Floor Statements

Mr. President, last week the Senate passed three important pieces of bipartisan legislation. It was really quite a productive week. We reauthorized the Federal Aviation Administration, which kept 80,000 workers, including safety inspectors, on the job. We passed a highway bill that

keeps 1.8 million people at work building roads and bridges and dams. We reached a bipartisan agreement to rush relief to communities devastated by floods, tornadoes, and wildfires. So I was hopeful, as this week began, that it would be productive. I thought Congress might be able to set aside party politics to accomplish the important work of this Nation. Instead, the tea party has taken over again. The tea party Republicans have once again allowed partisanship to rear its ugly head.

Now House Republicans, obsessed with pleasing a group of radicals-- the tea party, they are called--are refusing to give the Federal Emergency Management Agency the funding it needs to reconstruct ravaged communities across this great country, and they are threatening to shut down the government if they do not get what they want.

It is bad enough that we cannot agree that victims of floods and fires should get the help they need without delay.

We cannot even agree on what we have already agreed to. We spent months this spring and summer negotiating a deficit reduction agreement that allowed Congress to appropriate more than $11 billion in disaster aid for next year. After an earthquake, weeks of wildfires, and a hurricane that slammed the eastern seaboard, we are asking to free up $6.9 billion in emergency funds to help Americans in need.

There is a reason we have agreed in the past that disaster funding should be set aside from the regular budget process. There is a reason we agreed, as part of July's deficit reduction agreement, it should be set aside once again. Farmers who have lost their crops to floods, families who have lost their homes to hurricanes should not be used as pawns in a budget-bidding war.

Over the last two decades, almost 90 percent of the money Congress has authorized for disaster relief has been done outside the regular budget process. Why? Because we cannot determine what Mother Nature is going to do. We do the best we can. But who would have ever dreamed Irene would hit when it did, with the devastation it did. Who would have ever dreamed a tornado would level the town of Joplin, MO?

We have done the best we can. I ask my Republican colleagues: Why should today be any different than the past? FEMA is running out of money. That is the bottom line. On Monday, they will be broke. The President declared emergencies in 48 of the 50 States this year. We have had 10 disasters already that have cost more than $1 billion each. It has been 30 years since we have had so many large natural disasters.

As of this morning, FEMA's disaster fund had almost nothing left. It will be broke on Monday. The agency that rushes to help when disaster strikes will be out of money in just a day or two--I repeat, Monday. We are still in the middle of the hurricane season. Turn on the Weather Channel and see why it is so important that we get FEMA the resources it needs to react quickly to whatever Mother Nature sends our way.

FEMA has already halted reconstruction projects in 40 States to free funds to react to immediate needs of communities affected by the most recent disasters. Because of these delays, FEMA will take longer to rebuild bridges in New Hampshire and schools in Missouri and homes in Texas, all because of Republican stubbornness.

I am stunned. We have Senators from States that have been devastated by these disasters--one State, thousands of fires, 2,000 homes burned. Why wouldn't people vote to help people who have had such devastation? All politics.

FEMA has been there for people when crops they have planted and counted on to make a living were drowned by floods. The Federal Government has always been there to help Americans in their hour of greatest need, when their homes where their children were raised, spent holidays, and made memories had burned to the ground or been washed away or blown away.

But because of the delays, FEMA will no longer be able to rebuild the bridges, for example, in the State of New Hampshire. I just heard my friend, the junior Senator from Vermont, talk about Vermont. Vermont has had almost 200 bridges washed away--gone. Texas has had those fires. FEMA has been there when schools studied in and bridges driven on have been rocked by earthquakes or blown away by tornadoes. Never before has Congress tried to nickel and dime the victims of these disasters.

Americans have watched all they had go up in smoke or be washed or blown away. That is what Republicans are doing today. They are shortchanging communities that can least afford the delays of partisan gridlock.

Senate majority leader George Mitchell said: ``Bipartisanship means you work together to work it out.'' American families and communities are relying on us to work together to work it out and holding out hope that we will not disappoint them.

Go back a month. We were struggling, struggling hard, to work out an agreement that in years past has been simple. We were going to just raise the debt limit in this country on bills we had already accumulated. It took 3 months. But we got it done. One of the things we did was we said we will no longer have fights during this next fiscal year on funding the government. We agreed on the numbers.

What the House could not do in good conscience directly they are doing indirectly. They are sending us a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government until the middle part of November. But because they have all these extremists in the Republican majority in the House, they could not do that. They could not do that. They could not send us what they had already agreed upon.

In fact, they put an addition on the bill, a so-called rider on the bill, saying the Senate is only going to be able to raise the debt ceiling if it agrees on their number on emergencies, recognizing that their number will only last a few weeks. Here is what they did also that was so mean-spirited. As I have outlined in detail, we have not paid for these disasters because they are emergencies. They are not in the normal budget process.

But the House took money for more efficient vehicles--they took that money and said: We are going to pay for $1 billion for the year 2011. The year 2011 ends--fiscal year ends--the end of this month, just a few days from now.

Everyone has said, we just need a few million dollars to take care of it until the end of this month. As I have indicated, we have enough money until Monday. But that is all. The end of the month is not Monday. They took $1 billion, when only a little bit was needed, and stripped our ability to create jobs.

I spoke to Steny Hoyer in the House. He said they are taking away 52,000 jobs from the American people by doing this. They take $1 billion and pay for this. But just to show further meanness, they take $\1/2\ billion and rescind it. It does not go toward the debt. It does not go for anything. They just rescind it.

Then, of course, the year 2012, they put in an amount of money that does not go very far with all these disasters, a few weeks' worth. So we will be back having the same fight again, which is so senseless, so unnecessary. I would hope the House of Representatives--there will be a vote today around 4 or 5 o'clock. I know it will be a close vote. But I hope people in the Senate will understand how important this vote is. We are going to have a vote, as we have indicated, on the continuing resolution to strip out the mean-spirited amendment they have in it, take it out and put in what has already passed here by a substantial majority.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

OK. I spoke to the Republican leader a few minutes ago, and we think we are on a path to complete this most important piece of legislation in the morning. This is an agreement we had--that we would try to finish this--and we will expeditiously work toward other matters relating to trade as soon as we can.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following morning business, tomorrow, September 22, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 2832; that the only remaining amendments in order to the Casey-Brown-Baucus amendment and the bill be the following: Rubio amendment No. 651, Thune amendment No. 650, and Cornyn amendment No. 634; that there be up to 5 hours of debate on the Rubio, Thune, and Cornyn amendments equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, with Senator Cornyn controlling 1 hour of the Republican time and with Senators Rubio and Thune each controlling 30 minutes of the Republican time; that at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with Senator McConnell, the Senate proceed to votes in relation to the Rubio, Thune, Cornyn, and Casey amendments, in that order; that there be no amendments, points of order, or motions in order to the amendments prior to the votes other than budget points of order and the applicable motions to waive; that each amendment be subject to a 60-affirmative vote threshold; and that there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to each vote; that upon the disposition of the amendments, the bill, as amended, if amended, be read a third time; that there be up to 10 minutes of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to a vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended; that the bill be subject to a 60- affirmative-vote threshold; finally, there be no points of order or motions in order to the bill prior to the vote on passage of the bill other than budget points of order and the applicable motions to waive.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate go into a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 115, S. Con. Res. 17.

Mr. President, I know of no further debate on this resolution.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Small Business be discharged from further consideration of S. 633 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Murray amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the measure be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., on Thursday, September 22; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business for 1 hour, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 2832. At a time to be determined tomorrow, there will be up to five votes on amendments to trade adjustment assistance and passage of the bill. In addition, we await action in the House on the continuing resolution.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Madam President, following leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business for an hour. The Republicans will control the first half and the majority will control the final half. Following morning business, the Senate will begin consideration of H.R. 2832, which is the Generalized System of Preferences Act that is a vehicle for trade adjustment assistance that we are going to be working on.

We are going to recess today from 12:30 until 2:15 p.m. for our weekly caucus meetings.

At 2:30 p.m. today, Senator Heller will be recognized to deliver his maiden speech in the Senate.

We will work through amendments to trade adjustment assistance. I will notify Senators when votes are scheduled.

Madam President, I see on the floor today my friend Lamar Alexander from the great State of Tennessee. I just received a news flash that he was going to relinquish his leadership position and stay in the Senate and run for reelection. I do not know all the reasons for his doing this, but I want the record to be spread with the fact that I have found Lamar Alexander to be one of the most thoughtful people I have ever served with in the Senate. There are many issues he gets no credit for that were resolved because of his ability to see the big picture.

We had this big issue dealing with the so-called nuclear option, as to what would happen in the Senate with some of our rules changes. He stepped in, completely out of the limelight, and because of his idea we resolved that issue.

There are many other examples such as that. He is a unique person in this body. He accomplishes a great deal and gets credit for not a lot, and that is unfortunate. But that is who he is and who he has always been. I know he will continue being a stalwart in the Senate. I look forward to working with him, but I look forward mostly to his sense of fairness, which he has been so very exemplary during my time with him in the Senate.

Madam President, 60 years ago this Nation's Armed Forces were segregated by race. Thirty-five years ago women were not allowed to attend our Nation's military academies. Until today--in fact, last night at midnight--thousands and thousands of qualified, dedicated men and women were barred from military service or expelled from the Armed Forces because they were honest about their sexual orientation. Today I am glad to say the time has passed when Americans, willing to give their lives to defend this great Nation, could be turned away from service because of who they loved. Today, don't ask, don't tell is no longer the law of the land. For 17 years we have asked our soldiers to defend a flag that stands for liberty and justice for all, and then required some of those soldiers to keep who they were a secret. In too many cases we have robbed them of their right to fight for their country altogether.

Listen to this staggering number: More than 13,000 American

servicemembers have been discharged because of this law. The law has been in effect just a short period of time but more than 13,000 have been discharged because of this law which institutionalized discrimination against openly gay soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen. I say ``openly gay.'' This wasn't the case. Some were suspect. There was a long interview on Public Broadcasting this morning about a woman who was discharged at age 22 because of someone reporting they had seen her in a bar with another woman. We will never know how many people; that is, capable men and women, were never offered patriotic service. They could not because the law exposed them to career-ruining discrimination. We have the 13,000-plus, plus thousands of others who said there is no need to do this because I would have to live a lie.

The military's highest commanders and a vast majority of servicemembers agree our fighting force is better off knowing we will have the best and brightest volunteers, regardless of sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. There is no place for intolerance in our great Nation and certainly not in our Armed Forces tasked with protecting them.

I am happy to say that today our military policies and our national values are in line. From today forward, no qualified man or woman willing to fight for a nation founded on the principles of tolerance and equality will ever again be denied the right to do so.

Madam President, on Wednesday the House, we are told, will send us a continuing resolution to fund the government through November 18. I was disappointed to see the House shortchanged the Federal Emergency Management Agency. We have been told specifically what they intend to do and it is a real shortchange, by failing to provide the funding to adequately help Americans whose lives have been devastated by floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. It is staggering to understand the depth of the concern people have.

Yesterday morning I received a call from Kent Conrad, Senator from North Dakota, who proceeded to explain to me about a city in North Dakota by the name of Minot, a town of about 40,000 people. Twenty-five percent of the homes in Minot, ND, are underwater. Most of those underwater are ruined forever. These are not big mansions. They are homes people have lived in, sometimes for a very long period of time.

Yesterday I was speaking to Senator Hoeven, who certainly knows North Dakota as well as anyone. He served as Governor there and is now in the Senate. We were talking about the flood. Of course, one of the things people are saying is: Why didn't Congress and the President plan for all this? As Senator Hoeven described in some detail, how do you estimate something that has never, ever happened before? Not a 50-year flood took place in North Dakota, not a 100-year flood, not a 500-year flood--it is something that has never happened, ever. This in spite of the fact that they built some dams, even some in Canada, to stop the flooding. It didn't matter, this was so immense. It had never happened before in North Dakota. A sparsely populated State has been devastated by these floods--natural, you say, but certainly unusual floods that have ravaged that State.

That is not the only State. Many States have been hammered hard. Who would ever have thought, a year ago, that a relatively small community, Joplin, MO, would be hit by almost 300-mile-an-hour winds. The winds didn't just whip through, they roiled around there for such a time that they basically destroyed that town.

There are many other examples of what has happened, being unable to determine what would happen in the future. Suffice it to say we provided funds last week here in the Senate to help Americans whose lives had been devastated by floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural calamities. In a bipartisan bill for FEMA and other agencies, we passed that help disaster victims need--an additional $6.9 billion. That is probably not enough, frankly. After the Appropriations Committee did their work, reported the bill out, a bill of some $6 billion, I asked the different subcommittees to find out what additionally was needed. They came back with another $3 billion. We pared that down because we wanted to keep within the agreement we had from the Deficit Reduction Act which set that at $7 billion, and we are slightly under that. That is why we came in with that figure.

That funding, $6.9 billion, while it does not give everyone everything, will help rebuild after several costly natural disasters, not the least of which is Hurricane Irene.

Tomorrow when the Senate receives the House bill to fund the government for 6 more weeks, we will amend it with the language the Senate passed, the Senate FEMA legislation. This year President Obama has declared disasters in all but two States, and FEMA is quickly running out of money to help American families and communities recover.

I talked to Mr. Fugate, the head of FEMA, last Thursday. He said they have enough money to last probably until September 25th. That is even on a very narrow plane that they are working on. They have stopped the work in Joplin, MO. They have stopped the work because of the devastation that happened in the gulf previously. The only money they are spending now deals with Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene. They have no more money. They are out of money. So it is desperate.

I know this amendment will enjoy the support of my Republican colleagues as it did last week. We had 10 who stepped forward and it was very important that they did that. Last week, a bipartisan group of Senators agreed that helping communities destroyed by natural disasters was too important to let politics get in the way.

Madam President, Americans have sent a message to Congress that no issue is more important to them than jobs. But for Republicans, job creation is less important than slashing spending on initiatives that create jobs and the Social Security and Medicare benefits seniors have earned. Democrats believe we can reduce the deficit without abandoning job creation. We can make smart, strategic cuts that will not further slow down our struggling economy, while protecting and advancing initiatives that create jobs. That is why President Obama has released detailed proposals to create 2 million jobs now while reducing the deficit by more than $4 trillion over the next decade.

But many Republicans have criticized both proposals even before looking at their substance. It seems they are more concerned with protecting millionaires, billionaires, hedge fund managers, and private jet owners than fighting for the middle class. They claim it is class warfare to ask the wealthiest 400 Americans who made an average, these 400, of $271 million each to pay the same tax rate as librarians, police officers, air traffic controllers, and others--secretaries, as Mr. Buffett talked about.

The truth is, Republicans are just defending the economic policies that besieged the middle class for years. It is class warfare to ask middle-class Americans to get by on less while those same 400 Americans are paying less than 18 percent in their taxes, lower than the secretaries and janitors who work for them.

Let me explain this as well as I can. We will do whatever it takes to protect the middle class and seniors, even if it means the richest of the rich in America have to contribute a little bit more than they do now. We will fight for the policies that create American jobs even if it means CEOs and hedge fund managers making hundreds of millions of dollars every year have to contribute the same amount as teachers or firefighters, whose salaries are a fraction the size of theirs. It is simple fairness.

With 14 million Americans out of work, we have 14 million reasons to put job creation ahead of tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. As the economist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said:

True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair

share of the burden of keeping America going.

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

Madam President, it is my understanding the majority still has a few minutes left in morning business.

I yield that back.

On behalf of Senators Casey, Brown of Ohio, and Baucus, I call up amendment No. 633.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Before noting the absence of a quorum, it is my understanding the Republican leader is on his way to the floor to offer an amendment, and I think everyone should understand there will be no business conducted until he shows up.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I congratulate my colleague on his fine speech. I was happy to hear him mention some of my family. I think most everyone in Nevada knows that my son Leif is one of his best friends and vice versa. So I congratulate the Senator from Nevada on his first speech. It will be the first of many, and the first one is always the hardest. After that, it is a lot easier.