Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 10, 2009 at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate to conduct a hearing on Tuesday, February 10, 2009, at 10 a.m., in room SD366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Executive Nominations'' on Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 10 a.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, February 10, 2009, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 10, 2009 at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m., Wednesday, February 11; 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, and the Senate proceed to a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, we are working on an agreement to vote on the confirmation of William J. Lynn to be Deputy Secretary of Defense. We hope to be able to do that tomorrow. Senators will be notified when a vote is scheduled.

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

Madam President, following leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 1. The time until 5:30 will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. At 5:30, the Senate will vote in an attempt to end the filibuster. That will be on the Collins-Nelson substitute amendment. Cloture will be voted on at that time.

The Presiding Officer and I came to Congress together many years ago. We have been now serving in the Senate together for many years. Last week reminded me of when we first came to the Senate. There was open debate, amendments offered--that is what happened last week. Faced with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Senators from both parties engaged in serious debate over the best way forward.

Realizing the critical need for action, we moved President Obama's economic recovery plan as quickly and as responsibly as we could. But even though we wanted to move it as quickly and as responsibly as we could, we did not do anything to cut off debate or limit the opportunity of every Senator to have their say. Both Republicans and Democrats were given the opportunity to offer amendments and each received votes on their amendments. Many Democratic and Republican amendments were adopted and, on the whole, the amendment process strengthened the legislation.

A bipartisan group of Senators, led by Senators Nelson, Lieberman, Snowe, Collins, and Specter, worked tirelessly during last week to forge a compromise amendment, to focus the bill on job creation and tax relief. All this work has resulted in the legislation that is now before the Senate. This evening we will vote on cloture, setting up a vote on final passage for tomorrow. After final passage, the House and Senate will move to conference between the House and the Senate and then send the enrolled bill to the President's desk.

We are going to do our utmost to do this as quickly as possible. The Republican leader and I have agreed on a general position as to how we are going to move forward with the conference, and I will visit with him some more later today. But we have to complete this work this week. There is every opportunity for us to complete it by Friday. Even though it is a complex bill, the bill now has been on the desk since Saturday and people have had an opportunity to read and review this in detail.

We will hopefully pass this tomorrow. We will put this side-by-side with the bill that has passed the House, and come back with a proposal that is bold, is robust, is job creating.

I was with the Governor of Maryland last night, and he was so happy about the work we had done in the Senate. He indicated to me he had spoken to other Governors. In fact, he called me again this morning indicating he had spoken to other Governors around the country, and they were quite happy with this legislation. It is my understanding the President is in a place called Elkhart,

IN, today to talk about the travails we face as a country. Elkhart, IN, has an announced unemployment rate of more than 15 percent. But in the commentary I heard this morning, it is believed the unemployment is actually well over 20 percent in Elkhart, IN.

The President is going to do a live press conference tonight, 8 o'clock eastern time. Tomorrow he is going to be in Florida with the Republican Governor of Florida and others to talk about the situation he finds in Florida.

We need to complete this legislation as quickly as possible. We are going to continue to be cooperative, as have been my Republican friends--cooperative. I think this has been a very good debate. It has been a stimulating debate. I was so satisfied with the debate that took place Saturday. Republicans and Democrats engaged in a serious debate Saturday. Those who supported the legislation, I thought did a good job. Those who opposed it, I thought they did a good job explaining their problems with this legislation.

The message I leave as the majority leader of the Senate is we are going to continue to move forward on this legislation. We are not going to leave for our Presidents Day recess until we complete this.

I have said, on a number of other occasions, that if people out there are thinking we are going to take a vacation for a week when we leave Washington, that is not the case. We have things to do in our home States. It is good for me--and I think I speak for all Senators--to be back in our States on a weekday. We plan and hope all next week to be home so we can be doing things we cannot do on weekends. But if we cannot complete this legislation, we will have to cut into that. Our responsibilities at home will have to be set for some other date.

I am confident we can get it done by Friday. There is no reason we cannot. With a little bit of cooperation on both sides, we can move forward. I have been in touch with the House leaders. They understand the difficulties we have over here, and I understand their situation.

I repeat, I am very confident this legislation is in keeping with what President Obama wants; that is, to have a program out there that creates lots of jobs and gives middle-class America tax relief. That is what this legislation is all about.

Madam President, Senator Baucus is my designee.

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

Madam President, the millions of Americans who are out of work, struggling to keep their homes and make one paycheck last until the next one comes, deserve to hear five words from Congress: Help is on the way.

Moments from now, we will have the opportunity to vote to move forward on President Obama's economic recovery plan and put an end to the filibuster now stopping this legislation from helping the American people. This legislation is not a silver bullet. The economic anguish that President Obama inherited from the previous administration is far too severe to be solved in 1 day or 1 week or by one piece of legislation.

Recovery will take time. The American people understand that. They have patience for the long road that lies ahead, but they do not have patience for Congress to point fingers, drag its feet, or fail to act.

We have already shown the American people we can act on a bipartisan basis, and we have done it this Congress. We worked in a bipartisan basis to pass the Lilly Ledbetter legislation, bipartisan legislation that makes the working place a place where women are treated more fairly.

We worked on a bipartisan basis to pass the Children's Health Insurance Program, legislation that, in Nevada, will give insurance to 120,000 children who previously had no health insurance. These pieces of legislation are already law. They have been signed by President Obama and are now the law of this country because we worked together to get it done.

This week Senators from both parties met the seriousness of the economic crisis with an earnest approach to solving this emergency. With the help of the dedicated work of Senators Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter, we now have the opportunity to support legislation that will put America back to work.

I appreciate my friend from Maine mentioning the letter from the Chamber of Commerce. This is a strong letter. You cannot find a company anyplace in America that does not support this legislation because they know it is going to create jobs.

The National Association of Manufacturers supports this legislation. Big business, small business supports this legislation because they believe help is on the way. At a time of escalating job loss, it will save or create as many as 4 million new American jobs. At a time when middle-class families are finding it harder to make ends meet, it provides desperately needed tax relief. At a time of crumbling roads and ever greater reliance on foreign oil, it invests in infrastructure and renewable energy. At a time of deepening complexities in the global marketplace, it better equips our schools to prepare American students for success.

But our job does not end here, it begins. In the coming weeks and months, we will turn to legislation offered by the Obama administration to fix our badly broken financial sector and to stabilize the housing market. As we have with Ledbetter--I talked about that important legislation--Children's Health Insurance Program, and this economic recovery plan, we need to continue to work together to solve the problems our great Nation faces. Nevada and all of America deserves nothing less. The time to act is now. Because the American people believe help is on the way, we must prove it to them.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the vote start now.

I have 2 minutes remaining. I am giving everyone relief so they do not have to listen to me.

Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Madam President, as we know, that is the last vote for today.

Madam President, I have checked with the Republican leader, and we are going to go now into a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. The first person to be recognized is Senator Grassley of Iowa, who wants to speak for 10 minutes. Others who want to speak can certainly do so.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 10; 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, and the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as provided under the previous order.

Madam President, under the previous order, votes in relation to the Collins-Nelson of Nebraska substitute amendment and passage of H.R. 1 will occur at about noon tomorrow. Additional votes are possible later in the day in relation to the executive nominations.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 11, 12, and 13; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc; that no further motions be in order; that any statements relating to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate return to legislative session.

Madam President, unless someone has an objection, I would ask that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of Senator Grassley. Is there anyone who has an uncontrollable urge to speak tonight?

Yes, that would be appropriate.

Madam President, following the remarks of Senator Grassley and Senator Landrieu, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the outlined consent that I have submitted.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in recess subject to the call of the Chair.

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, we have worked very hard this week. It is not often the Senate is in session this time of night on a Saturday or this time of night most any time, but we have had a long hard week and spent many hours trying to come up with an answer to America's financial troubles.

Yesterday at 5 or 6 o'clock, we reached an agreement with a few of the Republicans to come up with a nice piece of legislation that will meet President Obama's request for resources in different areas that will help our economy. The main direction is tax cuts. People are needful of money. That money will be spent. And about 58 percent of it is job creating.

Why are we here tonight if the agreement was basically reached yesterday? It is because we have a bill that is about 800 pages long. This product we have produced is about $800 billion. We put it together yesterday starting about 4:30 p.m. Everything has to be right. We don't want a problem, anyone raising an issue that one of the numbers is wrong or one of the lines is not where it should be. So for the last 35, 40 hours, people have been working nonstop to get a product so we could lay down the amendment, and that should be done in the next half hour or so. But people have literally worked all night.

Mr. President, you and I are out here. We are two of the one hundred. They can recognize us. They have little pictures. They can see us. The people who are making this product we can lay down are people you do not see very much. The enrolling clerks, you don't see them very much. They are in the bowels of the Senate someplace putting this together hours and hours at a time, being aided and assisted by other members of this wonderful staff we have.

The line down the middle of this aisle is what divides Democrats and Republicans, and tradition has it that the Republican staff is with the Republican Senators. But the problems we face with this deep recession we are in have nothing to do with Democrats and Republicans. It has everything to do with economic travails of the American people.

So those few people who are watching this proceeding on television or are in the galleries tonight are seeing a situation where there is not a lot of floor activity. But today, as every day when we are in session, so much of the work is done that is not in the camera lights. An extraordinary group of public servants is here to assigned positions. They do it with a smile. They treat the public and us so well. It is difficult to describe what a wonderful job they do.

Anyone out there listening to these proceedings or watching these proceedings should know we have police officers who are guarding the Capitol. That is something that has not always been. As a young man, I was here. I worked this shift 6 days a week as a police officer and went to school in the daytime. In those days, as a police officer, we didn't have much to worry about. We had to make sure traffic on Constitution Avenue and Independence Avenue moved OK, but that was about it. But now the police officers are the best trained police officers in the world, a force of almost 2,000 watching and protecting this Capitol, not only all the people who work within these buildings but also the millions of tourists who come here every year. We have evil people around the world who every day are trying to figure out ways to violate the Capitol, and we have these brave men and women protecting us.

We have doorkeepers who make sure people who come into this Chamber are qualified and have the right credentials to do that. We have all the people in here--Chamber attendants, Parliamentarians. We have Journal clerks, legislative clerks, enrolling clerks, bill clerks, and floor staff on whom we depend. If the Presiding Officer is not presiding but is out here and has a question about something, most of them don't come to me, they come to the staff, each one of whom is so qualified and competent to answer questions about Senate procedure that Senators depend on them a great deal.

All the people I mentioned, and certainly a lot of others, are public servants in the true nature of that word. They serve all Members of the Senate. They get little, if any, recognition for what they do.

One of the groups I didn't mention at all is the valuable staff we have in the cloakrooms. There is a cloakroom to my right consisting of the Republican staff and to the back of me is the Democratic cloakroom. They are never seen. They are back in the cloakrooms. Every day we are in session, they come in about an hour before we start. They are here long after we leave, as are the people I mentioned. We depend on them, when there is a phone call, to look for us. Of course, they do that. They run through there, walk through there, find a page, bring a message to us. They do so many things that are invaluable to our being able to work here.

I extend to everyone I mentioned the appreciation of all Senators. We recognize that without any one of the groups I mentioned, any one of the attendants I have mentioned, if they are not here on a given day, we don't do very well. It is a team effort, and the example they set should be recognized.

Democratic and Republican staffs don't argue and fight. They get along very well. They have a product to produce and they do it. I think many times we can learn a lot from them how we can get along and produce more than perhaps what we have.

I thank everybody for their service, a job well done, and hopefully within the next little bit, we will have an 800-page bill in perfect form.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, pursuant to the order before the Senate today, on behalf of Senators Collins and Nelson of Nebraska, I call up the amendment, which is now at the desk.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment No. 570 be printed.