Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of the Committee on Environment and Public Works Rules of Procedure.

Madam President, I would like to take this time to bring us up-to-date on where we stand with this recession, nationally and in my home State, and also to alert the American people to something.

In 1993, when Bill Clinton got elected, this country was in a lot of trouble. We had terrible deficits--we had a terrible trade deficit, we had debt. President Clinton and the Democratic Congress came in, and we said we have to get our country back on track. The President put together a budget. I wish to remind people that budget did not get one Republican vote. I wish to read to you what Senator Lott, on August 6, 1993, said about that Clinton budget.

As we all know, that Clinton budget got us on the path of deficit reduction and an actual surplus in our fiscal year budget. It set us on the path of debt reduction. As a matter of fact, we were far along on that path. We expected to have no debt whatsoever. When George Bush got in office, the Republicans took over and the deficits soared and the debt soared.

I wish to read what Senator Lott said in 1993. Remember, it was a very similar situation in terms of a budgetary crisis, a fiscal crisis. When Bill Clinton's budget passed--and we helped him get it passed--we set off on a path of economic recovery that was unmatched. Listen to this. This is Senator Trent Lott, August 6, 1993, in opposition to the Democrats' economic plan:

This is a pork alert: Pork alert. This bill is 1,800 pages.

We will not know until next April 15, probably, all the stuff

that's in here. Are we talking about a little money? . . .

No, we are talking about big sums.

He says:

So when you stand up and say Republicans have not been

involved, let me assure you, we should have been involved. We

would have liked to have been involved. But we would like to

concentrate on spending cuts at first. And then talk about

other things like economic growth incentive activities, that

we would like to see considered in this process.

The Republicans who have been in charge for a very long time have been the party of ``no'': Do it my way or it is the highway. Only I can write the perfect bill.

I have said, and I say this respectfully to my friends, I could write a perfect bill--for me. I can assure you the people of California would like my bill better than the bill that is before us. Each of us can stand and write the perfect bill.

So we have a choice. We can allow this new President to have the opportunity to do what he said he would do during the campaign, which is to ensure that this National Government becomes part of the solution.

Believe me, I defend my Republican friends' right to say no, no, no. They have every right to do it. They have absolutely every right to do it. What I feel a little sad about is they feel they have to filibuster; each and every time

we have to get 60 votes--60 votes--60 votes--because they know very much it becomes a hardship. But that is what they are doing.

I ask unanimous consent to have this and another quote printed in the Record.

In 1993, when they opposed the Democrats' economic plan, back then, that plan that set us off on economic recovery and economic prosperity, they said almost the same exact words: We are not involved, it is pork, it is this, it is that, it is a big bill. They held up the bill.

It is all the same. It is not the GOP; it is the SOP, the ``same old party.'' Right now we can't be the same old party.

Democrats can't be the same old party, Republicans can't be the same old party.

We need to join together. I hope more of my colleagues on the other side will join us. I thank the three who have, and I look forward to working with them as we move out into the future.

Exhibit 1

1993 Quotes

Last, the American people should know unequivocally this

plan does not reduce our long-term deficit. What I am

suggesting is, if you like these taxes, wait around because

the deficit starts back up in 1998 even with all of these

taxes and more will be needed. And I ask where are we going

to get the spending cuts and the money to bring it under

control? My guess is more taxes year after year.--Senator

Packwood August 6, 1993

This is a pork alert: Pork alert. This bill is 1,800 pages.

We will not know until next April 15, probably, all the stuff

that has been slid in here. Are we talking about, oh, just a

little bit of money? A few million here and there? No; we are

talking about big sums.

So when you stand up and say the Republicans have not been

involved, let me assure you, we should have been involved. We

would have liked to have been involved. But we would like to

concentrate on spending cuts at first. And then we can talk

about other things, like economic growth incentives, that we

would like to see considered in this process.--Senator Lott

August 6, 1993

Will my friend yield for a few questions?

I was thinking the other day to when we had another difficult crisis of confidence in the economy in 1993, when Bill Clinton was elected and we had deficits as far as the eye could see and debt as far as the eye could see. Things were slowing. We were in difficulty. A new President came forward, Bill Clinton, and we had the Congress, the Democrats did. We passed a budget. We did it without one Republican vote. Thank goodness here we have three. We have the 60-vote supermajority Republicans are insisting upon. If you remember, it was Senator Bob Kerrey who had to think long and hard and decided to support that.

I wonder if my friend remembers because I just looked up some of the comments made by the Republicans. I read into the Record one of them by Trent Lott. He said: We have not been involved in this. This is going to be a disaster. This is awful. They said: No.

I wonder if my friend knows about the Clinton economic record: 23 million new jobs created during the 8 years of the Clinton Presidency; the largest surplus in history was left behind by President Clinton, over $230 billion; unemployment rates were the lowest in three decades; there was the lowest overall poverty and child poverty rate since the 1970s.

Does my friend remember that battle and how we Democrats had to do it all by ourselves?

I think my friend is so eloquent as usual. The point I am trying to make is, we faced a serious economic problem in 1993, when a Democratic President took over. You are right. Things are way worse, and it is a different circumstance. But the same thing happened then. We had Senate leadership, Senator Lott saying, on August 6, 1993: This is a pork alert, pork alert. It is 1,800 pages. We are talking about big sums. He said: We have to concentrate on spending cuts first.

They predicted gloom and doom. What happened was the greatest economic recovery in modern history because we took a chance. We followed the wisdom of many economists at the time. We know now that if the Republicans would just join with us, we can get this economy moving in the right direction. A trillion dollars has been taken out of the economy due to lost productivity. Who is going to put it back? The banks won't. We are the only ones who can put it back. It is not going to be a trillion. It is probably under $800 billion. But it is the way to go forward.

I agree with my friend. I am so glad President Obama is out there. Doesn't he agree--and this is my last question. Then I will do a presentation about what is happening in my State--that it is important for the President to get out there, not to a group of people who have been prescreened, who are all his admirers, but actually to get there with all these people who are troubled? They are worried. They have hope and faith, but they are scared. It gives him a reality check rather than listening to what goes on around here because I am afraid the GOP, the Grand Old Party, has turned into the same old party, the same old negativity we heard in 1993 when we had another Democratic President get us on the right road to an amazing recovery. It is sort of the same old thing.

I wonder how my friend feels about our President getting out among the people.

What is the order now?

Madam President, I want to pick up on where I left off. This is the same old, same old fight again. I looked back for some more quotes on the Clinton economic plan which led to 23 million new jobs, the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. I read what Senator Lott from the other side said about it.

Here are other Senators: We are going to pile up more debt. We are

going to cost jobs. That was Senator Conrad Burns.

What happened? We went into surplus, and we created 23 million new jobs.

Orrin Hatch:

Make no mistake, these higher rates will cost jobs.

That was because there were some tax hikes on the wealthiest few. It went on and on.

This is Phil Gramm, the guru of the other side:

I want to predict here tonight that if we adopt this bill

the American economy is going to get weaker and not stronger,

the deficit four years from today will be higher than it is

today and not lower. . . .

He was wrong. This is no longer an academic debate. The Republicans, in 1993, said the same things about the Clinton plan they are saying about the Obama plan.

Phil Gramm again:

I believe that hundreds of thousands of people are going to

lose their jobs as a result of this program. I believe that

Bill Clinton will be one of those people.

Well, Bill Clinton got reelected. Twenty-three million new jobs were created. He left behind the largest surplus in history. Unemployment rates were the lowest in three decades. We had the lowest overall poverty and child poverty rates since the 1970s.

Charles Grassley, my colleague:

I really do not think it takes a rocket scientist to know

this bill will cost jobs.

That is what he said of the Clinton plan that created 23 million new jobs.

Connie Mack from Florida, from the other side of the aisle:

This bill will cost America jobs, no doubt about it.

Senator William Roth, from the other side:

It will flatten the economy. I am concerned about what it

will do to our families. . . .

Well, what did it do to our families? The Clinton plan, with the Democratic support, created 23 million new jobs, left behind the highest surplus in history, unemployment rates were the lowest in three decades, and we had the longest peacetime expansion of economic expansion in history.

Rick Santorum, from the other side of the aisle:

. . . bad policy. Let's do something that creates jobs that

doesn't feed the monster of government.

It goes on and on, and later today I will read some more into the Record.

So as I was listening to the debate yesterday and the day before and the day before--it has been good--I had a sense of deja vu. I heard this before. I turned to my staff and I said: Can you go and find out what the Republicans said about Bill Clinton's economic plan that was so successful? We did not get one Republican vote. Thank God we are getting three Republican votes for this plan because they have set a 60-vote filibuster-proof vote. That is what we need, which is a shame, but that is the way it is.

So what I would like to do today, again, is make the point that Republicans and Democrats have a philosophical disagreement. They had it back in 1993. We tested who was right and who was wrong. We put in the Clinton plan. We got a great economic recovery. We got surpluses as far as the eye could see. We had the debt going totally down.

When the Republicans took over, the deficits soared, the debt doubled, and we have now on the backs of the American people--every man, woman, and child--$17,000 more in debt as a result of an open checkbook for Iraq and tax cuts to the millionaires and the billionaires who never needed it anyway. That is a fact. It has been proven. There is no debate over it.

I have what the Republicans said back then, and I know what happened to the economy. So if you are looking for past history to guide what we do today, it is time to step to the plate and support President Obama. He has learned from history. He has looked at what happened. He understands.

So I want to take us now to where we are in this recession: 3.6 million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession. I want people to think about 3,600,000 people. Think about your own community, how many people live in that community. Think about your own State, how many people live in that State. Think about what it means to have these many people unemployed, and think about what it means for their families, for their spouses, for their children, in the face of this. Doing nothing is not a passive act. It is a hostile act. It is a hostile act because doing nothing says: We like the status quo. We don't care about this. Let it just play out. I say that is unacceptable.

Now, we can look at what is happening month by month: almost 600,000 jobs lost in January; 524,000 in December; 533,000 in November. This is what is happening on the ground today.

The other day, I placed into the Record some of the layoffs that are going on in my State--everything from Macy's, to Starbucks, to little mom-and-pops, to big companies, to high-tech, all over California. We have 37 million people, and, as they say in California, when we get a cold, everybody else sneezes because we have such an impact. We would be about the seventh largest economy in the world.

This is another bad picture, I show you in the Chamber--unemployment rates rising: 6.7 percent in November; December, 7.2 percent; January, 7.6 percent. In my home State, it is now 9.3 percent unemployment. And there are some communities that have 15 percent unemployment. That is getting closer to a depression.

We have a problem, and we cannot afford stall tactics around here and 60-vote supermajorities. We cannot afford partisanship. We need cooperation because the longer we wait to put those dollars into our communities, the more job losses we are going to see.

Total unemployed Americans: 11.6 million. That is unemployed Americans at the time. Think about that. Think about your community. Think about your State. Think about what 11.6 million unemployed Americans means. There are 1.6 million unemployed Californians. The number of long-term unemployed--they have been looking and looking and cannot find work--is 2.6 million.

By the way, there are 7.8 million underemployed Americans, meaning people who get part-time work who want full-time work--so many people who have higher skills that are not being put to good use. Underemployment is a problem. It is a serious problem.

They say pictures speak a thousand words. I show you a picture of a homeless man in Bakersfield. My local officials in Bakersfield, CA, have noticed a rise in the number of homeless individuals. These are individuals without shelter. As shown in this picture, here is one hiding his face--hiding his face. It is a sad thing, and we are seeing more of it across our Nation.

Job seekers in search of employment at a Goodwill Industries career center in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles man who lost his job at a computer disposal facility was forced to place his children into foster care. Imagine all of us having to place our children into foster care because we could not find another job to support our family. He said: You've got to stay positive, but the economy is failing. I'll take anything.

He visited this Los Angeles Goodwill career center to learn about job opportunities.

The other day, I held up a picture from Florida where thousands of people came for 35 firefighter jobs, and they had to have the police come out, not that anyone was acting out, but they just needed order-- for 35 firefighter jobs.

In Fresno, kids are having a good time, but where are they having a good time? In a pool at a home that has been foreclosed upon. They are creating backyard skateboard arenas. The skaters found the addresses of foreclosed homes on the Internet or through friends who work in real estate, and these young people came there to this foreclosed home. This home was once teeming with a family. Your home is your castle. It is a dream being lost.

If we do not pass this first leg of our economic recovery package, this will continue. Because it is one thing to lose your home because your interest rate got out of reach--that is a terrible thing--it is worse when you lose your home because you lost your job. So this is not a good picture.

This is an area in our State that was ready for development in the city of Rio Vista in eastern Solano County. The city of Rio Vista is nearing bankruptcy, its problems coming from plummeting property and sales taxes, a lack of funds coming from the State. The city has laid off employees. They have left open full-time positions. They

have frozen salaries. They have cut city programs. And they have closed city hall 1 day a week. This is a small city, and the reverberations are many.

The San Fernando Valley Career Center--this is a picture of a gentleman who is desperately looking for work. This is what he says: I don't have a single cent in my pocket.

He has been unemployed since September. He visited this career center to seek job opportunities. People are trying desperately to find work.

It is easy to stand up here and say: I don't like the bill. I don't like page 47. I don't like paragraph 2 and paragraph 8. The bottom line is, you can either have the perfect bill, no bill, or the compromise. Again, yesterday we passed the compromise, and we need to get this done.

This breaks my heart. I know all of us feel this way when we see our constituents who are hard workers, who cherish work, who want the pride of a job, having this circumstance.

There is a story from North Hollywood: a mother of five laid off in November 2007, spending hours each day looking for work. She said: This is the longest I've been unemployed. I feel stressed out. I have bills piling up.

So we are at the crossroads. President Obama is getting out to this country. He is going to places like this, where people are desperate. This is ``one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'' We are not going to live up to that ideal if we do not act now.

My friends on the other side of the aisle, believe me, they had their turn. They had 8 years of their turn. They took a surplus, they turned it into deficit. They took debt that was on the way out and expanded it by double, laying on the backs of every man, woman, and child another $17,000 of debt. They had their chance. This is the worst economy we have seen since the Great Depression. They had their chance. They had an open checkbook for Iraq and they had an open checkbook for their very wealthy friends, and it did not work.

When we were in charge--we are not perfect, God knows, that is for sure--we got this economy back on track. We know what it takes. We have to stimulate this economy. That is the first leg. When it gets on its feet, we will wrap our hands around these deficits and get them under control. We will make sure our financial system has sensible regulation again so people have confidence in it. We know what we are doing.

It is true that the problems are vast, but this country did go through the Great Depression. And what did we see? When we put people to work, it restored their faith and confidence. When we mobilized for a war, we mobilized the productivity of people. We do not want to mobilize for war now, but we do want to mobilize for energy independence by turning to clean energy and creating technologies we can export. We know we have to take care of the housing crisis. We know we have to get ahead of it. We know we have to help people stay in their homes. This next tranche of the TARP funds that Timothy Geithner talked about--the money is already there--$50 billion will be used for that, and I hope even more. So we know what we are doing.

We are not standing up here with a plan that, as President Obama said, is plucked out of the air. It is not plucked out of the air. He spoke to economists--Democratic economists, Republican economists, and those all over the map--and the vast majority say we need to stimulate this economy, get money to the cities, get money to the counties, get money to the States, get money to the private sector, rebuild our physical infrastructure, our highways, our bridges. These are things we need to do anyway--these are things we need to do anyway. We need to get funds to law enforcement so we are not laying off police officers but hiring them. We need to get funds to our schools so we are not laying off teachers, but we are hiring them. We need to have tax breaks in here to encourage investments in alternative clean energy so we can make our government buildings energy efficient. These are all things that save money, create jobs, and we have to do them anyway.

So as President Obama has said, we didn't expect this kind of an economic crisis, but it is upon us. It is upon us. Listen to my friends on the other side and go back to 1993. They are saying the same things. They were the party of ``no'' then; they are the party of ``no'' now. No, no, no, no, no; don't do it. It is not going to work; it is going to hurt the economy; it will lead to a recession; it will increase the debt. All the things they are saying now they said then. They always have a reason to say no.

I wish to close by saying to the three Republican colleagues of mine who came forward: Thank you again. I have said it before. It takes courage. It is hard to go against the caucus you sit in every day. It is hard. I have had to do it on a couple of things. It is very unpleasant. I remember being 1 of 11 people who went a different way on one occasion on a gay rights issue. It was very hard. I remember being 1 of 23 who voted against the Iraq war. It was popular then. It was very hard. I remember voting against the Medicare prescription drug benefit because I thought it would lead to major problems with people getting kicked off their insurance when they needed their medicines the most. It also stopped Medicare from negotiating. It didn't allow them to negotiate for lower prices, and I felt the pharmaceutical companies were going to make a bundle and the people wouldn't get the benefits. I was in the minority. So I know how it feels to be in the minority. I know how it feels to vote differently than most of your colleagues. It is a lonely feeling. I say to those Republican friends on the other side: You are showing courage and you are showing wisdom. You are also showing you have learned from history, because you went back to the Clinton years where we didn't get one Republican vote for a bold economic plan. All the dire predictions turned out to be totally false.

We need to get back to those days of economic growth and expansion, but we can't do it until we move forward with this three-legged stool, this economic stimulus package to create jobs, jobs, jobs; the housing piece to address the terrible loss of confidence in housing, to help people stay in their homes and stop the slide; and, of course, the third piece of making sure our financial sector works once again, so that creditworthy people can step to the plate, go to the bank, and get a loan. It is very hard to do that.

I wish to point out one other piece of the package that is so important. The small businesses in our country will have some credit. This is very key. They will be able to go to the SBA and get this credit. So this is a package that is worthy of our support. It is far from perfect because, again, each of us could write the perfect bill, but that is not possible. Thank you to my Republican friends who have joined us.

I wish to say to the conferees: I understand the pressures they are under and I make a plea to them that within the confines of the numbers we sent over, I hope they can find the right path to take so that this bill coming out of conference is acceptable over here, we get the 60 votes, and we move forward. We have a lot of work to do.

Today I was on a TV show and it was so interesting because one of the experts on the show said, Well, wait a minute. You are talking about this economic stimulus. What about energy independence? What about health care? And he went on and on. What about exports? I thought after I got off the show: In 8 years we have developed all of these problems. We are not going to fix them in 24 hours. You have to have a list, as President Obama has, and tick them off one at a time, address these issues one at a time. The first issue is the stimulus. The second issue will be the financial sector, and then the housing sector. We are already talking about an energy bill that is going to come out pretty soon, which is going to be very exciting. These experts were saying we need a bold vision for America. I agree with them, but we can't fix what went wrong in 8 years in 24 hours. Give us a couple of months, at least, to get it on track and the effects of it will start being felt soon after that, but we can't do everything in 1 day.

So, yes, these experts are right. We have to do all of this, but we have to start at the beginning. The stimulus package is No. 1. We are almost there. When it comes back from conference, we will have another vote, and it will go to the President's desk, and then we will move forward with the rest of the economic recovery plan. I do believe in

my hearts of hearts--I have been around here a while--I do believe President Obama has learned from history. I do believe President Obama is a student of history, because if you are not a student of history you are going to repeat the mistakes of the past. I think he knows what works and I think he knows what doesn't work. So let's get behind him on this first initiative. Let's get it done. Then we will attack each and every problem, because there are many we have on our plate, but we will deal with them. I am confident--this is America--we will be stronger at the end of the day.

Thank you very much, Madam President. I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that I ask my colleagues to join me today in honoring the memory of a remarkable woman, Lani Silver. Lani was a passionate activist, oral historian, journalist, filmmaker, speaker, and artist who passed away January 28, 2009.

Lani was born on March 28, 1948, in Lynn, MA. Shortly after she was born, her family moved to San Francisco. When she was 19, Lani traveled to South Africa, where she observed the awful impacts of apartheid. Lani was profoundly affected by this experience, and when she returned to San Francisco she began what was to become a lifetime commitment to progressive causes.

In 1981, Lani founded the Holocaust Oral History Project. Over the next 20 years she recorded over 1,700 oral histories, with over 1,400 Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Lani also served as a consultant to Steven Speilberg's Shoah Foundation, which recorded 53,000 Holocaust survivor oral histories. Thanks to Lani's vision and determination, these valuable stories were not lost forever.

Lani's commitment to social justice took many forms. In 2006 she cowrote and produced an opera about Yukiko Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who, during World War II rescued thousands of Jews during the Holocaust by hand-writing visas against the orders of the Japanese Government. Lani also organized events, exhibits, and media campaigns around the world to honor Sugihara and make sure his important story would not be forgotten.

In 2000, Lani founded the James Byrd Jr. Racism Oral History Project, in honor of James Byrd, Jr., who was brutally murdered in Jasper, TX, in 1998 by three White supremacists. The project has recorded 2,500 oral histories on racism in America with participants from the San Francisco Bay area, Jasper, and Houston, TX.

Lani's many contributions have not gone unrecognized. In 1996, Lani received the Woman of the Year award from KQED public television and radio, and in 2003 she received the Alumni of the Year award from the City College of San Francisco.

Lani stood out as a driven activist who cared for her community deeply and will be remembered by friends and colleagues as earnest, humble, and dedicated to the ongoing fight for equality and fairness. Her optimism, dedication, and courage are reflected by the thousands of individuals whose lives she has enriched and improved. We will always be grateful for Lani's example of passionate activism.

Lani is survived by sisters Lori Silver and Lynn Jacobs; nieces Sara Silver Jacobs, Brette Silver Jacobs, and Lauren Shaber; nephews Jose Jacobs and Justin Shaber, and brother-in-law Syd Shaber. Our hearts go out to Lani's family and friends during this difficult time.

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

I thank you so much, I say to the Presiding Officer, the chairman of the Finance Committee, the Senator from Montana, for giving me this time and also for your very strong leadership on this very important bill.

I think, as I listened to the Senator from Montana this morning, he laid out the case for this bill better than I have heard, frankly, from anyone in

the most clear fashion. When somebody tells you something is very complicated and you do not understand it, do not believe it.

There is a very simple, cogent, important, urgent reason for this bill: We need to save jobs, we need to create jobs, because if we do not, at the rate we are shedding jobs in this country, we are going to be headed for not a deep recession but perhaps even worse than that. My friend who is presiding pointed out that 3.6 million jobs were lost last year. How can anyone possibly turn away from that fact?

Saturday, I spoke on this bill and the need for it, and I had a picture of 1,000 people in Florida showing up at a job fair for 35 firefighter jobs--1,000 people. It looked almost like a rock concert-- all these young people trying to get in line and fill out the forms for these jobs. The police had to come in--everyone was calm--just to make sure it was an orderly process.

My friend from Montana pointed out that history will judge us on how we act right now. Again, just to keep it simple and focused, there are three things we can do. One, do nothing. Doing nothing, to me, is action. It is action for the status quo. Doing nothing, to me, is a hostile act on the American people. Doing nothing, from my mind, is closing our eyes to the election that was just held, an election that said: We need change.

Now, what else could we do? We could pass a perfect bill. Trust me when I tell you, I can write one perfect for me. The Senator from Montana can write the bill perfect for him. The Senator from Arizona, who is leading the opposition--and, by the way, Senator McCain, I am pleased he is out here doing that because I think the people in America understand the difference between Senator McCain's approach and President Obama's approach, and this debate is about that, make no mistake. So Senator McCain could write the perfect bill.

(Mrs. HAGAN assumed the Chair.)

I see Senator Hagan has come to the Chamber. She could write the perfect bill. Each of us could write the perfect bill for us. And guess what. If we each stood up here and said: My way or the highway, there would be no bill, and therefore we would have nothing. Nothing is, in my mind, a hostile act on the American people.

Then there is a third choice: a compromise, a compromise plan that has been put together by Democratic Senators on our side and several Republican Senators on the other side. Now, for the life of me, I do not understand how anyone can say that is not bipartisan. Of course it is bipartisan.

Let me be clear, our Republican friends are filibustering this bill. We could get 58 votes for this bill. We know that. That would be a strong majority. We do not have 60, and we need Republicans to help us. Several have stepped forward, and I thanked them so much the other day, and I repeat it again.

So the three choices we have: do nothing is one choice, in the face of these horrific job losses and layoffs continuing--and in my State of California, I put in the Record Saturday company after company after company laying off, pulling in, fearful--we could do nothing; we could have the perfect bill, which means that each of us will fight for that perfect bill--maybe we can get one or two others to agree it is perfect--or we can have a compromise bill. That is what is before us.

So just remember, if someone tells you this is not bipartisan, they are not telling you the truth because if they did not filibuster us, we could pass a bill with 51 votes. They are forcing us to get 60 votes; therefore, we must get Republicans to support us.

Passing this compromise means we get to conference with the House. Now, that is going to be a very tough conference, and my friend from Montana knows better than anyone how tough it will be.

I want to send a message to my friends in the House of Representatives: I know how you feel. I know things were left out of this compromise that you desperately want in this bill. But I will say, you should fight for that, but at the end of the day, again, go back to the three options: doing nothing, doing the perfect bill, or doing the compromise. My kids always say to me, ``You are where you are.'' And we know where we are. We are in the middle of a filibuster. We have 58 Democrats, and we need to pick up Republican support, and we have done so.

Now, I have to again point out to my colleagues why I feel my Republican friends are being just a little bit disingenuous when they shed bitter tears about the debt. Let's face facts. I didn't see those bitter tears during the Bush years. We went from $5 trillion in debt to $10 trillion in debt. Now they are very worried about another $800 billion. I understand they are worried. We didn't like the debt either, and we don't like the debt. When we were in charge with Bill Clinton, we got that debt down. We turned deficits into surpluses. We know how to do that, and we will get our economic house in order. We have done it before. When the first President Bush handed us billions of dollars in deficits and trillions in debt, we worked on balancing that budget, and we handed George Bush a budget surplus--we Democrats did--a budget surplus. Now the debt is $1 trillion, and our friends on the other side cry about it.

There is a cartoon in the paper today that was given to me, if I can find it. I remember it. Oh, here it is. It is called ``Deficit Patrol.'' It is frame after frame of Republicans sleeping through the increase in the debt. They slept through billions of dollars in tax cuts; never said a word about the debt. Those tax cuts were to their friends, the highest earners. They slept through billions in debt to invade Iraq, billions more for oil and gas subsidies, billions more for Iraq, and this thing goes on and on. They kept snoozing through the debt. The debt doubled. As a result of their action, every man, woman, and child in America carries an additional $17,000 of debt because of the war in Iraq, subsidies to oil and gas, and because of tax cuts to the very wealthy. Suddenly, now--when it is time to help working families and invest in them and in our schools and rebuilding our infrastructure and creating jobs--suddenly they wake up and say: Do you have any idea what that will do to the debt?

Look, I support my friends on the other side having the right to do whatever they want to stop this bill, but I will tell my colleagues what is hard for me: to have these tears about the debt when all through the Bush era we had an open checkbook for Iraq, an open checkbook for the wealthiest Americans, and nobody cared about the debt. Nobody cared. Nobody cared about the deficits on the other side. We never had this conversation.

What I want to say is, we certainly learned from the depression era; that when times are as rough as these times are, we must act. We must act. Now, it is sad to say we don't have a surplus, that we don't have the debt on the way down, but that is the way it is. You are where you are. So we can either do nothing, do the perfect bill, or do the compromise.

So I would say to every Member of the Senate and every Member of Congress that we need to work together. I watched President Obama and just a little bit of his townhall meeting. He is out there and he is answering questions--some tough ones too--about why this is necessary, and he makes the point. He said: People go to the floor in Congress, in the House and the Senate, and they say: Oh, my goodness, we are spending in the face of this recession. Well, that is the whole point. There is no money in this economy. The banks won't lend. We have used the monetary policy to bring interest rates to the banks way down. We fed money to the banks and perhaps we forestalled a complete crisis. However, I will tell my colleagues, they are still not doing what they should in terms of lending. People are fearful. They are not spending. So it is a vicious circle, and we need to stop this vicious circle. The way to do it is to save jobs from being lost and create new jobs.

Now, we know this all started with the housing crisis. Believe me, we tried on this side to pass housing legislation. Seven times we were filibustered--seven. Seven times we were filibustered. We must address housing, and I am glad to hear my colleagues on the other side coming up with some very good ideas on how to do that, and I agree with some of those ideas. This is a three-legged stool. We have to pass this jobs program, this jobs plan--and by the way, these jobs will be created in the private sector as we go out to rebuild our roads and our bridges and our

schools and make them energy efficient. Private sector jobs will be created. These will be contracts. So the first leg of that stool is jobs, jobs, jobs. That is what we are talking about.

Next we have to deal with the housing crisis, as I said, belatedly so. I would like to see mortgages down, mortgage rates down for folks who will get a boost from that, an economic stimulus in their pocket from that. We have things we can do. Senator Durbin's plan for the bankruptcy courts is very important. If someone is underwater with their house, and they go to bankruptcy court, let's have the judge restructure their loan. These are things we should and must do. That is the second leg.

The third is the financial crisis. I know the Obama administration is looking at some new ways, not just giving a blank check to these institutions, to these banks, but ensuring that they don't use it for big high salaries for the people at the top, for golden parachutes, and that in fact taxpayers have a stake in those institutions so we get paid back. That is a refreshing change. We are going to see that coming. That is going to be a very tough vote. I don't know how I am going to wind up voting on that. It depends on how much of that is aimed at the housing sector.

But that is tomorrow, and this is today, and we are where we are. There have been more than 3 million jobs lost. Imagine that. In the State of Delaware there are less than 1 million people. So figure, it is almost four States of Delaware where every single person has lost their job. These are no ordinary times.

Around here, I learned after many years the easiest vote was no. Vote no. It is so much easier. You could point to something in the bill you don't like--I say to my friend who is sitting in the chair, a wonderful new Member--you can vote no and say: You know, on line 7, page 240, there was something in there. It just brought me to a ``no'' vote. I couldn't take it. I disagreed with it.

It is easy. It is the easiest way to vote because we don't know at the end of the day whether this package is going to do every single thing we hope it will do. But I will tell my colleagues it will do some of those things. It will create jobs. It will save jobs. It will help our States. It will help our communities. It will help make us energy efficient. It will help make us energy independent. It will lead us on the road to clean energy. It will unleash the technological genius of a lot of our people looking at clean energy.

I want to close by again thanking those Republicans who joined with us. I know how hard it is. I have been in situations where I have stepped out, done something not popular with my caucus. It is very difficult. It is really hard, but at the end of the day we have to put country first. Country first. If you line up every economist in this Nation from the left to the right, except for a few on either end of the spectrum, they are all telling us to do a package about this size. Don't make it too small or it will be inefficient.

I think the Senator from Montana was very instructive when he pointed out that the tax cuts will kick in--certainly almost 100 percent of them--in 2 years, and overall, 75 or 76 or even 80 percent of the package, spending and tax cuts, will kick in, in the first 2 years. Larry Summers, a great economist working for President Obama, has said he believes if a few dollars kick in 2 years out, that is not all bad because this is a deep recession. We are going to need those dollars as well.

So to those three colleagues who came forward--I think I should say the two who came forward with Ben Nelson, Senator Collins and Senator Specter, taking the lead--thank you. I know it is hard. You are reaching out to this new President. He has everything on his shoulders. This is what he promised. He promised he would not sit back and allow the policies of the past to dominate: bickering, bickering, bickering, never getting anything done, and finding fault just for the sake of being able to vote no.

Saturday I read into the Record a story about one of my constituents who has been out of work and out of work and out of work. He worked in the high-tech sector. He can't find a job. He is just desperate. He had to place his children into foster care. We cannot do nothing. When my friends on the other side say, oh, they are for doing something, at the end of the day, it seems to me, by making us reach a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority, they are making it tough for us to do something. Let's not forget that. They are filibustering this bill. That is why we need to get 60 votes. So they are slowing it down and slowing it down and slowing it down. As a matter of fact, they stand here and say: What is the rush?

I will tell them what the rush is: people being laid off every day, people losing health care every day, people losing confidence every day, people losing housing every day, people losing hope every day, economists telling us to move swiftly every day. So don't say you are for something when you are making us get a 60-vote supermajority, because people are smart in this country. They get it. They know what you are saying when you all of a sudden are afraid of the debt because we are doing things you don't like. You didn't mind going into debt for the war in Iraq--open checkbook. Rebuilding Iraq? Fine. Tax cuts for the wealthy few? Wonderful. No problem. You should look at that cartoon. It says it better. It just happens to be in Politico.

So don't say you want to do something and then set up a 60-vote hurdle. Don't say you want to do something, but you are afraid of the debt when, for 8 long years, you have doubled the debt from $5 billion to $10 billion. Say the truth. Say the truth. I think I know what the truth is. You don't really like investing in schools. You don't like investing in workers. You don't really think it makes sense at this time to build more infrastructure. You don't like helping our cities. That is the truth.

But we believe that is the way to stimulate this economy and grow it, stop it from sliding, reverse it. We are going to try to do it. We still have a long road ahead of us, no question about it. This isn't easy, but we are on the path to do it. I hope the American people will listen to our President both today and tonight when he holds his press conference. I hope the people will listen to this debate because it is very clear where the sides line up.

What we need to do is the right thing for America. Those choices are clear: Do nothing, hold out for your perfect bill, or embrace the compromise. I am embracing the compromise, and I urge my colleagues to do it. I hope more will do it from the other side. I think it will be such a vote of confidence in the future and confidence in this President and confidence in this country if we can pick up more votes on the other side. I hope we will. I am very pleased to have had this opportunity to speak.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I would ask my leader from West Virginia if I could have my 15 minutes now since Senator Kyl did speak, and then I will be done with that 15 minutes.

Sure

Mr. President, I say to Senator Rockefeller, I thought it was 15 we had discussed.

Thank you.

Mr. President, the reason I need the time is, every time one of my colleagues gets up, it just amazes me at some of the things they say.

Now, my friend, the Senator from Alabama, is very worried about going into debt because of this economic recovery package. He is calling for a small package. I do not know what he believes a ``smaller package'' definition is, but we know from economists, Democratic and Republican, if the package is too small it does no good. He is very worried about the debt. We all are worried about the debt. Where were my Republican friends--and they are my friends; I work with them every day--where were they when George Bush took the debt from $5 trillion to $10 trillion over 8 years--doubled it--put it on the backs of every man, woman, and child--$17,000 of debt for every man, woman, and child? I never heard a word. They spent it on Iraq. I say it is time to spend it here and help our people. They spent it on tax cuts for the richest people, those who did not need it, and they did not care about the debt.

I want to help the middle class and the working poor, the backbone of America, because without that backbone, we have nothing. So I think the record has to be set straight. I thank those Republicans who worked with us Democrats on coming up with a solution. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You stepped forward. You listened to President Obama. You stepped forward for positive change. You stepped forward to help America.

We are in a deepening economic crisis. In my home State of California, the unemployment rate is 9.3 percent. We all know California is trend setting. This is one trend I hope the rest of America will not follow. But, by God, if we do nothing, if we do not embrace the bipartisan package--and I know it is not perfect--but if we do nothing, that is, in my view, a hostile act--a hostile act; not a passive act--because to do nothing endorses the status quo.

I wish to spend a minute showing you some charts which illustrate the status quo.

Since 2001, 4.1 million manufacturing jobs lost.

In 2008, alone, 2,589,000 good-paying American jobs lost, just in 2008.

For every 1 percent increase in the national unemployment rate, we see a 1 million increase in Medicaid, a 1.1 million increase in the uninsured, a $1.4 billion rise in State Medicaid and CHIP spending, a $200 billion rise in Federal Medicaid and CHIP spending.

So what are we saying? If we do nothing, we are not going to save any money as a national government. We are not going to let people die on the streets or starve to death or not get health care. We will all pull together to help them. We need to reverse this so we do not spend money this way, so that we create jobs.

Now, I have a picture to show you. I do not know if you have seen this, Mr. President. If you cannot see it from there, it is a crowd of people. It looks like folks trying to jam into a rock concert. Do you know what it is? One thousand applicants lined up for 35 firefighting jobs in Miami, on February 2, 2009. They had to call the police to control the crowd.

Now, I have a list of the layoffs in my State. I ask unanimous consent to have some examples from that list printed in the Record.

Mr. President, Target laid off 382 people in Sunnyvale; Harman Becker Automotive laid off 325 people in Northridge; Ghirardelli Chocolate laid off 107 people in San Francisco; Circle Foods laid off 112 people in San Diego. And it goes on and on and on: 500 laid off, 1,000 laid off, and on and on and on.

What happens when someone loses his or her job? And what happens when the mom and dad lose their jobs? It is a life-altering change. We know this housing crisis got us into this jam, and we need to address it far more. That is why President Obama has said: Do this first, get this economic recovery on track. Then we will look at housing and do the things we need to do. Then we will look at the financial sector. So it is a three-legged stool. We have to do all of it. It is what the election was all about.

But we need to step up to the plate now because it is one thing to lose your home because you were in a terrible situation with your mortgage and your interest rate kicked up to 8.9, 10 percent. That is awful. It is even worse to lose your home because you are two paychecks away from homelessness. We need to stem the tide.

I do appreciate my Republican colleagues' newfound respect for fiscal responsibility. But we have to admit--admit--they never cared about it the last 8 years. And that is how I started off, challenging my friend from Alabama. The past 8 years: deepening, deepening debt. Imagine this: When George Bush took the oath of office, our budget was in surplus. We had a surplus in our yearly budget. The Republicans took that to $1 trillion of deficit. We had $5 trillion in debt. It was on the way down. Economists said it was going to go to zero. I remember saying to my husband, it is going to be so amazing when we do not even have to sell Treasury bonds because we are going to be out of debt. Well, because of the war in Iraq, and because of these tax cuts to the wealthiest, that debt turned around, and, as I said, is a huge burden on the backs of our taxpayers.

So imagine if President Obama inherited a surplus and inherited a debt that was going down, and we had a recession, it would be so much easier, my friends, than it is right now. I do not like this. I voted for balancing the budget under Bill Clinton, and I believe we will get back to a balanced budget

again. But we have to take care of a crisis. We have to stem the bleeding. Every economist tells us that.

I could stand up and say I do not like the package. I would have had X more dollars here; I would have cut out this program there. I lost an amendment on the Senate floor with my friend from Nevada that I thought was a great tax cut. I got my clock cleaned. I could have taken my marbles and gone home, you know, sucked my thumb, pulled the covers over my head, and said: I am really mad. I was right and they were wrong. But the country is in trouble.

Mr. President, 1,000 people are lining up for 35 firefighting jobs in one of our great States. So guess what. I have to put aside my ego, and I have to work with my colleagues.

Again, I thank my Republican colleagues who moved forward and said: We know this election was about change, and we are going to give this President a chance. Thank you, I say to them.

Our country is in economic trouble. The election was about the economy. The election was about the economy. I am going to remind people about that. It was just a little while ago.

John McCain, September of 2008: ``The fundamentals of our economy are strong.'' Remember? The fundamentals of our economy are strong. His chief economic adviser said:

We have become a Nation of whiners. Constant whining,

complaining about a loss of competitiveness, American

decline. You've heard of mental depression? This is a mental

recession.

Well, tell that to Mr. Arreola, 27 years old, of Boyle Heights, CA. He said: ``You've got to stay positive, but the economy is falling.''

He is looking for jobs. Every day he goes to north Los Angeles to a job center. Two months ago he lost his job at a computer warehouse. He said he has had to put his two children into foster homes until he can find a new job. He said: ``I'll take anything.''

Is that a mental recession? The chances of this man finding a job are getting slimmer. The pace of job losses has been accelerating. This thing is getting worse, the economists tell us.

We had an election about this. Barack Obama, January 8, 2009:

I know the scale of this plan is unprecedented, but so is

the severity of our situation. We have already tried the

wait-and-see approach to our problems and it is the same

approach that helped lead us to this day of reckoning.

So yes, I am mad that my amendment with the Senator from Nevada didn't pass. I thought we did a good job in debating it, but I am not taking my marbles and going home. I am working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. We have a chance now to get out of this recession. Will this package do it alone? It will not. I told my colleagues there are three legs to the stool, including the housing crisis and the financial crisis. I was an economics major a long time ago and I worked on Wall Street as a stock broker. In my lifetime, I have never seen a time such as this.

So if we listen to our colleagues, we will either do nothing--and by the way, they are filibustering this bill; let's make it clear. We could have voted this out already, but they are filibustering it. That is their right. That is their right. I defend their right, but they have to take the consequences of stalling it. Maybe we will have to stay through the recess, and we will. We will get this done, thanks to some independent-minded people on the other side of the aisle working with all of us.

One of my colleagues on the other side said the other day in a very emotional fashion: I feel left out of this process. As Senator Kerry has said, this is one of the most open processes I have ever seen here: amendment after amendment after amendment after amendment; several Republican amendments passed. Senator Coburn had one pass. Senator Specter had one pass. Senator Isakson had one pass. There were a couple of others. So the fact is it is an open process. When my Republican colleague held up the bill and he said I feel left out, you know what. I don't feel sorry for him. If he was on this floor, he could have offered his amendments. He could even pick up the phone and call the President of the United States or the Chief of Staff and he knows he could get through. He could talk to any one of us any day of the week and work with us, but he has chosen to stand apart. He says he feels left out. Well, I would rather be him than the family who is left out in the cold--in the cold winter because they lost their home, because they lost their job, because they lost their health care. So get over it. Get over it. Come and talk to us. Come and work with us. This election was about change, not the same old same old trickledown tax cuts that don't work. Yes, there is 42 percent tax cuts in this bill. That is not enough for my friends on the other side. They wanted all tax cuts or mostly tax cuts. We tried it. It didn't work. It has gotten us where we are today: huge debt, huge deficits, slow growth, no growth, recession.

So in summation, we are headed to a better day. This Senate debate is very important. I thought it was terrific that John McCain led the debate yesterday. In essence, it relived the debate around the election: John McCain and his theory that the fundamentals of the economy are strong; we just need to do a few things around the edges, versus Barack Obama and his vision of boldness and change. I am glad this Senate in a bipartisan way has embraced that vision. I look forward to the passage of the bill. I thank the Senator from West Virginia for yielding me this time.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I voted against Senate amendment No. 309 because the language of this amendment was too broad and would have excluded funding for important projects in California that will create jobs, help our veterans, promote tourism, protect our natural resources, and stimulate the economy.

If the Coburn amendment had prevented economic recovery money from going to casinos, I would have supported the amendment. Gaming facilities and casinos do not deserve to receive funding in this bill.

But by prohibiting funds for parks, highway beautification projects, and other community projects, the Coburn amendment would have eliminated from funding consideration important job-creating initiatives throughout California.

It is important to note that there are no earmarks in this bill. No parks, community centers, casinos, swimming pools, or similar projects receive direct funding in the recovery bill.

But there are some important investments that the Coburn amendment would prevent Federal, State, and local leaders from allocating resources to, such as construction and rehabilitation projects in State parks--which create jobs and protect natural resources--and highway beautification projects--which create jobs and help stimulate local economies.

One example of how the Coburn amendment would prevent funding for worthy projects involves disabled veterans. There is $3.4 billion in this bill for construction and renovation of Veterans Administration hospitals. Because of the Coburn amendment, the VA will not be able to spend any of the funding it receives on construction of therapeutic recovery pools at trauma centers, spinal cord injury centers, and other medical centers for disabled veterans to use when recovering from traumatic injuries.

Amendment No. 359

Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in commemorating the dedication of the Remembrance Plaza, a memorial to the Pinedale Assembly Center in Fresno, CA, on February 16, 2009. The Pinedale Assembly Center was a temporary internment site for nearly 5,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II. The dedication of Remembrance Plaza is a fitting tribute to a generation of Japanese Americans who stood tall in the face of adversity and injustice.

The Pinedale Assembly Center was located 8 miles north of downtown Fresno on vacant land near an existing millworkers' housing facility. From May 7 to July 23, 1942, the Pinedale Assembly Center served as a temporary holding area for nearly 5,000 Japanese Americans, most of them were from

Sacramento and El Dorado, as well as Oregon and Washington, before they were transferred to 1 of 10 internment camps throughout the Western States.

Today, the former site of the Pinedale Assembly Center is a California Registered Historical Landmark. The Remembrance Plaza, a striking 7,000 square-foot memorial that features a fountain, a concrete plaza, Japanese landscaping, an interpretive wall, and ten prominently displayed story boards, will stand tall to tell the Japanese American story of internment and redress. The Remembrance Plaza is a testament to the determination of a generation of Japanese Americans and to the value of civil liberties, justice, and equality in our democracy.

I would like to thank the Pinedale Assembly Memorial Project Committee, the Central California District Council of the Japanese American Citizens League, the Central California District Nikkei Foundation, the city of Fresno, and the many friends and supporters of this important project for their determined efforts to help make this beautiful and fitting memorial a reality.

I am keenly aware of the historical significance of the Japanese American experience during World War II and this is why I was proud to introduce legislation with my colleague, Senator Dianne Feinstein, that would authorize a study that could result in the Tule Lake Segregation Center's designation as a national historic site. I am hopeful that this measure which passed the Senate in January will soon become law.

The Remembrance Plaza provides a window for future generations to see the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II. As supporters of this most worthwhile and fitting memorial gather to commemorate its dedication, I thank them for their support and wish them a successful and enjoyable experience.

Would the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. President, I think it is amazing that the Senator is holding up a bill--holding up a bill. Very theatrical. Did you ever do that when George Bush was President and he sent down a bill twice as big as that? Did the Senator ever do that? Because you can do that. That is theatrical. You can do that.

Will the Senator yield?

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Thank you very much.

Mr. President, I thank my colleagues. I think I can explain this amendment in 2 minutes, and then we can take a voice vote.

I thank Senator Barrasso. He and I have a little different view on the importance of the National Environmental Policy Act in relation to this bill. Late last night he offered an amendment to essentially pretty much waive the protections of that act from this bill. Needless to say, as the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I was concerned about the amendment. He and I have had extensive discussions, along with our staff, and we have reached an agreement on the way to proceed tonight.

So, Mr. President, I am going to begin by carrying that out by sending a modification of my amendment to the desk that Senator Barrasso has approved. So if I might do that.

OK. I also thank--in addition to Senator Barrasso for working with me on drawing this up, I

would say, perfecting this amendment--a lot of the groups out there who have been very worried and working and calling all my colleagues.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for an additional minute, if I might.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the list of these organizations, from the League of Conservation Voters to the American Lands Alliance; and there is even a group from Alaska that got involved.

I conclude by saying what I do in this amendment is to say that adequate resources within this bill must be devoted to ensuring that the applicable environmental reviews under NEPA are completed on an expeditious basis, and that we require a report every 90 days just to make sure these projects are moving forward with the protections of NEPA but no undue delays.

So with that, I would ask for a voice vote, if I might.

I object.

Mr. President, I thank Senator Barrasso. I didn't know about the Senator. As he knows, he is waiving the National Environment Act as it pertains to these projects. I will be glad to work with him to figure out a way to do a side-by-side, however he wants to deal with it, a second degree.

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

Mr. President, I am just waiting to take the Senate out tonight. But I did want to say there was a little bit of a surprise that happened tonight when one of my colleagues offered an amendment to essentially repeal environmental laws as they relate to this bill. All activities of this bill, if this Barrasso amendment were to pass, all the activities would no longer be covered by the National Environmental Policy Act.

That is a very disturbing amendment and I was very surprised by it as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee here. Thanks to the diligent staff--and I do appreciate them letting me know--I was able to craft another amendment that I hope will precede the amendment of Senator Barrasso and allow the Senate to express itself, saying that we do not intend to waive environmental laws that will protect the public health of our communities and, if there are projects that are such a harm to our community, they should be replaced by the many shovel-ready projects that our mayors are telling us are out there, that our Governors are telling us are out there.

We will have that debate tomorrow but I wanted to mention why I was still here at 10 after 10, here protecting our communities across America.

I have sent an amendment to the desk. I hope that amendment will be queued up as per the suggested list of Senator Baucus.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate

proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 27, submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statement be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 383, that was introduced earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m. Thursday, February 5; that following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and that the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 1, the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Mr. President, Senators should expect rollcall votes throughout the day as we work to complete action on this important economic recovery legislation.