Floor Statements

Madam President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business for 1 hour. The majority will control the first half of that time and the Republicans will control the final half.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Economic Development Act, with the time until 2 p.m. equally divided between the opponents and proponents of the Tester amendment.

At approximately 2 p.m., there will be a rollcall vote in relation to the Tester amendment regarding swipe fees, with a 60-vote threshold.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, it is my understanding the order before the Senate is that we are going to vote on the Tester amendment; is that right?

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

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I have spoken with the chairman, Senator Boxer, and a number of other Senators, including Senator Snowe, who has offered her amendment on this bill. She has not determined yet how much time she wants. We will work with her to make sure she has some time to speak on it.

Senator DeMint has indicated that he has an amendment he wants to offer. Senator Paul has indicated that he has an amendment he wants to offer. And Senator Boxer will give a statement for however long she feels is appropriate, as soon as the amendments are offered by Senators DeMint and Paul. They will debate those at a later time.

We also have people on our side who want to offer amendments. To keep this fairly orderly, we will have two amendments on our side to be offered, and then we will sit down and talk about it. At that time, there will be five amendments pending. We are trying to move forward with this bill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator DeMint be recognized to offer an amendment, and then that Senator Paul be recognized to offer an amendment, and then Senator Boxer be recognized to speak for whatever time she feels is appropriate, and we will have a couple offered on the Democratic side, and then we will reassess where we are after that.

The only thing is, so that we know where we start on this, we want to make sure the amendments offered by our Republican colleagues and our Democratic colleagues initially be not divisible. I ask unanimous consent that that be the case.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, following leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business for an hour, with Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half.

Following that morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 782, the Economic Development Act. The Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.

We will begin consideration of the EDA bill as soon as we can, which appears to be tomorrow morning when cloture is invoked.

Madam President, as I was doing my exercise this morning, I heard on the news the announcement that 10 years ago today, when President Bush--I could hear his voice celebrating the tax cuts for the wealthy--said: I know we have these huge surpluses, but these moneys are the people's money and, therefore, he was going to do something about it. He did that big time.

He certainly did away with those huge surpluses we had, which amounted to trillions of dollars. He did it in a number of different ways. We had a program developed during the Clinton years called pay- go. That meant if someone had a new program they wanted to initiate, they had to pay for it either with new revenue or take money from an existing program. It worked extremely well. That is one reason, and one of the main reasons, we were able to develop the huge surpluses we did during the Clinton years. We were paying down the debt in the Clinton years. Some said it was too quickly.

Well, another way that the President got rid of that huge surplus was the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq alone now is estimated to be about a $1\1/2\ trillion--all borrowed money.

We also know how important it is to create jobs. Now, as a result of the President finding himself in a huge hole as a result of the policies of the Bush administration, he decided that something had to be done. We passed the Economic Recovery Act. It created millions of jobs and saved millions of jobs. Was it enough? No, but it was the best we could do. We could only get three Republicans to help us on that. I appreciated their support, and I always will. They were Senators Snowe, Collins, and Specter. They determined what we could spend and not spend within certain parameters, and we believed there should be more infrastructure spending. I wish we could have done more. So we have done some things to help significantly the hole that President Bush created for us.

Now this Congress has also done some things. We focused on jobs. We know how important jobs are. Regarding the FAA bill--Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization--we extended that short term 19 times. I talked to Randy Walker, head of McCarran Airport, the sixth busiest airport in America. They can't let contracts for runway repairs because they only have 1 month to do it a lot of times. They cannot do that.

All kinds of projects that would create thousands of jobs around American airports would happen if we could have an FAA bill. We passed it here. It has been held up in the big dark hole of the House of Representatives. Nothing has been done. We haven't been able to complete the conference on that, and the 280,000 jobs either created or saved haven't been completed. That has been months and months.

We have an antiquated air traffic control system in America. We want to improve it. That is what it is about--saving and creating jobs.

We believed it was important to do something about patents. Senator Leahy has been faithful in reporting bills out of his committee, and we finally said bring it to the floor. After a lot of work, we got it done. More than six decades have lapsed, and we haven't done anything with one of the most important things we can do, which is protect our patent system and make it better. We passed it here and sent it to the House. Nothing has happened. They have not voted on that bill.

That is very unfortunate, that we have not been able to get those two bills. The patent bill is 300,000 jobs and the FAA bill 280,000 jobs. The math is pretty simple. That is a lot of jobs, and that has been held up.

We believed it was extremely important that we do something about jobs, and we did that with something that has worked so successfully in the past. So that is the bill we brought to the floor to help small businesses innovate, invent, and invest in new jobs. What a wonderful program it has been. We tried to get that reauthorized. It was killed here in the Senate by many amendments--amendments that had nothing to do with the underlying bill. So we had to take that bill off the floor after spending I think 6 weeks on the bill and not being able to get that accomplished.

We brought this bill to the floor that would help small businesses innovate, as I say, invent, and invest in new jobs, but the Republicans simply said: No, we are not going to do that. That jobs bill was so important. The electric toothbrush was invented with a small innovation grant, and there are many other examples. That is just one of hundreds. So it is really too bad we haven't been able to do something about that.

The only thing we hear from the House of Representatives, rather than creating jobs, is destroying Medicare as we know it. The American people don't like that, Republicans don't like it, Independents don't like it, Democrats don't like it, young people don't like it, and old people don't like it. It is not a good piece of legislation. Overwhelmingly, it has been just a big zero. But that is what we have from the House of Representatives. That is their main accomplishment this year.

My friend talked about free-trade agreements. I am not a big fan of free-trade agreements. My voting record is

in accordance with that. I think if you asked people in Nevada: Boy, hasn't NAFTA helped us a lot, they would just sneer and walk away. We keep talking about free-trade agreements, but where is the fair part of those trade agreements? Shouldn't we be more worried about our American workers than workers in other places? I think that certainly is the case.

In keeping with the theme of jobs, I thought it was important we do something about creating jobs. I have talked about patents, I have talked about, of course, what we did with the FAA bill, and I talked about what we tried to do with the small jobs innovation bill. What we have decided to bring up now is the EDA, the Economic Development Administration. This has been something that has been in effect since 1965. It has been a wonderful program. In the last 5 years, we have invested $1.2 billion, creating more than 300,000 jobs. For every dollar invested, we get $7 of private capital. That is a pretty good deal. We want to bring that to the floor and have a debate on it, pass it, and put more money in the stream of creating jobs. As I said, for every dollar we invest, we get $7 that comes from the private sector. We plan to work this week on debating and reauthorizing this Economic Development Administration bill, which for more than 45 years has created jobs for the most needy and economically distressed communities--as I have said, in just the last 5 years, more than 300,000 jobs.

This is our first bill of this new work period because creating jobs is our first priority. But Republicans are stopping us from moving to it because creating jobs, it appears, is the last thing they care to do. They are more concerned about what jobs are being created in Colombia or Panama or Korea than what jobs are being created here in America.

The merits of reauthorizing this job-creating administration bill are very clear: EDA works with businesses, universities, and leaders at local levels, so it creates jobs from the bottom up, and it helps manufacturing producers compete in the global marketplace. I repeat, it is a great investment. Seven-to-one is an incredible return rate.

Last night, I had to file cloture on this bill. I hope we don't have to invoke cloture. We have it set up now so we will have the vote in the morning, an hour after we come in. Maybe during the recess we have for our caucus meetings the Republicans will be able to bring in these people who are stopping us from doing this and we will be able to move to it and do something meaningful here on the Senate floor for the rest of this day and tomorrow rather than invoking cloture, waiting 30 hours, and doing nothing. We need to start creating jobs.

Let me repeat. The FAA bill, the House has killed it. On patents, we have done it, and the House has killed it. We tried to do small jobs innovation, but it was killed here in the Senate. We are now trying to do EDA. At this stage, we are not able to move forward.

We are ready to create jobs--we Democrats. We have done it before with programs such as the Economic Development Administration, and we are ready to do it again. The American people are desperate for stable and secure jobs. All they ask of us is that we do our job, and we haven't been doing that because we have been prevented from doing it. Why haven't we passed the FAA bill? Why haven't we completed work on the patent bill? Why were we stopped from moving forward on the small jobs innovation bill? Why are we unable to move on the EDA bill?

Would the Chair announce morning business?

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed to S. 782, the Economic Development Act, be withdrawn and the Senate adopt the motion to proceed to S. 782; further, that after the clerk reports the bill, the committee-reported amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered as original text for the purposes of amendments, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that Senator Tester be recognized to offer an amendment, followed by Senator Durbin to be recognized to offer an amendment; following that, Senators Boxer and Inhofe be allowed to give their opening statements on this legislation.

I think I have protected the Senator in that regard. I want to get the amendment laid down and the second-degree amendment laid down. All right.

Mr. President, I renew my request.

Mr. President, I object. The consent agreement was he would offer his amendment, Senator Durbin would offer his amendment, and then Senator Boxer, the chairman of the committee, would be recognized. That is the order.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following morning business on Wednesday, June 8, the Senate resume consideration of S. 782, the EDA Revitalization Act, with the time until 2 p.m. equally divided between the proponents and opponents of the Tester amendment No. 392 regarding swipe fees; that at 2 p.m. the Durbin amendment No. 393 be withdrawn and the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the Tester amendment No. 392, with no amendments, motions, or points of order in order prior to the vote other than budget points of order and the applicable motions to waive; the Tester amendment be subject to a 60-vote threshold; and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table.

Mr. President, I want to express my appreciation to Senators Durbin and Tester for their warm relationship and to every Senator here on this most difficult issue, for allowing us to get this done tomorrow expeditiously. It is something that had to be done and it is the right thing to do and we will move forward upon completing this to try to do other things on this very important piece of legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until tomorrow, Wednesday, June 8, at 9:30 a.m.; that following the prayer and the 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 each during that time, with the time 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. 782, the Economic Development Act, under the previous order.

Mr. President, there will be a rollcall vote on the Tester amendment tomorrow at approximately 2 p.m. That amendment will be subject to a 60-vote threshold.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order following the remarks of Senators Moran and Isakson.

Mr. President, while awaiting the arrival of Senators Isakson and Moran, I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 4:30 today. Following morning business, the Senate will be in executive session to consider the nomination of Donald Verrilli to be Solicitor General of the United States.

Unless an agreement is reached, at approximately 5:30 p.m. the Senate will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Verrilli nomination.

Mr. President, I understand that S. 1125 is at the desk and is due for a second reading.

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

Mr. President, I welcome back my colleagues for what I hope will be a productive month. This month is not unlike last month though or the month before or the month before that. Once again, our constituents are concerned with one thing above all; that is, jobs, work. They are concerned because of what the economy means for their families and their lives. They are worried about paying the bills next month and sending the kids to school next year. Too many want to go to the bank and once again know the dignity of depositing a paycheck instead of an unemployment check.

Our constituents are also concerned because of what our economic future

will mean for our Nation. They are afraid that ill-informed politicians might lead the country into a default crisis, and they fear all the terrible consequences that would have--consequences that would hurt us as a country, our families, and the world.

I heard these concerns last week in Nevada. We all heard them in our States when we went home last week. We hear them loudly and clearly. So we are going to focus our attention this week and month on jobs just as we have all year.

I am disappointed that our Republican colleagues seem determined to distract that focus. They want to spend the Senate's time debating an extreme social agenda that would hurt families, seniors, and our economy. They want to end Medicare in order to pay for more millionaires' tax breaks and oil company subsidies. That is not good policy or even good politics. The American people strongly oppose that policy, and so do the Democrats in Congress.

Every day Republicans prove they are not just tone deaf to Americans' opinions; they are also tone deaf to cold, hard economic facts.

Last week we got a discouraging jobs report. The economy added jobs, but not as many as we had hoped. Moody's sent a clear letter warning that a default crisis would send our economy into a tailspin. There is no time to waste. The longer Republicans insist on dismantling Medicare as a price for moving forward, the longer the unemployed will wait for good news, and the closer the Nation will come to a default crisis.

Republicans' ideology of obstruction isn't limited to economics or seniors' health. We also see it in their approach to performing the Senate's constitutional duty of confirming the President's nominees for important positions.

A few weeks ago, Republicans blocked a well-qualified, fair-minded, and widely respected legal scholar for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Now they are continuing these partisan antics by threatening to block two more noncontroversial nominees. The first is Peter Diamond. He is one of the Nation's top economists. He has won the Nobel Prize in economics. Not long ago, he had bipartisan support for his nomination to the Fed's Board of Governors. All of a sudden, for no good reason, Republicans have decided to stand in the way of his nomination.

The second, Don Verrilli, is the President's nominee for Solicitor General of the United States. The Judiciary Committee approved him by a 17-to-1 margin. So in addition to being supremely qualified, he is clearly not controversial. But now Republicans are threatening to block this nominee over requests for documents totally unrelated to him or his position. I hope they don't hold him up for reasons that have nothing to do with his nomination.

Blocking every nominee no matter the merits is no way to govern or lead. It is no way to move forward.

Mr. President, if we are going to keep our economy upright--for families and for our Nation as a whole--we have to recognize real problems and propose realistic solutions. We cannot hold one policy hostage to another or be bound by some strange ideology.

Every month we play these games guarantees that the following month will bring more of the same avoidable fights. For families worried about affording the basics, and for our Nation's fundamental economic strength, we need to get serious before it is too late.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to S. 782, Calendar No. 38.

I have a cloture motion at the desk. I ask it be reported.

I ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:30 a.m., on Tuesday, June 7; 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 up to 1 hour, with Senators permitted to speak 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; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 782, the Economic Development Act; further, that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. to allow for weekly caucus meetings.