Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, September 12; 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 until 4:30 p.m. on Monday, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; that at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, the Senate would resume consideration of a motion to proceed to the joint resolution regarding Burma sanctions.

There will be a rollcall vote at 5:30 p.m. on Monday on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.J. Res. 66. Additionally, there will be a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony on Monday on the east front steps of the Capitol. Members will gather in the Rotunda about 10 to 6, so people should be on time for the vote because we will have to close it pretty quickly.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent it adjourn under the previous order following the remarks of Senator Warner.

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, there will be 1 hour of morning business, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the America Invents Act. There will be four rollcall votes starting about 4 p.m. That time could move a little bit but not much. We are doing that in order to complete action on this patent bill that is so important for the country. It will be the first revision of this law in more than six decades.

Senators should gather in the Senate Chamber about 6:30 this evening to proceed as a body to the House for the joint session with President Obama. When we return this evening, there will be an additional rollcall vote on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 25, which is a joint resolution of disapproval regarding the debt limit increase. As I indicated to everyone last night, if the motion to proceed prevails, we will be back tomorrow to complete that work, and that could take as much as 10 hours tomorrow. If the motion to proceed fails, then we will have other things to do tomorrow but there will be no votes.

Mr. President, I am told that S.J. Res. 26 is due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to this resolution.

Mr. President, tonight, before a joint session of Congress, President Obama will address the Nation on the single most important issue facing our country: the unemployment crisis we have before us. I look forward to hearing the specifics of his plan. I have spoken to him, and I have a pretty good idea of what he is going to talk about.

I support his goal to create good jobs for the 14 million people who have no jobs. This is a time of dark economic times, and it is important that we do this. I applaud the commonsense, bipartisan approach the President will unveil tonight to invest in badly needed infrastructure and to cut taxes for working families and small businesses to spur job creation.

These are ideas around which Members of both parties should rally. Republicans have always supported tax cuts. They have done it in the past, and they agree we must bring America's infrastructure up to 21st- century standards. I hope that in fact is the case. But

if my Republican friends oppose these proposals now--proposals they have supported in the past--the reason will be very clear: partisan politics. Republicans seem convinced that a failing economy is good for their politics. They think that if they kill every jobs bill and stall every effort to revive the economy, President Obama will lose. My good friend the Republican leader has said so. He has said the Republican Party's No. 1 goal in this Congress is to defeat the President. But Republicans aiming at the President have caught innocent Americans in the crossfire.

This week, Republican leaders have said they want to work with the President and Democrats in Congress. They want to work on job creation in a bipartisan way, they say. I hope that in fact is the case, but their actions over the last 8 months speak much louder than their words of the last few days.

For example, Republicans opposed the reauthorization of the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Economic Development Administration. Both have proven track records of spurring innovation, encouraging entrepreneurship, and creating jobs. Republicans were willing to put more than \1/2\ million Americans' jobs at risk and, in fact, eliminate those jobs rather than work with us to pass that legislation.

The Senate passed much needed patent reform in March. Yet House Republicans stalled for months before sending us back their version of the bill, which we will vote on today. I am hopeful we can send it back to the House untouched.

Republicans wasted weeks threatening to shut down the economy this spring. They held our economy hostage for months this summer over a routine vote on whether to pay the Nation's bills. Congress took the same vote 18 times while President Reagan was President and 7 times while George W. Bush was President and never was the vote time- consuming or contentious. Through it all, Republicans hacked away at funding for the very programs that were helping to get this Nation's economy back on its feet.

The results of their stall tactics, obstructionism, and mindless budget cuts are beginning to show. Although the private sector created jobs for the 18th month in a row, August saw no change in the national unemployment rate. Unemployment in Nevada is still the highest in the Nation. But in spite of all this, the Republicans have refused to allow us to focus on unemployment. As Democrats introduced jobs bill after jobs bill, Republicans made it clear they were more interested in pursuing a political agenda than a jobs agenda.

We will no longer allow our Republican colleagues to put politics ahead of the American people. There are two things we must get done this work period and both will create and save jobs immediately. We need to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration to protect both air travelers and airline workers--that is 80,000 jobs--and we must pass a highway bill to fund construction projects across the Nation. These two bills combined will save about 2 million jobs, including many jobs in the struggling construction industry, and it will do it now. But we need Republican help. We can't get it done without them. This is their chance to prove they remember the meaning of the word ``bipartisan.'' It is time for necessity to trump ideology.

Senator Robert Byrd once said, ``Potholes know no parties.'' The challenges this Nation faces today are greater than any speed bump, but the road to recovery is the same: cooperation. Partisanship will not solve our jobs crisis, but setting aside politics in service to our country certainly will.

Mr. President, we have been able to move forward this week and get some work done. I especially appreciate very much the work of Senator Kyl, who is the Republican whip. His work to put the patent bill in the position it is in so we can finish that bill today--we certainly hope to be able to do that--has been very exemplary, and I appreciate it very much.

Next week, likely, our first vote will be to do something about FEMA--the Federal Emergency Management Agency--which is broke. We have had a string of natural catastrophes that have been just awful--Irene, Lee, and tornadoes that don't have names, but the one that struck Joplin, MO, killed almost 200 people and devastated that town.

I went down to S-120 last night, and they had a number of scientists showing some of the things they have developed. One of the things they have developed--and these are things they have done at universities, handmade pieces of magnificent equipment that do many things--is something they can place in the path of a storm--they have never been able to do that before--to determine from which direction the wind is coming and how hard it blows. Without belaboring the point, one of the instruments there recorded the strongest winds ever recorded in the history of the world--more than 300 miles an hour. That is basically what we had in Joplin, MO. There is no building that can withstand that. It is devastating.

The pictures you see of Joplin, MO, look like a series of bombs hit. Every building was affected, most of them knocked down. The reason I mention that is that FEMA has stopped work in Joplin, MO. People were there working for $9 an hour, just putting things back into some semblance of order, but that work has stopped. FEMA has had to look at the places that are impacted right now. They are still trying to get the water out of some places because of Lee and to restore some of the immediate damage done by Irene. We have to do something to replenish that money.

I was happy to see some of the statements from one of the Republican leaders in the House yesterday in effect changing his position on how all this has to be paid for. As we speak, we are spending billions of dollars every week in Iraq and Afghanistan. I understand that. But that is all unpaid for--unpaid for.

Certainly, we have to do something to help the American people in an emergency and figure out some other way in the future to look at how to handle other disasters. We try to prefund what we think will happen as a result of disasters, but these are acts of God--that is what we learn in law school--these hurricanes and tornadoes and floods. Along the Mississippi River, we have more than 3 million acres underwater. This is farmland. It is not just vacant land, it is farmland underwater. These people need help, and the Federal Government can help them. So we need to do that, and that is why we will have a vote, as soon as I can arrange it next week, on funding FEMA so they can continue doing the work that is so important for our country.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, we have one more vote. We will have 4 minutes of debate and then a vote on final passage. This is important legislation.

The President's speech is at 7 o'clock. We will gather here at 6:30 to proceed to the House Chamber.

When the President's speech is over, we will come back here, and I will move to proceed to the debt ceiling vote that we know is coming. If that motion to proceed fails, then we will be through for the week as far as votes go. If the vote to proceed is affirmative in nature, we will be back tomorrow, and there will be 10 hours allowed, but we don't have to use it all.

We will have to finish this matter tomorrow. I think it is clear that I hope we don't proceed to that, but we will have to see. I am here tomorrow. That

vote will start very quickly tonight, as soon as the speech is over. We will be in recess subject to the call of the Chair. The vote will start quickly.

Also, I have talked to the Republican leader about how we are going to proceed next week. We don't have that defined, but I am waiting to hear from the Speaker, either tonight or tomorrow, to make more definite what we need to do next week.

Again, we have one more vote after the President's speech tonight.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the last vote.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed, and I also move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to morning business until 6:10 p.m. today and that Senators, during that period of time, be permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each.

I ask unanimous consent that upon the conclusion of the joint session, the Senate stand in recess, subject to the call of the Chair.

Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 153, S.J. Res. 25.

Mr. President, I do ask now for the yeas and nays on my motion.

Madam President, following leader remarks, if any, there will be an hour of morning business, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final half. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to the America Invents Act.

The Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 for our weekly party conferences. At 2:30, there will be 30 minutes of tribute to the late Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon, and I would indicate that if people are unable to come during that 30 minutes, I would solicit their statements so that we can put them together, as we often do in these situations, so they are in that nice little booklet people can look through at a later time.

I would say, Madam President, that I had the good fortune of being able to serve with Mark Hatfield--a treasure of a man. We have had great leaders from Oregon, but certainly he was equal to any of them--a man of great character who was not bound by party. He was bound by what he thought was best for this country.

I had the good fortune to travel on a codel he led. It was a wonderful trip, led by this great statesman. We went into the Soviet Union--Mongolia--and saw Lake Baikal and found that the Soviets had not ruined this great Alpine glacier lake. There are only two in the world. One is in Nevada and California--we share Lake Tahoe. But Lake Baikal is one thing the Soviets didn't ruin. Anyway, it was a trip I will always remember, not only where we went but who led that trip.

I will give a more complete statement at a later time regarding Mark Hatfield, a man for whom I had great respect and admiration. He was really a role model, in my mind, for what a Senator should be.

We expect to be in consideration of the patent bill today. I hope the Republicans will let us get on that. It is too bad we had to move to proceed to it, but we did. I hope we don't have to use the full 30 hours, and I hope I don't have to file cloture again. I hope there are a couple of amendments and then we can get rid of this bill as early as possible.

We have a lot to do. We have so much to do in this work period--the highway bill, the patent bill, FEMA, and trade issues. We need to complete all those matters before we leave here in just a few weeks. We have to take a break because of the holidays coming up toward the end of this month.

Madam President, I understand H.J. Res. 66 is at the desk and is due for a second reading.

Madam President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to this joint resolution.

Madam President, yesterday morning a man walked into a pancake house in Carson City, NV, our capital, and proceeded to--with, I am told, an AK-47--first shoot and kill some poor woman outside the pancake house, and he then walked inside and started shooting with this automatic weapon and killed three National Guardsmen and another innocent person. We have a number of people who are in the hospital, and we hope no more die. We are still learning the details of this tragedy, but we do know five are dead. The shooter then killed himself following this rampage he went on.

The National Guardsmen--as I understand, there were five of them there having breakfast prior to their duties when this madman walked in and killed them. One of the five was a woman who was an assistant to one of my outstanding employees, a colonel in the Nevada Army National Guard. He is an airman, and she was his assistant when he does his duty out there. She was killed.

It is sad, this violence around us, even in little Carson City, NV, where citizen soldiers--sacrificing their time to defend our country-- are killed having pancakes at a little restaurant. My thoughts go out to the victims, and I appreciate their commitment to Nevada and this country.

What else can you say, Madam President? Your heart goes out to these people who are going through such a turmoil today, trying to figure out why this happened. It is hard to imagine such a terrible act taking place in this quiet little town. The legislature is out of session, which is when the town picks up a little bit. There is not much going on in Carson City, not as you would have with the buzz of a capital when the legislature is in session. I spent three legislative sessions in Carson City. My kids went to school in Carson City when I was the Lieutenant Governor.

I wish all the citizens of Carson City well as they begin the process of healing after this shocking event.

Madam President, this fall the Democrats are hoping to find Republican allies willing to reach across the aisle for the sake of creating jobs in America, for the sake of putting people back to work. For 8 months now, Republicans have wasted our time on partisan politics regarding issues that should have been so simple, such as funding the government for last year. We were forced to deal with that for months. Then, when we finished that, we went to do something that happens as a matter of fact around here. Not that it is unimportant, but there is no reason for our country to default on the debts we have. Extending the debt ceiling doesn't allow us to spend money on more items, it simply allows us to pay our debts.

Take, for example, Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan is somebody whom Republicans idolize, and I have no problem with that. He was a good President and did some good things for our country--lots of good things. I liked him very much as a person and as a President. He asked us 18 different times to raise the debt ceiling, and we did it every time--every time. But this time, no thanks. The Republicans forced us to spend months on raising the debt ceiling.

They have also used unrelated amendments and procedural stall tactics to kill good pieces of legislation that have always had the support of Democrats and Republicans. Take, for example, the Economic Development Administration. They blocked that, something that has been going on for 35 years creating jobs. This piece of legislation alone would have created 314,000 jobs. They killed it. The EDA has worked with little businesses, universities, and economically challenged areas to create jobs, as I said, for three decades. Actually, it has been 4\1/2\ decades.

For nearly 2 months, they held up efforts to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation and Research Program before finally killing it altogether. This legislation would have helped small businesses, small technology companies, which have invented everything from the electric toothbrush to how to put armor on a Bradley fighting vehicle. These small business innovation loans were terrific for bringing out the innovation and creativity of the American people, creating thousands of jobs. They forced that bill off the floor.

The fate of these two pieces of legislation alone cost more than one- half million jobs--more than 500,000 jobs. But not only did they take away these two pieces of legislation--and there are many others but speaking of these two--their obstructionistic tactics also cost us lots of time. Every moment wasted on procedural hurdles--and we have spent months on these useless amendments--was a moment we weren't creating jobs.

Republicans held up the work of Congress for months in the hope of defeating the President. And this is not something I have made up. My counterpart, the Republican leader, has said that is his No. 1 issue-- making sure President Obama is not reelected. But this effort to defeat President Obama has also held up our economic recovery. We saw the toll in last month's job report, showing unemployment holding steady. For the eighth month in a row we have created private-sector jobs--we didn't create many--last month, about 20,000.

Because of what is going on around the country, with the Republicans' austerity programs, there are lots of government jobs being cut. Each of us, from New York, Illinois, and Nevada, has had local governments really being cut to the bone--police and fire. These are the jobs that people need very much.

Madam President, I hope the Republicans have gotten the stalling tactics out of their system and really will work with us to create jobs. Hopefully, the Senate is now moving forward with this patent bill, the America Invents Act. This bill will reform the Nation's outdated patent system that has almost 1 million patents waiting to be looked at. Any one of those patents could be a new benefit--something that will create jobs and allow people who have such great ingenuity in America to put their product on line.

We are told that this reform of our Nation's outdated patent system will allow us to create almost 300,000 jobs, and it will clear up a 3- year backlog in patent applications so inventors might be able to invent the next iPod or iPad or electric car or whatever other interesting thing that makes America so great. I hope the spirit of bipartisanship comes into being now, because Congress and this country cannot afford to waste any more time.

There are two things we can do right away to create lots of jobs. First, extend the authorization of the FAA bill. Let me explain what this is all about.

We passed an FAA bill, a good bill, passed overwhelmingly, Democrats and Republicans. It went to the House and they put it in some dark hole over there, and finally they gave us a bill back. It is different than our bill, and here is how it is different. The National Mediation Board set a new rule. It is something called democracy. What it means is that in a labor election, the majority wins. Under Republican dominance in years past, if you had a group of people who were trying to be unionized, and let's say there were 1,000 and that is how many were in the work unit and there was an election held and 600 people turned out for that election, 450 voted, yes, we think we should be able to collectively bargain with our employer, under the old rules that is not enough; 450 out of 600 is not enough. You would have to get a majority of the people in the unit.

I ask my friend from New York, the Presiding Officer, and my friend from Illinois, because I have asked myself, under rules like that, none of us would have been elected. Of the millions and millions of people in New York and Illinois and the 3 million people in Nevada, I won by 5 percent last election. I got a majority of the people who were registered to vote. That is how you win in America, not a majority of everyone in the State, because no one would be elected if that in fact were the case.

But that is how the Republicans want to change the rules. They want go back

and say a simple majority of those voting is not enough. You have to have a majority of everybody in the union. And, as I indicated, based on our elections, it would mean each of us would have to get a majority of everyone in the State.

So they stuck that provision in the bill saying, no, a majority is not enough; you have to have a majority of everyone in the unit. It is this kind of antidemocratic issue they placed in this legislation. I would hope they would take that out. They haven't been willing to do that.

If we can reform our antiquated air traffic control system, it will bring us into the modern world where we are no longer depending on Second World War technology; that is, radar, and we can move into the modern world as most all countries have, where we would have GPS, and it will create lots and lots of jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs which are so badly needed. Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, thinks it is essential that we get this done for the safety and security of our Nation and certainly to create lots and lots of jobs.

Second, we must authorize Federal spending for our Nation's highways. About 1.8 million construction jobs in highway and mass transit projects are at stake. If we don't extend this bill, they will be gone, almost 2 million jobs.

So we will be happy to consider a bipartisan idea to get the economy going again. I have talked about two things.

Here are two ideas Republicans have supported in the past: payroll tax cuts and extension of unemployment insurance. Extending the payroll tax cut could save 972,000 American jobs next year alone. Extending unemployment insurance during these tough economic times would save 528,000 American jobs. They have agreed to these in the past.

Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor wrote to the President yesterday and they said, Our differences should not preclude us from taking action in areas where there is common ground.

I hope they would agree that extending unemployment benefits and cutting the payroll tax are agreements that are common sense. So I agree with them, our differences should not preclude us from taking action in areas where there is common agreement. Let's start with the four commonsense measures I have talked about: the FAA bill; of course, we have to do the extension of the payroll tax cuts; do the unemployment insurance; and, of course, FAA. I would hope we can move on these as quickly as possible.

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