Floor Statements

Would my distinguished colleague yield for a question?

First, I would say to our distinguished chair of the Banking Committee that when you describe communities where businesses have collapsed and left communities struggling, certainly we have many of those in Michigan. Through no fault of the communities, and many times through no fault of businesses in terms of our recession right now, we have many communities in this situation.

Would the Senator from Connecticut agree that what we are talking about is not the cities or counties but the local communities and what happens? It is people. It is whether they are going to have a police force, police on the street or whether they are going to have the firefighters being able to answer if there is a fire or whether they are going to be able to pick up the garbage or whether they are going to be able to do snow removal on the streets. Aren't we talking about whether communities--people, families, and communities--if they need help, whether we would be able to respond to them? So it is not about the government; it is about whom it serves and the people who would be hurt through something such as this; would the Senator agree?

Madam President, today I pay tribute to an extraordinary man who passed away yesterday at the age of 92 years old: Ernie Harwell.

For 42 years, families throughout Michigan tuned into their radios and welcomed Ernie's signature voice into their homes as they listened to him call Detroit Tigers games. When he retired in 2002, Senator Levin and I submitted a resolution, which the Senate passed, celebrating his achievements and congratulating him on his many years of service. Today, I join with millions of people in Michigan and around the Nation in wishing Ernie a final farewell.

His accomplishments were many, and he will always hold a special place in our hearts and in our memories. He was the first active broadcaster inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and for good reason. In 1948, when he was calling games for a Minor League team in Atlanta, they actually traded Ernie--their announcer!--for a backup catcher from the Brooklyn Dodgers. He joined the Detroit Tigers in 1960 and during his tenure, he missed only two games--one for the funeral of his brother and another when he was inducted to the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.

His most memorable broadcasts include the broadcasting debut of Willie Mays in 1951, Bobby Thomson's ``shot heard 'round the world'' that same year, and Hoyt Wilhelm's no-hitter against the New York Yankees in 1958. Ernie brought to life, through the medium of radio, the performances of some of baseball's greats, such as Sparky Anderson, Kirk Gibson, Al Kaline, Denny McLain, Alan Trammell, and so many others.

He loved the people of Michigan, and we surely loved him back. In 2009, he said, ``I deeply appreciate the people of Michigan. I love their grit, I love the way they face life, I love the family values. And you Tiger fans are the greatest fans of all. No question about that.''

Today, Tigers fans everywhere mourn the loss of the great man who gave us so many wonderful memories over the years. I offer my deepest condolences to his beloved wife of 68 years, Lulu, his two sons and two daughters, and his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Although Ernie has left us in this world, I know that he will live on in the memories of every Tigers fan.

Madam President, I rise today to urge my Republican colleagues--to urge the Republican leader--to drop their filibuster of the Wall Street reform bill.

I wish I could say this is the first time we have seen efforts to block moving forward to even debate a critical issue before the Senate, but, as the Presiding Officer knows, the party of no has now 171 different times either filibustered or threatened to filibuster critical legislation that is important for moving America forward. Historic--171 times; never heard of before.

With all due respect, the idea that the bill has to be perfect before we begin to debate it makes absolutely no sense. There have been numerous times, because of the importance of a piece of legislation, that I have supported and everyone on this floor has supported moving forward to proceed to a bill knowing it would need to have changes before we would support the final outcome of the bill. We do that all the time.

Personally, there are changes I want to see and will work hard for in the legislation that is before us. There are

provisions, there are amendments I will support in order to make sure this does not have unintended consequences. I would guess the majority of us are in that situation. But to simply say: No, we will not proceed to the bill--and just to make that clear for everyone, this is not a vote on final passage; this is a vote on whether to proceed to the bill--says to the American people that changing the unregulated, unaccountable practices on Wall Street is not worth even bringing up, to get to the floor to debate. That is what this says. That is what is so shocking to me.

I have to say, on behalf of the people of Michigan, who have been hit so hard by the gambling and unregulated processes, I am extremely concerned that we are seeing another filibuster. We will have an opportunity to change that today, tomorrow, the next day. I hope colleagues will decide that rather than just blocking the ability for us to fix this problem, they will join us and that many of us will join together in amendments that will make sure this bill is the right kind of bill moving forward.

But we have seen what happened when Wall Street did not have accountability and oversight. I can tell you, the people of Michigan cannot afford to go through that again. Eight million Americans, many of them--too many of them--in my great State of Michigan, have lost their jobs, through no fault of their own, because of the secret, unregulated deals on Wall Street. We have seen small business owners, who had worked so hard to build their part of the American dream for their families, forced to close their doors because they did not have access to capital. This has to stop. Families around my State have watched as money in their pension funds and 401(k)s vanished before their eyes because other people were gambling with their money. The most heart-wrenching time for us in Michigan was GM and Chrysler being forced into bankruptcy because of the economic crisis caused by Wall Street's recklessness.

So I am shocked and deeply concerned that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would choose to filibuster this bill, which puts in place commonsense regulations and puts consumers back in control of their finances. I am deeply concerned for our community bankers, who have also been victims of the crisis, who need help so they can get credit flowing again back to our small businesses and our manufacturers to create jobs. But mostly I am deeply concerned for the hard-working men and women in my State who work hard every day, who play by the rules, and who were hurt by the reckless behavior on Wall Street and who want to know this will not happen again.

The bill we have will hold the big banks accountable and put consumers back in control. It is time to stop the unregulated gambling on Wall Street of other people's money. I strongly urge colleagues to stand up to the special interests and the lobbyists, to drop the filibuster of this bill, to work with us to make sure it is done right but, most of all, to make sure we put in place rules and accountability for our families, our small businesses, and our manufacturers so they can have the capital they need and the accountability and the trust in the system they need to move forward and create jobs and create investment in this country.

Again, 171 times--unprecedented--more than any other time in our history we have seen efforts to block and to filibuster. It has to stop. Too much is at stake, and certainly the people in my State have gone through too much to allow this to continue.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, this morning Senator Coburn and I have agreed that the majority will take the first 30 minutes, and there will be additional agreements from there. We certainly will be going back and forth between both sides this morning, since the time is equally divided. We will proceed this morning.

Senator Harkin is here. I am going to yield time first to Senator Harkin. Senator Harkin is our leader, of course, on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He has been a champion of the health insurance reform bill we passed, as well as the new assistance for families for college loans and Pell grants.

He has been a champion for working men and women on so many issues. It is not a surprise that he is here today fighting on behalf of working men and women who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are

asking that we provide some temporary assistance to them.

I yield 10 minutes to the distinguished Senator from Iowa.

Mr. President, today there will be a period for the transaction of morning business, with the time until 12:30 p.m. equally divided and controlled between myself, Senator Stabenow, and Senator Coburn or our designees. Today we will continue work on reaching an agreement to consider the unemployment and COBRA extension legislation. The majority leader also asked me to alert Senators that Senator Levin will come to the floor this morning around 10:30 to ask unanimous consent to confirm the nomination of BG Michael J. Walsh to be Major General for the Army.

Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Oklahoma.

Mr. President, we are here today because Republicans are objecting again to critical legislation and critical problem-solving efforts that are going to help middle-class families, that are going to help move us forward as a country.

We have seen, over and over, a pattern in the last year and 2 years ago when they first began to move this kind of a strategy forward, of blocking, blocking, blocking, saying no, saying no, saying no, rather than working together to solve critical issues. People are facing some of the most daunting challenges right now, more than they ever have in their lifetime--either trying to hold on to their job, trying to find a job, trying to make sure they have medical care for their families--and we have taken a very critical step this week to be able to ease some of those challenges and fears. Americans are struggling in an economy they didn't create, and when we look over this pattern, I am compelled to speak for a moment about it.

Over the history of our country, we have never seen such obstruction, efforts to block what we are doing, as we are now seeing. In the last 2 years, there were a total of 139 filibusters and efforts to block. That was in a 2-year period. Today, barely into the new year, after a little over a year, we are at 130 different times that the other party has said no to doing things that would help middle-class families, that would help small businesses, and that would help us move this country forward. One hundred thirty times. Unheard of, never happened before.

I know for people watching, they probably wonder: What in the world is going on here, and why should we care about procedure? We just want you to solve problems. But it is the effort we saw in the past with the Senator from Kentucky, who blocked for days our effort to move forward and extend unemployment benefits for families who are out of work through no fault of their own. People want to work, Mr. President, as you know, and they work hard. It is not their fault this economy went into a tailspin, which, quite frankly, in my judgment, was caused as a result of the policies of the previous administration that for 8 years chose to focus on just a few people. So the people in Michigan are saying: What about the rest of us? What about the rest of us? We are not the Wall Street fat cats. We are not the CEOs with the big bonuses or the people who got the big tax cuts. We are just working every day. We just want the American dream for our kids. We want to know things are going to be better. We want to know we can send our kids to college so they will have a great opportunity to be the best they can be.

That is who we are fighting for, and that is why we took subsidies from banks this week and gave the money directly to students, to create opportunities for those who want to go to college. That is why we have focused on lowering costs for middle-class families and small businesses on health insurance. But we are back here today because, unfortunately, our Republican colleagues are trying to score political points on the backs of people who have lost their jobs.

Now, I know a great way to bring down the deficit, and one that hasn't been tried. The 8 years that our colleagues were in control, along with President Bush, they focused on the people at the top and said that was going to do it. If it had worked, that would have been great, but unfortunately they left everybody else behind, and we saw what happened. So I have a great idea. Let's focus on putting everybody back to work so they can contribute to our economy by paying their taxes, and that will pay down the deficit. That is what President Clinton did. That is what the Democrats did when we were last in control. That is what we are focused on doing now--putting people back to work--because that is the formula for bringing down this deficit.

The challenge we have is that we have one job for every six people who are looking right now. So we aren't in a situation yet where we have the jobs available for every person who wants to work and is able to work. That is what we are laser-focused on here in the Congress. But we need to continue to understand, as Senator Harkin has said, that too many families are caught in this economic tsunami. Whether it is a flood, a hurricane, or the fact that your community got wiped out because a plant closed, it is an economic emergency.

We have always stepped up and funded the extension of unemployment benefits as an emergency with emergency funding. We have always done that, and now we are being asked to change that. We weren't asked to change it for Wall Street and the bailout. We weren't asked to change it for the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. But we are being asked to change it on the backs of working people, and I believe that is wrong.

We are still recovering from the worst economic situation since the Great Depression, but we are recovering. When President Obama took office, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month--too many of them in my great State of Michigan. We are now, at the end of the year, down to losing close to zero a month. That is better--not good enough, so we must stay focused, but we are hearing that we are going to have some pretty good numbers from March, where people are actually going back to work and jobs are being created. I don't want to stop and I know the Presiding Officer doesn't want to stop until every single person who is able to work and who wants a job has the dignity of work so that we give breadwinners the ability to bring the bread home. And that is what this is about.

So we are in a situation where we are in transition, and too many families are caught. In my great State, the unemployment rate is still the highest in the country--14.1 percent. It is coming down slowly, but it is still way too high. We have almost 700,000 people who have lost their jobs and are looking for work. But that is only the official number. That doesn't include the people who are working one part-time job, two part-time jobs, three part- time jobs trying to hold it together or people who have been out of work so long they no longer qualify for any kind of help. Those numbers are much bigger.

Every day, the unemployment insurance agency in Michigan gets 13,000 to 15,000 phone calls from people asking for help--every day. Every single day, up to 15,000 phone calls come in from people in Michigan who are desperate about what they are going to do in this situation. Well, we can help them. That is what this is about. That is what we are trying to do.

If this isn't an emergency, I don't know what is. The other side says: No, it is not an emergency. But for families who have lost their jobs and who are trying to find work, trying to put food on the table, I can assure you, this is an emergency. It is an economic disaster. When 14.9 million people around the country are unemployed, to me, that is a disaster. And those are the people we are fighting for today, yesterday, tomorrow. Those are the people who, when Wall Street got bailed out, said to us: What about us? Well, part of the answer is, to make sure they can keep a roof over their head and food on the table, to allow them to receive unemployment benefits. And these aren't huge numbers. They do not begin to match the Wall Street bonuses. We are talking about $250, $300 a week. But it may be the difference between being able to keep your family going or not.

In this legislation, we have a very important provision on health care--on COBRA. When COBRA was put in place, it was a great idea. If you lost your job, you could pay to continue the health insurance your employer was providing. The problem is, it is way too expensive when you are paying both the employee and the employer side. So last year, in the Recovery Act, we put some help in place: 65 percent would be paid for by the Federal Government to help families keep their insurance going. That is also a part of this--to keep that going so families can keep their health care. That is extremely important.

We need to focus on the real challenges families are facing today and work together across the aisle to tackle those. People are so tired of the

games. They are so tired of it. They watch what is happening here, and they say: What are these people thinking? What are they doing?

I know that politically folks may gain points by objecting, blocking, filibustering 130 times, but it makes the whole process look messy-- terribly messy. It causes people to lose faith in their government. That may seem to have some short-term advantage, but I believe that is a disastrous direction for our country. People want to know we are going to work together. People are going to want to know we put priorities in the right place so that we are focusing on the majority of Americans, not an elite few.

The great thing about our country is the middle class. That is what has always differentiated us from other countries--the fact that we make things, we grow things, and we add value to it. And by the way, we make things and grow things very well in Michigan, Mr. President. We will take on any State. We will take on anybody. We know how to do things. We know how to work, we know how to make things.

But we have not had this focus over the last decade on strengthening that middle class. We are turning that around now, and I am very proud of the fact that we are seeing manufacturing begin to turn, that we are seeing efforts that we put in place through the Recovery Act putting people back to work.

Too many families are not yet feeling that economic recovery, and this is for them. This is about saying to the American people, middle- class families across the country: You know what, we get it. We are sorry you are having to go through this, and we are going to do our part. We are going to do whatever we can to make sure you have the resources to keep things together while you are going out and looking for that job or going back to job training and holding things together with bits and pieces--odd jobs, part-time jobs--until this economy turns around.

We know, ultimately, that it is about jobs. We know, ultimately, it is about the private sector creating those jobs. But there is a partnership we need to have between the Federal Government and our industry so they can successfully compete in a global economy. Rather than focusing on Democrats versus Republicans, who can score the next short-term gain in the election, we should be coming together and realize that this is an economic race between the United States and China, it is the United States versus Japan, it is the United States versus Korea. We are in a global economic race. Instead of spending time objecting, playing games, filibustering at an unheard of rate in our history--absolutely unheard of; never before have we seen this kind of obstruction--we ought to be coming together and be laser-focused on China, which is spending $288 million every day--$288 million every day--to beat us on clean energy technology. Let's make that the fight. Let's make that the fight together.

This is the wrong place and time to be obstructing and playing games. It is the wrong place to say that suddenly we want to balance the deficit on the backs of people who are out of work through no fault of their own; that we are going to change the rules now; that it is no longer an emergency and no longer emergency spending. We shouldn't be changing the rules now and doing it to people who are out of work. That is not fair.

I say to my colleagues: Don't block democracy. Just vote--today. We can vote on this up or down. We can vote on it. Don't obstruct; just vote. You want to make a motion, you want to vote, a majority vote, fine. Let's vote. But don't force a filibuster and don't object and don't threaten a filibuster. Just vote. We are happy to vote.

Unanimous-Consent Request H.R. 4851

Mr. President, at this point, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 323, H.R. 4851, to provide a temporary extension of certain programs, and that the bill be read three times, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, could you indicate the time remaining on our side for this portion?

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Reserving the right to object, I would just indicate to my colleague that from our perspective this is an emergency, an economic disaster for families right now. We need to do as we have done three other times in the Congress and extend this emergency spending to help families who are out of work.

Given that, I will object.

Mr. President, I yield 10 minutes to my distinguished colleague, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, the terrific senior Senator from Michigan.

Yes.

Unanimous Consent Request--Executive Calendar

Mr. President, I thank my colleague for his extraordinary leadership on the Armed Services Committee and his efforts to make sure we have the staff, the leadership in our Department of Defense, our military, on behalf of our troops. It is very regrettable that once again we are seeing obstructionism, blocking us from moving forward.

I do not know the exact number now, but I know we have over 70 different positions that are being held up. They have been held up, many of them, for over a year now in the Obama administration--many related to jobs, to commerce, to trade, to the Department of Defense-- and it continues to be part of what we are seeing over and over and over again in efforts to just function, have government be able to function.

Mr. President, for so long--I know there are all the politics of people believing they can gain points because of debating whether government is good or bad, whether it is the problem, whether it is the solution--I think the majority of the American people just want it to work well. They want us to work together, and they want the services that are to be provided, whether it is supporting our troops in the military, whether it is providing education for our children, whether it is police officers on the street, whether it is making sure the water our children drink is safe, or whatever it is. They want it to work well and make sure every dollar we are spending on their behalf is spent with them in mind and it is done well and we are doing it efficiently and effectively.

I do have to say, in looking at the beautiful picture of the child my friend from Oklahoma held up--talking about children and the future-- this week, we completed a process that will make sure it is illegal to block that child from getting health insurance because of a preexisting condition. I wish our colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle had chosen to join with us in that very important effort to make sure every child can receive the health insurance they need, that every parent can have freedom from the fear that when they go to bed at night they are not going to have to say one more time: Dear God, please don't let the kids get sick because I don't know what I am going to do.

So we do care about those children. We have put into place a health insurance reform plan that is going to make sure every pregnant mom gets prenatal care and has maternity care, which in a majority of private-sector insurance plans you can go out and buy for yourself, they do not cover it. I am happy to have a discussion about children and about making sure they can afford to go to college, which was also in the bill

we passed this week--providing more opportunity for children. I am happy to have that discussion.

But it is amazing to me we continue to be lectured by the people who got us into this mess because of their economic policies. We are now lectured on probably a daily basis about the size of the deficit. We understand that. I was very proud to be in the House of Representatives when President Clinton and the Democrats balanced the budget for the first time in 30 years. When I came into the Senate, the big debate was what to do about the surplus. We were looking at almost a $6 trillion surplus over 10 years. Well, unfortunately, under President Bush, under a Republican Congress, that went away pretty fast: by not paying for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans--somehow that was OK--by not paying for two wars, by not paying for a prescription drug effort under Medicare. During those 8 years, somehow it did not matter there was a credit card being run up, that a huge surplus that had been accumulated through tough decisions, very tough choices, in the 1990s was somehow squandered away. So I have a hard time hearing over and over again about the deficit and being lectured as if somehow President Obama or the Democrats caused that deficit.

I am not saying we do not have a challenge right now and a huge hole, and that we are not in a situation where we need to do emergency spending because of this economic disaster that has gone on. I understand that. I understand we are currently in a situation to be forced into a position because there are no savings to help people. Now we are in a deficit position. But I find it interesting that all of a sudden, when we are in a situation where middle-class families need help--all of a sudden, when working people in this country need help-- this is an issue, when it was not an issue for 8 years during the Bush administration. That is what I find difficult.

We have put back in place the budget rules that were in place during the Clinton years, and we are going to dig ourselves out of this deficit. We passed a health insurance reform bill that over the next two decades is going to decrease the deficit by over $1.2 trillion. We know there is a hole. We understand that. But we also understand that middle-class families--who are under the crunch, who are losing their jobs, who are trying to figure out how to pay the bills--did not cause that, and the solutions being proposed now would put it right on their backs. That is what we say no to. Because it is about time, as people in my State say, we focus on the rest of us. What about the rest of us in this country--not just those in the privileged, few powerful positions, the people on Wall Street? That is what this is about. This is fundamentally a debate about that. That is what we are talking about today.

I also want to indicate what we are talking about is extending an emergency program put in place in 2008 because of the economic disaster that families are facing. It is not the regular unemployment program. It is what was put in place in 2008 because of job loss, because of the fact that we got to a point where we are losing 600,000, 700,000, 800,000 jobs a month. That is a disaster as much as a hurricane, a flood, or anything else that could happen to families and communities.

Since that time, we have extended it--as we are asking to extend it-- on four different occasions. We are asking right now for at least 2 weeks until the long-term extension gets passed by the House. For 2 weeks let us extend it, or 30 days. Let us extend it so there is not a gap in coverage, so we do not have families, who are feeling stress already, now reading in the papers that the unemployment extension is going to stop and trying to figure out what in the world they are going to do during this period of time. We are asking for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks to be able to extend it until the House is able to pass the long- term extension.

We are right back where we were again: objection, objection, objection on being able to do that--more objections than we have ever had in the history of our country in terms of process. We find ourselves in a situation where, even though we have not adjourned--I will emphasize that: Senator Reid, the majority leader, did not adjourn. We could have votes. I realize people have left. We could have voted last night. We wanted to vote last night. Our only option to overcome this was to start a process to stop a filibuster, which takes 2 days and voting and 30 hours, and all of this, and they know that. So we could have voted last night: yes or no. We could have done that last night. But, once again, as we have had 130 different times, we are in a situation where there has been objection, objection, objection.

This is very much about priorities. My friends on the other side of the aisle talk about priorities. Yes, this is about priorities. It is about values. And it is about who you are fighting for. Fundamentally, it is about who you are fighting for. I can tell you, the people in Michigan--hard-working people, middle-class Americans, families who care deeply about this country; they love this country--are tired of decisions being made for a few at the top. They are tired of the games and the obstructionism that has gone on and on and on. They want us to get things done--real things that affect their lives. That is what they want to have us get done.

I see my distinguished friend from Rhode Island on the floor--a champion on this issue, a fighter for Rhode Island, working men and women, and someone who has been on this floor over and over again fighting to make sure people who are out of work through no fault of their own have the opportunity to receive some help, some short-term help.

I now yield to my friend from Rhode Island up to 10 minutes.

Mr. President, over the last several days, the Senate voted on a number of amendments to H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. This important legislation makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which President Obama signed into law on Tuesday. In short, it makes a good bill better.

Now, at the very last minute, my colleagues on the other side have offered a number of amendments designed to play games with Americans' health care and to cause delays and obstructions as we reach final passage of this bill. I voted against the long list of amendments offered by the other side--as did the majority of the Senate--not because some weren't good amendments but because this was not the appropriate legislation to attach them to. I have been and will continue to be a champion of many of these issues, but I will not vote to play games with the health care of American families. Trying to tackle these issues at the last minutes of the health care debate is not appropriate or wise or responsible. Instead, I look forward to working with my colleagues in the coming months to find bipartisan solutions to these problems.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 26, 2010, at 9 a.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Randy Aussenberg and Ivie English of the Finance Committee staff be accorded the privilege of the floor for today's session.

Mr. President, first, I wish to thank the Senator from Illinois for his leadership on this issue, as well as my friend from Rhode Island who has been such a staunch fighter, and other colleagues on the floor.

I can't help but think: Here they go again. One more time we are in a situation where we need to extend unemployment benefits for people who are out of work, through no fault of their own--breadwinners not bringing home the bread, through no fault of their own--and we are right back where we were before with the Senator from Kentucky, who held up the ability for us to move forward to help families, to help people who have lost their jobs or are out of work and looking for work, who are caught up in an economic tsunami, an economic disaster, through no fault of their own. Here we are again.

We just left a debate where we went most of last night with the same kind of effort to block, to stall, to say no, and to try to stop us from moving ahead and doing something very important for families, small businesses, tackling the national debt in this country, and with health insurance reform. We just went through hours and hours and hours with our colleagues on the other side becoming just a party of no and playing games, holding up things politically, finding tricks to make people vote on things they support, knowing if they do, that will stop us from moving forward on health insurance reform.

We finished that. We made it through. We cast the votes and achieved the goal for the American people of saving money for middle-class families, saving money for small businesses, saving money for seniors on their medicines, and putting in place something that will make a difference in bringing down cost and making sure every family can finally have a family doctor. The same day we finally get through all that, here we are again.

I come from the State with the highest unemployment in this country, and it is not because people in Michigan don't want to work. People in Michigan know how to work. They work very hard. They are out looking for work. People are trying to hold it together, some with part-time jobs right now, trying to just get through until they can get back a job that is going to allow them to be able to take care of their families and have some sense of security; to stop holding their breath while they are waiting for things to turn around. But we are in a situation right now where we have six people looking for every job. Six people are vying for every job.

People are caught in an economic disaster that they didn't create, and our job has been to help them get through that so they can keep a roof over their head, food on the table, take care of their kids as we work to create an economic situation, partnering with business, to turn this around. Things are beginning to turn around but not fast enough for any of us. We are working very hard to turn that around, but the reality is we still have more than 700,000 people in Michigan who have lost a job and who want to work. They are out of work, through no fault of their own, and find themselves in a situation where they are looking to their government to understand the situation for their family and place some value on that.

We seem to be able to pay for things when people think it is important. I have been here long enough to live through a situation where tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans somehow were passed even though they weren't paid for--and more than once. My guess is there will be proposals to do it again. But when you are talking about somebody who has worked all their lives and finds themselves in a situation where they do not have a job because of what is happening in the economy, then we say, but for you--for you--we are going to have a different set of rules. We are going to have a different set of rules. We are not going to treat this as a disaster--an economic disaster--as we have at every other time in our country where we move forward with emergency spending. For you, because you are not as important as those folks on Wall Street or the folks who got the big tax cuts, we are going to have a different set of rules.

Well, that is why we are here, because we don't think that is fair. We don't think that is right. It is not right.

Mr. President, as I yield the floor, I wish to say we are going to be here, and we are going to keep fighting over and over again, as things move forward this year and beyond, on behalf of the people who want a job and who don't have one today, who are counting on us to help them make it through this and do what they need to do to care for their families.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Amendment No. 3458

Mr. President, I am pleased to speak on behalf of this amendment which was cosponsored by Senators Hatch, Schumer, Crapo, Snowe, Sherrod Brown, Enzi, Risch, and Collins.

This focuses on companies that continue to face significant challenges in raising capital for new investments. It would allow struggling companies that do not benefit from other incentives, such as the NOL carryback and others, to utilize existing AMT credits based on new investments they make in this year for equipment and so on to create jobs.

It encourages companies to invest and to allow companies to be able to receive a badly needed source of capital. This is very important for companies that will be in a position where they are not making a profit but are continuing to invest, to maintain their workforce, or grow their workforce, and need to be able to have a source of capital.

This is dollars they would be receiving at some point anyway, because when they become profitable, they are able to use the credits. We are going to allow them to use a portion, just 10 percent of those credits, to be able to invest in equipment----

And facilities to create jobs here.

I want to thank many businesses: the U.S. Chamber, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Association of Manufacturing Technology, the Equipment Manufacturers, Motor and Equipment Manufacturers, and many businesses that are in America working to make things, to bring back jobs. This is on behalf of all of them, and I would ask colleagues for their support.

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

I realize Senator Gregg is up to speak. I do not see him on the floor. I will be only a few minutes, and then I will ask unanimous consent he be recognized after me when he comes to the floor.

Mr. President, in a few moments I am pleased I am going to be offering an amendment that is strongly supported by Members on both sides of the aisle to focus on jobs and investments in equipment for companies that are currently not making a profit--which, unfortunately, is too many across the country right now. We want to make sure they have an opportunity to have the capital they need to be able to grow as well.

I thank Senator Hatch and Senator Schumer, Senator Crapo, Senator Snowe, and Senator Risch for working with me on an amendment that would provide companies with an immediate source of capital to make increased investments in our country and spur job creation.

Since the start of the recession in December of 2007, the Nation has lost more than 8 million jobs, as we know. It is an economic tsunami, what has happened to families in this country. The national unemployment rate skyrocketed from 5 percent to 10 percent as companies are forced to cut costs and to lay off workers to remain viable just to keep the ship afloat.

Our State, of course, the great State of Michigan, is much worse since we are at about a 14.6-percent unemployment rate right now, and we certainly are feeling the brunt of what has been happening. These companies also continue to face significant challenges in raising much- needed capital for new investments to be able to keep people working.

This amendment would allow struggling companies of all kinds that do not benefit from other similarly designed incentives--such as bonus depreciation or expanding the NOL carryback period, and other things-- to utilize their existing AMT credits based on new investments they make in 2010. So if they make investments, we would allow them to use credits they cannot use right now because those credits can only be used against a profit, and they don't have a profit.

In addition to encouraging companies to increase investments to maintain and expand jobs, the amendment also makes available a badly needed source of capital. We have all been talking about access to capital. This is an important way we can make this available at no real cost to the Federal Government. I think that is what is important about this amendment. AMT credits are actually prepayments of tax which the taxpayer can offset with future tax liability, dollar for dollar. So these are prepayments.

Normally, if they were making a profit they would be able to offset their taxes and maintain additional revenue and capital, but they are not in a position to do that right now. So at some point we, in fact, would be giving them credit, and they would be able to use these credits and be able to keep capital. But they cannot right now. So in a sense we are just moving up the day by which they can access the capital that is available with AMT credits. Since the credits never expire, the proposal merely accelerates when the credits are used.

This amendment would allow companies to be able to cash in their built-up tax credit so they can build factories, buy equipment, and create jobs. Specifically, it will allow companies to utilize their existing AMT credits up to 10 percent of a new investment that they make in a manufacturing facility and in equipment purchased this year, in 2010. No company would be able to claim more than 50 percent of the value of the credit.

To accelerate the economic impact of allowing companies to be able to access this capital and use the credits, the proposal would allow for an expedited refund process similar to current law rules for net operating losses.

A company that elects the 5-year, net-operating year-loss carryback enacted earlier, which I supported strongly, would not be eligible to claim the benefits of this proposal. So it would be only those who cannot access other proposals we put forward because of the critical nature of helping companies not making a profit, being able to help them access capital. The amendment would be offset by improving tax compliance from individuals who receive rental income from properties.

The provision, originally proposed in the President's fiscal year 2009-2010 budgets, would require people who received rental income on real estate to be subject to the same information reporting requirements as taxpayers who receive income from a trade or business.

This proposal would benefit a broad range of companies, including airlines, manufacturers, energy companies, high-tech companies--across the board, companies large and small that currently find themselves in a position where they are not making a profit but have built up these prepaid credits.

We have support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Association of Manufacturing Technology, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, and Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association. Some of the many U.S. employers who support the proposal are American Airlines, Applied Micro Devices, Arch Coal, Associated Builders and Contractors, Bosch, Cliffs Natural Resources, CMS Energy, Consul Energy, Delta Airlines, Daimler, General Motors, Goodyear, Micron, National Mining Association, Owens Illinois, Peabody Energy, Qwest, T-mobile, and Xerox.

These are all major companies employing thousands, tens or hundreds of thousands of people who are needing access to capital. They have prepaid these credits. They need access to capital now so they can maintain their workforce and, hopefully, expand it and invest in the equipment that will allow them to grow.

This amendment, again, is one that has broad bipartisan support. It will allow us to essentially move forward the ability for companies to use these AMT credits that they have already paid into, the dollars they have already paid. This is something that will allow companies to get the equipment, the tools that are necessary; so as they are using that jobs credit we passed and hiring people or continuing to be able to grow and invest in the business and keep the employees they have, that they will be able to get some assistance within the legislation we are passing.

Again, let me just indicate that I very much appreciate colleagues who have joined me. Senator Hatch, Senator Schumer, Senator Crapo, Senator Snowe, Senator Risch, and we have others, I know, who are very interested in joining us as well.

I believe at this point I have not heard for sure if we are in a position to actually call up the amendment at this point.

At the moment, if we are in a position to call up the amendment? I am looking to staff to determine whether we are in a position to do that at this point? We are? All right.

Then, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the pending amendment be set aside, and I will call up amendment No. 3382.

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

I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside, and I call up amendment No. 3382.

I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, before my friend from California leaves

the floor, I first thank the Senator from California for her leadership in bringing together a bipartisan effort to create jobs and for coming to the floor to speak about one of the important elements that is being held up right now by Senator Bunning and other Republicans who have come to the floor in support of his efforts.

I thank Senator Boxer for her leadership and her ability to bring people together to get things done and to speak to the fact that this is about jobs and we have a sense of urgency about what needs to happen going forward.

I wish to speak to that sense of urgency and speak first about what is happening for real people. Then I want to talk a little bit about the process as well, how could we be here, because people are looking and saying: How can one person or a group of people or the minority continue to hold up our ability to solve problems? That is a very good point that we need to talk about.

First, I want to share some comments from a distraught woman from Grand Rapids who called my office a little bit ago in tears because her unemployment benefits had expired. This has been her only source of income for over a year now. She has about 2 months left in savings before she loses her home. First she loses her job, and now she is about to lose her home. My guess is she has been struggling with health care as well.

She kept repeating: I was a productive member of society, but now I have nothing. She spoke about doing various temporary jobs since losing her full-time job as an administrative assistant back in 2007, having 18 years of work experience and she still has not qualified for a new job. Her search continues. She was pleading for the Senate to pass an unemployment extension before she loses her home.

In Michigan and all across this country, this is not a game. This is real. People are in a position today where they do not know if they are going to be able to keep their home, if they are going to be able to put food on the table at the end of the week, next week or be able to pay their rent or be able to keep the heat on. With the small amount of money that comes in from unemployment--an average about $300 a week-- that right now is the difference between whether people are on the street, in the cold with their families, or whether they have a roof over their head. That is the reality of what is happening for people in this country--not people who are lazy, not people who do not want to work but people who have found themselves caught in this huge economic tsunami that has hit our country.

We have over 15 million people currently receiving unemployment benefits who want to work, who are looking for work, who, on average, find there are six people looking for work for every job available. Just watch what happens when you announce there are 50 jobs or 100 jobs or maybe even 2 jobs available in a community. People line up around the block because they want to work. People are going back to school to gain different kinds of skills to fit in the new economy. They are doing everything they can, piecing it together with part-time work, two jobs, three jobs, trying to hold it together.

We also have people who are one paycheck away from being in the very same situation, who are holding their breath, who are holding back on the spending they would normally do that would generate economic activity in the economy because they do not know what is going to happen.

This is critical to families; people today who have done nothing but play by the rules, such as the woman who called my office, want to know when is their government going to be there for them.

Somehow, as has been said before, the Senator from Kentucky did not manage to make it to the floor when 1 percent of the public, the wealthiest in America, were getting huge tax cuts. He didn't manage to make it to the floor when we were talking about Wall Street and bailouts. But somehow he can come to the floor and hold up the ability for people who are unemployed to get some temporary help and put the entire weight of the Federal deficit on the backs of people who are out of work, who lost their breadwinner in their home. That is stunning to me, absolutely stunning to me. Whose side are we on here? What is this about if it is not to make sure that when disaster hits, we are willing to step up on behalf of American families and support them and do something about it?

Our colleague has said we should not add to the deficit; while other things have certainly added to the deficit, we should make sure this is paid for.

We are the party that balanced the budget in the nineties. We do not need a lecture from people about solving deficits. We are the ones who created the balanced budget and surpluses that then went right out the window in the last 8 years under the previous administration. We do not need lectures on how to deal with deficits. But we also know when there is a disaster, whether it is a flood, a hurricane, or another kind of disaster, and the reality is that people in this country have been hit by a disaster. So it is appropriate to treat this as a disaster with disaster funding. I don't know what a disaster is if the more than 15 million people we know about right now, not counting the other 10 million or 15 million people who aren't being counted, is not a disaster.

I wish to talk for a moment about the process because we find ourselves in a situation where we have seen an abuse of the democratic process over and over here in the Senate by our minority party colleagues.

We have been brought to a point where now one person, although supported by others on the Republican side, has come to the floor and is objecting and putting us in a situation where we are going to have to either shut down the work of the Senate for a week to vote to override or to do something else. This has put us in a situation where people are being hurt because of partisan games.

The leader has come to the floor and said: If you have a concern, you should offer an amendment. We should debate that amendment. You can have an up-or-down vote on that amendment. That is the democratic process. And then we will vote.

Up until this point, the Senator has said no because he doesn't know if he will win that vote. Well, we don't know at any given time when we offer an amendment whether we will win. When you run for an election, you don't know if you will win. This is a democratic process.

So I challenge our colleagues to stop blocking democracy, to stop blocking the democratic process and just vote. Just vote. Majority vote. That is what the Founders created, a process for the majority to govern, with spirited debate--spirited debate--and up-or-down votes. Don't block democracy. That is exactly what is happening right now. It is time to vote. It is time to get things done. It is time to show the American people that we get what is going on in their lives. Let's just vote.

What has happened in the last couple of years? We have seen a process that in 1919 and 1920 was used two times in 2 years--two times in 2 years. Even in the first Senate, it was used zero times. We have seen a process that in the last number of years has gotten to a point where in the last Congress the process of blocking and obstructing--the filibuster--was used 139 times by our Republican colleagues, and that was the most ever. Look at that. It doubled any other time in the history of the country. Well, they are going to double it again. As of today, we have a situation where we have seen the party of no filibuster 118 times, and we are barely through 1 year of a 2-year cycle. So we are on the road to see it doubled and create a time of amazing historic obstruction we have never seen before. This is an example today of what happens when that process, which is a legitimate process, is abused--people get hurt.

So I would call on colleagues to stop blocking democracy and to simply come and debate and vote. Let's decide and move on so that we can get things done for the American people.

The underlying bill in front of us is a bill that will extend unemployment benefits for 1 year, and that is the right thing to do. It will extend help for health care, for COBRA, for 1 year, and that is the right thing to do. It will extend help for States to pay for health care. It will extend it beyond the next 6 months of when we put help in place under the Recovery Act. It will make sure our doctors can continue to get paid a fair reimbursement to serve our

seniors under Medicare. And it will allow us to keep jobs going and to extend important investment tax credits.

In reality, we have a lot of work to do here in the Senate. We need to dispose of this immediate situation of helping people. We need to make sure we put in place the short-term help on unemployment and health care and other provisions that have been talked about and then move quickly to the broader jobs bill because we know, in the end, everyone who is holding their breath right now about what we are going to do on unemployment is not saying to us: Gee, I hope you extend unemployment for years and years. Gee, I really want to live on $300 a week. They want us to focus on jobs, affording them the integrity of work, the ability to bring home a paycheck, to be a breadwinner so they can care for their family, and all of the dignity that comes with that work.

So we need to get on about the business of focusing on jobs, but the first thing we need to do is to make sure we understand what is happening to people across our country. They are panicked about the obstruction that is going on here in the Senate. There are 135,000 people in Michigan who will lose their unemployment help by the end of March if we do not take action. That is an economic disaster if I have ever heard of one.

It is time to act. It is time to stop blocking the democratic process. It is time to vote and to get things done and let people know that we are on their side, that we understand what is going on in their lives, and that we are going to be here and work hard and get things done for them.

Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.