Floor Statements

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the 20th anniversary of the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. For two decades the Las Vegas Natural History Museum has provided children and families from all across southern Nevada with the opportunity to learn about science and history in an educational setting outside of the classroom. It is my great pleasure to honor this fine institution, its employees, and the museum's board members before the U.S. Senate today.

The museum started in 1989 when a group of dedicated citizens petitioned the Las Vegas City Council to find a permanent home for a collection of wildlife and prehistoric exhibits. In July 1991, the museum opened its doors to the people of Las Vegas with a collection of loaned wildlife and prehistoric exhibits. Today, the museum has acquired a world-class collection of artifacts for their multimillion dollar collection. Even the Smithsonian Institution has taken notice of our museum. In 2002, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum became an affiliate with the Smithsonian Institution, granting them access to the Smithsonian's vast collection of exhibits.

While many museums across the country have struggled with the economic downturn, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum continues to thrive and grow. Last year, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum provided educational tours to 30,000 students in Clark County. All of their programs are designed by grade level to meet State educational requirements. The museum also provides opportunities for at-risk schools to visit the museum free of charge. Their Open Doors Program provided scholarships that allowed nearly 20,000 visitors from at-risk or economically disadvantaged schools to experience the museum.

I am proud to join with my fellow Nevadans in recognizing the Las Vegas Natural History Museum on reaching this important milestone. For 20 years, this institution has provided the children of southern Nevada with an interactive learning experience, and I have no doubt that the museum will continue to be an important part of our community for years to come.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent we now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 231.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Tuesday, July 12; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate proceed to a period of morning business for 1 hour, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes, with the time to be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of S. 1323, which is a bill to express the sense of the Senate on shared sacrifice in resolving the budget issue; further, I ask that the filing deadline for all first- degree amendments to S. 1323 be 12 noon; and finally, that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.

Mr. President, I filed cloture on S. 1323, which is on the sense-of-the-Senate bill regarding shared sacrifice, and on the motion to proceed to H.R. 2055, the Military Construction-VA bill. It is an appropriations bill. It is an important bill. Unless an agreement is reached, there will be up to two rollcall votes Wednesday morning on these issues.

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

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will resume the motion to proceed to S. 1323, which is a bill to express the sense of the Senate on shared sacrifice in the resulting budget deficit, with the time until 10 a.m. equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. At 10 a.m., there will be a vote on the motion to invoke cloture to proceed to S. 1323.

Mr. President, today the Senate will consider legislation calling on millionaires and billionaires to contribute to this country's effort to reduce our deficit. The poor, the middle class, children, and seniors have already been asked to make sacrifices to help get our fiscal house in order. This legislation would reaffirm the Senate's commitment to ensuring the extremely wealthy are asked to make similar sacrifices. This principle that all Americans should contribute their fair share as we work together to reduce the deficit is so common sense it should go without saying. Yet Republicans boast of their opposition of having the very affluent not pay their fair share. This is the simple, straightforward statement by my Republican colleagues. Listen to this:

. . . any agreement to reduce the budget deficit should

require that those earning $1,000,000 or more per year make a

more meaningful contribution to the deficit reduction effort.

My Republican colleagues reject that. Democrats believe all Americans, even those who can afford private jets and yachts, should contribute to the collective effort to reduce the deficit. The question is, Why aren't Republicans willing to do the same? They say it is because they are looking out for the people. That claim is ridiculous. This claim is without foundation, which is preposterous. Let's talk about the millionaires and billionaires Republicans are determined to protect above all else. Less than one-quarter of 1 percent of tax returns filed in the United States each year belong to the people making more than $1 million--25 percent of 1 percent, one-quarter percent of 1 percent. These same people are the 1 percent of Americans who control 50 percent of this country's wealth. We are speaking of the Warren Buffetts of the world. Warren Buffett is my friend. I have great respect and admiration for him, but he is extremely wealthy. What does Warren Buffett, who is the second or third richest man in the world, say about contributing his fair share? He welcomes it. In fact, Mr. Buffett criticized the system in which his secretary gives a greater share of her income to the government each year than a man worth more than $50 billion. Here he says: ``If you're the luckiest 1 percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent.''

That is what he said. That is what Warren Buffett said about contributing his fair share.

Since the late 1970s, incomes for the lucky 1 percent of America have risen by 281 percent. The last three decades have been very good to the very wealthy. President George W. Bush called these people the haves and have-mores. He also called them his base. Right now, the Republican Party is

putting what is good for this very small base ahead of what is very good for this great Nation.

The legislation before us asks only this: that each American be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. In poll after poll, Americans have endorsed this principle. They have said they believe we must address our deficit both by reducing spending and by ending tax breaks to the wealthiest citizens and corporations. We have heard them. Democrats have heard them. If Warren Buffett chooses to buy a private jet or a whole fleet of them, that is OK, but the American taxpayer should not give him a special tax break for buying his own jet airplane.

Our country is facing a crisis. We face mounting debt brought on by a decade of war and tax breaks for the wealthy. We face the prospect that Republicans will force us to default on our financial obligations for the first time in our Nation's history. Difficult choices must be made. Together, we should consider cutting programs to help real people in very real ways. Eliminating tax breaks for oil companies making record profits, corporations that ship jobs overseas, and the owners of private jets and yachts should be an easy part of this problem to solve. Yet Republicans walked away from the negotiating table when a solution was in sight because they said no to fairness. Democrats had already agreed to trillions in difficult cuts in order to prevent a default crisis and avert a worldwide depression. Then Republicans walked away from the table to help the 1 percent of Americans fortunate enough to not need any extra help.

How do Republicans explain that to their constituents back home? Very carefully. Why? Because as middle-class families struggle to make ends meet, my Republican colleagues are risking the financial future of this country and the world for the sake of people who can afford private jets and yachts. I cannot imagine that conversation. Asking millionaires and billionaires to contribute to solving this Nation's deficit crisis is not unreasonable. It is just plain common sense and simple fairness.

We are going to have a vote in just 20 minutes or so, and probably what my Republican colleagues will do is to vote to allow us to proceed. That would be great if there was some sense that they agreed with what we are trying to do; that is, that they want the millionaires and billionaires to contribute their fair share. But as we know, the rules will only allow us to move to the next step and actually be on the bill. So when we get on the bill, I would tell everyone here, if we can work on an agreement to have some fixed amendments and work on it, I would be happy to do that. It is how we used to do things around here.

But if this means a free-for-all and offering amendments on abortion and war fighting and all this kind of stuff, we can't do that. We need to devote these next few weeks to debate dealing with the deficit problems we have in this country, and they are significant.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time until 6 p.m. today on the motion to proceed be equally divided between the two leaders or there designees; further, that at 2 p.m., Monday, July 11, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1323, with the time until 5:30 equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that at 5:30 p.m. the Senate proceed to vote on the adoption of the motion to proceed to S. 1323.

There will be no more rollcall votes this week.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The Senator from Texas will have the floor. I just have a brief comment.

I have known my friend, the senior Senator from Arizona, since 1982 when we were both elected to Congress. His record of public service speaks for itself. But I would say to him, and to everyone within the sound of my voice, we didn't vote on Libya, this important resolution that had been worked on so hard by the distinguished Senator from Arizona and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, because I was told we wouldn't get any votes from the Republicans because they wanted to focus on the deficit.

My friend also recognizes, as he said, that there is work going on behind the scenes, and that is true. There has been a lot of work this week that took place as a result of our being here that would not have taken place but for the fact that we are in session.

We know a lot of the work we accomplish here is not with votes. One reason we have not been having a lot of votes in recent months is because we can't get things on the Senate floor. We have been stopped by my Republican friends. There are meetings going on with the White House and with the Speaker, a multitude of meetings there, meetings going on between Members of the Senate and Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives. So I would say to everyone here it is good we were in session this week. I haven't heard a single person who is not in Congress complain about our being here. It is important we are here. As a result of that, we have been able to move down the road much further on the problems we have with the debt than we would have had we not been in session because there are all kinds of meetings going on around town dealing with how we do this.

We had a meeting right behind us today that started at 9 where we had the head of the Chamber of Commerce in. We had people from Moody's Financial Services. They were here to tell us what they are doing to focus on Republicans being able to help us get through this problem dealing with the debt.

We have to do something about the staggering debt that faces us, and what this resolution we voted on earlier today is all about is making sure there is equal sacrifice in our country; that is, we know we are going to have to make some cuts. We also recognize that we need to do something about equalizing revenue, and that is what is going on.

While what we do in the Senate every week isn't like solving a math problem--there is no perfection--that is the way the Founding Fathers set up this great government of ours. So we are going to continue to work in the next 4 weeks of this work period to solve some of the Nation's problems.

No. 1 on the list is doing something about our staggering debt.

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

Mr. President, first of all, I express my appreciation to you, presiding all these hours you have this afternoon, but I also wish to take just a minute and thank these pages. This is the first time since 1974 the Senate has been in session during a July 4 recess period--since 1974. These young pages had places to be with their families during the summer vacation period. They are juniors in high school. They have some plans, I am sure, that we interfered with. But regarding the work we have done this week, while there has not been a lot of time on the floor, there are a lot of things going on all over Washington. There have been meetings at the White House, there have been meetings with the Vice President, with the President, with the Speaker, and others, working on this very important issue.

When these eight pages in later years reflect back on the fact that they were here the first time since 1974 when we were in session over a July 4 recess period, they should reflect that we were here for important reasons. If we do what is right, we will rein in this debt the country has and protect the most needy of our country.

I apologize for keeping them here. They should not have had to be here this week, but they have stayed because they have an obligation as pages to be here and they accepted that. They have kept the Senate running smoothly. We need them. They are helpful to us. They didn't have to be asked; each one of these eight pages volunteered: Naomi Biden, Brynn DiNino, Claire Karsting, William Maas, Aliza Reisner, Morgan Wissel, Keira Harris, and Chaffee Duckers.

I appreciate very much their service and wish them the best in their educational endeavors in the years to come.

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

Mr. President, for nearly 40 years, legendary singer and songwriter Barry Manilow has inspired and dazzled millions of people with his musical talents. He has sold more than 80 million records worldwide and has written countless iconic hits.

However, I come to the floor today not to discuss his talent but to recognize my friend for another one of his remarkable accomplishments-- his ongoing efforts to help preserve music education in public schools in Nevada and across this country.

In recent years, significant budget cuts to public education have forced schools to eliminate a number of important programs. Sadly, music programs are often one of the first casualties. In response to this disturbing trend, Mr. Manilow started the Manilow Music Project, which helps public schools continue their music programs. The project donates instruments and materials to public schools and provides music scholarships to high school students to further their music education at the college level. Since 2008, the organization has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of instruments and materials to secondary and high school music programs across the country.

A wonderful example of the impact of the Manilow Music Project occurred last year in Nevada. During one of Mr. Manilow's recent tours in Las Vegas, in exchange for donations of new or gently used musical instruments, he offered tickets to attend one of his concerts. The collected instruments, valued at more than $500,000, were then donated to fifteen schools in the Clark County School District, the school district that serves the Las Vegas Valley. This gift--the largest donation of its kind for Clark County--has provided more than 600 students with the opportunity to experience the joys of playing a musical instrument.

In addition to his donations to the district, Mr. Manilow has also helped foster music appreciation. He recently invited four different Clark County School District school choirs to perform in his holiday shows and provided show tickets valued at more than $30,000 for nearly 500 students and their parents or chaperones.

I would like to thank Barry for his dedication to the Las Vegas community and his efforts to keep music alive in Nevada's schools. I am so pleased that he has been able to share his love of music with thousands of aspiring musicians.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 229.

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

Mr. President, I am told there is a bill at the desk due for a first reading.

I now ask for a second reading in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, and I also object to my own request.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, July 11, 2011; 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 resume the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 93, S. 1323, a bill to express the sense of the Senate on shared sacrifice in resolving the budget deficit postcloture, under the previous order.