Floor Statements

Madam President, I rise today to speak about the importance of getting our young people involved in our electoral process and to highlight a West Virginia school with a standout record for going the extra mile to encourage students to register and participate in voting.

I tell young people all the time: You cannot sit on the sidelines and watch life happen. You have to get in the game and start making the calls. The same can be said about our democracy. If you want results, you have to first become an informed and active voter.

Voting is one of the greatest rights the free people of a free nation possess. Over the course of our Nation's history, many have fought tirelessly to gain voting rights. In fact, it was West Virginia's very own Senator Jennings Randolph who relentlessly pushed for the 26th amendment to our Constitution, ensuring those 18 years of age or older had the right to cast a ballot. It took him almost 30 years to get it passed. He started during World War II. It did not pass until 1971.

Each vote matters and the individuals casting those votes matter even more. I know that firsthand because I was honored to serve as West Virginia's highest elections officer, secretary of state. I served from 2000 to 2004.

During my tenure, we established a program called Saving History and Reaching Every Student Program, which was known as the SHARES Program which promoted democracy in West Virginia schools. We registered 42,000 high school students. In my State, so many of the students, if they are 17 years of age but they turn 18 on election day of November 4 or before, can vote in the primary while they are 17. They did not know that. We started promoting it. We had ambassadors. They were all working and trying to get 100 percent of their class eligible to participate--to register and then vote. Then we rewarded them with a school of excellence. My staff and I traveled the State speaking with high school seniors, encouraging them to complete a voter registration form and to participate in our elections.

A decade after that program began, it gives me great pleasure to stand on the Senate floor today and recognize a school--one school-- that truly takes it to a whole other level with their students. They took it very seriously as far as democracy and their right and their responsibility to participate.

Every year for the past decade, the staff and the members of Fayette County's Meadow Bridge High School, with their outstanding principal, have registered 100 percent of each senior class. This is truly a remarkable accomplishment. I am unaware of any other school in our great State or across this Nation that has produced voter registration numbers such as those for 10 years in a row. Think of it: Every student in the senior class of this school for 10 years registered to participate.

The school takes important steps such as explaining the registration form, the election process, and the importance of one's vote--all of which go a long way in opening the minds of young adults and showing them that it is easy to become involved, cast a vote, and make a difference.

I have said this to so many young students and the students who come and work with us every day: The most valuable thing you will ever own in your life is your vote. It belongs to you and nobody else. There is only one--your vote. Nobody can take that away from you.

I applaud Meadow Bridge High School's students, faculty, and staff for their commitment to our democracy. I challenge other high schools to follow Meadow Bridge's example.

Let us work together to encourage our Nation's young adults, even more when it comes to our democracy and national issues. This is not a partisan issue, as so many things might be in this body. This is not. It is all of us working together to continue to lead this great country. It is all of us being Americans and that we should support, for the future of our great Nation, this democracy of ours and the freedom to vote.

I am so proud that West Virginia's own Meadow Bridge High School is such a good example, not only for the State of West Virginia but for young students all over this Nation.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to address the Offshore Production and Safety Act. It is legislation that attempts to address the regulation and the critical need to drill for oil in this country.

Let me tell you, I understand the frustration from my colleagues who are upset about the bureaucratic agencies that really do not understand the urgent need to review permits in a timely and responsible manner. Mining in West Virginia has long been a direct target of the EPA and these unfair regulatory practices they have practiced for far too long. For example, in May of 2009, the EPA had a permit backlog of 235 applications. Two-thirds of them were already deemed complete for final processing by the Army Corps of Engineers. Clearly, there is a problem. The question is, Is this legislation the right solution?

The truth is, I would love to sink my teeth in and vote for this measure, but I simply cannot. I do not believe this legislation strikes the right commonsense balance among our energy demands, responsible regulation, our economy, and the environment. In fact, the unintended consequence of this legislation is that it could make regulatory agencies more powerful and more Draconian--a fact that would actually hurt the drilling, the energy independence we could gain, and the businesses' and our need to achieve energy independence.

Quite simply, if we place a fixed 30-day deadline on these permits with two 15-day extensions, I believe we would see more permits denied than we would see processed. How does this make sense? It would create a perverse effect

that could encourage government bureaucrats to stop any and all permits, and that would be a terrible outcome.

The fact is, neither the legislation we will vote on today nor the legislation we voted on yesterday addresses the bigger issue that our Nation must declare its independence from foreign oil. We can only do that by developing a true national plan for energy independence.

I have come to this floor many times to urge my Republican and Democratic colleagues to work with me to put together an energy plan that works for all of America. In fact, just last week, I came here to address the importance of expanded domestic drilling. I truly believe this Nation needs to develop all of our domestic resources, whether it is drilling for oil or natural gas, mining coal, producing wind and solar, developing better nuclear, biomass, or geothermal so that we can declare our energy independence within a generation. But in developing and pursuing a national energy plan, we cannot lose sight of our commonsense values and our priorities.

This bill falls short of those commonsense priorities, but I assure my colleagues that I will work with any Senator from either party who will try to create a national energy policy that will truly help the Nation achieve energy independence.

I thank all of my colleagues, and I hope we will be able to work together to move this Nation forward for true energy independence.

Mr. President, I yield the floor, and 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 ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Madam President, I rise to speak about an issue that is directly impacting each and every family, not just in West Virginia but throughout this whole country. It is the high gas prices. The truth is, in States all across this Nation, and particularly in West Virginia, countless families have to drive to survive. For these families, a jump in the gas price is not just an inconvenience or an annoyance, it is a threat that hits extremely hard in the pocketbook and could change their way of life.

But as every American knows, the cycle of high gas prices is not a new phenomenon with any of us. I still vividly remember waiting in line for gas in the early 1970s, when gas was rationed based on our license number--when we could buy gas. It is something I thought could never happen in America, and I am sure those whom it happened to felt the same.

This all came about because of our dependency on foreign oil. If we think back to the early 1970s, we were 28 percent dependent on foreign oil, which we thought was a high number at that time. But today we are more than 50 percent dependent on foreign oil, which has caused a massive transfer of American wealth to countries that do not like us that much and want to do us harm. We have seen this bad movie time and again. Yet somehow it seems Washington keeps thinking there is going to be a different outcome or a different ending. The right ending will only come when our Nation makes it a high priority to achieve energy independence within this generation.

While crafting such a bold plan will be difficult, I recognize--and the special interests that oppose using our own resources such as coal, natural gas, and oil in an environmentally responsible way will resist loudly--we can no longer allow this Nation and our hard-working families to be held hostage by high gas prices. We can no longer allow partisanship and politics to undermine the common ground that can be achieved if we work together with one goal in mind--true energy independence within this generation.

Let me make it perfectly clear, high gas prices are not the only high price we are paying as a nation. For decades, our great men and women who serve us so well have been called to action in defense of our vital interests in the Middle East and all around the world. Thousands have been killed and injured. Their families have suffered the incredible pain of loss. Our nations have spent trillions in the course of these missions. Yet too many of these oil-rich countries have and will continue to use against us our dependence on their oil.

For all these reasons and for the sake of our national security, it is time for our Nation to become truly energy independent within this generation. I believe we can do it, and I know we can because just this week in beautiful Mingo County, WV, my State took a major step to confront our gas prices head on. On Monday, West Virginia said enough is enough. On a sunny morning in the town of Gilbert, WV, I helped break ground on a promising new project that could help bring down the crushing gas prices our families are confronting. There, entrepreneurs and State and local governments are participating to create hundreds of jobs at a coal-to-gasoline plant that is at the forefront of any technology in the world.

The anticipated production of this plant is very impressive. It is projected to convert 7,500 tons of West Virginia coal into 756,000 gallons of premium gasoline each and every day, which can be used to run our cars and our trucks and even some of our military equipment.

Over a 4-year construction period, it is estimated that 3,000 skilled trade workers in America will be employed. When the plant is finished, it is expected to create 300 direct jobs and hundreds of more ancillary jobs in the community.

In West Virginia and Mingo County, the government is acting as a partner--and as a good partner, not an obstacle--and that is the role our Federal Government should take toward energy independence. This is exactly the kind of project the Federal Government should work on with us to make sure it succeeds. They should be our ally, not an obstacle or an adversary. If my little State has the courage to step out and invest in our independence, then the Federal Government should also have the courage to do the same. West Virginians are sending the right message for this country. We will not let ourselves be held hostage to foreign countries that want to see the United

States be financially crippled simply because those countries have oil.

My State of West Virginia also proves we can and we must use all our domestic resources to break our cycle of dependence on foreign oil within this generation. It doesn't matter whether your State has oil, coal, natural gas, geothermal, nuclear, biomass, wind, solar or hydro because we have to harness all the tremendous resources right here in America or we are going to continue to rely on countries that have contributed directly or indirectly to changing America for the worse.

At the end of the day, it is going to take everything we can do and every resource we have to become truly independent. That is one of the many reasons why I am cosponsoring the American Alternative Fuels Act with my colleague, John Barrasso, from Wyoming. Among other things, the bill would break down barriers to alternative energy fuels, including those from coal, biomass, algae, and waste.

There are other smart, targeted actions we can take in the short term to help reduce the price of gas for our families. I have signed on to an important piece of bipartisan legislation sponsored by my friend, Senator Herb Kohl, from Wisconsin. It is the No Oil Producing & Exporting Cartels Act, better know as NOPEC. This bill would finally allow the Department of Justice to go after foreign countries, such as the members of OPEC, because of their price-fixing behavior.

The other major issue we must address now is speculators and oil company subsidies. This is not a supply issue. The real problem is pure greed--some who are taking advantage of the instability in our world to line their pockets on the backs of American families--or a tax policy that does not make any sense at all, that continues to subsidize oil companies when the price of a barrel of oil is at the highest it has ever been and the profits are at a record high. This doesn't make any sense to American families.

Wouldn't it make more sense that these subsidies they now have should only be available when the cost of production exceeds the price of a barrel of oil? That would be a commonsense solution. It would ensure stability and steady production, and it does not force taxpayers to fill the bank accounts of major oil companies when they are already making record profits.

Because we must do so much more to protect American families, I have also encouraged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to take aggressive steps in the short term to regulate and pursue the oil speculators who are driving the price of a gallon of gas through the ceiling.

While the most important thing our country can do is establish a national energy plan for independence, all of those actions are steps we can take to make sure we relieve the financial pressures on our families and help secure our country.

For all of the wonderful families of West Virginia, for the great people of the United States of America, and all of our children and grandchildren, this country must finally answer the call. It is time. It is truly time. It is time to free this Nation, put politics aside, and work together to make energy independence a national priority.

I truly believe that if we work together as Americans and focus on a commonsense approach, we can develop a strong bipartisan energy plan that will not only break the power of foreign oil countries and speculators, but use the resources that we have right here in America. We can chart a new and promising energy future for this great Nation and we must start today.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, Osama bin Laden's death is a historic and just victory for this Nation.

While this is a profound victory in the war on terror, our thoughts must go to the thousands of innocent men and women who lost family members and whose lives were forever changed by the tragedy of September 11.

The families of those lost and our Nation as a whole can take great pride that our brave servicemembers and intelligence community successfully carried out this mission. I could not be more proud of the outstanding men and women of our military who put their lives on the line daily to defend this Nation.

Each and every one of us has a deeply personal connection to the tragic events of September 11. At the time, I was West Virginia's secretary of state. I remember staff coming into my office, and they said: Did you see what is going on? That is all they had to say, and that is all they did say.

So many Americans have similar stories. We watched in horror on live television as the second plane hit the World Trade Center and I knew something we could never anticipate and imagine had just happened to our great country. We didn't know how our lives would change, but we knew they would.

In West Virginia, similar to States all over the country, we are still mourning those we lost: a former WVU quarterback and a WVU economics graduate who were both killed in the World Trade Center's North Tower, a Parkersburg High School graduate, a young lady who perished in the South Tower, and a Marshall University medical school graduate, a doctor who practiced, was killed when the airliner he was on crashed into the Pentagon. Our thoughts and prayers will always be with them and their families.

Just like our world changed that terrible day, it has changed yet again with the killing of Osama bin Laden. It means something different to each of us. Osama bin Laden's death cannot bring back the thousands of lives that were lost that fateful day or the ones who have been lost at the hands of al-Qaida since. It cannot repair the anguish so many have suffered as a result of the evil and hatred Osama bin Laden espoused.

But it is justice, and I hope this Nation and the families of those who were lost on September 11 can take solace in that fact.

Let me also say I am so proud of the resolve, the strength, and the fortitude this Nation showed in pursuing the mission to its end.

With the killing of Osama bin Laden, the United States sent a message loudly and clearly: acts of terrorism against this Nation will not go unpunished. If you seek to do harm to this country or if you plan to hurt the people of our great Nation, we will find you and, I assure you, justice will be served.

While this success belongs to all of us, I especially thank the teams of people who united to accomplish this most important goal. President Obama and his advisers completed the mission, and I congratulate him for that. He was the one who made the difficult decision to order this mission, and he made the right call.

Immense credit must also be given to all the people in the intelligence community who have worked tirelessly to track down the world's most wanted terrorist. I also congratulate Presidents Clinton and Bush and the commitment their teams showed in fighting the war on terror.

Finally, I hope we sustain the spirit of unity we all feel at this moment to put politics aside and remind Americans that as a great nation, we become greater when we unite behind a common purpose.

For these reasons, I strongly support S. Res. 159. May God continue to bless the United States of America.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to MG Allen E. Tackett, a great West Virginian who shepherded an evolutionary change in the role of the West Virginia National Guard during his 15-year tenure as adjutant general.

Across our Nation, the Guard mission has been synonymous with being the first on the scene for disaster relief and keeping the peace at home--that mission remains true today. However, since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the members of the National Guard have pulled double duty, becoming the essential soldiers in our military missions overseas.

This new role for the Guard often means long and frequent deployments away from home, disruption to civilian careers, and new readiness challenges for the Guard's leadership. For global peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Kosovo, and for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guard leadership has to ensure their troops have the right equipment at the right time, the proper training for uncommon dangers, and as needed, be the glue that mends and holds together the families of Guard members. Under General Tackett's leadership, the West Virginia National Guard has received all this and more. With tenacious grace, the General asked for--and received--new training facilities, planes, new runways, and congressional backing for family support programs.

Under General Tackett's leadership, the readiness of the West Virginia National Guard skyrocketed to the best in the Nation.

Under General Tackett's leadership, the soldier, especially the new and uninitiated, took center stage. General Tackett believes a soldier's success depends on higher education, the best training, and personal initiative.

Under General Tackett's guidance, future leaders of the West Virginia National Guard have a head start because of his dogged support for the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, the Guard's Tuition Assistance Program, and the technical skills program known as Helmets to Hard Hats.

And, under General Tackett's leadership and vision, our Nation's Guard and Reserve components, Active-Duty servicemembers, and our first responders use state-of-the-art training resources at the Memorial Tunnel and Camp Dawson to prepare defenses in response to 21st century national security threats.

Like other Golden Gloves champions, General Tackett struck his own path in his youth; he honed his individual athletic skills and refined the meaning of a disciplined work ethic. His pride in his home State of West Virginia kept him giving back to the Mountaineer State with years of civilian successes while rising in the ranks of the Special Forces.

His stellar leadership as Adjutant General for the West Virginia National Guard began on September 11, 1995, under Governor Gaston Caperton. I would like to recall a list of his accomplishments in order to recognize the contributions of MG Allen E. Tackett.

Upon his retirement on January 31, 2011, MG Allen E. Tackett remains the longest serving Adjutant General in the history of the State of West Virginia and the United States.

As Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard, General Tackett commanded more than 6,000 soldiers and airmen, including more than 10,000 West Virginia National Guard, soldiers, and airmen that have deployed since September 11, 2001 in support of the global war on terrorism.

General Tackett directed the West Virginia National Guard in response to more than 80 emergencies in the State of West Virginia.

General Tackett has served five Governors of the State of West Virginia, representing both political parties.

The West Virginia National Guard, under the leadership of General Tackett, rose from the rank of 24th in the United States in readiness to first in an 18-month period, has continued to demonstrate its superior level of readiness as judged by the Army readiness criteria, and has remained at or near the top rank in readiness for 15 years.

Under the leadership of General Tackett, the West Virginia National Guard undertook a significant modernizaton program to ensure that modern facilities are constructed to meet the demands placed upon soldiers and airmen in the 21st century, including projects to replace outdated armories, build new hangars, acquire ramp space to protect the 130th Airlift Wing from the base realignment and closure process, and to convert the Martinsburg Air National Guard base for a fleet of C-5s.

Under the leadership of General Tackett, the Joint Interagency Training and Education Center was built to provide homeland security training to Department of Defense assets, other Federal agencies, and first responders at Camp Dawson and the Memorial Tunnel. As a result, he was described in a 2001 U.S. News & World Report article as someone who could soon be ``the nation's defacto chief of anti-terror preparedness.''

Under the leadership of General Tackett, the West Virginia National Guard maintained 36 armories and was present in 34 communities.

Under the leadership of General Tackett, the West Virginia National Guard has had a significant positive economic impact across the State of West Virginia, including the addition of nearly 1,500 full-time jobs.

Under the leadership of Major General Tackett, the West Virginia National Guard sponsored and operated the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy, which provides at-risk youth with an opportunity to earn a general education diploma.

And, under the leadership of Major General Tackett, 43 percent of the members of the West Virginia National Guard have earned a degree from an institution of higher education or are enrolled in an institution of higher education and participate in the State of West Virginia tuition assistance program.

As his one-time commander, I am proud to share with the American people General Tackett's distinguished and exemplary career, to take this opportunity to publicly thank him, and

to wish him continued success and future happiness in his well-deserved retirement.

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

Mr. President, when I was Governor of West Virginia, we grappled over the budget like every State, every Governor and every legislature, every senator and every delegate. But when the deadline arrived, people came together and we did our job--Democrats and Republicans, business and labor, progressives and conservatives--and we enacted a balanced budget every year without failure. It is part of our constitution. It is who we are.

I have only been in the Senate for 5 months, and I have never seen anything quite like this. I never could have imagined anything quite like this. But I see so much opportunity if we start talking and working together. We are outspending our revenues by hundreds of billions of dollars every month. They tell us our revenue estimates will be about $2.2 trillion this year, but our expenditures are expected to be over $3.7 trillion.

I believe everybody we speak to, and everyone who is listening to us, can understand we have a problem. But yet we are grappling over this tonight: a budget that should have been done 6 months ago.

This is a budget crisis. It is not a social crisis. And to put all of this into the mix right now is wrong. Instead of all of us coming together, Republicans and Democrats, with a commonsense budget compromise, we face a shutdown of the government not over how much to cut but over what social issues we agree or disagree on.

On many of these social issues, I will be the first to admit I am probably more conservative than most on my side of the aisle. I am pro- life, and I am proud of it. But this is a budget crisis, and I have said that. This is not the place or the time for that. There will be a time and a place to vote on these issues, but not when they jeopardize the paychecks of our brave men and women in uniform, which the Presiding Officer so eloquently explained is what is at risk. That is wrong. The Presiding Officer knows it is wrong, and we all know it is wrong, no matter what side of the aisle.

Our dear friend, the Senator from Arkansas, was speaking about the cooperation we all should have reaching out across the aisle, not putting blame, because we are all at fault and we will all be looked at as the culprits. The bottom line is, we need to come together and fix this. The American people expect that from us. The people back home in Colorado and also in West Virginia expect that from the Presiding Officer and me, and it is what is right for the Nation.

That is one of the reasons I and so many of my colleagues here have said we are going to give up our salary. We call it the no work, no pay pledge. That no work, no play pledge is pretty much universally understood. In West Virginia, when you do not have a good day's work, you should not expect a payday.

I can say it is not my fault, and the Presiding Officer can say it is not his fault, and everybody could, but we are all part of this, and we have to put the pressure on. But I have to tell you, as my father would tell me all the time, he said: Joe, whatever your problems are, try it without a paycheck and you will compound them rapidly.

I am going to be sending my paycheck back to the U.S. Treasury to pay down our debt. Many others will be donating them to charity. We will be standing with the American people, our military men and women, who will pay a heavy price for their elected government's failure to finish a budget, unless a commonsense agreement is reached tonight. And I believe it will be. As we have a few precious hours left, I still am a very optimistic person.

With that, there are some of our colleagues who have talked tonight about passing a piece of legislation, even if we do not come to an agreement, that our brave men and women, who are serving all over the world to protect us to live in freedom, will be paid.

To my friends on the Republican side of the aisle, I want to say, there are many instances where we might agree on social issues and some where we might disagree. That is the healthy part of our democracy. It is what makes us so unique. I assure you, there is a time and a place for everything. There is a time and a place for those votes. But not tonight. Today is not that time. Our deadline is here and rapidly approaching, as you can see.

My hope and prayer is that tonight we will do what is right, we will come together as Americans, and we will agree to a commonsense budget that is the first step to putting our fiscal house back in order. That is why the people of West Virginia sent me here. I took that oath of office not just to represent the Democrats on my side of the party or the Democrats in West Virginia, I took that oath of office to represent everybody in West Virginia: Democrats, Republicans, all different walks of life. I am going to do everything I can to make sure they understand I am here for them.

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

Madam President, I, too, rise in congratulating the Senator from North Dakota on his maiden speech. I have known then- Governor Hoeven for quite some time. His wife and my wife have been very good friends.

What you heard is basically a background of the success he has had in the leadership of his great State. What you don't know is his ability to reach across the aisle in a bipartisan manner.

I can only say that John is a dear friend, and John is the type of personality we need in this body to mend this partisan gridlock in which we find ourselves. I cannot tell you how pleased I am to still be a colleague of his, and I look forward to many years of success working together, reaching out, finding the problems we have, addressing the problems, and then, like a good Governor, taking them on and making some good decisions, as he has done so well in North Dakota.

So, my good friend, it is so good to have you here. Congratulations.

I thank my good friend for his hard work. We are working in a bipartisan manner.

Madam President, I rise to mark the tragic occasion of the worst U.S. mining disaster in 40 years. A year ago today, 29 brave and patriotic men went underground to mine the coal that powers our great Nation. They didn't come back. Our entire Nation grieved with their families for their tremendous loss. I rise to honor

their courage, sacrifice, and the extraordinary strength of their families.

I want to say a few words about the proud men and women today who go underground and go unrecognized and make sure that our great Nation can keep the lights on. When some people see a coal miner walk out from underground, they see some someone who is tired, wearing dust-covered overalls, steel boots, carrying a hard hat and a dinner bucket, and they make a few flawed assumptions about the amount of education they may or may not have or that they had nowhere else to turn, that was the only job available. I wish everyone to know that those assumptions are dead wrong.

West Virginia coal miners are the backbone of this country, providing the power for the lights in this Chamber, the steel and the machinery that built our country, the greatest industrial power in the world, the military that keeps us safe and free, and the energy for homes and businesses all over the country. West Virginia miners understand geology, mathematics and physics, the way a seam runs through the Earth and how to safely extract its bounty to make our country stronger. Above all, West Virginia miners are the salt of the Earth--patriotic, God-fearing, family loving and family oriented, and proud of their hard work. In our State we have always done the heavy lifting. We are very proud of what we have contributed to this country time and again--in times of war, times of peace, in times of prosperity, and in times of need. At a time when our Nation's attention and misplaced pity will again focus on coal miners because of the first anniversary of the worst mining disaster in the last 40 years, we West Virginians want the world to know we are proud of our coal mining heritage and our future.

As West Virginia's former Governor, now U.S. Senator, I want to tell Americans not only about our sacrifice but also our dedication to our shared future. The miners of West Virginia and their families are the heart and soul of West Virginia and an inspiration for me and my family. We should all draw strength from the courage they have shown us.

Allow me to turn to the terrible day a year ago. In remembering the Upper Big Branch disaster, my thoughts turn first to the families of the 29 miners who went to work that day on April 5, 2010, and didn't come home. In the days following the violent explosion, which remains under investigation today, I spent all day and every day for 5 days waiting to find out with the families if their loved ones were alive or dead. Those families and I stayed together at midnight and dawn, through moments of hope and despair, on pins and needles in the early days and in shared grief when the full scope of the devastation hit us as the rescuers didn't find any more survivors. We prayed together before and after each briefing. We recited the Pledge of Allegiance. We held each other and cried together. Restaurant owners donated food. Our own WVU coach Bob Huggins visited. And one young man, Nick Helms, whom I remember so well, whose father was killed in the Sago mining disaster in 2006, came down personally and offered his moral support from his firsthand experiences.

In those days the unbreakable bonds of family became clear. One family alone lost three good men. I first told Charles and Linda Davis, the parents of Timmy and the grandparents of Cory and Josh. I told Tommy--and Tommy was another brother who had worked in the mine and just came off the shift. Tommy was the father of Cory. I also told Patty--large families--and Patty is the daughter of Linda and Charles, and she was Josh's mother. So in the mine we had Timmy, the uncle, and we had Josh and Cory. All three men had been found, but they perished. The first question I got from Tommy after I told his parents was: Were they all together?

I said: Yes, they were.

Tommy replied: I knew my brother Timmy would be taking care of the boys.

That was not my State's first mining disaster or mine. When I was a young man, my only family went through the tragedy of the Farmington No. 9 explosion in 1968. Seventy-eight miners were killed that day. It left a searing impression on me. Of course, we didn't know right away how bad it would get. Everyone camped out at the company store. We were all waiting for any word before the authorities finally came and told us all that the decision had been made to seal the mine which essentially meant entombing all of them. In that disaster I lost my uncle, my next-door neighbor, some of my high school classmates. One of my strongest lessons that has stayed with me to this day is that waiting families should be systematically updated on the progress of the rescue operation. I know firsthand that a minute seems like an hour, an hour seems like a day, and a day seems like eternity. With consistent updates, waiting becomes a little more bearable.

During my term as Governor, in the three tragedies we went through-- Sago and Aracoma in 2006, and last year at Upper Big Branch--we briefed the families every 2 hours. It was a cycle. We received a briefing from our authorities, then we briefed the families, then we told the media. It was a cycle we continued until the fate of all miners was known.

We have learned a lot in West Virginia. After disasters at Sago and Aracoma, we enacted more safety measures in my term as Governor than in the 30 years before. We have become a leader in safety, and what we are implementing is being used across all types of mining, all over the country and around the world. The bottom line is that in our State, we won't tolerate intimidation from any person or company that puts profits ahead of safety. I truly believe that the single most important element in any mining operation is the men and women who work there every day. Under my watch, we empowered those individual miners and their families to take more ownership and control over their own safety without fear of retribution, with a 24-hour anonymous hotline to report unsafe conditions. Since May of last year we have had 86 calls. We responded.

At the end of the day, though, the families, the people of West Virginia and all Americans need to know how this tragedy happened and what we must do to prevent anything this terrible from ever happening again. We are still waiting for the results of the Federal and State investigations as well as an independent report from my special appointed investigator J. Davitt McAteer, a West Virginia native and assistant secretary for the Mine Safety and Health Administration under President Bill Clinton. We will look at the results of their investigation to determine what happened, make certain it doesn't happen again, and determine whether anyone, through intimidation or otherwise, put profits ahead of safety and that the people responsible are held accountable.

In the meantime I am cosponsoring a piece of legislation with Senator Jay Rockefeller, the Robert C. Byrd Mine and Workplace Safety and Health Act of 2011. It is designed to improve compliance with existing mine and occupational safety and health laws, empowering workers to raise safety concerns, prevent future mine and other workplace tragedies, and establish the rights of the families of victims of workplace accidents. Last week I spoke again to Tommy Davis, the man who lost his brother, his nephew, and his son at the Upper Big Branch mine. When I asked him what he was doing these days, Tommy gave me a simple answer: Joe, I am back in the mines. Tommy is proud to be a miner. And while he and all of us have much to mourn today, we also have the chance to honor the memories of the 29 dedicated men who died a year ago and their colleagues who continue their work with respect and dignity.

Finally, Gayle and I and all West Virginians pray for continued strength and courage for the families who lost loved ones on this sad day a year ago. May God bless each one of them. May God bless the great State of West Virginia, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I rise today to express my deep concerns with the two widely divergent proposals for a continuing resolution that will be presented to us here today.

Now, I may be just a freshman Senator, but I will be blunt--this whole process does not make a lot of sense to me, and, I am afraid it doesn't make sense to a lot of West Virginians or most Americans.

We will likely have votes on two proposals today, and both options are partisan and unrealistic. And neither one will pass.

The first is a Democratic proposal that does not go far enough. This proposal, which calls for $6.5 billion in new cuts, utterly ignores our fiscal reality. Our Nation is badly in debt and spending at absolutely unsustainable and out-of-control levels. In February alone, the Federal Government outspent revenues by an unacceptable $223 billion. We must turn our financial ship around, but the Senate proposal continues to sail forward as if there is no storm on the horizon.

On the other hand, we could choose a second even more flawed measure: a House GOP proposal that blindly hacks the budget with no sense of our priorities or of our values as a country. I did not grow up in an America that would carelessly cut Hear Start and make the playing field even harder for kids born into poverty. Our America should not cut funding for veterans or for border security or for first responders or especially for our children without at least discussing the alternatives.

The bottom line, however, is this: Democrats and Republicans are being asked to vote on wildly different proposals for reining in spending. Republicans will say Democrats do not go far enough. Democrats will say Republicans go too far. The truth is both are right, and both proposals will fail. Worse still, everyone in Congress knows they will fail.

The more important question is this, Why are we engaging in this political theater?

Why are we voting on partisan proposals that we know will fail, that we all know do not balance our Nation's priorities with the need to get our fiscal house in order?

Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations, our President, has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he would be willing to fight for?

How does that make sense?

The truth is that this debate, as important as it is, will not be decided by House Republicans and Senate Democrats negotiating with each other or past each other. This debate will be decided when the President leads these tough negotiations.

And right now that is not happening.

I know it is not easy. I know that it takes compromise. I know it will be partisan and difficult. I know that everyone will have to give up something and no one will want to relinquish anything. But that is what the American people are demanding.

Respectfully, I am asking President Obama to take this challenge head on, bring people together and propose a compromise plan for dealing with our Nation's fiscal challenges, both now and for the future.

For me, when I was Governor of the great State of West Virginia, dealing with our State's problems required bringing together a diverse and strong-willed group of legislators. But I did, because that was my responsibility. By working together, we were able to tackle the tough fiscal problems that our State faced and we did it while setting our priorities and protecting the most vulnerable in our State.

The bottom line is the President is the leader of this great Nation, and when it comes to an issue of significant national importance, the President must lead--not the majority leader or Speaker but the President.

He must sit down with leaders of both parties and help hammer out a real bipartisan compromise that moves our Nation forward and establishes the priorities that represent our values and all hard- working families.

And I truly believe that he can do it. And when we finally do come together and agree to a bipartisan solution, we will not only set a new tone for our Nation but we can start to focus on what the American people sent all of us here to do: start working together to create a more prosperous future for our children and our families, and be the America we all know we can be.

I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today I recognize Marshall University, which this week celebrates its 50th year as a designated ``university.'' Founded in 1837, Marshall is the oldest public institution of higher education in the State of West Virginia. However, the granting of university status to the school formerly known as Marshall College did not occur until March 2, 1961.

The change from ``college'' to ``university'' was far more than a shift in nomenclature. Marshall's greatest champions--including Dr. Stewart H. Smith, president of Marshall from 1946 to 1968; State legislators and the local community--had to overcome entrenched beliefs that West Virginia did not need another large university.

Marshall's supporters made a strong case for the school, which was growing in enrollment as well as offering many academic programs and advanced degrees. The institution earned ``university status,'' which recognized its role as an advanced institution of higher learning in the state, and all of West Virginia has benefited as a result.

Marshall University now educates more than 14,000 students at campus locations in Huntington, Point Pleasant, South Charleston, Beckley, Logan and Gilbert, offering degrees at the associate, baccalaureate, master's and doctoral levels. The school boasts 90,000 proud alumni around the world.

For every dollar the State of West Virginia invests in Marshall University, the school generates more than

$20 in economic impact, resulting in the generation of $1.5 billion per year in economic impact. This figure has tripled since 2005.

Marshall offers 159 majors and 105 degrees through its 12 colleges. The school has earned a national reputation for its research in biotechnology, forensic science, and medicine, and is currently launching a new School of Pharmacy, which will create good-paying jobs and generate an estimated $150 million economic impact. The Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing is providing services to all 55 State counties and expertise to 5,250 small and medium-sized manufacturers that employ more than 81,000 individuals across West Virginia. Marshall University's medical and health science schools and departments train hundreds of West Virginians to serve as doctors, nurses, therapists and health technicians each year.

As your U.S. Senator, it is truly my honor to extend my most sincere congratulations to Marshall on its 50th anniversary of becoming a university.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the HELP Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 248 and that the bill be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 8; 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 that following any leader remarks the Senate resume consideration of S. 223, the Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill, as provided for under the previous order.