Floor Statements

Mr. President, we are going to have one more vote tonight. Senator McConnell and I have spoken earlier today. We will have one or two votes in the morning. We will terminate before 11 o'clock, so we will have a vote around 10 o'clock, 10:15 in the morning--maybe two--on the FAA bill.

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes this morning. We have made significant progress on the FAA authorization bill this week and will make more progress next week. The Finance Committee is going to report out legislation on Tuesday, a funding amendment for this most important piece of legislation. We hope to complete action on this bill early in the week of February 14.

Today I will continue to work with the Republican leader on an agreement to vote Monday on the confirmation of several executive nominations.

There will be no rollcall votes during today's session of the Senate.

I understand there are three bills ready for their second reading.

I object to any further proceedings with respect to each of these three bills.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, February 7, at 4:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 3, 6, and 8; that there be 1 hour for debate, equally divided in the usual form; that upon the use or yielding back of that time Calendar No. 8 be confirmed and the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on Calendar No. 3 and Calendar No. 6 in that order; the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record; that President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until Monday, February 7 at 2 p.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 until 3 p.m., with Senators permitted during that hour to speak for up to 10 minutes; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill; and that at 4:30 the Senate proceed to executive session as required under the previous order.

Mr. President, we hope to process some amendments to the FAA bill during Monday's session. If Senators have amendments to the bill, they should contact the bill managers.

Under the previous order, there will be two rollcall votes at 5:30 p.m. Those votes will be on confirmation of Calendar No. 3, Paul Holmes, of Arkansas, to be a district judge for the Western District of Arkansas; and Calendar No. 6, Diana Saldana, of Texas, to be a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Texas.

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, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, there has been a minor change in the schedule. It has been cleared on both sides. I ask unanimous consent that, following any leader remarks, the Senate proceed to a period of morning business until 10:30 a.m. this morning, with Senators permitted to speak during that period of time for up to 10 minutes each.

Following that morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 223, the Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill. Currently, we have one amendment pending. Other Members are waiting to offer their amendments. It is my understanding Senator Wicker is ready to offer his as soon as the bill is reported. Senators should expect rollcall votes to occur throughout the day in order to make significant progress on this most important legislation.

Mr. President, we have a long way to go before our economy is back to normal. Ask any American and they will tell you: We have a lot more jobs to create and fill, a lot more homes to save, and a lot more consumer confidence to recover.

I hear every day from families in Nevada who still need us to fight for them. I know every Senator hears the same from citizens in their State.

There are currently bits and pieces of good news. They are not enough, that is for sure. But the Dow Jones opened this morning above 12,000. That is the highest in many years. Manufacturing is rising more than expected. Consumer spending is beating forecasts also. Corporate profits are higher than anyone predicted. We got a decent jobs number

today, better than most economists predicted--not good enough but decent. So it is not all bad news. But I am not satisfied hearing that things are simply better than expected. Nevada, similar to every other State, is still hurting, and our job is not to beat expectations, it is to beat unemployment and beat back the deficit. We cannot assume we are back to normal every time we hear encouraging news. We don't have that luxury because it is not true. We can't let our guard down and we can't waste any more time on symbolic votes.

The fight to repeal the patients' rights enshrined in the health reform law is behind us now. The arguments have been made, the votes have been counted, and similar to the majority of the American people, the Senate has decided the law of the land is better than the broken system it replaced.

I don't wish to spend a lot of time talking about health care because the vote speaks for itself, but I will say this. Those who want to deny Americans the right to afford a healthy life had their say in 2008, when President Obama was elected on the promise of change. They had their say in 2009, when we first passed this law. They had their say in 2010, when we finalized it. Now they have had their say in 2011, when they tried to repeal it. Each time the votes fell on the side of patients, patients' rights--more rights, not fewer. The Senate voted each time to put people, not insurance companies, in control. The Senate voted each time for health, not sickness. So it is time to move on.

Let's talk about jobs. We are on a jobs bill right now, the Federal Aviation Administration authorization. The Aviation Modernization Act, which is this bill, is to bring to America modern air travel, travel into the 21st century. This legislation will create hundreds of thousands of jobs--not hundreds, not thousands but hundreds of thousands. That is why we are fighting so hard for this legislation. It is a bipartisan piece of legislation. It is not a Democratic bill. It is not Republican. It is a bipartisan bill. The same bill passed the Senate unanimously last year. So I hope we come together in the spirit of compromise we all promised and finish it as quickly as possible. This bill alone will not eradicate unemployment, but it will help. It is going to move us further toward that goal, and the quicker we pass it the quicker 280,000 Americans will breathe easier by knowing a good, consistent paycheck is on the way.

We are all concerned about the deficit. There is nothing more important than creating jobs, though. We can never have a healthy economy when we have 15 million people out of work. We can never have a balanced budget when we have 15 million people out of work.

The deficit is something that is very important. Jobs, as I indicated, will work toward solving that problem, but it is not the only way to strengthen our economy. We also need to keep digging out of the fiscal hole we inherited over the last decade. In the short term, we can responsibly cut spending. In the long term, we can cut our deficit. There are some things we have to be careful to avoid, such as jeopardizing the full faith and credit of our great country. That is what will happen if we don't raise our Nation's debt limit. If we don't act, if we allow the country to default on our legal obligations, we will send our economy into default for the first time in its history. That will certainly not save a single job or save a single home from foreclosure or encourage the domestic and foreign investment we need to grow. It will be just the opposite. Each of these steps is an important stride toward recovery. Together, they are a powerful leap forward.

We might be on the right track and heading in the right direction, but we still have a ways to travel. Let's avoid the temptation to get distracted and derailed. Let's keep driving toward that goal. If we work toward putting people back to work, soon Nevada and every other State will not just read good news in a headline here or there, they will see it before their eyes--in their workplaces and in their wallets and throughout our country.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Paul be recognized to call up amendment No. 19 which deals with the Davis-Bacon issue; that there be 30 minutes of debate equally divided between Senators Paul and Rockefeller or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, there be 10 minutes of debate equally divided on the Whitehouse amendment No. 8 dealing with laser pointers; that this time be equally divided between Senators Whitehouse and Hutchison or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the Whitehouse amendment, to be followed by a vote in relation to the Paul amendment; further, that there be no amendments or points of order in order to the amendments prior to the votes; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

That being the case, we will have votes probably around 5:30, give or take a few minutes. Everyone should be alerted that there is likely to be some time yielded back. If that is the case, we will begin voting sooner.

Mr. President, we have made good progress on this bill. We are working through the amendments. The staff has been doing yeomen's work. The Finance Committee is going to meet on Tuesday to report out funding for this bill. They have a path forward to do that. We need to keep the amendments relative to the Federal Aviation Administration and that has been good. We have made, as I indicated, progress. We have had some substantive amendments we worked on. We are voting on a couple here this evening and staff have worked on a number that they can resolve.

We are going to make more progress next week. We hope to complete action early in the week of February 14. As indicated--it has been scheduled for a long period of time--the Democratic Senators have a retreat next week. We are going to have votes Monday night and Tuesday morning. Everyone can count on that. But we believe, looking at the schedule tomorrow, we can accomplish just as much with having the Senate in session tomorrow. The majority will be here taking amendments or doing whatever is necessary on this bill. If somebody wants to give a speech on whatever their heart desires, they will be able to do that tomorrow also.

This next vote will be the last vote of the week.

Mr. President, I extend my condolences to the family of my good friend Mr. Eddie Escobedo, who passed away in Las Vegas, NV, on October 15, 2010. He was 77 years old.

Eddie left behind his loving wife of 50 years, Dona Maria Escobedo, his children, Eddie, Jr., Hilda, Nicolas, Victor, and nine grandchildren. His passing leaves an empty place in the lives of those who knew and loved him, but it also leaves an enormous void in the Las Vegas community.

Eddie was best known as the publisher of the Spanish-language El Mundo newspaper and a strong advocate for the Hispanic community. He arrived in southern Nevada when approximately 60,000 people lived in the Las Vegas Valley. His assertive leadership drew attention to the issues that pertain specifically to the Latino community, paving the way for hundreds of thousands of them who now reside in Nevada.

Eddie was born in Juarez, Mexico, in 1932, and as a teenager immigrated to the United States. He recognized early on that in America he would have the opportunity to accomplish his dreams. He enlisted in the Air Force and earned his citizenship after serving with distinction.

Several years ago I received a call from my friend Eddie to invite me to Christmas in the Barrio, where he would help give toys to needy children. Seeing those little faces glow because they would have a little bit of Christmas even though their families were struggling is a memory that I keep very fondly. Eddie's actions that day crystallized who he was in this community, and it reinforced my commitment to public service.

Eddie spread democracy through his incisive columns published in his newspaper, which often became the voice of the Latino community in Las Vegas. His columns also inspired his 175,000 weekly readers to become active in the community and to exercise their right to vote.

Eddie Escobedo's dedication to Nevada changed the community that he loved and fought for. He will be missed. His legacy and big heart will live on through his publication--El Mundo Newspaper--as it continues to play a vital role in the lives of Hispanics throughout Nevada by conveying the challenges and experiences Latino families face on a daily basis.

Mr. President, over the last 20 years, the apportionment of committee funding has gone a straight two-thirds for majority and one- third for minority during the 1990s, regardless of the size of the majority and minority, to biannual negotiations during the past decade. It is my intention that the approach adopted for this Congress will be used in the future. This new funding allocation for Senate committees is based on the party division of the Senate, with 10 percent of the total majority and minority salary baseline going to the majority for administrative expenses. However, regardless of the party division of the Senate, it is also intended that the minority share will never be less than 40 percent, and the majority share will never exceed 60 percent.

I thank my friend, the Republican leader, and ask unanimous consent that a joint leadership letter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 42.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 43.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.