Floor Statements

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

Mr. President, I certainly, above all, extend my appreciation to you for your patience today in waiting to get the wheels finally moving. I appreciate it very much. The Senator has a very busy schedule, and he was unable to take it easy today.

I talked earlier about all the people who are helpful to us. Some people I didn't mention who are so vital to us, Mr. President, are the Parliamentarians. The Senate rules are extremely complex. I know them pretty well, but I am amateur compared to our Parliamentarians who interpret the precedents and Rules of the Senate and advise the Presiding Officer anytime we are in session. Their work is vital to the well-oiled Senate we have.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 1 p.m. Monday, February 9; 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, and the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 1, the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as under the previous order.

Mr. President, on Monday, the Senate will resume consideration of the economic recovery package. The

time until 5:30 p.m. will be equally divided and controlled by the leaders or their designees. At 5:30 p.m., the Senate will proceed to a rollcall vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Collins-Nelson of Nebraska substitute amendment.

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

Mr. President, around midnight last night I was in conversation with the President and some others, and the President indicated that this morning, unemployment numbers would come out, and they would be somewhat scary. That was absolutely true. At 8:30 this morning, the unemployment numbers were reported for January, and they hit a 16-year high of 7.6 percent. That is averaged across the United States. Some places are much worse than that. My State of Nevada is an example. We are the fifth highest unemployed State in the country. Some States now have over 10 percent unemployment.

Mr. President, if this were the top and we were headed down, that would be one thing, but it doesn't appear that is the case. It appears unemployment rates are going to get higher and higher. The business crisis is growing worse and worse, housing problems have become more complex and more difficult, and the lending freeze has not passed. Small businesses are shutting their doors.

In a Las Vegas paper today, to use an example, a book store in Henderson, NV--the second largest city in Nevada--had closed. The people had invested their entire life's savings in this little business--$350,000--and they are broke and the business is shuttered. This is happening all over the country. In January alone, 600,000 people lost their jobs. In Nevada, the unemployment rate is now over 9 percent. Leading economists are now comparing today's crisis to the early years of the Great Depression.

Now, Mr. President, we are not in a depression. But as I mentioned yesterday, during the Great Depression stock market values went down 89 percent, unemployment was 25 percent, and millions of others were underemployed. We are not there, but we have to do something to turn this around or we will be there. That is why the American people are looking at us to do something about it--to create jobs. That is what we need to do.

Now, the package that President Obama has come up with is a mix of tax cuts and spending, and we are now

in the throes of trying to work something out to approve that plan. As we mentioned yesterday, in the evening, the vast majority of the American people know something has to be done. They approve of what President Obama is trying to do.

All economists--conservatives, moderates, and liberals--for example, just a week ago we met with Feldstein, Blinder, and we met with Zandi, John McCain's chief economic adviser, somebody from the old Republican administrations, and a Democratic economist. They all said the program has to be bold, and it has to create jobs. Experts at all points along the political spectrum agree if we fail to take bold action, this recession will last for many years into the future.

America is waiting to see what we are going to do in the next 24 hours. The world is waiting to see what we are going to do in the next 24 hours. Everyone knows this crisis was not created by Barack Obama. He has been President for a matter of a couple of weeks. The crisis was inherited from his predecessor. When this man, George Bush, took office, for over a 10-year period there was a $7 trillion surplus. But that is long since gone. Now, President Obama is taking the responsible steps we need to take to begin the long road to recovery.

The first step is the bill before us, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which the House of Representatives has passed and we have debated all this week. This is a critical day for our country and this Congress. Faced with this grave and growing economic crisis, as indicated by the unemployment figures that came out at 8:30 this morning, the Democrats and Republicans must decide today whether they will work together to come up with a plan and join the President on this road to recovery.

Now, I have been very concerned we shouldn't be talking about names on the Senate floor because sometimes it does more harm than good. But there is a small group of Republicans who are trying to work to come up with a solution. They have been genuine in their efforts. They have been responsible in their efforts. And while I don't agree with everything they are trying to do, I agree with the efforts they have made.

We have made progress. We have made progress since last night. We have been in a number of meetings already this morning. We worked into the night last night, and I think we are going to be able to work something out. I feel very comfortable we can do that. If we succeed, there is going to be a lot of credit to go around. If we fail, there is going to be a lot of blame to go around.

As I have indicated, our entire country will suffer and the world will suffer. We are the country that drives the world economy. During this week of floor debate, we have embraced good ideas, including tax relief and other investments, from both parties. We will continue to embrace all efforts borne of good will to reach a bipartisan compromise, but we are nearing the time when negotiations must be completed and action must begin.

So I urge my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to dedicate this day to responsibly passing this legislation and sending it to the President so we can say we have marched down that road, that road to economic recovery. There is no perfect solution to what we are attempting. There is no book you can check out of the library to say this is what should be done. There is no group of economists we can go to and tell them to prepare a paper in the next couple of hours to give us direction as to what to do. We must do this on our own, and we will do this on our own.

Mr. President, I hope everyone understands we have a number of amendments--in fact, we have now pending seven amendments--and we are going to continue working through these. I don't want to get more than about 10 pending at any one time. So we have three more that can be offered and then we will vote and get rid of some of these, because we can't have a bottleneck if in fact we arrive at a point where we have a bipartisan amendment that we need to move forward on. And I think that time will come.

I will tell all Members I think we are going to be spending a lot of time here today. I am being a little bit futuristic, but between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. today I am confident we will have something to vote on that would be kind of the big picture of what we need to do to move this to conference.

I would be happy if my colleague, the Republican leader, wishes to respond or to ask any questions or express any concerns that he may have about the schedule. I haven't had the opportunity this morning to talk to him about the schedule. I normally try to do that on days like this.

Mr. President, there will be votes later on this evening. We are going to have a Democratic caucus starting in 7 minutes, at 5:30. We hope to complete that in 45 minutes or thereabouts, but caucuses sometimes don't work out as quickly as we wish. We will come back after that and hopefully at that time work toward disposing of these amendments that are now pending. We have a number of them that need to have votes. I repeat, we are going to have some votes later on tonight. I apologize for not having anything more definite than that, but at this stage that is the best I can do.

I note the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, in an effort to get to the Chamber, I was in a little bit too big of a hurry. I should have made my very brief statement with the Republican leader here, but I didn't, so I apologize to him for that. I have discussed it with the Republican leader.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess until 6:30 tonight.

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, earlier today, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate had gone up very high. We now find the housing crisis is worse, with lending freezes still upon us, and small businesses are shutting down as we speak. Job losses are significant this month alone; that is, the month of January, with 600,000 jobs lost, and the month of February is starting to be even worse than January as far as layoffs. In Nevada, the unemployment rate has gone well over 9 percent.

Leading economists are now comparing today's crisis to the early days of the Great Depression. We are doing everything we can to make sure this severe recession we are in does not become another Great Depression, and we are a long ways from a Great Depression. The Great Depression saw the stock market drop 89 percent, and 25 percent of all Americans were unemployed, with millions of others underemployed. But we do not want this recession we are in to march into a depression, and that is why we have worked all week to come up with a solution to these problems, to try to help jump-start this economy.

President Obama himself acknowledged that his plan wasn't perfect. I have to be very candid with everyone here. I have learned a lot in the last few days by people coming in good faith and saying what is in here should not be in here and, on a few occasions, listening to what was propounded by those who have come up with this bipartisan agreement, we had to swallow real hard, but it was all done in good faith. This is a very critical juncture in time for our great country. It is an important time for the Congress. Faced with this grave and growing economic crisis, we are now close--closer--to joining President Obama in helping turn the economy around.

I think the process here has been very good. We have had a large number of amendments debated and voted upon. The managers have worked very hard. Senators Baucus and Inouye, with their counterparts, have moved through a lot of amendments. It has been an open process. Some of the votes have been difficult votes to take. But now we are at a point where people of good will are going to move forward and complete this work. The question of when we do it is certainly something we are concerned about, but we are going to do it--if not tonight, in the next day or so.

I express my appreciation to a Senator on our side of the aisle-- Senator Ben Nelson--who took this difficult assignment on our side to come up with something we could pass, is the best way to say it. There were a number of Senators who worked with him on this side of the aisle, a number of Senators who worked with Senator Collins on the other side of the aisle. I am not going to run through all the people who worked on this, but from my perspective Senator Nelson and Senator Collins are the two people who got us to where we are now, with great work by others. I hope I don't offend anyone by not mentioning them, but from my perspective tonight there are four people who need to talk about this. But for them, we would not be in a position where we could move forward to try to help the American people: That is Senators Ben Nelson, Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, and Joe Lieberman.

So, Madam President, I ask unanimous consent--and certainly if the Republican leader cares to say anything, but I wish to get this consent request entered first. If he wants to say something before the time begins on these other individuals, he certainly has that right. He can do it beforehand, if he wants, but I want to get this out of the way.

I ask unanimous consent that Senator Ben Nelson be recognized for 10 minutes; that Senator Susan Collins be recognized for 10 minutes; Senator Arlen Specter be recognized for 15 minutes; Senator Lieberman be recognized for 10 minutes; and that the Republicans, following these statements by these four Senators, have equal time--that is 45 minutes--to be divided any way they feel appropriate.

I ask unanimous consent that be approved; and I preface it by saying if Senator McConnell has anything to say before the time starts running on these four individuals and the other individuals, which is going to be about 90 minutes, and I am sure he does, I ask unanimous consent that following the statement of the Republican leader that this consent be granted.

I would say that we are alternating. We have four people who have put this arrangement together. I think it would be appropriate for the whole body to listen to what the arrangement is. I think it would certainly be more understandable to do it that way, and we have two Republicans and two Democrats. So I think that would be fair. If my friend would allow us to do that, I think it would be good for the body.

I ask my friend, through the Chair, wouldn't it be better if people who responded to these four Senators had some idea what the agreement was? That would seem to be so much more logical, and I hope my friend would allow us to proceed in that manner.

I also note that I see my friend stood to be recognized, Madam President, but we have gone out of our way to protect everybody's right. We haven't tried to blindside anyone. We have listened to all the amendments. We have been fair with all the time. I can't imagine why my friend would want to do this. My Senators need to know what this agreement is.

I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to speak.

I have spoken to the distinguished Republican leader, and we have a number of amendments that he and I wish to dispose of this evening. So when this debate is completed, we will move as quickly as we can to have votes on the amendments that are pending. I am somewhat taken aback by the fact that after all we have been through since the Congress started--we have been candid and forthright. Everything has been aboveboard. I would hope that no matter how disappointed some people may be that we have a way of moving forward on this, that people would allow us to do that in a reasonable period of time. We could do it tonight. I understand that is not likely. I don't know what my friend from Louisiana is trying to do. Remember, what we do tonight sets us up for the future. There are going to be other pieces of legislation that come to the floor, other opportunities for cooperation. I don't know what my friend has in mind, but I would hope that it is nothing that throws a monkey wrench into what we have been trying to accomplish in this Congress.

Madam President, Senator Nelson has a few minutes left, but he is not here. Before the Senator leaves the floor, I want to say that John McCain and I came to Washington together going on 27 years ago. He and I have done a number of things together, and we have had a number of things that we didn't do together. I know the strength of his feelings. He has expressed them on this floor. I want everyone to understand how much I appreciate his leadership. The statement he gave today was a very positive statement. He talked about how we have had robust debate and about how he didn't like the product we are coming up with and that we can do better next time. So I just want my friend from Arizona to know I appreciate his projection of authority and leadership, which I have watched for 27 years. Sometimes when he projects that leadership, you don't want to be on the other end of it.

Tonight, I say I appreciate that.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the pending amendments in the order specified in this agreement; that prior to each vote, there be 2 minutes of debate prior to each vote; that the previous order regarding intervening amendments remain in effect; that the debate time be equally divided and controlled in the usual form; that after the first vote, the succeeding votes be 10 minutes in duration: Conrad-Graham No. 501, as modified; Dodd No. 145, with a modification which is at the desk; Grassley, 297; Enzi No. 293, as modified; Cantwell No. 274, as further modified; Vitter No. 107; Feinfold No. 485; Bunning No. 531; Wyden No. 468; Thune No. 538; and Murray No. 110; that upon disposition of these amendments, the majority leader be recognized.

I would tell all members here, we are hopeful and confident that we will not have to have recorded votes on all of those. We hope everybody will be understanding. And if we have to have a vote, we will have one. We would rather that we could work some of these out. The managers are willing to accept a number of them.

Madam President, I say to my friend, why do we not take this one out of this tranche and see if this can be worked out while we are working through these other amendments.

During these votes I say to my friend from Wyoming, the two managers and you and Senator Leahy can meet and get some staff to meet and work this out.

I would ask that the agreement I have suggested be approved, with the exception of 293; we will work on that during the votes.

I would say to my friend from Alabama, there are a number of Senators who have amendments they would like to offer. The Republican leader and I felt it was appropriate to get rid of these that have been brought before the body. I have a number on this side that are in the same standing as you, and we will have to work on those. That is the best I can say.

We do not know what it is. We have to take a look at it.

The answer is yes.

Mr. President, I wanted to give everyone an idea of the schedule. We are having a difficult time finishing this business before midnight. That being the case, we will file cloture likely after midnight. And that being the case, in case anyone has forgotten, tomorrow is Saturday, which would mean we would have a cloture vote Monday morning sometime.

Now, we will be happy to work with the Republicans to determine what time we get to an end game on this legislation, but at this stage it appears that we will not have anything here on Sunday. And tomorrow, if people want--and I have spoken to a number of my colleagues on this side of the aisle--there will be some time for debate. So tomorrow, tentatively what we will do is, we will be in session from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.--2 hours for the majority, 2 hours for the minority. The one side will talk about how good the bill is, and the other will be talking about how close to being good the bill is.

So we will do that tomorrow, and I will work with Senator McConnell to find out how we get toward the end process. I remind everyone that we will want to get this done as early as we can next week so that we can have the Presidents Day recess. Each time we run into a procedural roadblock, it makes it very difficult.

I think tonight we only have a couple more amendments. We have two or three more votes tonight, but no one needs to take any extra time or stop us from doing some of the withdrawals, because I have acknowledged it will be past midnight, so there is no need to worry about that.

I think I have explained things about as well as I can. As to what we are going to do Monday and a time for that, I will work with Senator McConnell during the next couple of votes.

Mr. President, while we have everyone's attention, we all recognize this has been a long, rough week. We have had 46 amendments that have been offered. We have had 19 amendments that have been agreed to; 25 or so have been voted on. So we have done a lot of work.

We are going to come in tomorrow, from noon until 3 o'clock. The time will be evenly divided for people to talk about the legislation that is before us. We had more time than that, but some of the people who were wanting to speak have fallen off.

I am working now with the Republican leader. I think what we are going to do is come in about 1 o'clock on Monday. We do not have this firmed up. We will do a consent before the evening is over. We will come in Monday at 1 o'clock, have debate until 5:30, have a cloture vote at 5:30.

At noon on Tuesday, we will have, the way things now are, we will have a budget point of order. If we get 60 votes on that, that will be the end of this matter, and we can start going to conference immediately.

The House is coming in Monday to start the conference process. And I say to everyone here, we are going to do our utmost to have a conference. It is something we have not done very often here in recent years. But we are going to try to get in the habit of doing conferences. I hope I have answered at least the broad outline.

I have not asked for any unanimous consent. I would suggest, during this vote, you could talk to the manager of this bill. I did not ask for any consent.

We had, as I indicated, 450 amendments filed. We are trying to be as fair to everyone as we can.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw amendment No. 98.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate convenes on Saturday, February 7, the following be the order: that the Collins and Nelson of Nebraska amendment be called up, the reading be waived; that cloture be filed on the amendment, and that the mandatory quorum be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that no further amendments or motions be in order for the duration of the consideration of H.R. 1; and that on Saturday, February 7, the time from 12 noon to 3 p.m. be equally divided and controlled between the leaders or their designees; that there be debate only with no amendments or motions in order; provided further that when the Senate reconvenes on Monday, February 9, the time from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. be divided and controlled in the same manner and that at 5:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Reid for Collins and Nelson of Nebraska, among others, amendment; that if cloture is invoked on the amendment, then postcloture time run during any recess or adjournment of the Senate on Monday; and that all postcloture time be considered expired at 12 noon on Tuesday; that on Tuesday, February 10, after the Senate reconvenes, the time until 12 noon be equally divided and controlled as provided above; and that if a budget point of order is made against the amendment, then a motion to waive the applicable point of order be considered made; that if the waiver is successful, the amendment be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that if there is no point of order against the amendment, then adoption of the amendment be subject to a 60-vote threshold; the bill, as amended, be read a third time, and the Senate then proceed to a vote on passage of the bill; that upon passage, the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees, with the ratio agreed upon by the leaders, with the above all without further intervening action or debate.

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

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 12 noon, Saturday, February 7; that following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate resume consideration of the H.R. 1, as under the previous order.

Mr. President, the next vote will be on Monday at about 5:30 p.m.

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.