Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to a period of morning business with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Madam President, I have come to the floor to talk for a moment about the unprecedented flooding that has occurred in the State of North Dakota in recent weeks. My colleague, Senator Conrad, discussed it some yesterday, and I want to discuss it as well.

We have had flood disaster assistance now approved for 38 of North Dakota's 53 counties, and it has been the most unprecedented, unbelievable flooding we have ever seen in the State of North Dakota. This chart I have in the Chamber shows, in red, the counties that have been declared disaster areas as a result of flooding. You can see it covers nearly three-fourths of the State of North Dakota. And we have had more snow, more moisture, more difficulty, more blizzards, and so on, and the rivers across our State have exceeded their banks and threatened very dramatic flooding, which I am going to talk about some today. But before I talk about the water, I want to talk about the people of North Dakota.

The unprecedented flooding that has driven people from their homes and caused so much damage and so much difficulty for so long has caused people in North Dakota to come together to do the most unusual things I have ever seen.

At midnight one night, I peered down the stairs of what is called the FARGODOME to see this large expanse. Inside this large dome building, at near midnight, I peered down on that floor, and there were thousands and thousands of people on the floor of that dome filling sandbags. They filled 3\1/2\ million sandbags in about 5\1/2\ days--3\1/2\ million sandbags in 5\1/2\ days. And they did not hire anybody to do that; they just put out a notice on the radio to say: We need people, and people showed up. The most unbelievable thing in Fargo, ND, was to watch what they did with just the people power that showed up. No one thought a group of people could do that, but they did--3\1/2\ million sandbags.

The Anne Carlsen School over in Jamestown, ND--on the James River that began flooding--the Anne Carlsen School previously, many years ago, was called the Crippled Children's School. Children who are in that school need a great deal of care. There needed to be an evacuation of the Anne Carlsen School. Eighty athletes from the college and the high school showed up, and in 4 hours, not just the children but the special beds and special equipment and all the things that are necessary to help take care of those children was moved to higher ground and moved to safer quarters.

It is unbelievable that people all over our State just showed up. When all of these volunteers were out there walking the dikes--and particularly the National Guard that walked all of those dikes on the Red River especially, and now in Valley City, which has very high levels at the moment and is in a very difficult circumstance--we had all of those people involved 24 hours a day.

As is very typical in a State such as mine, hundreds and hundreds of people decided that one way they could participate is to prepare hot dishes and casseroles and meals. I was in meetings where people would show up with big platters of homemade sandwiches. I know volunteers who worked for hour after hour on end would find that people would show up with casseroles and hot dishes, as they call them in our part of the country. One of the ways you fight floods as well is to feed those who are hungry out there in the dike lines and out there who are sandbagging.

Let me show a couple of the sites from the Red River Valley. This is a photograph of a National Guard helicopter. I cannot say enough about the National Guard and how critically important they have been to this flood fight.

But, as you can see from this picture, this area is as flat as a table top. Someone once described the Red River and the Red River Valley as a table top with a scratch in it, the scratch being the Red River. You can see there is not a hill in sight. This is totally, completely flat. You see water simply spreads everywhere. Here is a farmstead completely surrounded by water. That is in the Red River Valley of North Dakota.

In Pembina, ND--and by the way, this Red River runs north and runs out of North Dakota at Pembina into Lake Winnipeg--you will see the city of Pembina is surrounded by water. As shown in this picture, this is an interstate highway surrounded by water. The folks in Pembina, almost every year, have to fight these floodwaters, and this year was no different.

As reported in the Valley City Times Record, a substantial portion of Valley City had to be evacuated. In the middle of this unbelievable fight in Valley City--and by the way, that is on the Sheyenne River-- the fight to the finish line here was with so many volunteers to build dikes and to try to do what is necessary to save the city of Valley City. I walked into the Valley City Winter Show facility and saw once again an unbelievable sandbagging operation. Just blowing the city whistle and putting out a notice over the radio meant that people flocked to the area where they were needed to fill sandbags. In Valley City, even as I speak, they are still fighting those floodwaters. As shown in this picture, this is part of the diking around Valley City, as you can see. This happens to be the Sheyenne River. I mentioned the Red River Valley, which is the Red River. The Red River runs north, one of the only rivers in America that run north. The headwaters are in the southern part of North Dakota and South Dakota, so the headwaters are south and the river runs north. But this is the Sheyenne River, which then eventually runs into the Red River as well. That happens to be the Valley City issue.

This is a picture of Fargo, ND. This photograph is all water. Obviously, this house is flooded. But we had the Coast Guard there. We had propeller boats evacuating people. It is an unbelievable sight.

This is a copy of the Bismarck Tribune: ``Forces of Nature.'' It shows a number of head of cattle simply gathered here on the only piece of dry ground, stranded by all of the water.

Of course, Linton, ND, a little community, a smaller community south of Bismarck, was hit with a significant flood.

Beulah and Hazen were hit with a significant flood, and Bismarck, ND, with ice jams, has a threat to a substantial portion of that city of a wall of 3 or 3\1/2\ feet of water that would inundate the southern part of that city if the ice jams broke.

All of these communities were facing those kinds of challenges.

Ransom County, ND. This is dead cattle shown in this picture. We do not know the count yet of how many dead head of livestock we will have, but it will be plenty, and our ranchers will have suffered a substantial amount. In addition to the dead livestock that is going to happen, we will have, undoubtedly, more than 3 million acres of ground that cannot be planted this year because of water--another difficulty as a result of this flood to the agriculture community.

As shown in this picture, this is one block from Main Street in Beulah, ND. I will be in Beulah on Saturday of this week. Here is the threat that Beulah faced, a city in the center of our State, and all of these communities: Valley City, Lisbon, La Moure, Fort Ransom, Mott, Beulah, Linton, Bismarck--and the list goes on--Pembina. All of these cities faced very substantial flooding this year.

Here, shown in this picture, is a feed lot west of Mandan, ND, with a couple dogs and a bucket. All you can see is water because that is all there was because of complete total flooding.

This is a photograph of a flooded yard and outbuilding in Fargo, ND, with a dog looking over the dikes.

Let me say the Corps of Engineers has done a masterful job. Let me also say the mayor and the vice mayor and the folks in Fargo and so many other communities have done an extraordinary job. The mayor of Valley City even today is continuing to fight this fight. If you go into a fight, a flood fight, you want the Corps of Engineers on your side because they have sent hundreds of people into our State to try to fight these floods.

This is a photograph of sandbagging, in this case by National Guardsmen, in Bismarck, ND.

This is a photograph of the dropping of 2,000-pound sandbags in areas of the dike that were about to breach, dropping from a helicopter 2,000-pound sandbags into a crevice to see if they could stop a breach.

These are just a few of the challenges we have faced in so many different communities: Jamestown, La Moure, Linton, Beulah/Hazen, Mott, Fort Ransom--so many other communities.

I want to say that I think almost everyone in North Dakota has been overwhelmed by what the notion of being a good neighbor really means. It means showing up, just showing up when you are needed--not because somebody asked you to but because you just felt you should because it was part of the destiny and the future of your community to be involved in fighting floodwaters.

This is a natural disaster, and it is going to take some long while for our State to recover. But our State is a community of interests that has made me enormously proud. The folks who settled the northern Great Plains are pretty special people. My ancestors showed up there from Europe a long, long time ago and pitched a tent on the prairies and raised a family and then built a house and started a farm. That is the way they started populating the prairies of the northern Great Plains.

In North Dakota, they still look after each other when times are tough. And this is about as tough a time as I have ever seen in my lifetime in the State of North Dakota with respect to natural disasters. We know that 12 years ago, in 1997, the city of Grand Forks faced a flood and the dike breached and the city of 50,000 people was evacuated. It was the largest evacuation of a major city at that time since the Civil War. We well understand a flood fight, well understand the consequences of natural disasters and flooding, and I am proud to say Grand Forks has come roaring back as a city.

I am also proud to say the cities of Fargo and Moorhead and Wahpeton and Breckenridge and others have fought back these floodwaters, and we did not have a breach in the dike, so that a major portion of the cities were protected. But other areas were not. The mayor of Oxbow, ND, for example--I recall standing on a dike with him, and

his eyes were full of tears as he recalled and recounted the fight they fought and lost in some areas because they simply could not hold back the waters.

There are so many stories and so much misery as a result of a natural disaster, but I think there is also a second side to it, and that is a very inspirational side of what people can do for each other and with each other to try to deal with these difficult times. The one thing about life is, success is pretty easy to handle. The question is, How do you handle things when times get a little tough?

I wanted to say I am so proud of the people of my State, the State I am privileged to represent. We have a lot now to do with the Corps of Engineers, with future water projects, and the kinds of protections that are needed to be improved for future flood protection. That will come at a different moment in the weeks and months ahead, but for now I simply wanted to describe to my colleagues some of the circumstances we faced in our State and especially the stories about what people did together to try to make a big difference, fighting back the waters of these many rivers that exceeded their banks and caused such havoc in many of our communities.

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

Madam President, I wish to speak about S. 386, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, which Senator Leahy and others will bring to the floor of the Senate. It is astounding to me that a piece of legislation that provides and strengthens the Justice Department and investigative agencies with the ability to go after fraud and recovery with respect to this financial collapse--even something that is bipartisan and is so fundamental--is now subject to a filibuster.

Think of it: You can't do anything around here without there being a filibuster. We have to file a cloture petition and ask that it ripen for 2 days and then do 30 hours postcloture. It is unbelievable. It demonstrates, unfortunately, an inability of the majority to get things done because of a minority deciding it wants to filibuster everything.

But look, this legislation authorizes substantial funding to strengthen the ability of the Justice Department, the FBI, and other investigative agencies to fight fraud.

This money, well spent, will recapture that amount of money many times over in the pursuit of financial fraud. If anyone who is reading the papers and watching television and seeing what is happening in the financial crisis in this country believes that there ought not be substantial, enhanced investigative capabilities by the Justice Department to go after fraud and to prosecute where they find fraud, they must be living on a different planet. This reforms the statutes that deal with fraud and with money laundering.

Senator Leahy and others have put together a bill that I believe will substantially improve the capability to prosecute financial crimes. I think most Americans will be surprised to learn that taxpayers' funds expended under what is called the TARP funds in the economic stimulus package are not necessarily protected under the Federal fraud statutes. By the same token, Federal fraud statutes presently do not include mortgage lending businesses that are not directly regulated or insured by the Federal Government. These companies, by the way, were responsible for nearly half of the residential mortgages before the economic collapse. Yet they remain largely unregulated. This piece of legislation would begin to address that.

Let me give some examples of what has happened and what continues to happen. This is something that is on the Internet today. You see all the financial collapse we have had in this country caused by bad mortgages, subprime mortgages. You can go to the Internet and find this:

CC&G Financial Group, working together to build your

dreams. You have bad credit, poor credit, good credit, we can

get you into your dream home.

They are advertising: If you have bad credit, we will loan you some money and get you a dream home. It is unbelievable.

They say:

With the fantastic values that are available today due to

foreclosures and short sales, now is the time to get into

your own home. Come to us, we will get you some money.

It is exactly the same thing that steered this country into a ditch in the first place.

This on the Internet today, called ``Speedy Bad Credit Loans.'' Is that unbelievable? That is unbelievable to me, a company called Speedy Bad Credit Loans. Shame on them.

This says:

Bad credit mortgage--bad credit? OK. No credit? OK.

Bankruptcy? No problem. No downpayments, no delays.

Shame on them.

But it is not just these fly-by-night fleabags that are running these schemes. What was the biggest mortgage company in the country? Countrywide--Countrywide mortgage, the biggest mortgage company in America. Here is what they said in the middle of the subprime scandal:

Do you have less than perfect credit? Do you have late

mortgage payments? Have you been denied by other lenders?

Call us.

``Call us,'' they said--the biggest mortgage lender in the country.

There were mortgage companies willing to lend you money with no principal payment. You just pay interest; or if you can't pay interest and no principal, then just part of the interest and they will put the rest of it on the back of the loan; or no principal and just part of the interest, but you don't have to pay anything for the first 12 months because they will make the first 12 months' payments for you.

If you want to get a loan without having to document your income-- they call it a ``no doc'' loan, a no-documentation loan--you don't have to document what your income is. By the way, don't worry about making payments anytime soon because we will give you a loan no matter what. Then if it doesn't work out, your home value is going to increase and you can sell it off for a profit. Good for you.

This is a shameful display of what is going on in the marketplace. Countrywide, of course, went belly-up. The folks who ran it got off with a couple hundred million dollars, we are told. In the meantime, go to the Internet and see if it is still going on.

This legislation being brought to the floor of the Senate is bipartisan legislation that reforms the statutes that deal with some of these issues, to say: Stop it. You cannot do this stuff anymore.

There is a lot of work to do in investigating and cracking down on financial fraud, including mortgage fraud. The bill we are considering this week is going to go a long way toward that effort. This bill is going to give law enforcement the investigators they need, the prosecutors the resources they need. It is supported by the National Fraternal Order of Police, Taxpayers Against Fraud, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and the National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Finally, let me just say that I am going to be talking to the chairman of the committee. I have a couple of suggestions for amendments. One will be a sense of the Senate to establish an economic or financial crisis task force in the Justice Department, a multiagency task force that goes after these kinds of crimes. Second, I want to talk to the chairman of the committee and with my colleagues as well about a Senate select committee to investigate the cause of the economic crisis. That is a piece of legislation I introduced with Senator McCain a couple of months ago. I want to visit with my colleagues, Senator Dodd, the chairman of the Banking Committee on this, and Senator Reid, of course, and Senator Leahy. I think all of these things need to be discussed.

I especially wanted to say that the underlying bill brought to the floor of the Senate has great merit. I hope this week we will be able to finish work on this bill. It will make this country a better place by holding accountable those who have been engaged, in my judgment, in some cases, in some high crimes. The American people have paid a very stiff price for that activity. I think it needs to be investigated and prosecuted aggressively.

I yield the floor.

north dakota natural disasters

Mr. President, 2 days ago, Roxana Saberi from Fargo, ND, was convicted of espionage by an Iranian revolutionary court and sentenced to 8 years in prison after a very brief trial that was held behind closed doors.

I have said very little publicly about this case But when the sentence was announced, I said I thought it was a terrible miscarriage of justice. I don't come to the floor today to inflame the passions about this issue, but I wish to, for a few moments, say some words about Roxana Saberi and to urge the Iranian Government to do the right thing and release this young woman from prison and allow her to come home to the United States.

Roxana Saberi is not a spy. She is an Iranian American. She was born and raised and educated in Fargo, ND. Her father is Iranian, which means she has dual citizenship. She went to Iran as a journalist because she is interested in the culture of the country which her father came from.

I know Roxana and her family, and let me tell you a bit about the young woman who sits today in a prison in Iran. Roxana was born in Fargo, ND, 31 years ago. Her father Reza is an Iranian, her mother Akiko is Japanese. She is a 1994 honors graduate of Fargo North High School. She was active in music and soccer and key club and dance. She is a member of that high school's hall of fame. She earned a double major in French and communications in 1997 from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. She was active in music and a sports star in soccer. She reported for the campus television and newspaper. In 1997, she was selected as Miss North Dakota. In 1997, she was one of the 10 finalists in the Miss America Pageant. When she received her Miss North Dakota title, Roxana said her aim was to encourage other young people to appreciate cultural differences. That ambition led her to a career in journalism.

In 1999, she completed a master's degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. In 2000, she received a master's degree in international relations from Cambridge University in England. She

moved in 2003 to Iran as a freelance journalist. She reported for National Public Radio, Fox News, and the BBC. This is a young woman of great accomplishment. She has two master's degrees, she has a great education, and she so celebrated her culture that she wanted to spend time in the country of Iran, where her father was born, and she did reporting in the country of Iran. She stayed in Iran after her press credentials lapsed in 2006. She stayed to write a book and complete work on a master's degree in Iranian studies and international relations.

At the end of January in this year, Roxana was picked up and sent to prison. She was held nearly 2 months without charge in a prison outside of Tehran. As I indicated, this Saturday she was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 8 years in prison. The trial was a brief closed-door trial, and this young woman was not allowed to speak in her own defense.

Since Roxana Saberi was convicted and sentenced on Saturday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to the Tehran's prosecutor saying Roxana's rights must not be violated in any way and he asked the prosecutor to ensure that she is allowed to offer a full defense in her appeal.

In addition, the head of Iran's judiciary has ordered a ``quick and fair'' appeal of Roxana's case. Perhaps they understand that because of worldwide attention to the imprisonment of this young woman, Iran's credibility is on trial as well. When Iranian authorities review Roxana's cases, they will see she has not been granted the basic human and judicial rights that are guaranteed--or supposed to be guaranteed-- under Iran's Constitution and penal code.

As I said, she was arrested in late January, she was held without charge and kept without communication with her family for weeks before being allowed to call her parents in faring Fargo, ND. It took about 6 weeks before she was allowed to see the lawyer who was hired by her parents. At first, she was told she was imprisoned because she bought a bottle of wine, and the person who sold her the bottle of wine had reported it to Iranian authorities. Then she was accused of working as a journalist without a valid press card. Finally, she was accused of espionage, of spying for the United States, and at the trial--conducted behind closed doors, according to her lawyer--was not allowed to speak in her own defense.

Roxana Saberi's parents have traveled to Iran to work on their daughter's behalf. They say they have been treated courteously by Iranian officials. They have now been able to visit Roxana in prison, and they have been allowed to work with the lawyer and speak to the press. I visited with Roxana's father today and a couple times last week. He is enormously gratified at the outpouring of support for Roxana from all around the world. President Obama, I know, has spoken of this issue, Secretary Clinton, media outlets around the world and nongovernment organizations, foreign governments and the European Union have all appealed on her behalf. Roxana's father has indicated she has not been abused in prison but that she is frail, has lost weight, and he fears she may not survive in prison for a lengthy term.

Some have said this case suggests we shouldn't have any dialogue or discussions with Iran. I think quite the opposite. One of the difficulties of this case is that an American citizen has been imprisoned unfairly in Iran and then charged and tried and sentenced unfairly. We have no embassy and no Ambassador in Iran, so we must work through the Swiss Embassy, which is the protecting power for American citizens in Iran.

My hope is that as a result of what has happened internationally and as a result of what we have heard from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the chief of Iran's judicial system, the Iranian authorities will understand this is a travesty of justice; that this doesn't meet any standard of fairness and that Roxana Saberi is not--is not, I repeat--a spy. My hope is the Iranian authorities will decide enough is enough, and they will allow this young woman to be freed from prison and to travel back to this country.

She is an American citizen, born, raised, and educated in this country. The Iranians make the case she is an Iranian citizen. That ignores the fact that she was born and raised and educated here. She is an American citizen. To have an American citizen imprisoned in Iran, held 2 months without charge, and then charged in a closed-door trial with espionage is, in my judgment, an affront to fairness, and I think it is an unbelievable miscarriage of justice. My fervent hope is the Iranian authorities will do what should be done in this case and recognize that a miscarriage has occurred. They have the ability and the capability to rectify it.

Would the chairman of the committee yield? Is it not the case that most of the amendments, perhaps 90 percent of the amendments we have voted on today, would have no real policy implications?

If the Senator would yield further for a question, might it not be advisable, given the fact that most amendments have no policy implications at all, if they are made to the Budget Act, just to accept all amendments en bloc by UC and discard all of those without merit once you get to conference?

Mr. President, This amendment will go far in meeting the Federal Government's trust responsibility to provide health care services to Native Americans.

There is a health care crisis in Indian Country and I have spoken many times on the Senate floor about the importance of funding and meeting our obligation to provide for the health care of the First Americans. There are over 4 million Native Americans in this country, just fewer than 2 million of which depend on the Indian Health Service for their health care needs. However, the Indian Health Service is severely underfunded. Despite our trust obligation to Indian Tribes, the Federal Government spends twice as much on the health care of Federal prisoners as we do on American Indians.

My amendment will increase the budget authority for the Indian Health Service by an additional $200 million to obtain a total of $600 million in increased budget authority over the fiscal year 2009 enacted level. The President's request for ``over $4 billion'' for total IHS funding, asks for an increase for IHS of over $400 million. My amendment will increase the President's budget request from $400 million to $600 million in increased budget authority for the Indian Health Service. This brings us to the total that committee Vice Chairman Barrasso and I recommended for the Indian Health Service for fiscal year 2010 in our views and estimates letter to the Senate Budget Committee on March 13, 2009. As my colleagues will remember, last year, Congress overwhelmingly passed a similar amendment requesting a $1 billion increase in Indian Health Service budget authority by a vote of 69 to 31. I ask my colleagues to again consider the great need for assistance in Indian health, even in these tough economic times.

While $200 million is small in comparison to the unmet needs of the Indian Health Service, when included with the President's request, the amendment makes the overall increase in budget authority equal to $600 million. This amendment is crucial because it shows that Congress is committed to funding the Indian Health Service at a higher level and emphasizes the government's effort to continue to fulfill its trust responsibility to provide health care in Indian Country.

We passed the Indian Health Care Improvement Act on the floor of the Senate in the 110th Congress. I am proud of that because it had been many years since this Congress had addressed the issue of Indian health care. Unfortunately, the bill did not pass the House and Indian Country suffers the consequences.

Through a number of hearings by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, we have confirmed extensive unmet health care needs in Indian Country. The need includes over $3 billion just for health facilities and an ever growing $1 billion for contract health services. The health status of Native Americans are staggering. For example, Native Americans die at higher rates than other Americans from tuberculosis 600 percent higher, alcoholism, 510 percent higher, diabetes, 189 percent higher, and suicide, 70 percent higher. Third

world conditions exist right here in this country on Indian lands.

The story of Jami Rose Jetty highlights what underfunding the Indian health care system means to the lives of our youth and families in Indian Country and communities across the U.S. In February, I held an Indian Affairs oversight hearing on youth suicide. At that hearing, a young woman of 16 years old, named Dana Lee Jetty of the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota testified. She told the story of losing her sister, Jami Rose Jetty, who committed suicide at just 14 years old.

Dana described her sister Jami as someone who had a lot of friends and was mature for her age. Jami was an open-minded, caring, and compassionate teenager. The sisters were best friends and part of a middle-class, loving home.

Jami's mother knew there was something wrong with her daughter. She took Jami to Indian health care facilities over and over again, but no doctor properly diagnosed her depression. Even though her mother knew better, the doctors would say Jami was ``just a typical teenager'' and send the family home. In November 2008, Jami took her own life.

During her testimony, Dana emphasized that she felt her sister Jami would still be alive had there been trained mental health professionals available near the Spirit Lake Reservation. Unfortunately, Jami didn't receive the services she needed. Dana, her family, and the entire Spirit Lake community were affected by the loss of this precious young life.

Jami did not receive the care she needed because we have a health care system in Indian Country that is not working. It is dramatically underfunded. We are rationing health care and people are dying as a result. It is truly a scandal, which should be front-page news.

Mr. President, by asking for an increase in Indian health funding, my amendment allows us to continue the dialogue with Indian Country. It emphasizes that the United States understands the health disparities that Native Americans face and that we will make Indian Country a priority this Congress. I thank my colleagues for joining me today and in the future in supporting efforts to improve the health of Native Americans throughout the United States.

Amendment No. 965

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2009.

Last Congress, as Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, I chaired eight hearings on the criminal justice system as it relates to American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Those hearings confirmed that a longstanding and life threatening public safety crisis exists on many of our Nation's American Indian reservations.

One of the primary causes for violent crime in Indian Country is the broken system of justice. The current system limits local tribal government authority to combat crime in their own communities, and requires reservation residents to rely on Federal officials to investigate and prosecute violent crimes in district courts that are often hundreds of miles away from the reservation.

The United States created this system. In so doing, our Government accepted the responsibility to police Indian lands, and incurred a legal obligation to provide for the public safety of tribal communities.

Unfortunately, we are not meeting that obligation.

The following is a partial listing of Indian Country criminal justice statistics. These statistics represent more than numbers. They represent the dark reality faced by hundreds of tribal communities on a daily basis.

The violent crime rate in Indian country is nearly twice the national average, and more than 20 times the national average on some reservations.

Thirty-four percent of Native women will be raped in their lifetimes; and 39 percent will be subject to domestic violence.

Fewer than 3,000 tribal and Federal law enforcement officers patrol more than 56,000,000 acres of Indian lands--less than \1/2\ of the law enforcement presence in comparable communities nationwide.

The lack of police presence has resulted in significant delays in responding to victims' calls for assistance, which in turn adversely affects the collection of evidence needed to prosecute domestic violence and sexual assaults.

In addition, Federal officials have seized business documents from organized crime operations citing the lack of police presence and jurisdictional confusion as reasons for targeting Indian reservations for the manufacture and distribution of drugs.

An Interior Department report found that 90 percent of existing Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal detention facilities must be replaced. The lack of jail bed space has forced tribal courts to release a number of offenders.

Tribal communities rely solely on the U.S. to investigate and prosecute felony-level crimes occurring on the reservation. However, between 2004 and 2007, Federal prosecutors declined 62 percent of Indian country criminal cases, including 72 percent of child and adult sex crimes.

To address this crisis, I am introducing the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2009 with the support of my colleagues Committee Vice Chairman Barrasso, and Senators Baucus, Bingaman, Begich, Cantwell, Johnson, Kyl, Lieberman, Murkowski, Tester, Thune, Udall, and Wyden.

This bill will take initial steps to mend this broken system by arming tribal justice officials with the needed tools to protect their communities. Importantly, the bill would enable tribal courts to sentence offenders up to 3 years in prison for violations of tribal law, an increase from the current limit of 1 year. It also arms tribal police with better access to national criminal databases, and improves their ability to makes arrests for reservation crimes.

In addition, the bill would provide for greater accountability on the part of Federal officials responsible for investigating and prosecuting reservation crimes. To increase coordination of prosecutions, the bill would require U.S. Attorneys to file declination reports and maintain data when refusing to pursue a case. Maintaining consistent data on declinations will enable Congress to direct funding where the additional resources are needed. It would also require greater consultation and coordination between federal law enforcement officials, tribal leaders, and community members.

To address the epidemic of domestic violence, the bill would require Federal health and law enforcement officials to establish consistent sexual assault protocols. It would require officials to testify to aid tribal court prosecutions. The bill would also require Federal officials to receive specialized training to properly interview victims of domestic and sexual violence, and improve evidence collection and preservation, which will help improve the prosecution of domestic violence and sexual assaults in Federal and tribal courts.

Improving the system will ensure that Federal dollars appropriated to fight reservation crime will be used in a more efficient manner. To that end, the bill also reauthorizes and amends several Federal programs designed to supplement tribal justice systems to enable them to better combat crime locally. These programs would provide funding for tribal courts, tribal police, Indian youth programs, and tribal jails construction.

This bill was developed in consultation with tribal, Federal and State law enforcement officials, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, victims, victims' advocates and many others.

I want to again thank the co-sponsors for their support. Many of the co-sponsors sit on the Indian Affairs Committee with me, and have repeatedly heard from Federal and tribal officials about this longstanding problem. The residents of Indian Country deserve our timely consideration of this bill. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage of this legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2009.

Last Congress, as Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, I chaired eight hearings on the criminal justice system as it relates to American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Those hearings confirmed that a longstanding and life threatening public safety crisis exists on many of our Nation's American Indian reservations.

One of the primary causes for violent crime in Indian Country is the broken system of justice. The current system limits local tribal government authority to combat crime in their own communities, and requires reservation residents to rely on Federal officials to investigate and prosecute violent crimes in district courts that are often hundreds of miles away from the reservation.

The United States created this system. In so doing, our Government accepted the responsibility to police Indian lands, and incurred a legal obligation to provide for the public safety of tribal communities.

Unfortunately, we are not meeting that obligation.

The following is a partial listing of Indian Country criminal justice statistics. These statistics represent more than numbers. They represent the dark reality faced by hundreds of tribal communities on a daily basis.

The violent crime rate in Indian country is nearly twice the national average, and more than 20 times the national average on some reservations.

Thirty-four percent of Native women will be raped in their lifetimes; and 39 percent will be subject to domestic violence.

Fewer than 3,000 tribal and Federal law enforcement officers patrol more than 56,000,000 acres of Indian lands--less than \1/2\ of the law enforcement presence in comparable communities nationwide.

The lack of police presence has resulted in significant delays in responding to victims' calls for assistance, which in turn adversely affects the collection of evidence needed to prosecute domestic violence and sexual assaults.

In addition, Federal officials have seized business documents from organized crime operations citing the lack of police presence and jurisdictional confusion as reasons for targeting Indian reservations for the manufacture and distribution of drugs.

An Interior Department report found that 90 percent of existing Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal detention facilities must be replaced. The lack of jail bed space has forced tribal courts to release a number of offenders.

Tribal communities rely solely on the U.S. to investigate and prosecute felony-level crimes occurring on the reservation. However, between 2004 and 2007, Federal prosecutors declined 62 percent of Indian country criminal cases, including 72 percent of child and adult sex crimes.

To address this crisis, I am introducing the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2009 with the support of my colleagues Committee Vice Chairman Barrasso, and Senators Baucus, Bingaman, Begich, Cantwell, Johnson, Kyl, Lieberman, Murkowski, Tester, Thune, Udall, and Wyden.

This bill will take initial steps to mend this broken system by arming tribal justice officials with the needed tools to protect their communities. Importantly, the bill would enable tribal courts to sentence offenders up to 3 years in prison for violations of tribal law, an increase from the current limit of 1 year. It also arms tribal police with better access to national criminal databases, and improves their ability to makes arrests for reservation crimes.

In addition, the bill would provide for greater accountability on the part of Federal officials responsible for investigating and prosecuting reservation crimes. To increase coordination of prosecutions, the bill would require U.S. Attorneys to file declination reports and maintain data when refusing to pursue a case. Maintaining consistent data on declinations will enable Congress to direct funding where the additional resources are needed. It would also require greater consultation and coordination between federal law enforcement officials, tribal leaders, and community members.

To address the epidemic of domestic violence, the bill would require Federal health and law enforcement officials to establish consistent sexual assault protocols. It would require officials to testify to aid tribal court prosecutions. The bill would also require Federal officials to receive specialized training to properly interview victims of domestic and sexual violence, and improve evidence collection and preservation, which will help improve the prosecution of domestic violence and sexual assaults in Federal and tribal courts.

Improving the system will ensure that Federal dollars appropriated to fight reservation crime will be used in a more efficient manner. To that end, the bill also reauthorizes and amends several Federal programs designed to supplement tribal justice systems to enable them to better combat crime locally. These programs would provide funding for tribal courts, tribal police, Indian youth programs, and tribal jails construction.

This bill was developed in consultation with tribal, Federal and State law enforcement officials, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, victims, victims' advocates and many others.

I want to again thank the co-sponsors for their support. Many of the co-sponsors sit on the Indian Affairs Committee with me, and have repeatedly heard from Federal and tribal officials about this longstanding problem. The residents of Indian Country deserve our timely consideration of this bill. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage of this legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Madam President, if my colleague from North Dakota would yield for a question on this subject.

Our colleague from Utah, Senator Hatch, if he would just observe, this issue is not a new one. I know Senator Grassley, who is on the Finance Committee, is here, and there has been a lot of discussion about this: Do we have an extraordinarily high rate of taxation on corporations or don't we? We just heard on the floor that we rank I think the second highest in tax rates on corporations. Well, this is not some arcane discussion between people who can't understand exactly what is happening. We rank, I believe, third from the bottom in the rate of taxes paid by corporations of all of the OECD countries-- 30-some countries, we rank third from the bottom, not from the top.

So they come out here and say: Well, we have a high rate. Our statutory rate is high, toward the top, no question about that, but that is not what corporations are paying. They are not paying the rate, they are paying the rate minus all of the deductions and loopholes. The fact is, the corporate tax burden in this country is right close to the bottom of all of the other industrialized countries. Now, this ought not be debatable. We can easily find out what the facts are. So are we competitive with respect to the corporate income tax? The answer is yes.

I understand why the Chamber of Commerce and others want to perpetuate this notion that somehow we overtax corporations, but, in fact, the taxes paid by American corporations rank right near the bottom of all of the 30 or so OECD countries, the industrialized countries--right toward the bottom, not the top. That is what they, in fact, pay. If we are going to debate public policy, let's debate it with a set of facts so that we all understand what the facts are. The fact that people are talking about this in the context of what is the tax burden on corporations? The answer is, we are toward the bottom of all of the OECD countries. Those are the facts.

Madam President, I know this is a very important debate, this issue of the budget. This is: What are our priorities? I have said often that 100 years from now, we will all be dead and the only evidence of what our value system was right here, right know, will be evaluated by historians. Historians will be alive, and they will look back and say: What did that country believe in? What was their value system? What did they think was important? What did they invest in? So take a look at all of this and then make judgments.

We will have a debate all this week on this issue: What is important for the country? What do we believe represents our highest set of values? Kids? I have always said I know what might be in second, third, or fourth place in people's lives, but I certainly know what is in first place--their kids, right? So what about our budget with respect to health care for kids, just as an example. When we establish the priorities of what is important in our country, this is where we do it: in the budget. We debate it, we think about it, and then we say: This is what our country believes to be important. Here is what we should invest in to make this a better place in which to live.

I came to the floor to say something about the financial crisis and the financial meltdown in our country because that has a profound impact on this debate on the budget. This financial meltdown has begun to dry up the Federal revenues on the tax side. It has pushed up dramatically the expenditure side because we have what are called stabilizers in our economy. When people lose their jobs, they get unemployment checks. So we have these economic stabilizers that increase spending, even during this financial crisis when you see decreased revenue. That has a huge impact on this budget.

If this financial crisis has this kind of an impact on the budget, then we have a right to know what has caused all of this to happen, and what can we do to make sure it never happens again.

Last week, the Secretary of the Treasury announced a number of steps for financial regulatory reform, and those are a move in the right direction. He says we are going to regulate hedge funds, we are going to require the oversight of what are unregulated derivatives--these fancy, exotic financial products these days--we are going to require many of them to be regulated, although not fully. He needs to go further. But the Secretary is moving in the right direction to regulate hedge funds, to get rid of this dark money and bring derivatives and CDOs and credit default swaps and so on into the daylight. Then he talks about a powerful regulator that would be able to take a look at systemic risks and so on. I think all of that advances the ball and is in the right direction.

But this doesn't yet answer the larger question we have to answer with respect to this financial crisis and this meltdown. That larger question, using an automobile metaphor, is this: Is it time for a tuneup or is it time for a complete overhaul of the system? I come down on the side that you have to overhaul the entire system if you are going to provide the confidence needed in the American people going forward.

Now, let me explain how I see what has gone on. For the last 15, 20 years, we have had a bunch of people who were worshiping at the altar of this new type of finance--new financial instruments, new larger financial institutions, securitized credit, and selling the risk forward so that someone giving a home loan to a prospective homebuyer doesn't have to underwrite it or care so much about the risk, because they can sell that risk to an investment bank or a hedge fund, and sell it several times--these fancy, complex financial products.

I mentioned credit default swaps. There also has been a dramatic expansion of debt and leverage with almost every part of our financial enterprise in this country. Congress repealed the protections that used to exist for banks called the Glass-Steagall Act. Congress not only repealed these protections that used to protect banks so they could not invest in real estate and securities, and so on, but then allowed for the creation of the very large holding companies so they could get involved in one big financial swap--one-stop shopping. Gramm-Leach- Bliley did this, supported by the Clinton administration, I might say. These are all new-fashioned ideas. They got rid of the old-fashioned ideas, such as Glass-Steagall--just deregulate the market and don't worry about them.

Alan Greenspan chimed in, saying: I want to make a nice sound with all of this deregulation that is going on in Congress and I believe in self-regulation. We don't have to regulate. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Mr. Greenspan, said that would work. The lending terms and the incomes were from outer space; the incomes were unbelievable in all of these areas. And then the lending terms were completely unsupportable, and I will describe a few of those today.

We need to overhaul all this. What do we do to overhaul this? We have to get rid of this too-big-to-fail notion. We are now allowing banks that are too big to fail to merge with troubled banks, making them, apparently, too much bigger to fail, which is bizarre. We need to get rid of the holding companies, which never should have been allowed to happen in the first place. We need to go back to Glass-Steagall and create a portion of that to separate banking from the other risk enterprises.

Until we do that and address those fundamental questions, I think it is going to be very hard to instill the kind of confidence we want to instill in the American people. The New York Times asked the question in their editorial on Sunday of this week: What is it we are trying to fix? What caused the meltdown?

If you go back to the mid-1990s, I wrote an article in the Washington Monthly Magazine that was a cover story in 1994, I believe. The title was ``Very Risky Business.'' I wrote about derivatives, and I wrote that about tens of billions in derivatives that then existed. I introduced four pieces of regulation to regulate derivatives trading. None of it was acceptable because those involved in the new, modern approach to finance felt that you don't regulate these things. They will self-regulate and everything will be fine.

Of course, it was not fine and we had not only the notion of too big to fail, but the repeal of Glass-Steagall. We had the deregulation of all of this and the fusing of banking with riskier enterprises in holding companies. Regulators came to town boasting about the fact that we were willing to be blind. We had products developed that were hard to understand for even those engaged in trading them. Coupled with that, we had an unbelievable culture of greed, and the result was a financial meltdown.

The question is, what has caused, as the New York Times said, this house of cards? What is the cause? Do we know? Well, the fact is we need to know in order to move forward. The American people need to know. There needs to be a narrative that says here is what happened. We understand a portion of what happened, and it has been a calamity. Nobody understands all of it. The Attorney General of New York is doing some investigations here and there, but there is no comprehensive investigation. I believe there ought to be a select committee of the Senate, and I have introduced such legislation, with Senator McCain as a cosponsor. I believe we must do a select committee of the Senate to address these issues. I believe we also ought to have a financial crimes task force at the Justice Department to prosecute that which is discovered is illegal--a whole series of things.

We need to reconnect Glass-Steagall and decide that too big to fail is a doctrine that itself is old-fashioned, and we have to run our banks through a banking ``carwash'' of sorts, where you get rid of the bad assets and keep the good and rename them, if necessary. We need a banking system that is a circulatory system of our economy. But we cannot ignore what happened. We have to understand what happened and we have to fix it.

Let me go back to 1999, if I might, during the debate over the repeal of Glass-Steagall and passage of a bill called Gramm-Leach-Bliley. I was one of eight Senators who voted against it. On May 6, 1999, I said this bill will, in my judgment, raise the likelihood of future massive taxpayer bailouts. It will fuel the consolidation of mergers in the banking and financial services. I said that 10 years ago. I felt that would happen if we decided to let the big banks get bigger, without regulatory involvement. I said during that debate that we will, in 10 years time, look back and say we should not have done that repeal of Glass-Steagall, because we forgot the lessons of the past.

I wish this didn't happen, but it did. I wish to talk about what we do now. There are four steps. One, investigation. We need to find out what happened here. The New York Times has said--and I agree--in their questions on reform--in Sunday's editorial, it says that without an investigation, the reform effort will be, at best, hit or miss and, at worst, a charade.

Congress should start now to gear up for an investigation, using as its model the 1930s Pecora inquiry into the stock market crash, or the Watergate hearings of the 1970s. Here is a picture of Mr. Pecora, whom I described. Mr. Ferdinand Pecora was chief counsel of the Senate Banking Committee during the 1930s investigating the Wall Street banking and stock brokerage practices. He was involved in an investigation that I think was a very important one with respect to the cause and effect of the Great Depression. A real investigation is necessary and it will at least give those people who are furious about what happened an understanding and an outlet to understand and be a part of knowing what happened.

Now, I want to talk about the roots of some of this and why I think it is scandalous. The trigger of this financial crisis, I think, was the subprime scandal. Under the subprime scandal, there was so much debt and leverage that it was nearly unbelievable. We need something such as that to develop the narrative of what happened.

Let me describe the triggering mechanism with respect to the subprime lending. I went to the Internet today, and I will read a couple of invitations on the Internet. This is from speedybadcreditloans.com:

Do you want your loan approved on the terms you desire,

with easy credit and no credit check? This is the smartest

and fastest way to get the money you need for a home loan.

Bad credit, no credit, bankruptcy, you have been declined

before? Don't worry at Speedy Bad Credit Loans we have

lenders dealing with all kinds of credit loans. You will get

the money you need, and fast.

That is today. They are willing to loan on those terms today.

You can go to the Internet and find a dozen of these. In fact, I will show you this. Leading up to this crash, this financial crisis, Zoom Credit said this in their advertisement:

Credit approval is seconds away. Get on the fast track, and

at the speed of light they will approve you. Even if your

credit is in the tank, Zoom Credit is like money in the bank.

We specialize in credit repair and debt consolidation.

Bankruptcy, slow credit, no credit, who cares?

Is it a surprise that a financial system that allows this nonsense to go on somehow, at some point, collapses? That is not a surprise to me.

Here is Millenium Mortgage's advertisement:

Twelve months, no mortgage payment. That's right, we will

make your payments for the first 12 months. Our loan program

may reduce your current monthly payment by as much as 50

percent and allow you to make no payments for the first 12

months. Call us today.

Countrywide, the single largest mortgage company in America--by the way,

its CEO was able to get out of this with around $140 million, or so, I am told. They said:

Do you have less than perfect credit? Do you have late

mortgage payments? Have you been denied by other lenders?

Call us. Are you a bad risk? Call us, we will lend you some

money.

What did the biggest mortgage company in our country do? It made all these mortgages and then wrapped them up into securities--they securitized them. I have described it like the making of sausage, when they used to pack them with sawdust as filler. They packed these securities with good loans, bad loans, subprime loans, and conventional loans, and sold them to an investment bank, or a hedge fund--and, by the way, when you read about the toxic assets in the bowels of these institutions, these are the toxic assets.

Is it a surprise? This is bad business. They all made big money. They were like hogs at a trough, with unbelievable greed. They made massive amounts of money. Yet they were able to sell the risk forward, and the people in the hedge funds made money, and the people in the investment banks made money. The amount of money they made is unbelievable. Bear Stearns went belly up. Alan Schwartz, the CEO of Bear Stearns the 5 years prior, made $117 million. Jimmy Cane, the previous CEO, 5 years prior, made $128 million. At Lehman Brothers, Dick Fuld, 5 years prior to him going bankrupt, made $350 million. This was a carnival of greed. Everyone was doing well, except the economy, with this unbelievable avalanche of debt and leverage that all completely collapsed.

Now, we have a situation today where we have the American people trying to figure out what happened. I described the subprime loan scandal, which was at its roots. They were all making a lot of money by victimizing the American people. I should say some of the people were not victims. Some of these folks were willing victims because they wanted to buy a house with a special deal and flip it and make money. They got caught. They are not really victims. They were trying to profiteer. A lot of other folks were victims of this sort of scam.

I mentioned that these big investment banks took on all these assets and then got bailed out, and we now think there is $9 trillion of American taxpayers' money at risk going out through the back door of the Federal Reserve Board, Treasury, and the FDIC--$9 trillion. There has never been a hearing about that. No one has been able to get the Federal Reserve Board before a hearing to tell us where those trillions of dollars are pledged, who got the money, and how much money did they get. You cannot find out. The information we do have is pried out of the Federal Reserve Board. Bloomberg News corporation filed a lawsuit to get some of this information. That is unbelievable.

I mentioned these big financial firms that got all these bailouts. About $45 billion in TARP funds have gone to Bank of America. Bank of America got $30 billion in January of this year. Bank of America, last September, was urged to buy Merrill Lynch, a failed investment bank, by the then-Treasury Secretary Paulson. So what happened was the marriage was arranged by the Treasury Secretary and was going to be consummated in January. It turns out that in December, Merrill Lynch, which lost $27 billion in 2008, paid $3.6 billion in bonuses to their employees.

Let me say that again. An investment bank called Merrill Lynch that lost $27 billion--$15 billion in the fourth quarter alone--paid $3.6 billion in bonuses in December just prior to being taken over by Bank of America. Then Bank of America received $20 billion in TARP funds from the American taxpayers--in addition to $10 billion it had just been paid, which was initially allocated to Merrill Lynch. Pretty unbelievable.

Here are the Merrill Lynch bonuses, $3.6 billion. The top four executives got $121 million. This is for a company that lost $27 billion last year and was a failing company. Madam President, 694 executives got more than $1 million each. These are bonuses that would normally have been paid in January. They were paid in December, and my suspicion is they were paid by arrangement with Bank of America to be paid before the end of the year and before $30 billion went from the American taxpayers to Bank of America that just took over Merrill Lynch. That means, in my judgment, the American taxpayers paid bonuses to those who worked for a company that lost $27 billion in a year.

Do people have a right to be furious about this situation? You bet they do, and they should.

There are a lot of needs we have in this country to try to find a way to fix this situation so it never happens again. But as I have indicated, the first step, it seems to me, always is to try to understand what has happened and what to do about it.

The Washington Post had a story recently. In fact, I believe it was an editorial. They talked about the fact that hedge funds were not a part of the problem in this financial meltdown. I don't know about that. Let me show some examples of incomes at the hedge fund level. This is a man named James Simons. There is no implication here about being right or wrong, legal or illegal. My point is about the spectacular amount of income, what I call incomes from outer space. Mr. Simons made $2.5 billion last year--$2.5 billion. It is interesting. He runs a hedge fund.

Here is a man named John Paulson, who also runs a hedge fund. He made $2 billion last year. It seems to me he is probably profoundly disappointed because the year before, John made $3.7 billion. And, oh, by the way, my best guess is that each of them probably pays a 15- percent income tax rate, something called carried interest. But that is another story for another day. They pay income tax rates, in most cases, that would be below the marginal tax rate paid by their receptionist in their office. That is not their fault. That is the fault of the Tax Code and the fault of this Congress for not changing it.

John Paulson last year made $3.7 billion. He has a reason probably to come home and say: Honey, we need to tighten our belt here. Madam President, $3.7 billion--by the way, that is $10 million a day. In 2007, he made in 4 minutes what the average worker works for a year to make. Incomes from outer space, big old hedge funds--they play a role in this collapse. The Washington Post said they have played no role. Oh, really? Really? Where are they in the food chain of derivatives, credit default swaps, CDOs? Does the Washington Post know? Of course, it doesn't. It doesn't have the foggiest idea what role hedge funds may have played in this situation.

What we do know is there is a lot of dark money out there traded off the exchanges. Nobody knows what risk you have. That is why you have had all these big-shot bankers walking around acting like they are in some sort of seizure because nobody knows how much risk has been taken on. Every time we turn around it is more. It is billions, hundreds of billions, then trillions of dollars.

As I said earlier, we need to create a select committee in the Senate and soon. It is this body's job. We are the ones who send the money out. We are the ones who have said we are going to provide $700 billion of TARP funds. It is our responsibility to track it and to understand what has caused its need.

Second, I think there is a substantial reason--by the way, there are some attorneys general of this country, including Mr. Cuomo in New York, who are doing first-rate work in investigating. But I think there is substantial reason to believe there is a need for a national financial crimes prosecution task force.

Do I think all of this is criminal? Not at all. I think some of it is born of ignorance, some of it is born of greed, some of it is born of deliberate, willful blindness. But there are some, in my judgment, who desperately deserve to be investigated and, if necessary, prosecuted.

Finally, real reform. Real reform exists when we have real regulators, when we revisit 1999 and restore a portion of Glass- Steagall, when we decide to take down the ceilings and walls of these large holding companies, when we decide we are going to restore, once again, trust in banks.

Let me also say that in my home State, I visit with a lot of community bankers. They are not at risk. They did not do this. They did not invest in these assets. Most of them did banking the old-fashioned way. They took deposits and made loans. When they

made loans, they underwrote the loans. That is the way banking ought to be done. We need to revisit that with respect to some of the largest banking and financial enterprises in our country.

I am convinced we can fix all of this. I understand there is great anxiety. None of us have been here before. No one quite knows what is the medicine to try to address this economic illness. I understand. There is reason to be anxious. But I am also convinced we can and we will find the opportunity to put this back on track and fix what is wrong in this country. We will not fix what is wrong unless we understand the core and root cause of what has happened.

There is nothing I see--nothing I see--that is going to give us that answer. It is our responsibility. If we are required to put up the money, to try to find a way to invest in future health and so on, it is our responsibility to find out what happened and make sure it cannot happen again.

Steps are being taken in the right direction. I applaud those steps by the Treasury Secretary and others. But we are not nearly there with the giant steps that are necessary to fix that which has been existing now and growing for a decade or two.

Finally, I was telling a group the other day about Ray Charles, who used to sing that great song ``America the Beautiful,'' when he sang `` . . . spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountains majesties. . . .'' The interesting thing about Ray Charles, who sang that song unlike anybody else could sing it, was he was blind. Somehow, to me, it always meant it wasn't so much someone being able to see this as it was to experience what the idea of America is. America is an idea. Part of this idea, born over two centuries now, is we have the capability to do almost anything if we get together and decide to work together. We can do that now. We can put this country back on track. This is a financial collapse of significant proportions, perhaps the greatest crisis we have faced since the Great Depression. But I am not despondent about that if we can begin to take the steps--not the baby steps but the big steps--in the right direction to decide to fix what went wrong. The first step to do that always is to understand what went wrong and then join together and say: We can make this right; we can make a better future happen if we decide to link arms and come up with the answers.

I am going to speak, at some point later, on the budget as well. But nothing impacts this budget in a more profound way than the financial collapse and meltdown which we have seen. It dramatically increases the need for funding for economic stabilizers, unemployment and so on and it substantially reduces the revenue. It has caused a substantial increase in deficits. Even as we debate this budget going forward for 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, the fact is we have to get this right. We have to put this economy on track, and I believe we can do that if we make the right decisions very soon.

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

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I will not object, the point is following the next Democratic speaker, if there is one?

I do not have an objection.

Mr. President, I would like to announce that the Committee on Indian Affairs will meet on Thursday, April 2, 2009, at 2:15 p.m. in room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing on the following bills: S. 313, White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Right Quantification Act, S. 443, the Hoh Indian Tribe Safe Homelands Act, S. 633, the Tribal Health Promotion and Tribal Colleges and Universities Advancement Act, and H.R. 326, the Cocopah Lands Act.

Those wishing additional information may contact the Indian Affairs Committee at 202-224-2251.

Madam President, I am pleased to be a cosponsor of the Serve America Act, and I am glad the Senate is taking up this important bill this week. This legislation will provide better opportunities for all Americans to be involved in their communities. By engaging Americans of all ages in volunteer service opportunities, we can address some of our most pressing national challenges.

In North Dakota, people understand the importance of civic duty and lending a hand to help a neighbor or their community. In fact, as we are debating this legislation on the Senate floor, there is a major volunteer effort going on in North Dakota.

As I described in some detail yesterday, we are facing a major flood threat up and down the Red River Valley as well as in Bismarck and other communities around the state. The Red River is expected to rise to a record level in Fargo on Saturday. The community is working around the clock to fill sandbags, raise dikes and do their best to prepare. We are also facing several ice jams on the Missouri River that, if they break too fast, could flood our capital city of Bismarck in a matter of hours.

Yesterday I met with President Obama, along with Senator Conrad, Congressman Pomeroy, and our two colleagues from Minnesota, Senator Klobuchar and Congressman Peterson, to brief the President on the situation. The President pledged the full support of the Federal Government and signed an emergency disaster declaration to immediately deliver Federal aid to the region.

I am heading to North Dakota today to meet with Federal, State and local officials as we make the final push to prepare for the flood. I am sorry that I am going to miss the final series of votes on this bill, but I need to be on the ground in North Dakota.

Mr. President, first, I wish to say with respect to the Serve America Act, let me compliment the committee chair and the ranking member. This is a good piece of legislation. I am proud to support it. I also wish to say I have an amendment I hope we will be able to accept by voice this afternoon. It is the amendment that calls for a tribal liaison to the Corporation of National and Community Service in order to keep Indian tribes in this country fully involved in this process.

Some of the highest rates of unemployment in this country exist within Indian tribes. The opportunity to participate in, for example, the National Committee Service Program would be very important. So I know this amendment is supported by the chair and the ranking member, and I hope we can accept it by voice vote at some point this afternoon.

Mr. President, I would inform Senator Mikulski that I wanted to describe to my colleagues something that is happening in our State as I speak, and I wanted to do so in morning business so it doesn't interrupt the flow of the debate over this bill. So I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business to describe the flooding threat that is occurring in my State at this moment.

Mr. President, I rise today to speak on my amendment that has been offered to the Serve America Act. I would first like to thank my colleague, Senator Murkowski, for offering this amendment on my behalf. She is a cosponsor to this amendment along with a number of my other colleagues, including Senators Bingaman, Johnson, and Barrasso.

My amendment will accomplish two things: First, it will designate a permanent Strategic Advisor for Native American Affairs at the Corporation

for National and Community Service. And second, it will ensure that Indian Tribes remain eligible to compete for national service grants.

I want to applaud the Corporation for National and Community Service for recognizing the need for a tribal liaison over the past year. That office has helped make tribal communities more aware of the opportunities that the Corporation offers.

Making this position permanent will further increase tribal community in all national service programs. In addition, the office would collect information on challenges to tribes to better address tribal program needs.

The amendment places the designation of this position under the duties of the chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service and would greatly help to develop and enhance programming to address the unique needs of Indian tribes.

The second part of this amendment would ensure that tribal governments remain eligible for nationally competitive grants. Existing law allows tribes to compete for funds with states and national nonprofit organizations. The bill as currently written would remove tribal eligibility to compete for these grants. My amendment merely maintains existing law, and acknowledges Indian tribes as eligible entities for these competitive grants.

As my colleague from Alaska noted, many of the proposed Corps in this act address the very issues which are most critical in Indian Country. Grants under the activities and indicators of the Education, Healthy Futures, Clean Energy, Veterans and Opportunity Corps would provide many volunteers from tribal organizations, States, and national nonprofits numerous opportunities to work on reservations.

My hope is that the Corporation will continue to encourage the use of these Corps on Indian reservations though the proposed strategic adviser for Native American affairs in a way which will help tribal communities and individuals.

American Indians have the lowest level of educational attainment of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. Only 13.3 percent of Native Americans have an undergraduate degree, compared to the national average of 24.4 percent. Volunteers in the Education Corps who offer their time as mentors and tutors in Indian Country could help improve these numbers for our First Americans.

Moreover, the Health Futures Corps could assist with volunteers for individual American Indians who need help obtaining health services or navigating the health care system. The Clean Energy Corps might facilitate volunteers for Indian Country to assist with weatherization of homes on Indian reservations. The Veterans Corps is able to send volunteers to work with American Indian families who have a family member deployed overseas. Finally, the Opportunities Corps could provide volunteers to increase financial literacy in Indian communities where this assistance is desperately needed.

In addition, organizations who participate in the national service programs, such as the Boys and Girls Club, are active through these national service programs in Indian Country and they provide a much needed positive environment where Native American youth can go to celebrate their culture and community.

I would like to reiterate how important these national service programs are to Indian Country and thank the Corporation for National and Community Service for recognizing that importance. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to the Serve America Act.

Mr. President, Senator Conrad and I and Congressman Pomeroy, our two colleagues from Minnesota, Senator Klobuchar and Congressman Peterson, met with President Obama just a few moments ago in the Vice President's Room behind the Chamber to talk about the flood threat in our region. This is today's NOAA flood warning map of our country, and you will see that North Dakota is entirely green. The green represents the flood warning areas in our country. We have an entire State under a flood watch.

The headline in our State today is ``Blizzard Blasts The State.'' We have a raging blizzard that has gone on now for the last day and a half. It has closed the interstate highways. We have had up to 18 inches of snow in some areas, and then we have unbelievable flooding threats up and down the Red River and the Red River Valley of North Dakota. Now we have an urgent flood threat that exists in Bismarck, ND, as I speak.

I think it would probably be helpful just to show a few of the scenes. This is piling sandbags. They have had nearly 3 million sandbags filled in a very short period of time with college and high school students and National Guard and others in the Red River Valley filling sandbags. As I said, 3 million sandbags in a very short period of time.

This is the North Dakota National Guard filling sandbags inside the Bismarck Civic Center. Just in the last 24 hours we have seen a threat to the capital city--a very significant threat--and that threat is described in this photograph. This photograph shows what is called an ice jam. There are two ice jams at this point on the Missouri River and the Knife River that flows into the Missouri River. This shows an ice jam. As I speak, they are trying with explosives to deal with this ice jam. There are two ice jams, and if this happens in the wrong way, and one ice jam gives at the wrong time, we will see the entire south side of the capital city of Bismarck, ND, with a substantial amount of water.

Evacuations are underway as I speak in portions of that city. The mayor and the Governor and others, the Corps of Engineers, virtually everyone is involved, and this is a very significant flood threat that just really in the last 24 to 48 hours has developed as a result of significant ice jams.

This is a city that has not had substantial flood threats since the dam was built on the Missouri River about 60 miles north of Bismarck, ND. But these ice jams have completely changed the calculation and pose a serious threat to the city of Bismarck today. There is a great deal of work going on in the city. I say to all of them how much we admire the work they are doing. They are heroes. There are so many in the military and volunteers who are filling sandbags and doing the work that is necessary to fight that flood.

The Red River Valley flood--this is volunteers in the Fargodome filling sandbags. As I said, several million have now been filled. It appears that this flood could very well top the estimates of the 1997 flood. In 1997, in the Red River Valley, Grand Forks, ND, a community, then, of about 45,000 to 50,000 people was completely evacuated. I rode down the streets of Grand Forks in a boat in a community that was completely evacuated. In the middle of that flood, the center part of that downtown city caught on fire, and we had the spectacle of firefighters in the middle of a flood trying to fight a fire in a downtown area that had been completely evacuated.

This is the Red River Valley. It is completely flat, as flat as a table top. You can't see a hill in any direction. So because of unprecedented amounts of moisture--snowfall and rainfall--and because all of that occurred on top of ground that last fall, when it froze up was completely saturated, we now see, once again, the threat of record levels of flooding.

This is sandbagging outside of Fargo homes in the last day or two.

This is flooding in Beulah, ND.

This is 70 to 80 miles north and west of Bismarck, ND.

This is a feed lot in Mandan, ND. You can't see any feed, and you can't see a lot.

All you can see is water. This is a flooded yard in Fargo, ND. This is the

outskirts of Watford City, ND, which is 175 miles away from Bismarck. This is what the Jamestown Airport runway looks like.

The point is that we face a very serious threat. The urgent threat at the moment is in Bismarck, with the determination to try to solve the problem with these ice jams to prevent substantial flooding in the capital city. Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with the folks who are there today trying to do that.

In the Red River Valley--I will be there tomorrow and, hopefully, in Bismarck tomorrow night--the crest is expected in Fargo, ND, on Saturday. Our hope is that the flood fight that is occurring there goes well. Fargo has a lot of experience fighting flood waters. The mayor and others have done an extraordinary job over the years. They are building earthen dikes, filling sandbags, doing all they can, in coordination with FEMA, the Corps of Engineers, the National Weather Service, the North Dakota National Guard, and others.

I wanted to simply explain the circumstances of why we met with the President today, spoke with the Secretary of Homeland Security yesterday, and why it is important. The President, by the way, said, as President Clinton did when Grand Fork was evacuated, that the point is, in these circumstances you are not alone. This Government of ours--at the city, State, and Federal levels--brings to a flood fight a substantial amount of capability and expertise and people who know what they are doing. Added to that, the volunteers from all over our communities have done an extraordinary job.

I spoke this morning to a person who runs what was formerly called the Crippled Children's School in Jamestown, ND, which has been called in recent years the Ann Carlson School. Disadvantaged circumstances exist for the children in that school, who, when a flood comes, are not as mobile as others. They had to evacuate the Ann Carlson School yesterday. I think there were 60 to 70 children there who live in that school. They had to be evacuated. Again, these are kids with a lot of needs. They had 75 young student athletes show up from the high schools and colleges, and in 4 hours they evacuated that school. They had to take the beds and all of the special equipment those children need. In 4 hours, all those young athletes did that. The fellow who runs that school told me it was extraordinary to see how many showed up to say: Let us help you. So there is a lot going on.

I am going to travel to both the Red River Valley and to Bismarck. I wanted my colleagues to understand the circumstances. Again, to put the first chart back up, you will see that today's NOAA estimate of our country shows that our entire State is under a flood threat. It has been an extraordinary winter. Even as we have this threat, there is a raging blizzard that is shutting down interstate highways in our State and is dropping as much as 18 inches of snow. It has been a tough time.

North Dakotans are pretty resilient people. We will get through this. I wanted to tell my colleagues about this and about why I met with the President.