Kay Bailey Hutchison

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, there is a lot of buzzing going on around the Capitol today. Here we are on New Year's Eve, and so many of us had hoped we would have an agreement that would be really a big agreement, a long-term agreement that we would have liked to have had finished maybe by September, certainly by October, but that was not to be. In fact, as we saw in the elections of this year, our country is divided and our House here is divided as well. So it has been hard to come to terms.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest, because when we have opinions, when we have free speech, when we have elections that put a Democratic majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the House, we know there is not going to be a clear and precise path. But in the end, it is the best because we have all expressed our opinions and everyone has been heard.

We have had countless meetings in the last few weeks trying to see where people could give and where they couldn't. I have said from the beginning that I am optimistic because I think our democracy will work in the end. From what I am hearing from the different leaders, we are close to an agreement. We are not there, but it is a starting point and certainly a point at which there is already some agreement.

It may not seem as though it should be so hard, but once we do have the framework of an agreement, there are a lot of decisions that have to be made. We have to talk among Senate Democrats and Republicans, and then we have to go to the House and talk to Republicans and Democrats. I think one thing that is clear is there has to be a substantial number of votes on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Rotunda. We will not pass something with all Democratic votes or all Republican votes because it will not pass in the other House. So I think there is a lot of refining of what is a pretty good agreement in the making, but the refining has not yet been finished. I have abiding hope that we will get there.

Time to Reflect

Since this may possibly be my last day as a U.S. Senator--at least my last time to vote. Up until January 2, I am a U.S. Senator, but actually being able to participate at this late date has given me some time to reflect. I so appreciate some of the major communications and opportunities I have had with the real people in my home State of Texas and beyond. I always think of the many times I have been able to meet with our troops in harm's way.

In the early years of my tenure in the Senate, our troops were in harm's way in Bosnia, where there were many conflicts, and I got to visit with them and see what their concerns were and what was on their minds, and then into Iraq and then into Afghanistan. I have visited all of these places and had the chance to talk to our troops. What a person comes away with when they have that opportunity is the understanding that America is in good hands with our younger generation. They have such a great spirit.

I went to the Brooke Army Medical Center Hospital in San Antonio and visited with a young man who had lost both legs in an IED explosion. He had been able to get used to that situation for maybe 2 weeks. So it is reasonable to say he had had the shock of his life. So I went into his room, and there is his wife and his little daughter, who was about the same age as my daughter, sitting there with him.

He says to me: Senator, they won't let me go back, and that is where I want to be.

Then his darling wife pipes up and says: You know what, they took half of you and they are not getting the other half.

Now, if that isn't a story, for both of them to have such a spirit. I was so touched by that.

Just in the last month or so, I was back in San Antonio visiting the wonderful Center for the Intrepid they have for the wounded warriors and their families. It is a recreation center, and it is a place where they can go and cook food and have family meetings. They can play games, and they have extensive learning opportunities with computer rooms. It is a wonderful center they have put together, the people of San Antonio.

This was all spearheaded by a wounded warrior who had been cooped up in a room and wanted to have some ability to get outside the room with his family and have some experiences even though he was still going through treatment. He started raising money, and he raised it from the community and from many other wounded warriors, as well as military personnel, but a lot of the citizens of San Antonio and Texas stepped forward. So this is a wonderful place.

I met a wonderful young man who lost his arm and parts of two of his legs. He was a West Point graduate. He was sitting there, again with his beautiful wife, and I was visiting with him.

He said: I just want to be able to continue to contribute.

And I thought, oh my goodness, here is a West Point graduate who has so much to give and who wants to continue to give. So I came back and I wrote a letter to General Odierno, the Chief of Staff of the Army, and I told him about the young man who lost most of three limbs out of four and who wants to keep contributing. What about making him a military fellow, as we have in our offices, as the Presiding Officer knows? We have military fellows who are Active-Duty military, and they help us. We can have one a year. They help us by providing the military perspective on the things we are doing. Of course, because I have served on the Defense Subcommittee and the Military Construction Subcommittee of Appropriations and the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I love to have those military fellows.

I was so pleased that within just a month or so, when the choices were made for military fellows, this young man was chosen by the Army with the support of General Odierno, whose own son also has lost an arm in combat.

So I think that is a wonderful thing and that on reflection is one of the highlights of my moments to remember.

I also remember some of the great things my staff has done. I have to say, my staff has been the can-do staff of all time. They never take no for an answer. So when we have challenges, individuals who need help-- it may be a veterans' benefit; it may be a Social Security problem-- they have always had the reputation as the staff who tries to do everything possible to come through.

I am very pleased the Senator who is going to take my place on January 3 is going to have my staff director for case work, Joyce Sibley--who has had such a great reputation--continue in that position. She knows the issues. She knows the people. She will be great. I applaud Senator-elect Ted Cruz for making that decision and for keeping most of the staff who have done this wonderful work.

But let me give a couple examples. First of all, we got a frantic call from a friend of mine about a doctor who was trapped on top of Mount Everest. He was a Dallas doctor, and he was trapped up there in a blizzard and not expected to live. They had a terrible loss of some of the people in their climbing group, and a friend called and said: Is there anything you can do?

My wonderful staff, one of whom is retired military and knows so many of the things that could be done, Dave Davis, and Carolyn Kobey, who handles this casework in my Dallas office. Carolyn actually got in touch with the Nepalese Armed Forces and as a result of Carolyn's efforts, they were able to get a helicopter up. Once you get past a certain level--13,000 feet--you have to have oxygen in a helicopter or, obviously, if you are climbing.

So it was something that was a real ask of the Nepalese Air Force and we were able to get them to take that risk and to go up and they were able to rescue Dr. Beck Weathers. He is alive and wrote a great book about that experience from his vantage point. But we were very pleased to be able to take part in something such as that.

I will tell you, maybe the all time great experience was in my Houston office, led by Jason Fuller. We got a call in the Dallas office, and so the Houston and Dallas offices together did this. We got a call in the Dallas office from a woman in Mississippi. She said: I didn't know who else to call, but I knew Senator Hutchison's name. My son is having an asthma attack in Houston, and

I don't know how to get him the help he needs. He is in his apartment by himself.

My staff said: Please give us the information. We will call our Houston office, and we will see if we can get help, which they did. They called the Houston office. The Houston office called 9-1-1. They went out to the young man's apartment. He was, in fact, in a dire circumstance and would have died had he not gotten help right away. But they took him in. They gave him the help he needed, and that young man is alive today.

So these instances are some of the great memories I will have of having a wonderful staff who will go the extra mile and try to help the individuals in our State as well as on the big issues where we also try to make sure we do everything we can to get something that is very important to us, whether it is to America or to Texas or to Texans or to Americans.

These are some of the memories I will take with me as I leave this great body. As I said in my actual formal farewell speech, it is easy to be critical. I saw on television this morning that the esteem of Congress has fallen to 5 percent favorable. I am not surprised at that. As my colleague John McCain once said: Now we are down to blood relatives and paid staff. It is easy to criticize, and there are a lot of reasons to criticize. I will admit things have not been as productive and most certainly the acrimony does show sometimes.

But I am going to say, as I leave, after almost 20 years in this body, the people here are all dedicated. There is not one who is not a dedicated patriotic American. We disagree, sometimes violently disagree, on the way we should get to our goals. But our agreement is on the goal of keeping America the beacon of freedom to the world, to keeping our military strong, to doing right by all our people, whether it is a small businessperson who is creating jobs who is trying to go up the ladder of success or whether it is someone who is in trouble because they have had a huge setback in their lives. Everyone here wants America to continue to be the magnet for the world. We want to be the science and technology innovators who will continue to fuel our economy. It is just how we get there that causes the disagreement.

We have patriotic people who have been elected. I hope for the next 2 years we will put aside the partisan politics, put aside the thoughts of future elections, and try to solve the big issues of our time, because there is a lot of intelligence in this body. There is a lot of ability to come together. I keep the abiding faith that our messy democracy will, in fact, prevail because I cannot think of going to anything else. As long as we can function and show the world we can govern, as we disagree, that will be the example that will forever make our country the best and, hopefully, be a model for others to not think you have to take to the streets, not think you need guns to have the government you want but to show that peaceful transition can be done and also that we can have a lot of discussion, a lot of disagreements, but we can do it civilly.

I leave this body knowing if we just remember the honor we have of growing up in the greatest Nation on Earth, we will recognize that it is our responsibility to give the same to our children and grandchildren. It is the least we can do.

Thank you. I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, we are here just hours before a looming deadline that is going to affect just about every American in some way, and I do believe both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Rotunda want to come to a conclusion that will keep us from having what looks like a complete meltdown of governing in Washington.

Someone asked the question in one of our conferences: When was the last time Congress was in session and voting between Christmas and New Year's? The answer was, since 1970 there has not been such a session. And it has actually happened only four times in the history of our country, and two of those times were dealing with World War II.

So I think the enormity of the issue is very clear, and that is why we are here. I think we should have done this 6 months ago, a year ago. I think all of us agree we should not be here at this last hour still trying to negotiate a point at which so many Americans are going to be more heavily taxed.

I was pleased to see that the distinguished deputy leader on the Democratic side talked about the three areas we have to address, and deficit reduction is most certainly one of them because we are facing a ceiling of a $16.4 trillion debt that is getting ready to be exceeded. So, yes, deficit reduction and entitlement reform are two areas we must address.

This country cannot continue to have Social Security and Medicare spiraling toward insolvency. We cannot do it. But it is going to take a bipartisan approach. It is not rocket science to see that we have a Democratic Senate, a Republican House, and a Democratic President, and that is going to be the same starting January 3 of next year for at least 2 more years. So we know what we are dealing with, and I think it affects us right now in the fiscal cliff negotiations because we are not going to do anything unless it is bipartisan. We will not be able to pass anything in the House that does not have significant Republican votes in the Senate, and the Democrats in the Senate are not going to be able to support something that will not require some votes of Democrats in the House.

So we are together--maybe it is like a dysfunctional family, but we do have to work together because without bipartisanship, nothing is going anywhere. Therefore, I think you have to go back to negotiations 101, which is that someone in a negotiation has to win some and lose some. The other party in a negotiation has to win some

and lose some. The President is not going to get everything he wants. The Republicans in the House and Senate are not going to get everything we want, nor are the Democrats in the House and Senate.

So we have areas where we can come together, and I have seen it. All of us were talking in the last couple of hours about how we have talked to our counterparts on the other side of the aisle about what could bring us together, and there are very clear areas where we can come to an agreement.

We are not going to be able to negotiate all parts of what we must do to get our financial house in order. We are not going to be able to do tax reform in a comprehensive way, we are not going to be able to do the fixing of and reforming of our entitlement programs, and we are not going to be able to set all of the spending cuts we are going to have to do going forward right here in the next 36 hours. We cannot do it. That has to be done on a basis of determining after many hearings what our priorities are and what the ceiling on spending should be. We must set a ceiling. Is it 18 or 20 percent of gross domestic product? Is it some amount that goes down each year? That is the question that has to be decided after a lot of discussion next year.

But what we can do is avoid a fiscal calamity by not having the sequestration take place on January 2 at midnight--but make that for a very short term. It cannot be 2 years of a moratorium on sequestration because then we would not get to where we need to be in determining the priorities that will lower the rate of spending in this country. Our problem in this country is a spending problem, and with a $16.4 trillion debt, more spending is not going to be the answer.

So let's look at a very short-term avoidance of sequestration because we do not want to disrupt our military when they have boots on the ground in harm's way. We would not do that. We would not do it on either side of the aisle. So we need to talk about some short-term sequestration avoidance but not a long-term one because there are things we can cut in the military budget that will not affect the equipment and the pay and the living conditions of our military. We can cut other things. So we have to be able to come to terms with not having sequestration but making it very short term.

I think it is clear the President has wanted to increase taxes on what he considers the wealthy. I disagree with the President on what is wealthy, and I hope we can come to terms. Even the President has said a $400,000 threshold is something he could accept. Many on the other side of the aisle have said $500,000 or $600,000--$400,000 or $500,000 or $600,000 is something they could work with. And if we do some other things, I believe we could come to a consensus--not something that we like because I do not think we ought to raise taxes on anyone, and I have certainly voted that way, but there is some area where we can have a fix that will keep us from having to go over this cliff and hurt so many people in this country.

I think it is so important that we look at the big-ticket items in a comprehensive way, knowing that we are going to have to do that next year. But there are things we can do right now. I do not know 1 person out of 100 here who wants the AMT to take effect and cause people who make $33,750 to have to pay more taxes. I think we should do away with the AMT completely, but certainly it should not kick in at $33,750. We need to fix it, and I think everybody here agrees we need to fix it.

The distinguished deputy leader was talking about the death tax. Now, he does not think we should fix the death tax. I certainly do. If we go to a $1 million exemption and a 55-percent tax, I think that is going to hurt family-owned businesses, it is going to hurt farms and ranches, and it is going to hurt the people who work for those family-owned businesses. Why is that? It is because the value of farms and ranches, which is land, does not have a revenue stream that allows you to pay the tax. So what do you have to do? You have to sell an asset, but you cannot get the full valuation that is put on it. You cannot do it. I have owned a manufacturing company, and I can tell you, you cannot sell the equipment for the value that is put on that piece of equipment. So what happens to a family-owned business? They end up having to sell at pennies on the dollar to pay the tax, and people are put out of work. Is that really what we want?

The exemptions we have now are $5.1 million and a 35-percent rate. It would go to $1 million--in 36 or 48 hours--$1 million and a 55-percent rate. And remember, the death tax is a tax that has already been paid again and again and again. It is a tax on the value of the equipment or the land that has already been taxed with a property tax or a sales tax on the equipment.

So there is a reason to have some accommodation in the death tax so that we will not face more unemployed people who worked for a family- owned business or farm, and if it is not the No. 1 issue of the Farm Bureau of this country, it certainly is in the top two or three because they know--they know--what it is like to have to sell land at a value that is not realistic and pay a tax. And a 55-percent tax is pretty confiscatory.

So I do hope we can come together on a bipartisan basis because if we do not come together on a bipartisan basis, nothing will get done, because we have the House that is looking to the Senate, which is supposed to be the adult in the room, and they are looking at us to see how the votes turn out, and we need a large majority on both sides of the aisle to send to the House something that has a firm stamp of approval of this body.

We need the President to be a player here as well. I am encouraged that he is now talking to our leaders and hopefully being constructive. And certainly our Vice President, who served in this body for so long, does understand the importance of the one-on-one talks, and he is talking to, I know, our leader and most certainly the Democratic leader as well.

So the hour is getting late, both figuratively and literally. We do not have much time to settle an issue that will affect the economy of this country.

Last but not least, I am sure the President does not want to have a calamity like this happen on his watch. And I do not want, on my watch, as one who is leaving the Senate this year, for this to be the last thing that happens on my watch. I do not think anyone here is going to benefit from a calamity happening in this country's economy--even for a few days--because it just looks as though we cannot govern.

It is time to realize that on a bipartisan basis we can do some things that will not be universally liked. It will not be liked by everyone in this room because we are not going to get everything we think is right. But we can move our country forward. We can help everyone in this country, every taxpayer.

But we are not going to raise taxes to spend more. We should be saying, OK, if there is going to be a threshold that pays more taxes, we should know it is going to bring down the deficit. That is a very important point that we hope will be determined at the end of this road in 36 to 48 hours.

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

Mr. President, I rise to talk about the looming financial crisis that all of us here are trying to solve. We are here because we know that in 4 days something that will affect every American family in not a very good way is going to happen. We are talking among ourselves, and we are trying to see what could be given on each side of the debate and where we are together. In many areas, we are already together.

The President has said he is for AMT relief, and most certainly we are as well. There are other areas where we are in agreement, such as relief from the marriage penalty and the child tax credit, which have helped so many American families. Yet we seem to dwell on where we are apart and not start with where we are together.

As we speak, our leaders are meeting at the White House. Our majority and minority leader in the Senate and the Speaker and the minority leader in the House are meeting with the President. It will be remembered about the President's term and it will be remembered by Members of Congress if we don't do something that is a compromise. At this point, it has to be bipartisan. There is no question that something has to pass the House and the Senate with votes from the minority party of each chamber.

We have to go to the drawing board, and I hope there is a plan laid out at the White House with the leaders from which we can start that real negotiation. Now, many would say: Really? Should we start now, 2 or 3 or 4 days out?

Well, no. We should have started about 6 months or a year ago, no doubt about it, but we are where we are. So what can be done in a significant way that will ease the concerns of the American people right now? No one wants to see tax increases on every American. No one wants to see America's defense budget decimated, which is what will happen automatically with no action on January 2 with sequestration. No one wants to see unemployment tick up, and no one wants to see another recession when we have barely started on a very slow road to recovery from the last one.

The consequences are enormous. For instance, the child tax credit is $1,000 per child and refundable today. On January 1 of next year, it will be $500 per child and not refundable. The adoption tax credit, which has helped many American families ease the cost of adoption while giving a home to children who wouldn't have one otherwise today, is a $12,650 deduction. As of January 1, it would be $6,000 and not applicable to any child except one with special needs. Even though that is a wonderful thing, why not continue the full amount for every child who is adopted.

The marriage penalty relief will be significantly reduced if we don't do something by January 1.

This is something that hasn't been talked about very much: If an employer provides education assistance, up to $5,250 of the cost of this assistance may be excluded from their tax payment. That provision expires, so that is a huge disincentive for employers to help their employees further their education, which is in everyone's best interests. Today student loan interest deductions are $2,500 per year. That is an interest deduction to pay back a student loan, where someone has had the initiative to get their higher education and borrowed to do it. In 2013, this deduction will only be available for 5 years of interest payments.

The alternative minimum tax, which was meant to hit millionaires when it was enacted years ago, hit an income of $48,000 for an individual and almost $75,000 for a couple in 2011. Because it expired at the end of last year, for tax year 2012, the AMT has gone to $33,000 for an individual and $45,000 for a married couple. A married couple making $45,000 with two children, maybe in college, should they pay an alternative minimum tax? This doesn't make sense to anyone in our country, and it is time we came together to face reality. The reality is we are on the brink of letting a bad thing happen because we are so divided on the edges and we can't come to terms.

There are areas I have talked to my Democratic colleagues about where I know we are together. Fixing the AMT is one. Another one is the estate tax. Today, over 80 percent of the value of a ranch or a farm is a nonliquid, land-based or equipment-based asset. That means if someone dies and they have to pay an estate tax over $1 million, which is what it will be January 1, often heirs have to sell at pennies on the dollar because they can't sell land or equipment for the value that is put on it for an estate. So we are going to throw family-owned farms into a liquidation, which cuts jobs of the people who are working there and also affects the businesses and rural communities they support in Texas and in many other states. None of us want that. I talked to my Democratic colleagues and they don't want that either. Today the exemption is $5.1 million--much more reasonable when we are talking about an asset that is virtually not sellable on the open market. We want to fix that so families can pass their businesses and farms and ranches to their heirs and keep the people who are working there in jobs.

We know we need to boost our economy at the same time we need to take hold of the spending of government. That is something we have talked about for a long time because we know the debt is $16.3 trillion and we know the deficits, which are more than $1 trillion every year, are going to make that higher. It is unsustainable. So we have to address the revenue and we have to address the spending.

Mr. President, I thank the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee as well as the ranking member because as soon as our leaders get back from the White House I certainly want us to be able to go forward and vote.

To finish my remarks, we must take hold of our financial situation. There is no doubt we are spending too much, we are borrowing too much, and I believe we are taxing too much. It is time for us to hold the line on taxes so they do not go up for the people who would hire people. At the same time, we know we must cut responsibly. We must set our priorities and put a ceiling on spending in this country.

I understand that is going to take more time than the next 4 days, but I implore my colleagues to not let the jolt happen on December 31 at midnight that would hurt our economy, possibly put more people out of work, and jeopardize their family incomes which, in many cases, are barely able to make ends meet today. Let's come together where I know from talking to my Democratic colleagues we could come together. If we can do the things that are necessary to bring us together to avoid this cliff, we need to do everything in our power to do it.

I thank the Chair, and I certainly wish to yield the floor to the Senator from Vermont. I just hope that before December 31 at midnight, if we have to be here to do it, we will come to an agreement that will ease the tensions in the marketplace and in the American family and workplace so we can go forward and give the new Congress the time to look at all these issues and come to the terms of a government that has a Democratic majority in the

Senate, a Republican majority in the House, and a President in the White House whom I hope will bring everyone together.

I yield the floor.