment because it will be a historic moment, from ``We need change'' and ``Yes, we can'' on the long campaign trail to election night, to a charismatic speech calling us to act like an American community, not only a country of which we are proud, a nation we hold dear, but an American community. That is the Obama message which I hope will be the Obama effect. As our President-elect lays down these duties and takes up others, we need to realize and respond to his call and a new American mandate. Because on November 4, we who hold Federal office received a new American mandate to change the tone, to change the direction, to change the priorities, and to be able to move on and get our economy rolling and bring our troops back home and restore our national honor in the world.

Sign me up. Sign me up as an enthusiastic member of this effort. I accept that mandate. I accept it. I call upon all my colleagues to do the same, to embrace the message Senator Obama has set, not only in terms of a dynamic, robust agenda but how we will work with each other. I thought it was grand that he sat down with our colleague from Arizona, Senator McCain, to talk about how they could work together, how they could find that common ground, how we could find that sensible center between what we want to do and what we can afford to do. That is the tone Obama set with McCain. Let's set it now with Reid and McConnell. Let's try to find common ground, that sensible center, pragmatic, affordable solutions we can do now. We have a window. We have a time. As President-elect Obama said: This is our time. Our time doesn't begin January 20. Our time doesn't begin January 6. This is our time now to lay the groundwork for the transition of power, to work together. I ask us now, as we look at the stimulus package, as we look at solutions for our manufacturing area, how to extend the safety net for those people who are already hurting: Let's do that.

Right now, once again, back to business as usual, entangled in a parliamentary quagmire, digging in our heels, based on rigid ideology. That is not what the people said on November 4. They said they wanted change, and they want it now. Let it begin with us, civilized debate, the clash of ideas to find that sensible center. By the way, that phrase is not mine. That phrase is Colin Powell's, a great American.

There it is, right there is the center. I am ready to walk over to it. Come on over, I say to the other side.

Mr. President, today I am standing here asking for help on the stimulus package. I know that part of the stimulus package is to extend unemployment insurance. I absolutely support that. But what I also wish to do is not only extend unemployment insurance for those who are hurting, I am with the parts of the stimulus package that will extend employment, where we will do what we need to do to create the safety net, but we need to have a launching pad to keep jobs in this country. I wish to vote to extend unemployment help, but I wish to also vote to extend employment help. Hello. Let's find that sensible center.

I am for saving and creating jobs, and I am also saying: Congress must act now. In the next 48 to 72 hours, we have our own rendezvous. If we do not act, we will create an economic framework that means the recession will be longer and deeper. The cost of doing nothing is more than we can afford to pay.

I support the safety net in the economic recovery package--help with unemployment, energy assistance, help on Medicaid for the children and the elderly. Medicaid is a children's and elderly program, for children who need health care and elderly who need to be in nursing homes.

I also support the part of the stimulus that creates jobs. I salute our leadership team for coming up with the framework to create jobs by making important investments in physical infrastructure--desperately needed. We need to make public investments that generate private sector jobs. Note what Senator Barb is saying: I am not for make work. I am not for a WPA. I am for public investments that create private sector jobs. By doing it in building and rebuilding America's infrastructure, we will be safer, and we will have a stronger economy--repairing bridges, building highways, mass transit that we need to move people and improve the environment, also to build water and sewer treatment plants to fix aging sewer systems. In my hometown of Baltimore, our mayor is under an EPA court order to rebuild the Baltimore sewer system. I am for that. My great-grandfather, who came to this country

searching for the American dream, believing what Lady Liberty said when she said: Give me your tired, your poor, yearning to be free, another member of my family said: Sign me up. And he was a ditch digger on the Baltimore sewer system. My great-grandmother married him because he was a man of prospects. We rebuilt Baltimore then. I wish to rebuild Baltimore today and put people to work, from designing and engineering, moving heavy lifting equipment.

The Chesapeake Bay is polluted because we don't have enough water in sewer treatment plants. That is one of the reasons. So we can build that by making public investments in physical infrastructure. By sending a dollar of taxpayer money today, we will have jobs today and economic recovery on the way.

Also, I wished to talk about helping the automobile industry. My other colleagues will speak on the floor about the need for the $25 billion plan. My colleagues will also speak about other things to help Detroit for which I am supportive. But I also have another idea. See, the way I think, I am old-fashioned. My dad ran a grocery store. While others talk about the big macro picture, I learned economics at the macaroni-and-cheese level in my dad's grocery store. It was about supply and demand. I am saying if we stimulate demand, which actually gets people to buy cars, people will have to make them. They will have to sell them. They will have to service them. They will have to provide the insurance and other services to do it.

Let me tell you how I wish to save jobs in the automobile industry and at the same time help our consumers and get our economy back on track. It is simple. It is straightforward. It is bipartisan. I am joined in my framework, which I introduced as a freestanding bill, by Senator Kit Bond of Missouri. More cosponsors are pouring in. My provision simply says this: If you buy a new passenger car or light truck between November 12 of this year and December 31 of next year, you will get a tax deduction on your sales tax and on the interest of your loan. Let me repeat that. It is a tax deduction for the sales tax on buying that car or light truck. You will also be able to deduct the interest on your loan. For many people, depending on the size of the vehicle, it can go anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. It saves jobs. Remember where I started. Not only extend unemployment benefits to those who have lost their jobs but extend employment so people don't lose their jobs.

One out of every ten jobs in America depends on the automobile industry.

What is it I mean? First of all, in manufacturing--and we know what it feels like in Maryland. See this chart. On Broening Highway we made minivans for years. Now it is being cleared for who knows what. We know it has new uses but not like this. There were 1,000 jobs that paid good wages and good salaries. I do not want ``closed'' signs up all over America. So it is jobs in manufacturing.

Then there are jobs in car dealerships. Did you know there are 30,000 car dealerships in America, and each one employs about 50 or 60 people--from the people who sell the cars, service the cars, supply the parts, and the back office workers handling the bookkeeping and the accounting.

In my own home State there are 300 dealers. If you look at the dealers nationwide, we are talking about 150,000 people. In my own State, it is over 25,000 people. In many of my rural communities, outside the hospital and local government, they are the major employer. Dealers are at risk. The people who work at the dealerships are at risk. We can change that.

Now, let me go to the rationale. Why now? Why the urgency? Well, first of all, car purchases, whether you are talking about a Toyota or a Taurus, whether you are talking about cars made in Detroit or made in Kentucky, Alabama or Tennessee or Texas, buying cars, with people going into the showrooms, is down by 25 percent.

But what we also know from the auto research is that people buy more cars during the period of Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve than any other 6-week period. If you pass the Mikulski-Bond amendment, and it is signed into law, and people come into the showroom, that is the time they want to buy cars, and this is the time we could give them the Federal incentive, along with the dealer and manufacturing incentives. It could mean tremendous help.

Now, there are those who will say: Gee, how much does this cost, Senator Mikulski? It does cost $8 billion. However, the cost of doing nothing is phenomenal. The cost to the Government is about $50 billion a year if we do nothing, if our automobile system goes down. If we face the ``Armageddon'' of one of them going bankrupt, our pension guaranty system would be in great difficulty. We would lose taxes in unemployment benefits. In other words, there is a cost to doing nothing that is 10 to 20 times greater than what we are talking about here.

I know my time is about up.

I say: Pass this stimulus package. Thanks to the leader, my auto provision is part of it. We need to talk about saving 3 million jobs in the automobile industry. We need to talk about how to help the American people.

I conclude by saying, during the break I went around and talked to my constituents. First of all, they are mad as the dickens over the way this bailout package has been handled. They feel we gave it to the sharks and the whales on Wall Street, and the little guys--the minnows--got no help. What they are worried about is the losing of their jobs. In many instances, they have already lost their life savings, they have lost their homes or they are already in jeopardy.

Let's talk about a car dealer. I walked in to talk to a dealer in Montgomery County. The first thing was I noticed two things: an empty showroom and on his lapel he had a Rotary pin. This is a man for which that business, in Montgomery County, was started in 1939, during the Depression, because they believed in Roosevelt and they believed in the American economy. Can they believe in us?

That man, with his Rotary pin and family, has provided jobs. They fix cars. They have sold cars and so on. They kept it going and at the same time contributed to the charities in their community, being a good corporate citizen.

You talk to the people who work there. Let's talk to the guy I talked to who has worked there for 23 years. He said: Senator Barb, all I have ever wanted to do is fix cars. I love fixing cars, and I have fixed Chevys and now Accords and Acuras, and I have done a great job. I have been happy, and I have made a lot of people happy. But I have two kids in college. I was told that for the kind of job I have, there is a workforce shortage. But now there is more of a shortage of work than a shortage of workers.

This is whom we are fighting for. We are fighting for our friends. We are fighting for our neighbors. We are fighting for the people who have kept our communities going. So we come back to wonder: How are we going to spend money? We have already spent $350 billion that went to banks that do not care. They have no remorse. They have no sense of gratitude, and they did not regard us as an investor. Mr. President, $350 billion to banks and Paulson is walking around like a passive investor. But here, if we make this investment to enable the consumer to be in a new car, which will get more fuel efficiency, lower carbon emissions, and pick up our economy, I think we are doing something.

I hope today we get a chance to vote on the economic recovery bill. It has major components in it, and one of the major component is it extends employment, which is what Americans want.

On the day Barack Obama resigned from the Senate, let us now resign ourselves to follow what the mandate was on November 4. They not only gave President-elect Obama a mandate; they gave us a mandate: Get America rolling again. The Mikulski legislation puts our economy back on wheels.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of a bill I have at the desk which is the text of title VII of S. 3689 regarding the auto sales tax deduction, and further that the bill be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

It is my understanding I still have the floor?

Boy, am I sorry that is the last act of John Sununu in the Senate. I hope it is not the last thing. I feel so badly about people objecting to me bringing this up. Mine is a bipartisan bill that I thought maybe I would win, maybe I would lose, but at least we could bring it up and debate it and discuss it and vote on it.

My bill was a straight-forward bill. My bill was to help save jobs in the automobile industry, from manufacturing, sales to service, to the little people who are the bookkeepers in our communities.

My bill would give a tax deduction to someone who would buy a car in these 6 weeks and they would be able to take a deduction of interest and sales tax. The total cost of my bill was $8 billion. But the cost of not doing my bill is going to be horrific. It is going to be absolutely horrific. I cannot get over how these economic conservatives have their ostrich heads in the quicksand of our economy.

You know what is going to happen when our automobile industry goes down. Well, let them go. Well, I will tell you, we are going to lose $156 billion over the next 3 years in lost taxes, unemployment, and health care assistance.

We are facing the possibility that 3 million people could lose their jobs. But oh, no, we object. We object to debate. We object to discussion. We object to taking our ideas and putting them into the sunshine and being able to do what I thought you do in a democracy, vote ideas up or down.

If I lose my bill in a vote, that is the way democracy works. But to move it through a parliamentary maneuver of something called, ``I object,'' I object to the objection. I have no idea why anyone would object to bringing up an idea that has bipartisan support to see if we could stimulate demand in the automobile industry.

Well, I tell you what. Senator Barb Mikulski is not the only one who objects. The American people object. And that is what they did when they walked into that voting booth on November 4 and voted for change. They said: Yes, we can. They were objecting to what goes on in this institution and what has been going on in the White House for the last 8 years.

They said: I object. And they voted. They objected and then they voted. And they object by their vote. There is a reason a political tsunami hit this institution. It is because of this continual way of throwing sand in the gears of democracy. So they said: I object. That is what the people said.

So we can go through these parliamentary shenanigans. We can delay what we could do in the next 48 hours to get our economy going. But, oh, no.

We are going to do it. The question is, are we going to do it today or are we going to do it 8 weeks from today? The longer we wait, the deeper and more prolonged the recession will be. Right now we could begin to not only turn the page but begin to turn the economy around.

So those are the rules of the Senate. I signed up for the Senate, so I take the rules as they are. But I will tell you, I stand with the American people. I object. And I object to the objection. I am going to keep fighting this until we leave. It is my view we shouldn't leave until we pass legislation to get this economy going. If we cannot do it this week, come back next week because the real turkeys will not be in our oven. The real turkeys will be close at hand.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, today I pay tribute to Special Agent Matthew E. Parsons of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, NCIS, who is retiring from employment with the Federal Government on December 20, 2008. Special Agent Parsons is retiring after 36 years in law enforcement, with the last 27 years of Federal Government service with NCIS. Of special note and atypical of his peers, he volunteered and recently completed a high risk assignment as the Director of the Strategic Counterintelligence Directorate, Multi-National Force-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq.

During the course of Special Agent Parsons' career in government service, he rose from a GS-7 to a GS-15 Special Agent. In his final position with NCIS, he was assigned as the Assistant Director for Financial Management & Planning at NCIS Headquarters, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC.

Special Agent Parsons, Federal law enforcement career began August 1981 with the Naval Investigative Service--the precursor of today's NCIS. His first assignment was to Norfolk, VA, at the time when the John Walker, Jr., spy ring was uncovered. During the early stages of the investigation, Special Agent Parsons was assigned as the NIS case agent. In August 1985, he transferred to overseas duty at Yokosuka, Japan, where he continued working in the foreign counterintelligence arena.

In 1988, Special Agent Parsons was transferred to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD. While conducting an investigation into a sensitive breach of security, he developed the ground work for future NCIS computer investigations. Special Agent Parsons utilized innovative methods to hone his computer investigative skills which ultimately led to the development of agency capabilities to conduct investigations of hacking, intrusions, and sabotage of U.S. Government computer systems and networks.

In December 1993, due to his outstanding efforts in computer crime investigations he was transferred to NCIS Headquarters to establish a computer crimes department for the agency. Special Agent Parsons and his team, reaching nearly 50 members, developed agency and Department of Navy strategies and capabilities which included immediate reporting requirements upon the slightest indication of a technological or information intrusion. In addition, he and his team worked closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Armed Forces Center for Child Protection in the forefront of keeping our Nation's future generation safe from exploitation through child pornography and online predators.

In October 2000, Special Agent Parsons was promoted and transferred to Okinawa, Japan as the Resident Agent-in-Charge. During his tenure in Okinawa he led an office primarily responsible to support U.S. Marine Corps forces and operations throughout the East Asia and Pacific region. He and his team developed a fly-away team concept capable of providing on demand support to operating U.S. Naval forces. This expeditionary team was tested in early October 2002 when a bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant in Zamboanga, Philippines, killing two U.S. military members and injuring 20 others. Within 14 hours of the event, the NCIS Okinawa fly-away team was at the scene providing invaluable criminal and forensic investigative support.

In May 2003, Special Agent Parsons was promoted Special Agent-in- Charge of the NCIS Far East Field Office in Yokosuka, Japan. It was during this assignment that he developed a neighbor-to-neighbor program which forged a bond with the local Japanese community and served as an early warning and indicator of potential criminal or terrorist threats to U.S. military personnel living within the community.

In January 2007, Special Agent Parsons was transferred to NCIS Headquarters where he became the assistant director for financial management and planning. Special Agent Parsons oversaw the agency's strategic planning process, developed financial plans and budget initiatives, and conducted evaluations of office implementation plans and performances.

Demonstrating the extent of his dedication to duty and exceptional character, Special Agent Parsons volunteered for a high risk assignment as the Director of the Multi-National Force-Iraq Strategic Counterintelligence Directorate, SCID, Baghdad, Iraq. Serving in Iraq from December 29, 2007 until June 24, 2008, he led a 109-member joint- service team in a complete strategic refocus of the mission resulting in increased collaboration among assets, increased standardization in reporting, and ultimately better support to the war fighter.

As a testament to his distinguished career, Special Agent Parsons received several awards including the Meritorious Civilian Services Award, the Department of Defense Global War on Terrorism Civilian Service Medal and the NCIS Expeditionary Medal. Special Agent Parsons also received numerous accolades from senior Navy leadership and published six articles regarding computer crime investigations in professional periodicals.

The Navy, the State of Maryland, and the Nation are lucky to have had the service of such a great Special Agent. He will be sorely missed. I wish him and his family all the best as they embark on the next chapter of their lives. Fair winds and following seas!

Mr. President, our economy is in shambles. People are losing their jobs, they are losing their life savings, and they are losing their homes. Congress must act and we must act now.

I agree with the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter, that this session of the Congress and this session of the Senate should not be called a lameduck. We should neither be lame nor should we duck the big issue facing our country. We have helped out. If you look at what we have done already--well, we have already done a bailout. We helped the sharks and we helped the whales. Now it is time to help the minnows, the little guy and gal, the American consumer.

I have that solution. Today, I introduce legislation, cosponsored by my colleague from Missouri, to save jobs in the American automobile industry, to help consumers, and get our economy back on track. It is simple, it is straightforward, and it is bipartisan. It is also timely and temporary.

My bill would save jobs. What is it that I want to do? I want to stimulate demand in the automobile industry so people actually come into showrooms and buy cars, minivans, or light trucks. Why is this a good idea? Actually, if you buy a car, someone has to make it, someone has to sell it, someone has to service it, and someone has to provide administrative services. This is good for manufacturers, the dealers, and the suppliers. It could save considerable jobs in the auto industry.

My bill is not about bailouts. It is about jobs, jobs, jobs. Six million jobs are at stake in the American car industry. One out of ten jobs in America relies on the auto industry. Right now, the facts are gloomy. Sales are down. The auto industry has already cut over 100,000 jobs. The 30,000 American dealerships in this country are at risk of losing 37,000 jobs. We cannot let this happen. We cannot let the American automobile industry implode.

I believe we can help by getting the consumers into the showroom, have them feel that Government is on their side in helping them with one of the biggest purchases during this tough time.

What does this amendment do? My bill is simple. If you buy a passenger car, minivan, or light truck between November 12 of this year and December 31 of 2009, you will get a tax deduction for your sales or excise tax and the interest on your loan. Families can save anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 by the Mikulski-Bond bill.

This is a big deal because, next to the purchase of your home, the purchase of your automobile is your next big ticket.

It is targeted. I cap it at families with an income of over $250,000 a year. It focuses on the middle-income and the middle-class family cars. It is also timely because we need to know that the biggest 6-week period for automobile sales is between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. They sell other cars during 6-week periods, but between Thanksgiving and New Year's

Eve is the biggest 6-week sale. This bill also helps the environment because it gets more people in more fuel-efficient cars.

This bill is not limited to only American cars. It focuses on any car, recognizing that many automobiles are now made in southern States, as Texas does Toyotas; Kentucky does Toyotas; Tennessee does Nissans. Any way we look at it, even though it might have a foreign logo, it is American jobs doing the manufacturing.

What would this mean? I have here a chart--it is bigger than me--for a Dodge minivan. The average minivans cost about $25,500.

On a 4-year loan at an 8 percent excise tax, it would result in a savings of anywhere, depending on the State, from $1,500 to $2,000.

I have already heard from people all over this country how that, plus the deals being offered by manufacturers and dealers, could result in being able to buy a minivan for under $20,000 a year.

This would be fantastic. I could put up chart after chart for the Malibu, for the Ford pickup 150, for the Toyota Camry. This would stimulate demand. Just think what it means. People could come into a showroom of their choice, and if we passed this bill--it would be retroactive to the day I announced they could actually buy something that would put them on the road with a car that is more fuel efficient with lower carbon emissions.

At the same time, jobs, jobs, jobs. As I said, there are 30,000 new car dealerships nationwide. They employ close to 1 million people. In my own home State there are 300 dealerships. People do not realize that dealers in many rural parts of my State usually employ over 50 people in sales, the auto mechanics, as well as the administrative positions. This legislation would help them because they would actually be working. It would help the people who are actually making those.

Senator Specter said he has been traveling the State. I have been traveling mine too. I went to the General Motors plant in Maryland at White Marsh where they make the new power transmission. Right now they can make a Tahoe hybrid, a Tahoe, a big muscle car, that with the hybrid technology they have now, can get the same mileage as a Toyota Camry.

If you also talk to the people who worked there, they could employ 1,000; they now employ 250 people. If you were with me in the car dealership and would talk to people such as the mechanic--I talked to a mechanic who works for a Chevy dealer in Bethesda. He has worked there for 23 years.

He said to me: Senator Barb, all my life I have loved to work on cars. I just love it. I love to fix them; I love to repair them. If they are new, I want to make sure they are fit for duty. I have earned a good living. I have been happy. I think I have helped make a lot of other people happy. But the only way I can stay happy is if I continue to work. I have a mortgage. I have two kids in college. Maybe they are going to go into engineering, I do not know, but I know if we do not get more people into this dealership my job could be gone.

Talk to the dealer. The dealer's name is Sam. The first thing you know about him is he wears the little Rotary pin on his lapel because he is the guy who not only provides jobs, tries to provide good deals to customers, but also is the one who is part of the Chamber of Commerce, part of the United Way.

We are talking about people who are part of the fabric of our society. We are not talking about an abstraction. We are not talking about a single ZIP code like Wall Street. We are talking about the automobile industry in every State and every community. So when we help them, we are helping ourselves.

People say: what is the cost of this, Senator Barb? Well, I will tell you. It is about $8 billion. They go: Oh, well, we just spent $350 billion and threw it down the rat hole. We do not have anything to show for this $350 billion but more arrogance and more greed. While they want Americans to dine on Lean Cuisine, they are dining on spa cuisine.

So I think it is time we help people in our own community, help the consumers who want to participate in the economy. Clunkers get traded in, and we also help them. Maybe you know somebody who works for a hedge fund, I do not. But I do know the people who work for the automobile industry--whether it is the dealers or the receptionist who came to work 43 years ago right out of high school who said: Senator Barb, we could not sell cars in those days, but I have been here in and out of this same dealer for 43 years, raised my kids, earned a good living, did the back office work. I want to keep on doing it. I am not ready for Social Security, and, for God's sake, do not put it in Wall Street.

Well, I say do not put Social Security on Wall Street and do not put another nickel on Wall Street. If we are going to help with our economy, let's do it where it creates jobs.

I wanted to explain the bill I have introduced today that I am going to bring up as part of our economic recovery plan on Wednesday. But most of all, what I wanted to say is, the Congress should not go home until we see how we are going to help this economy get rolling.

I think my bill which has been cosponsored by Senator Bond puts wheels on the American economy, and I hope I have victory on it later this week.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, our economy is in shambles. People are losing their jobs, they are losing their life savings, and they are losing their homes. Congress must act and we must act now.

I agree with the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter, that this session of the Congress and this session of the Senate should not be called a lameduck. We should neither be lame nor should we duck the big issue facing our country. We have helped out. If you look at what we have done already--well, we have already done a bailout. We helped the sharks and we helped the whales. Now it is time to help the minnows, the little guy and gal, the American consumer.

I have that solution. Today, I introduce legislation, cosponsored by my colleague from Missouri, to save jobs in the American automobile industry, to help consumers, and get our economy back on track. It is simple, it is straightforward, and it is bipartisan. It is also timely and temporary.

My bill would save jobs. What is it that I want to do? I want to stimulate demand in the automobile industry so people actually come into showrooms and buy cars, minivans, or light trucks. Why is this a good idea? Actually, if you buy a car, someone has to make it, someone has to sell it, someone has to service it, and someone has to provide administrative services. This is good for manufacturers, the dealers, and the suppliers. It could save considerable jobs in the auto industry.

My bill is not about bailouts. It is about jobs, jobs, jobs. Six million jobs are at stake in the American car industry. One out of ten jobs in America relies on the auto industry. Right now, the facts are gloomy. Sales are down. The auto industry has already cut over 100,000 jobs. The 30,000 American dealerships in this country are at risk of losing 37,000 jobs. We cannot let this happen. We cannot let the American automobile industry implode.

I believe we can help by getting the consumers into the showroom, have them feel that Government is on their side in helping them with one of the biggest purchases during this tough time.

What does this amendment do? My bill is simple. If you buy a passenger car, minivan, or light truck between November 12 of this year and December 31 of 2009, you will get a tax deduction for your sales or excise tax and the interest on your loan. Families can save anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 by the Mikulski-Bond bill.

This is a big deal because, next to the purchase of your home, the purchase of your automobile is your next big ticket.

It is targeted. I cap it at families with an income of over $250,000 a year. It focuses on the middle-income and the middle-class family cars. It is also timely because we need to know that the biggest 6-week period for automobile sales is between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. They sell other cars during 6-week periods, but between Thanksgiving and New Year's

Eve is the biggest 6-week sale. This bill also helps the environment because it gets more people in more fuel-efficient cars.

This bill is not limited to only American cars. It focuses on any car, recognizing that many automobiles are now made in southern States, as Texas does Toyotas; Kentucky does Toyotas; Tennessee does Nissans. Any way we look at it, even though it might have a foreign logo, it is American jobs doing the manufacturing.

What would this mean? I have here a chart--it is bigger than me--for a Dodge minivan. The average minivans cost about $25,500.

On a 4-year loan at an 8 percent excise tax, it would result in a savings of anywhere, depending on the State, from $1,500 to $2,000.

I have already heard from people all over this country how that, plus the deals being offered by manufacturers and dealers, could result in being able to buy a minivan for under $20,000 a year.

This would be fantastic. I could put up chart after chart for the Malibu, for the Ford pickup 150, for the Toyota Camry. This would stimulate demand. Just think what it means. People could come into a showroom of their choice, and if we passed this bill--it would be retroactive to the day I announced they could actually buy something that would put them on the road with a car that is more fuel efficient with lower carbon emissions.

At the same time, jobs, jobs, jobs. As I said, there are 30,000 new car dealerships nationwide. They employ close to 1 million people. In my own home State there are 300 dealerships. People do not realize that dealers in many rural parts of my State usually employ over 50 people in sales, the auto mechanics, as well as the administrative positions. This legislation would help them because they would actually be working. It would help the people who are actually making those.

Senator Specter said he has been traveling the State. I have been traveling mine too. I went to the General Motors plant in Maryland at White Marsh where they make the new power transmission. Right now they can make a Tahoe hybrid, a Tahoe, a big muscle car, that with the hybrid technology they have now, can get the same mileage as a Toyota Camry.

If you also talk to the people who worked there, they could employ 1,000; they now employ 250 people. If you were with me in the car dealership and would talk to people such as the mechanic--I talked to a mechanic who works for a Chevy dealer in Bethesda. He has worked there for 23 years.

He said to me: Senator Barb, all my life I have loved to work on cars. I just love it. I love to fix them; I love to repair them. If they are new, I want to make sure they are fit for duty. I have earned a good living. I have been happy. I think I have helped make a lot of other people happy. But the only way I can stay happy is if I continue to work. I have a mortgage. I have two kids in college. Maybe they are going to go into engineering, I do not know, but I know if we do not get more people into this dealership my job could be gone.

Talk to the dealer. The dealer's name is Sam. The first thing you know about him is he wears the little Rotary pin on his lapel because he is the guy who not only provides jobs, tries to provide good deals to customers, but also is the one who is part of the Chamber of Commerce, part of the United Way.

We are talking about people who are part of the fabric of our society. We are not talking about an abstraction. We are not talking about a single ZIP code like Wall Street. We are talking about the automobile industry in every State and every community. So when we help them, we are helping ourselves.

People say: what is the cost of this, Senator Barb? Well, I will tell you. It is about $8 billion. They go: Oh, well, we just spent $350 billion and threw it down the rat hole. We do not have anything to show for this $350 billion but more arrogance and more greed. While they want Americans to dine on Lean Cuisine, they are dining on spa cuisine.

So I think it is time we help people in our own community, help the consumers who want to participate in the economy. Clunkers get traded in, and we also help them. Maybe you know somebody who works for a hedge fund, I do not. But I do know the people who work for the automobile industry--whether it is the dealers or the receptionist who came to work 43 years ago right out of high school who said: Senator Barb, we could not sell cars in those days, but I have been here in and out of this same dealer for 43 years, raised my kids, earned a good living, did the back office work. I want to keep on doing it. I am not ready for Social Security, and, for God's sake, do not put it in Wall Street.

Well, I say do not put Social Security on Wall Street and do not put another nickel on Wall Street. If we are going to help with our economy, let's do it where it creates jobs.

I wanted to explain the bill I have introduced today that I am going to bring up as part of our economic recovery plan on Wednesday. But most of all, what I wanted to say is, the Congress should not go home until we see how we are going to help this economy get rolling.

I think my bill which has been cosponsored by Senator Bond puts wheels on the American economy, and I hope I have victory on it later this week.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I believe I am part of the Democratic queue. Therefore, I seek recognition to discuss the so-called rescue plan.

Well, Madam President, I am here to talk about this rescue plan. Regrettably, a rescue plan is needed because I am afraid if we do not act today and we do not act with resolve, our economy could come to a crashing halt. I am afraid of massive layoffs. I am afraid of small businesses folding. I am worried that retirement and pension funds could shrink. Therefore, I will vote for this bill, but know that, like the taxpayers, who I know are angry and mad as hell, so am I. We all agree that greed on Wall Street and lax regulatory practices of this administration got us into this mess. Taxpayers who played by the rules are asking tough questions. What are their questions?

Barbara, what did you do to prevent us from getting into this? What are you going to do to make sure it does not happen again? And what are you going to do to make sure that heads roll?

Well, let me tell you this: Heart and soul, I am a regulator and a reformer. Time and time again, we have seen the consequences of a lax regulatory culture and very wimpy enforcement. Time and time again, I voted for more teeth and better regulation. I voted for

regulation and more teeth in the Consumer Product Safety Commission to get lead paint out of toys and the lead out of the bureaucracy. I voted to strengthen FDA regulation to make sure it did not approve dangerous drugs. I also worked to stop predatory lending and flipping in the mortgage market.

I remember way back in 1999 how all this banking mess got started. Phil Gramm, a Senator from Texas, and Bliley, a House Member, advocated something called the banking deregulation bill. It passed, and it got us into this mess because it got rid of the distinction between investment banks and commercial banks, and lowered the bar on regulation. It allowed for casino economics.

During that debate, and that vote, I was one of nine Senators who voted against it because I said with what we were doing we were going to create an environment where we were creating whales and sharks, and the minnows would be eaten alive. Well, regrettably, my prediction proved right. During that debate, I was told: Get with it, Barb. We are in a global market. You are kind of old-fashioned.

You bet I am old-fashioned. I believe in old-fashioned values called honesty, integrity, putting the public good above private interests. Wall Street went around acting as if they were masters of the universe. Now they have taken us into a black hole in our economy.

We need to get back to basics, whether it is regulating toxic securities or tainted dog food. Our leader, Senator Dodd of Connecticut, has done a masterful job in improving this bill.

But while we are looking at reform and regulation and rescue, there are those who also say: Are there going to be any heads that roll? Well, you bet. What we are doing here is for those who said ``let the good times roll,'' we are making sure we are bringing in the FBI so that heads roll.

I went to work when I smelled this crisis coming in January and at an Appropriations hearing said to Director Mueller of the FBI: What is happening in terms of mortgage fraud? He said: Senator Mikulski, we now have over 2,000 investigations going on. It has now tripled in number. I said: Do you need money?

He did not want to answer because OMB, the Bush administration, did not want to say they did. But working on a bipartisan basis, we added several million dollars to hire more FBI agents. And right this minute, they are investigating mortgage fraud, predatory practices, deceptive marketing, lending schemes, and so on.

So Senator Mikulski, while voting for reform, also made sure she has the FBI coming in against the scam artists who also helped get us into this mess.

So, yes, I have supported reform. Yes, I have supported going after the real crooks and the bad guys. Because not everybody in the mortgage market or in mortgage securities or in our financial matters is a crook. But we have to restore confidence. The way we will restore confidence is to vote for this rescue plan. It will deal with the credit crisis. If we do not deal with the credit crisis, I believe that Main Street economies will pay the bill, we will have to pay the bill for the bailout, and we will pay the bill once again in lost jobs, the ability to get a loan, and also with shrinking retirements and pensions. So, Madam President, I will vote for this bill. But I have heard the taxpayers loudly and clearly.

Mr. President, regrettably a rescue plan is needed. Greed on Wall Street and lax regulatory practices from this administration got us into this mess. Taxpayers are angry and so am I. Americans who played by the rules are being asked to pay the bills for those that didn't. Now, Congress must take steps to protect taxpayers, protect the economy, protect the middle class, and protect our way of life. I stand ready to do my part.

But if I am going to vote for this rescue plan I want reform and a real commitment: regulation, oversight, and strong enforcement to what's on the books not a blind eye to those who cooked the books.

Heart and soul I am a regulator and a reformer. Time and time again we've seen the consequences of a lax regulatory culture and wimpy enforcement. Well I've voted over and over for more teeth and better regulation--to strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission, to get rid of lead paint in toys and lead in the bureaucracy, to make sure the FDA doesn't approve dangerous drugs and stop predatory lending and flipping.

The bill that got us into this mess in the first place was Graham- Leach-Biley. It got rid of the distinction between investment banks and commercial banks. That lowered the bar on regulation and allowed for casino economics. I was one of nine Senators to vote against it. I said we were going to create an environment where we were creating whales and sharks and the minnows would be eaten alive. Regrettably, my prediction proved right.

I was told I was old fashioned. I was told ``Get with it Barb, we're in a global market.'' Yes, I do believe in old fashioned values: honesty and integrity.

We need to get back to basics. It is not only about this bill. From tainted dog food to toxic securities Wall Street acted like they were masters of the universe but now they took us into a black hole.

The U.S. is in a credit crisis and that crisis affects everyone. As Tom Friedman said today in the New York Times,

We're all connected . . . you can't save Main Street and

punish Wall Street anymore than you can be in a rowboat with

someone you hate and think that the leak in the bottom of the

boat at his end is not going to sink you too.

The credit crisis affects jobs, and what's going on in our economy. Someone who wants a car to get to work can't get a loan to buy the car and that means the car dealer won't get the money to restock inventory and that car factories might shut down. And it means that person might not be able to get to their job.

It is a chain reaction.

Even if you don't think you own stocks your pension does. Towns and cities use credit to build and improve schools. Local governments use credit to fix intersections, and build highways and bridges.

That single mother who wants to go to community college uses credit to invest in herself. She won't be able to get help unless we act.

We need rescue, reform, and retribution. No blank checks and no checks without balances. We also need a 21st century regulatory structure to protect taxpayers, help homeowners and guarantee no golden parachutes for the people who got us into this mess.

Senators Dodd and Gregg and my other colleagues did a good job of improving the Bush plan. This bill is much better than the Bush plan and goes to my principles. It protects taxpayers, has oversight and transparency, makes sure taxpayers benefit when economy improves, and it says no to golden parachutes.

However, I am disappointed in what is in here for homeowners. This was an opportunity to help homeowners, and show them whose side we were on.

There is some help but not enough. More people will get out of subprime mortgages and into FHA's. This bill should have said that families could have a work out plan to save their home. But unfortunately bill goes all out to help Wall Street and only halfway to help homeowners.

Many of these homeowners were hurt by predatory lending and deceptive advertising. These fraudulent lenders said let the good times roll. Well the good times are over and it's time for heads to roll.

That is why I went to work getting money in the Federal checkbook for the FBI to do mortgage fraud retribution.

The FBI's mortgage fraud workload increased 200 percent in 3 years. At April 16, 2008, at my CJS hearing, I asked FBI Director Mueller, ``How have cases increased? What do you need?'' He answered that he needed more funding for agents dedicated to mortgage fraud investigations.

So I provided $10 million to hire at least 25 additional FBI agents dedicated to investigation of mortgage fraud. So I'm coming after the scam artists and predatory lenders and won't stop until they get what they deserve.

I have great reservations about this legislation but I will vote for this bill. I don't think it goes far enough. I wanted more help for homeowners and more teeth in the oversight.

Is this a good bill? It is a lifeboat bill. We have no guarantees but it's a step we have to take. It's an immediate crisis and we have to restore confidence and restore stability so we save jobs and save our economy.

It will deal with the credit crisis. If we do not deal with the credit crisis, I believe that the Main Street economy will have to pay the bill for the bailout and pay the bill again in lost jobs, the ability to get along and in shrinking retirement and pension. So I will vote for this bill. But I heard the taxpayers loud and clear.

Mr. President, I rise in strong support of the Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act. This bill is long overdue. It authorizes funding for Amtrak and improves rail safety. It also includes the National Capital Transportation Amendments Act, which authorizes funding for the Washington Metro system--America's Metro.

More funding for America's Metro is important for several reasons. First, Federal employees, visitors to our Nation's Capital, and residents all depend on Metro. Mr. President, I don't know how your staff gets to work, but more than half of mine take Metro. In fact, Federal employees make up over 40 percent of commuters and nearly half of all Metro stations are located at Federal facilities. If you remember, Metro also evacuated everyone during September 11. Metro makes it easier for visitors from across the country to learn about our Nation's history and be a part of history. During Presidential inaugurations, funerals, celebrations, and demonstrations on the National Mall, Metro extends its hours. Metro also helps working families eliminate costly bills at the gas pump. During this period of high gas prices, my constituents are choosing Metro and leaving their cars at home. Because of this, Metro has seen recordbreaking ridership.

Second, the Washington metro area must expand its transportation infrastructure to handle base realignment and closure, BRAC, growth. In Maryland, we are planning for 40,000 new jobs. I know Virginia is planning for BRAC growth too. The Metro funding in this bill will BRAC- ready our region's largest transit system.

Third, it is estimated that Metro needs $11 million for capital improvements over 10 years. The authorized and dedicated funding in this bill will help Metro meet these needs. Metro will be able to grow as the region grows instead of cutting service.

Fourth, Metro is safe for the commuter and environmentally sound. We all know commuting in the region has become increasingly difficult. I have been commuting to Washington from Baltimore for 31 years. I have to budget an hour and a half to 2 hours to get to work. There always seems to be some tie-up on the highway and increasing levels of road rage. Driving a car in the National Capital Region is serious business whether you are on the Capital Beltway, Route 50, or Central Avenue. Yet I see many drivers multitasking at high speeds. Drivers are talking on cell phones, sending text messages, and putting on makeup. This Metro funding will make our lives a little safer and saner and help the environment by reducing air pollution.

Metro means more than just transportation. It means residents and visitors to our Nation's Capital can live, work, worship, and play without ever getting in a car. It means more jobs and access to jobs and improved neighborhoods and economic development.

I commend Senator Cardin for his hard work and leadership on this Metro bill. I thank Senators Warner and Webb for partnering with Senator Cardin and me to get this done. Senator Warner and I have been regional allies for many years. I am going to miss working with him. I thank Majority Leader Reid and Senator Lautenberg for helping us bring the Metro bill to the Senate floor and their hard work on the underlying bill. I urge all my colleagues to get on board and vote for this bill.

Mr. President, today I rise to honor and congratulate Maryland's Olympic athletes for their performance in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. These dedicated, disciplined, and accomplished athletes are a source of great pride to Maryland and the country. Therefore, it is with great enthusiasm that I commend:

Freddy Adu of Montgomery County, 2008 men's soccer team; Carmel Anthony of Baltimore, 2008 men's basketball team; David Banks of Potomac, 2008 men's Olympic rowing team; Maurice Edu of College Park, 2008 men's soccer team; Jun Gao of Montgomery County, 2008 women's table-tennis team; Georgia Gould of Baltimore, 2008 women's cycling team; Kathryn Hoff of Towson, 2008 women's Olympic swimming team; Gao Jun of Gaithersburg, 2008 men's Olympic table tennis team; Bobby Lea of Talbot County, 2008 men's Olympic cycling team; Mechelle Lewis of Prince George's County, 2008 women's track & field team; Jessica Long of Baltimore, 2008 Paralympics swimming team; Khan Bob Malaythong of Rockville, 2008 men's Olympic badminton team; Tatyana McFadden of Howard County, 2008 Paralympic wheelchair racing; Scott Parsons of Montgomery County, 2008 men's canoe and kayak team; Michael Phelps II of Baltimore, 2008 men's Olympic swimming team; Lauren Powley of the University of Maryland, 2008 women's field hockey team; Dina Rizzo of the University of Maryland, 2008 women's field

hockey team; Robbie Rogers of the University of Maryland, 2008 men's soccer team; Gary Russell of Prince George's County, 2008 men's boxing team; Jamie Schroeder of Johns Hopkins University Medical School, 2008 men's rowing team; Phil Scholz of Loyola College, 2008 Paralympic men's swimming team; Chris Seitz of the University of Maryland, 2008 men's soccer team; Keli Smith of the University of Maryland, 2008 women's field hockey team; Scott Steele of Baltimore County, 2008 men's wrestling team; Natalie Woolfolk of Arnold, Maryland, 2008 women's weightlifting team.

It is with special pride that I recognize the historical accomplishments of Baltimore's own Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps has gone where no Olympian has gone before. In this year's Olympic Games he won a recordbreaking eight Gold Medals. That is a Gold Medal for every race he swam in.

Before Michael Phelps shattered the record, the most Gold Medals ever won by an individual at a single Olympics was seven. That feat was accomplished by another American swimmer, Mark Spitz. And when Spitz captured his seven Gold Medals in the 1972 Olympic Games, everyone said it couldn't be topped.

Everyone, that is, except for Michael Phelps.

The intrepid Michael Phelps didn't just break world records at this year's Olympic Games; he smashed them. He didn't simply win Gold Medals in every race he swam; he also set seven new Olympic world records along the way.

Like so many proud Marylanders and proud Americans, I watched Michael Phelps win race after race. And leave it to Michael Phelps to leave some of the best racing for last. What a race he swam August 16th. What a race; what a nailbiter. Michael Phelps, on his quest to win his seventh consecutive Gold Medal--this one in the men's 100 meter butterfly--trailing behind, and then he came roaring back from seventh place at the turn to edge Serbia's Milorad Cavic by one one-hundredth of a second. What a race. What an epic race.

I will also never forget Phelps' last race of this year's Olympic Games. It was the race that would determine whether Phelps would become the first Olympic athlete to win eight Gold Medals during a single Olympic Games. It was the race that if won would mark Phelps as the greatest swimmer and, perhaps, the greatest Olympian of all time.

I watched that historic race, as did so many Americans, with a racing heart. It was the men's 4 x 100 medley. When the race was finished-- giving Phelps his eighth Gold Medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games-- I heard a great eruption.

It was an eruption of pride and joy. It wafted out from apartments and houses that left their windows open on that warm summer night. It came from the streets below, where people spilled on sidewalks hugging and hollering. It came from cars that tooted their horns in solemn pride. It was in the air and all around that night.

Michael Phelps, born and raised in Rodgers Forge, MD, has gone where no Olympic athlete has gone before. His performance at this year's Olympic Games has placed him in the pantheon of the greatest athletes of all time. And he has accomplished all this with great grace and humility.

Throughout his exceptional swimming career, Phelps has always been quick to praise those who have helped him along the way. He shows special reverence to his mother Debbie, who, as a single mom juggling kids and multiple jobs, taught him the values of perseverance and courage in the face of obstacles.

As a young swimmer at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, Phelps arrived day after day and gave his maximum effort. His work ethic is a testament to his strong, value-driven Baltimore upbringing. And he is living proof that if you can dream it, you can achieve it.

I am so proud to welcome Michael Phelps back to Baltimore. He could have gone on to any city. Instead, he came back to his family and to his community. He came back to the city where he first learned the values of hard work and perseverance.

So welcome home, Michael. And welcome home to all the Olympic athletes who served Maryland--and our country--so proud at this year's Olympic Games.

Mr. President, I rise today in support of the bill offered by Majority Leader Reid and Chairman Byrd. I commend them for their leadership during this economic crisis. This bill helps families who are struggling with rising food and energy costs and it creates jobs by investing in America's infrastructure. Simply put, this bill says to the American people--your government is on your side and help is on the way.

We need this bill to show Americans whose side we are on. Americans are mad as hell. They have watched Wall Street executives pay themselves lavish salaries, engage in irresponsible lending practices, practice casino economics and gamble on risky investment mechanisms. Now those very same Americans who've worked hard and played by the rules, who were prudent investors, prudent savers, and prudent citizens are asked to pay the bill for those who didn't.

Now, it is for these people that government must do something. It is for these people that this bill is so important. We have to show them that we are fighting for the middle class. Since we're about to shell out $700 billion to help Wall Street, we need to put government on the side of those who need it.

I agree with the President that Congress must act promptly in order to restore confidence to our markets. But there are still tough questions to be asked. Congress will act with resolve but we will not be a rubberstamp. The administration originally sent us a plan for a blank check. I say no blank checks and no checks without balances. I will continue to work to put in the oversight and accountability into this plan. This plan needs to work. I will fight for the middle class and for the people who play by the rules.

I am supporting the Reid-Byrd stimulus bill for three reasons. First, it provides a safety net for families. Second, the bill creates jobs in America with infrastructure investments. Third, it fights price gouging and fraud.

The stimulus is a safety net for America's families. It is for families who are struggling to pay for food, energy, and housing. It also extends unemployment insurance up to 13 weeks in States with high unemployment. It increases Medicaid payments to States, so States with shortfalls can continue health care. It also helps the elderly pay their energy bills.

The stimulus makes important investments in America's physical infrastructure, which will create jobs. Specifically, it provides: $8 billion to build

and repair bridges and highways; $2 billion for mass transit systems, including important work to improve and expand bus, subway, and light- rail services; and $350 million for AMTRAK to help repair tracks and tunnels. These transportation infrastructure investments will create 384,000 jobs. The bill also provides $600 million for water and sewer grants to fix aging sewer systems; helps take burden off ratepayers and protects public health and the environment. These investments will create 24,000 jobs.

The stimulus fights price gouging and fraud on American taxpayers. The foreclosure crisis is ruining lives and ruining neighborhoods. The FBI Director told the CJS Subcommittee that mortgage fraud investigations are growing rapidly. The Reid-Byrd stimulus provides $5 million to increase the FBI's investigations of mortgage fraud, which will allow the FBI to add at least 20 agents and support staff to keep up with the rising caseload. And the stimulus includes $13.1 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for increased oversight of commodity, energy, and food pricing.

As chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee, I am pleased this bill includes important funding to make America's communities safer and stronger. This bill makes America's neighborhoods safer; safer communities are stronger communities. The bill provides $490 million for Byrne grants, which is the main Federal grant program that helps State and local law enforcement pay for police training, antidrug task forces and equipment like radios and computers. Specifically, this funding will help keep over 6,000 cops on the beat in our local communities and install almost 45,000 mobile laptops in police vehicles. The 2008 Omnibus provided just $170 million for Byrne grants because the President threatened to veto the CJS bill. The $490 million in the Reid-Byrd bill will result in a final 2008 Byrne grant amount of $660 million. This is the level in the Senate passed 2008 CJS bill. The Reid-Byrd bill also includes $500 million for the COPS hiring program, the competitive grant program that pays for new cops on the beat. This funding will put 6,500 new cops on the street in neighborhoods around the Nation. This is the first time since 2005 that the COPS hiring program would receive substantial dedicated funds to help communities hire new police. I'm so pleased the Reid-Byrd stimulus bill includes $50 million to enforce the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act. This funding will enable the U.S. Marshals to hire 150 new deputy marshals devoted to apprehending fugitive sex offenders who prey on our children.

In the area of science and innovation, I'm pleased the bill includes $250 million for NASA to help shorten the 5-year gap in time between the Space Shuttle's retirement in 2010 and the availability of our new vehicle in 2015. During this 5-year gap, the only way U.S. astronauts will be able to go into space is aboard Russian vehicles. The United States of America must remain a leader in science, innovation and space exploration. The Reid-Byrd bill helps close our gap in space access.

The Reid-Byrd bill tells those who are struggling that help is on the way and that your government is on your side. The bill makes important investments in our infrastructure and creates jobs. It makes our communities and our Nation safer and stronger. I urge my colleagues to support the Reid-Byrd stimulus bill.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I seek recognition under morning business and wish to speak about the economic crisis facing the Nation. I will be brief because I think we need less deeds and more action.

Mr. President, we do have an economic crisis. We do have a credit crisis. We need to be able to protect our economy, we need to act to protect the taxpayer, and we need to act to protect the distressed homeowner.

I am frustrated and deeply troubled. I am deeply troubled by where we find ourselves when I observe that House Republicans are defying their own President. Our economy is in trouble.

Yesterday, leadership on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the dome went to the White House at the President's request to try to deal with this issue. To my surprise, House Republicans poked their own President in the eye and derailed a plan that we were developing. Now we need action. And I say to President Bush, we need Presidential leadership. We need a situation room. We need a situation room not at CNN, we need an economic situation room at the White House.

I ask the President, while all of this hubbub is going on on Capitol Hill, to be the commander in chief of the economy. We need a commander in chief of the economy. I ask him to do what he has done as Commander in Chief, to listen to his generals. He has Paulson, he has Bernanke, and he also needs to get his Republican troops in line.

Yesterday we had a method and we had momentum for working on this problem. I salute my Senate colleagues, Senator Dodd, the chairman of the Banking Committee, and his Democrats. But I also salute the Republicans in the Senate, on a bipartisan basis. They were working methodically, they were working steadily, and they were acting responsibly. We had a plan.

What happened is the Republican House became afraid of voters. I know we need to listen to voters. I am getting the same kind of e-mails they are. In the last 72 hours, I have received close to 8,000 e-mails and only 30 were for this plan.

I have received over 1,300 phone calls and almost all were against the bailout and why they are against the bailout. They wonder who is on their side, who is looking out for them; who is going to bail them out of their stagnant wages; who is going to bail them out of their rising, escalating health care; who is going to bail them out when they are trying to pay their utility and put gas in their car and buy groceries. Seniors are wondering who is going to bail them out as they try to make sure they do not outlive their income. We listened to them loudly and clearly. Yet what we need to be able to do is not only respond to them, we need to be able to respond to this credit crisis.

Make no mistake, if we do not act we could lose jobs that could affect small business and ordinary homeowners. It could cause massive or significant temporary layoffs.

Now, I am for reform. I absolutely do want reform. I believe we were working

to get it. We have to get back on track, and the President needs to get us back on track.

I believe what the Senate was doing protected the economy by putting capital where it needed to go. It also protected the taxpayer by making sure that we had a stake in the outcome. We absolutely also forbade golden parachutes and put a cap on compensation. Again, we made sure that those who created the crisis do not further gouge us by profiting off the crisis. We had methods and we had momentum for both solving the crisis and at the same time bringing reform. But in the midst of it, the House Republicans decided they were going to do their own plan and come up with some kind of insurance plan. Well, where were they 2 days before that?

Then, the Republican Presidential nominee parachuted in, ran back and forth on both sides of the Capitol and huffed and puffed. Huffing and puffing will not do it. We have had too much huff, we have had too much puff, and there is now a need for Presidential leadership.

I am glad the Republican nominee decided to go to Mississippi and debate. That is where we will debate the economic future of the United States of America. Tonight's topic should be on the economy. We should listen to the Republican nominee and the Democratic nominee. We need to hear their ideas on the future of the economy of the United States, how they will be the next commander in chief of the economy; how that will create jobs that stay in the United States of America and pay a living wage, not a survivable wage; how they will deal with the skyrocketing cost of health care.

How are we going to deal with energy? It affects utilities and gas and, therefore, groceries. We need that debate because it is on the economic future, and I am glad he is going.

And here, while they are in Mississippi debating, we should begin to act. I ask that the President create this economic situation room. I am proud of my Senate colleagues. I salute the Republicans on the other side for working. We all worked together. We have all had to set aside, in these last couple of days, the outcome we wanted.

I am at heart and soul a reformer. I wanted more reform. I want more teeth in the Securities and Exchange Commission where they do not just bark, that they bite. I was one of the people 10 years ago who voted against deregulation of the financial institutions. But we could not get that much reform in this package. We can do that on another day.

I stood on the floor of the Senate and said I wanted retribution for those who created fraud and engaged in predatory practices against unsuspecting homeowners. I want them investigated. I want people to go to jail. That is why, as chair of the committee that funds the FBI, we put money into the Federal checkbook so we can now have the FBI agents out there doing forensics, looking at the books of those people who tried to cook the books.

So, sure, I am for reform, and I am for retribution. But right now we have to focus on rescue. So let's get it together. Let's put politics aside. I believe the Senate is acting that way. The House Republicans need to act that way. But the one person who has called us to come together, the President of the United States, has now got to go hands on, to listen to his generals, get his troops in line, and let's win this battle for America.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I wish today to recognize the Department of Defense for its successful, BRAC-directed consolidation of the Army, Navy, and Air Force media activities into the new Defense Media Activity on October 1, 2008. The Department of Defense has greatly enhanced the consolidation by including the Marine Corps component and the American Forces Information Service in the new Defense Media Activity.

The consolidation will improve the effectiveness and efficiency with which the Department of Defense media operations provides critical news and information to our Armed Forces around the world. In the summer of 2011, the Defense Media Activity will locate its headquarters to a state-of-the-art facility at Fort Meade, MD.

The Defense Media Activity is staffed by about 1,700 dedicated military and civilian employees who work in 15 countries. I wish the Defense Media Activity continued success in their support of the men and women of our military services and their families.

Mr. President, I want to speak about this bailout we have been asked to do. Starting last week, we were told by the powers that be in the Bush administration we needed to do a $700 billion bailout to stabilize our economy.

When we heard that, Americans became scared. People who save for their retirement, those who have been faithful in paying their mortgage, those who have worked hard to pay for college, are wondering what is going on. People who have worked hard and played by the rules are wondering, are they being asked to bail out those who did not? Americans are mad as hell and they want to know what about them. They watched Wall Street executives pay themselves lavish salaries. They watched them do irresponsible lending practices. They watched them do casino gambling on risky investment mechanisms. And now those very same Americans who worked hard and played by the rules, were prudent investors, prudent savers, prudent citizens, are asked to pay the bill for those who did not.

Now, it is for those people that I know the Government must do something. We must protect our economy and we must protect our way of life and we must protect our middle class. Sure, the economy is in a crisis. And, yes, we do have a credit crisis. Wall Street did make very bad decisions. But now they are asking Main Street to pay the bill. We must act to restore our confidence in our economy. I agree, we must act promptly. But this Senator will not be stampeded into voting for this Bush administration bill.

So far during the last 7 years, every time there is a crisis, they generate fear and they generate bad ideas. Do you remember after the horrific days of 9/11 when we all came to the floor and pledged our patriotism? I said, we needed to put politics aside because we needed to be the red, white, and blue party. Well, they took advantage of that. And in that process we passed something like the PATRIOT Act, allowing our Government to act with undue secrecy with no parameters. We created the dysfunctional Department of Homeland Security.

Now we are being asked to deal with the fiscal crisis and the financial crisis. I am concerned we are going to create a fiscal FEMA. We must act with resolve, but we cannot be a rubberstamp for the administration's proposal. This proposal gives sweeping authority to those who were asleep at the switch in the first place.

Remember the Fed? Remember the maestro at the Fed who plunged down interest rates, and now helped create the housing bubble? Then there is the Treasury. There is the Secretary of the Treasury. A couple of months ago he said, no problem--like our President ``fundamentally sound.''

Then a couple of months later they said, oh, there is a problem. And we have lurched from one bailout to another: Bear Stearns, the insurance company, oh, no, not to Lehman, then after that failed, so we have gone from ``no problem'' to lurching around, to now $700 billion and a blank check.

We have seen those George Bush plans before. Now this one is a three- page bill. It gives the Secretary of the Treasury unlimited power to intervene in our financial markets without any review by Congress, agencies, or courts. They make the Secretary of the Treasury a financial czar, a financial potentate, because it says: Give us a blank check with no balances.

Well, I say: No checks without balances. Even the President of the United States of America has to come to us to declare war. I believe the Secretary of the Treasury should be accountable to the Congress and to whether mechanisms--if he is going to intervene with $700 billion in his pocket. I say no regulations without any safeguards. No way. No blank check. There must be regulations. There best be safeguards. If they do not want regulation, no way. If they do not want safeguards, no way.

We are in uncharted waters, so we need to ask tough questions. First, how do we know it will work? What guarantees are there it will work? Could this bankrupt our Treasury because it has no parameters? Could it cause runaway inflation, further eroding our economy? What are the safeguards?

Also, who is going to benefit? Is it going to be the same Wall Street go-go guy, the same Wall Street casino types who are going to benefit now? Whatever we do, we have to insist that those who created this scandal do not benefit from the bailout: no golden parachutes.

Let them feel the hard landing that my constituents faced when they were laid off at Bethlehem Steel. Let them feel the hard landing of what it is like to have your mortgage foreclosed upon. Let them feel the hard landing my constituents are facing right now. We do not need to subsidize bad behavior.

Now George Bush said he was the first MBA President. Well, hello, I do not have confidence in this administration. Remember, this was the same crowd that brought us Katrina, FEMA, and ``hey, you are doing a good job, Brownie.''

Well, is this what we are now supposed to say to those who are managing our finances? I don't think so.

We also have to prudently ask ourselves, are there better alternatives? Let me be clear: I do believe we need to act promptly but with safeguards. We need to act with resolve, but we need to have regulation and even retribution. If we have stabilization, which I believe we must do, we must also have reform. We are all looking at the administration's plan, but I want everyone to know where I stand. At a minimum, the plan must, first, be limited and temporary. It cannot be open-ended. There also must be a plan for those who have had those hard landings on Main Street. We need to put people first, to keep people in their homes, those who have had some of the most significant mortgage payment challenges, no golden parachutes that reward top executives for their excesses, their recklessness, and their sheer stupidity and greed, no blank checks. There must be accountability and oversight. Rescue does require reform, regulation, and a strong possibility of retribution. It must be transparent. I am for prompt action, but I will not be stampeded the way I have been stampeded in this institution by this administration in the past.

We need to make sure we do it right. That means not handing over a blank check or getting rid of the balances. We have to ask tough questions and be sure we have the right principles. If not, then the taxpayers will be on the hook. If we make the wrong decisions, taxpayers will be on the hook not only for Wall Street's bad decisions, but I don't want to set this up for Government's bad decisions. We need to get Government back on the side of the people who need it. We need to put the public good over private profits. This means we need to take a look at a 21st century regulatory system. I am tired of seeing this laxity where what emerges when we deregulate is the emergence of sharks and whales. Either way, the minnows get swallowed up. We don't want our economy to sink, and I think it is time to swim. But when we do, we need to make sure we are asking the right questions. We need to fight for the middle class. We need to fight for the people who go by the rules. We need to have a legislative framework that rewards those who did their very best and might be having a temporary spill.

I look forward to hearing more about this plan, but right now I need to know more. I need to be reassured more, and I need to be absolutely sure that those who created the crisis don't benefit from it and we don't leave the middle class with all of the responsibility.

I yield the floor.