Floor Statements

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Home and Community Balanced Incentives Act of 2009, together with my colleague from Wisconsin, Senator Kohl. As we in the Senate embark on reforming America's health care system, we cannot forget those who are dependent on daily care in order to survive: those in long-term care. Long-term care provides health care and daily living services to the elderly and disabled population, providing them with the ability to live happy, productive lives that age, illness and disability would otherwise prevent.

In 2007, the U.S. spent close to $109 billion on long term institutional care services under the Medicaid program; in my state of Washington it was approximately $2 billion. This amount represents more than 30 percent of all Medicaid payments, and is a number we can easily reduce. This legislation seeks to rebalance how states handle long term care by providing the tools they need to shift people out of expensive institutional care facilities and into home and community based care, where they can remain vibrant, active members of their community.

As Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz once said: There is no place like home. I could not agree more, which is why I believe in providing individuals and

families with the option to remain in their home, where studies have shown the overall quality of life is far superior to that in an institutional facility. Additionally, home and community based care is far more cost efficient than institutional care; by diverting just 5 percent of the long term care community away from institutional care and into home and community based services, we would see a net savings of more than $10 billion dollars over five years. In a time when rising health care spending plays such a pivotal role in the health of the overall economy, these savings represent a giant step towards reining in unnecessary health care spending.

The Home and Community Balanced Incentives Act would achieve the goal of transitioning to home and community based services by offering states modest increases to their federal medical assistance payment, FMAP, for home and community based services. States would have to use these increases to develop the programs needed to provide effective home and community based services. These services will reduce barriers that currently prohibit people from accessing home and community based services.

This bill succeeds in not only saving the Medicaid program a significant amount of money, but it will empower families to make informed decisions about their long term care needs.

Specifically, this bill would: improve case management to help people remain in their homes and communities and out of nursing homes; provide consumer empowerment helping to put individuals in charge of their care; provide a coordinated transition structure for those wishing to leave institutional care and return to their homes and communities; create a clear and well coordinated system for providing long term care information and support; improve methodology for determining eligibility and tracking provider data on services and quality outcomes.

Senator Kohl and I are excited to introduce this important legislation and to begin working with our colleagues on improving the long term care system in America.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce Project 2020: Building on the Promise of Home and Community-Based Services Act with my colleague from Michigan, Senator Stabenow. By the year 2020, almost 1 in 6 Americans will be over the age of 65 and the population of people over the age of 85, the fastest growing segment of the population, will double. Our current long term care financing structure is unsustainable as the population in need of such services rapidly increases. As such, we must turn our focus to reforming the long term care system to provide the best care available to this vulnerable population.

The average cost of a nursing home in this country is $70,000 a year, making this an unrealistic option for most Americans. In fact, most people who end up in a nursing home last just six months before they have spent so much they become poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. This situation is expensive for consumers, for states, and for the federal government. Fortunately, there is a clear answer. It costs Medicaid one third as much to provide someone with home and community based care as it would cost to care for them in a nursing home. In addition, most people want to stay in their own home or community whenever possible. An independent analysis conducted by the Lewin Group shows that Project 2020 would reach over 40 million Americans, while simultaneously reducing Medicare and Medicaid costs by more than $2.8 billion over 5 years.

Project 2020 addresses the urgent need to shift away from institutional care and towards home and community based services in three distinct ways: through enhanced nursing home diversion; by increasing the use of person-centered access to information; and by utilizing evidence-based disease and injury prevention. As I previously mentioned, increased nursing home diversion will not only provide significant savings to the Medicaid program, it will also allow families to stay together and let people be active members of their communities. Through the creation of a person-center access point to information, consumers, family members, and caregivers will be given the tools necessary to make well informed decisions about long term care. Finally, this bill will provide for programs that help consumers get proven education about avoiding preventable diseased and injuries, such as falls and malnutrition, which result in thousands of unnecessary hospitalizations every year.

As you can see, these three programs constitute a common-sense, multifaceted approach to improving the quality of life of individuals and their families, while providing a substantial amount of savings to the health care system.

I am pleased to introduce this important legislation along with my colleague Senator Stabenow and I look forward to working with the rest of my Senate colleagues to provide families with the long term care services and support they need.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, for countless communities around the country, our oceans are the heartbeat of their histories and economies. In fact, according to a report by the Joint Oceans Commission, healthy oceans and coasts are an important means of transportation, trade, and national security. Ocean-dependent industries generate about $138 billion and support millions of jobs in the United States' economy.

According to the National Ocean Economic Project, 30 U.S. coastal States accounted for 82 percent of total population and 81 percent of all U.S. jobs in 2006. In my home State of Washington, the Port of Seattle's facilities and activities alone support 190,000 jobs, and the State has 3,000 fishing vessels that employ 10,000 fishermen.

There is no group that is more important to the health and safety of our ports, fishing industry, and maritime community than the U.S. Coast Guard. The brave men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard are charged with many missions--from serving as our environmental stewards, performing search and rescue missions, and protecting us from terrorism, to helping clean up oil spills and enforcing fisheries laws. They are largely responsible for keeping these coastal economic engines running, and have proved time and time again that they are, as their motto says, ``Always ready.''

But for the Coast Guard to do its job Congress needs to support those who serve in its ranks. We have a responsibility to ensure the Coast Guard has the tools it needs to carry out the missions of today, while looking ahead to the challenges of tomorrow.

The bill I am introducing today, The Coast Guard Authorization Act for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, is designed to help the Coast Guard move toward the future, and ensure our maritime industries remain the clean and safe economic engine our nation's coastal communities have depended on for generations.

As the U.S. experiences major oil spills, tropical storms, hurricanes, and terrorism, our maritime economy faces ever-present threats. Congress needs to uphold its end of the bargain and provide the legislative backing the Coast Guard needs to do its job, and do its job well.

This bill gives the Coast Guard greater authority to work with international maritime authorities, get better access to global safety and security information, and work more cooperatively with other nations on law enforcement; allows the Coast Guard to rework its command structure and increase its alignment with other armed forces; better supports the men and women who serve in the U.S. Coast Guard by allowing greater reimbursement for medical-related expenses and allowing Coast Guard service-members to participate in the Armed Forces Retirement Home system; and directs the Coast Guard to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis for recapitalizing its polar icebreaker fleet so the service can prepare for future mission demands in the Arctic.

This bill also contains the most ambitious reform of its acquisitions program in the Coast Guard's history. The Coast Guard is struggling right now to replace their rapidly aging fleet of ships, aircraft, and facilities. At a cost of $24 billion, the Deepwater program is the Coast Guard's largest and most complex acquisition program ever. Congress has a responsibility to ensure there is transparency and oversight so this program is as efficient and effective as possible.

Unfortunately, the Coast Guard's Deepwater program has experienced major failures and setbacks. The program utilized a private sector lead systems integrator, LSI, know as Integrated Coast Guard Systems, ICGS, to oversee acquisition of a ``system of systems.'' When the Deepwater contract was originally awarded in 2002, the Coast Guard did not have the personnel within their ranks to manage such a large contract. Congress was told that outsourcing that role to industry would save the Coast Guard time and money over the long run.

That approach, which may have seemed innovative at the time, has not produced the promised results. Instead of cost and time savings, we have seen cost overruns, schedule delays, less competition and inadequate technical oversight.

The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, IG, released three reports in 2006 and early 2007 detailing some of the problems with Deepwater, including problems with electronics equipment, crucial design flaws and cost overruns created by a faulty contract structure and lack of oversight, and serious issues with the 123-foot cutter conversion project.

This legislation wipes the slate clean and makes fundamental changes to the Coast Guard's acquisition program. It requires the Coast Guard to abandon the industry-led Lead Systems Integrator and get back to basics--full and open competition for all future assets.

It requires a completely new ``analysis of alternatives'' for all future Deepwater acquisitions to ensure that the Coast Guard is getting the assets best-suited for their needs.

It requires the Coast Guard to follow a rigorous acquisitions process to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.

And, it gives the Coast Guard the tools it needs to manage acquisitions effectively, including requiring the Coast Guard to make internal management changes to ensure open competition, increase technical oversight and improve reporting to Congress.

This legislation takes major steps towards getting the Coast Guard the assets they need while ensuring responsible management of taxpayer dollars. I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact the changes I am proposing today so we can get this program back on track and help the Coast Guard accomplish its missions.

If we fail to pass legislation, we are doing a major disservice to those very people we depend on. We will do so as they continue to place their lives at risk while they perform the mission of the Coast Guard.

This bill is good for taxpayers, good for the Coast Guard, and good for every American depending on them to be, ``Always ready.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate the University of Washington softball team on their 2009 NCAA National Championship.

On June 2, led by National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie and head coach Heather Tarr, the Huskies earned their first title in a thrilling 3-2 victory over the University of Florida.

The win caps an amazing 51-12 season that saw the team capture the hearts and minds of the entire region. Facing challenges and setbacks throughout the season, the team found the courage and determination needed to break through to highest achievement in college softball.

Following the game, National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie added to her already lengthy resume when she was selected as the Most Outstanding Player of the College World Series. She was joined on this year's First-Team All-America team by teammate Ashley Charters who closes out her Husky career with her third All-America selection.

However, it was not individuals who won this championship; it was a team. The commitment and passion of each and every player has turned the University of Washington into one of the most feared softball teams in the Nation. This season marks the 16th straight postseason appearance by the Huskies. Competing in the indisputably toughest conference in America, the Pac-10, the University of Washington has steadily climbed into the ranks of softball's elite.

At a time when budget shortfalls are forcing universities across the Nation to eliminate athletic programs, the University of Washington softball team stands as a testament to the role of athletics in our schools. These are not superstars headed to lucrative paychecks; they are committed student-athletes who dedicate themselves every day on the field and in the classroom. I reserve special praise for the league- leading seven Huskies named to the Pac-10 All-Academic team: Morgan Stuart, Amanda Fleischman, Alyson McWherter, Ashlyn Watson, Ashley Charters, Marnie Koziol and Alicia Blake.

Congratulations once more to our newest national champions, the University of Washington Huskies. Go Dawgs!

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act of 2009, together with my colleagues from Maine, Senator Susan Collins, and from Rhode Island, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. As we set about the urgently important business of health care reform, we will be hearing a lot about the uninsured. But there is another urgent problem in our health care system: the underserved. We must address both problems as we set about reforming the health care system.

It does you little good to have health care insurance if the nearest primary care physician is hundreds of miles away.

This bipartisan proposal sets out a multifaceted approach to supporting and expanding our primary care workforce as well as enhancing the coordination of care within our health care system. I am grateful for the input and collaboration of key health-care stakeholders in Washington state that has helped make this legislation possible. In my state, we know it is possible to both increase health care quality while also lowering costs, all within an integrated system that places a priority on expanding our primary care workforce and protecting patients' relationships with their doctors.

A dramatic increase in the primary care physician workforce will be needed. My legislation not only addresses the needs of those individuals to whom health insurance coverage will be extended but also of those who are currently insured but who live in areas underserved by our current health care system.

I believe we can address this problem by adopting long overdue reforms to improve pay levels for primary care providers while also taking measures to ensure an adequate primary care workforce, particularly in rural areas. As more Americans gain health care coverage, the experts estimate there will be a shortage of 46,000 primary care physicians available to care for the influx of patients by the year 2025. As the need grows, the number of medical students choosing primary care is rapidly dwindling.

Detailed studies from the Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth and the Commonwealth Fund found that populations with ready access to primary care physicians realize improved health outcomes, reduced mortality, lower utilization of health care resources, and lower overall costs of care. Yet despite what we know, all across this country, we are failing to realize the benefits of primary care and

a system of having a primary care physician coordinate a patient's health care needs. This bill includes several key provisions aimed at achieving a high quality, more comprehensive integrated health system.

Specific provisions include: scholarship and loan repayment opportunities for primary care providers who serve in areas with critical shortages of primary care services. New residency positions for primary care with a focus on more opportunities to train in ambulatory care settings--including community in health centers. Increased reimbursements for primary care providers. Medicare payments for care coordination services, and bonus payments to providers who serve as integrated patient-centered medical homes. Improved access to primary care for seniors by eliminating copayments for preventives care services in Medicare.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to ensure we make the necessary investments in our primary care workforce. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill and letters of support be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act of 2009, together with my colleagues from Maine, Senator Susan Collins, and from Rhode Island, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. As we set about the urgently important business of health care reform, we will be hearing a lot about the uninsured. But there is another urgent problem in our health care system: the underserved. We must address both problems as we set about reforming the health care system.

It does you little good to have health care insurance if the nearest primary care physician is hundreds of miles away.

This bipartisan proposal sets out a multifaceted approach to supporting and expanding our primary care workforce as well as enhancing the coordination of care within our health care system. I am grateful for the input and collaboration of key health-care stakeholders in Washington state that has helped make this legislation possible. In my state, we know it is possible to both increase health care quality while also lowering costs, all within an integrated system that places a priority on expanding our primary care workforce and protecting patients' relationships with their doctors.

A dramatic increase in the primary care physician workforce will be needed. My legislation not only addresses the needs of those individuals to whom health insurance coverage will be extended but also of those who are currently insured but who live in areas underserved by our current health care system.

I believe we can address this problem by adopting long overdue reforms to improve pay levels for primary care providers while also taking measures to ensure an adequate primary care workforce, particularly in rural areas. As more Americans gain health care coverage, the experts estimate there will be a shortage of 46,000 primary care physicians available to care for the influx of patients by the year 2025. As the need grows, the number of medical students choosing primary care is rapidly dwindling.

Detailed studies from the Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth and the Commonwealth Fund found that populations with ready access to primary care physicians realize improved health outcomes, reduced mortality, lower utilization of health care resources, and lower overall costs of care. Yet despite what we know, all across this country, we are failing to realize the benefits of primary care and

a system of having a primary care physician coordinate a patient's health care needs. This bill includes several key provisions aimed at achieving a high quality, more comprehensive integrated health system.

Specific provisions include: scholarship and loan repayment opportunities for primary care providers who serve in areas with critical shortages of primary care services. New residency positions for primary care with a focus on more opportunities to train in ambulatory care settings--including community in health centers. Increased reimbursements for primary care providers. Medicare payments for care coordination services, and bonus payments to providers who serve as integrated patient-centered medical homes. Improved access to primary care for seniors by eliminating copayments for preventives care services in Medicare.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to ensure we make the necessary investments in our primary care workforce. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill and letters of support be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 152, submitted earlier

today; that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the administration's truly historic announcement last week that in writing they supported bringing unregulated ``dark'' over-the-counter derivative markets under full regulation for the very first time.

For months I have been urging the Obama administration to move quickly and propose strong regulatory controls on these markets, to require transparency in derivatives trading, and to restrict market manipulation.

With the announcement last week by Secretary Geithner of these new regulations, the administration has come down decisively against dangerously unrestricted trading. They have come down on the side of imposing order on a marketplace whose collapse made the current recession much deeper and more painful for average Americans than it needed to be.

The administration's commitment to bringing a ``dark'' market into light is very important. Congress has received a written commitment from the administration that they will bring the unregulated over-the- counter derivatives market under full regulation for the very first time.

This means they have correctly identified three goals of regulatory reform of the over-the-counter derivatives markets. First, if Congress and the administration push through, we will finally gain transparency in the ``dark'' markets. All derivatives transactions and dealers will be brought under prudent regulation and supervision. That means even those that are customized derivatives, not just the OTC market; so prudent regulation and supervision, including capital adequacy requirements, antifraud and antimanipulation authority, very clear transparency and reporting requirements.

Second, standardized trading of physical commodities and derivatives will finally be required to trade on fully regulated exchanges.

Third, the administration is also committed to opposing position limits on regulated markets to prevent any market player from amassing large positions that can harm markets. I have received assurances from the White House that the administration believes these position limits should be applied in the aggregate across all markets.

I still remain concerned about Mr. Gensler's nomination to chair the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Mr. Gensler was at the Department of the Treasury a decade ago and helped push through a bill, passed by Congress, that provided an ironclad protection against the regulation of financial products such as credit default swaps and derivatives at the heart of this financial crisis. The unfettered speculation that resulted helped bring about not only the energy crisis in my region but decades of other problems that contributed to the demise of AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Sterns.

I believe we need new blood at the CFTC and all regulatory agencies. We need people who will move us from a world of unregulated toxic assets to a world of transparency and aggressive oversight. For nearly three decades the financial industry has had its way in Washington, successfully pushing deregulation in the name of innovation. Time- tested regulatory policies that protected investors and consumers since the Depression were systematically eroded. Many factors led to the present economic meltdown, but we know that chief among them was the policy advocated by Mr. Gensler of not fully regulating the derivatives market.

A decade ago, at the end of the 106th Congress, in the dark of night, Congress passed a law known as the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. But instead of modernizing commodities trading, it took us back in time to the day when securities trading was subject to wild speculation. This law, backed by Mr. Gensler, provided ironclad protection against regulation and oversight of derivatives and has caused many problems. One courageous regulator at the time, then CFTC chairwoman Brooksley Born, warned Congress and the financial community that unregulated derivatives would expose the economy to serious dangers. But some in Washington blocked her efforts, including many on Wall Street. One high-ranking Treasury official charged with pushing these deregulation bills through Congress was Gary Gensler, a former high-ranking executive at Goldman Sachs. As Under Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Gensler testified before Congress that he opposed regulating the derivatives market. Mr. Gensler, as we know, was wrong. Just yesterday Brooksley Born received recognition for her courage in standing up to the powerful financial interests in proposing tough rules. She was presented with the Profile in Courage award by the John F. Kennedy Foundation.

Remarkably, the Senate is now considering confirming Mr. Gensler to

serve as chair of the CFTC, the same agency Brooksley Born chaired and the same agency Mr. Gensler worked so hard to defang in his previous tenure as Under Secretary of the Treasury. That is why I oppose his confirmation to run the CFTC at a critically important time when we need more financial regulation in these agencies. In the months ahead I will be looking forward to working with the CFTC and the President's working group on financial markets and the Department of the Treasury to actively engage Congress on the reforms that need to be passed into law.

I will be looking to the CFTC to do its job, to prevent excessive speculation from stopping the Nation's economic recovery.

I will be looking to Mr. Gensler to earn the trust of Congress and provide oversight over the commodities and derivatives markets.

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

Madam President, I rise to discuss what I hope will be a turning point on our road to economic recovery. The Obama administration yesterday asked Congress to swiftly pass sweeping and historic regulatory reforms on derivatives, credit default swaps, commodities trading, and other sectors of the financial marketplace that collapsed last year under the weight of unrestrained speculation. The road to this point has not been easy. For months I have been urging the administration to move quickly to propose strong regulatory controls on these markets, require transparency in derivatives trading, and restrict market manipulation. With the announcement yesterday by Treasury Secretary Geithner in a letter he sent to Senate and House leaders, the administration has come down decisively on the side of imposing order on a marketplace whose collapse made this current recession so much deeper and more painful for the average American than it needed to be.

The administration clearly supported in writing bringing the unregulated ``dark'' over-the-counter derivative markets under full regulation for the very first time. The administration has correctly identified the top three key goals of regulatory reform in the unregulated over-the-counter derivatives market. First, transparency on all dark markets. All derivative transaction dealers will be brought under prudential regulation and supervision which means capital adequacy requirements, antifraud and antimanipulation authority, and very clear transparency and reporting requirements.

Second, all standardized trading of physical commodities and other derivatives will finally be required to be traded on fully regulated exchanges.

Third, imposing position limits on regulated markets to prevent any market player from amassing large positions that can harm the market. I have received in e-mail additional assurances from the administration that they believe these position limits should be applied in the aggregate across all contract markets to prevent fraud and manipulation.

Mr. Geithner's announcement yesterday was truly historic. Americans have suffered through an era of deregulation that is primarily the cause of this economic crisis. How did we get here and why is this historic?

A decade ago Congress passed, in the dark of night at the end of the Congress in 2000, a law known as the Commodities Futures Modernization Act that provided ironclad protections from regulation for financial tools. One courageous regulator, then Commodities Futures Trading Commission Chairwoman Brooksley Born, warned Congress and the financial community that unregulated derivatives could cause potential serious dangers to the economy. But some in Washington blocked her efforts, including Wall Street and senior administration officials.

One high-ranking Treasury official charged with pushing this deregulation bill through Congress was Gary Gensler, a former high- ranking executive at Goldman Sachs. As Under Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Gensler testified before Congress that he ``unambiguously opposed'' regulating the derivatives market. Mr. Gensler was wrong. For Brooksley Born's courage in standing up to powerful financial interests in proposing tougher rules, she is being awarded the Profiles in Courage award by the John F. Kennedy Foundation this year.

With yesterday's announcement, this administration embraces the reforms that Brooksley Born argued we needed a decade ago. This was an uphill battle. There were too many people with a financial stake in the old, unrestrained trading system. But it was because of my concern that the President's commitments to government reform and increased transparency would be overshadowed by those willing to take a go-slow approach to regulatory reform that I placed a hold on the President's nomination of Gary Gensler to be Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. In my view, Mr. Gensler helped perpetuate the lax regulation that contributed to our current economic crisis while he was Under Secretary of Treasury during the latter years of the Clinton administration.

While Mr. Gensler has recently stated he supports stronger regulatory rules for financial markets, in 2000, he supported legislation that provided ironclad protections against regulation of financial products such as credit default swaps and derivatives. I hardly need to remind my colleagues of the disastrous results of that course of action.

The world of derivatives and credit default swaps is foreign to most Americans. The vulnerability of these markets to rampant speculation and the complex set of regulatory structures needed to address the problems are not easy to grasp, even for insiders of the financial industry. But my constituents in Washington State know all too well the consequences of inaction and lax oversight. To us, the financial meltdown is not just an object lesson in greed and avarice playing out on the other coast; it is an issue that has affected our daily lives. We remember when the lights went out over the energy crisis brought on by Enron's predatory speculation that threw the western power grid into disarray. This perfect storm--a combination of drought, botched regulation, and Enron's market manipulation--cost west coast consumers more than $40 billion, and it took years to unravel the mess.

The rules of the financial game may be esoteric, but the consequences of a financial meltdown are well understood by my constituents. It is because of my involvement in bringing Enron's speculative schemes to light and seeing the type of business abuse in the financial markets that I am determined to take steps to ensure that such abuse does not happen again. I am glad President Obama has listened to those on Capitol Hill and those within his own administration who believed strongly that bold and timely action was critical to ensure stability of our financial markets. I continue to have concerns about Mr. Gensler's appointment to head the agency responsible for regulating swaps and other derivatives whose collapse amid unrestricted speculation caused so much damage to the economy. But in light of the administration's significant and potentially historic stand on new controls over derivative markets, I am prepared to lift my hold on his confirmation and, instead, focus on ensuring that the legislation we pass includes the recommendations the administration has made.

I say that I hope the administration's new policy will become a turning point, because we have more work to do to make sure these concepts become law. The Treasury Department announcement was not a piece of legislation but, rather, a policy outline, a statement of the kind of bill the White House would support. It is now up to us in Congress to turn this into law. I am committed to working with Senate leadership to ensure that the resulting legislation closes loopholes and that we get about making sure that the previously poorly designed controls are eliminated.

Where necessary, we must be willing to go even further than the administration in crafting a bill that puts an end to destructive and predatory forms of speculation. But I applaud the bold position outlined in the Treasury Secretary's letter to House and Senate leadership yesterday.

The idea here is not to impose regulation for regulation's sake. The idea is to protect the American people from the consequences of unrestrained speculation. Our constituents are justifiably angry, because they have seen millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in savings evaporate while speculators who aggravated the crisis floated away on golden parachutes.

Undoubtedly, in the weeks to come, Wall Street interests will have a lot to say about regulatory reforms. They should say it to the average American who has been taking a crash course in the financial crisis over the past year. Our obligation is not to these speculators. It is to the people who work hard, whose ingenuity and extraordinary productivity have provided the lift that has made our economy the envy of the world. It is now our time to do our job to put in the robust reforms that will make their hard work pay off in the days ahead.

I ask unanimous consent that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's letter be printed in the Record.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Marine Mammals Rescue Assistance Amendments Act.

In my home State of Washington, our history and economy is based on a rich maritime tradition that contributes as much as $3 billion to the State's economy each year. There are 3,000 vessels in Washington's fishing fleet that employ 10,000 fishermen. Nationwide, ocean-dependent industries generate approximately $138 billion and millions of jobs to the U.S. economy. According to the National Ocean Economic Project, 30 U.S. coastal states accounted for 82 percent of total population and 81 percent of U.S. jobs in 2006.

For these communities, their histories and economies literally ebb and flow with the tide. It is vital we remember the ocean resources these communities depend on are a public trust, and a resource to be both treasured and protected.

One important element of the oceans' ecosystems is marine mammals. They reflect the greater health of the ocean environment, like a canary in a coal mine.

In Washington state, marine mammals like the endangered Puget Sound southern resident orcas are icons for our region.

My State's coastal waters are inhabited by gray whales, harbor seals, orcas, humpback whales, Dall's porpoise, California sea lions, and sea otters. They are an important part of Washington's marine environment, and deserve to be protected and respected.

But occasionally these remarkable animals run into trouble and need our help. They become stranded on beaches, ensnared in fishing gear, hit by boats, or harmed by marine trash. Human activities endanger these animals, as such, it is our responsibility to do all that we can to protect them.

The Marine Mammals Rescue Assistance Amendments Act continues our Government's efforts to protect and preserve these remarkable creatures.

It would reauthorize and amend provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 relating to the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program, Prescott program.

Before this program was created, saving troubled marine mammals was the burden of small, locally-funded volunteer organizations, many of whom were members of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. These groups of local citizens took on the financial burden of rescuing and rehabilitating stranded mammals, relied mainly on piecemeal fundraising, and were woefully underfunded.

The Prescott program lends a much-needed helping hand to these organizations, helping to defray their costs for marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation. It also allows eligible Marine Mammal Stranding Network participants to use funds to collect scientific data to improve the treatment and operation of rescue and rehabilitation centers.

Reauthorization of this program is important to the Marine Mammal Stranding Networks around the nation, aquariums and zoos, the environmental community, and NOAA.

For example, in my home state of Washington, organizations like the Orca Network, the Makah Tribe, The Whale Museum, and the Cascadia Research Collective rely on this funding, and last year received a total of $319,000 in Prescott grant funding to help support their work preserving and protecting marine mammals.

The Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Amendments Act would amend section 403 of the MMPA to: define the term ``entanglement'' and add authorization for entanglement response as eligible for funding under the program; require the Secretary of Commerce to collect and update existing practices and procedures for rescuing and rehabilitating entangled marine mammals; establishes an interest bearing fund in the Treasury for emergency response to marine mammal entanglement and stranding, and allow the program to solicit and accept gifts and other donations to increase the impact of the program; increase authorization for the program to $7 million for each fiscal years 2009 to 2013; and increase the maximum grant for projects from $100,000 to $200,000.

We cannot turn our backs on the damage we do to our marine mammals every day. When marine mammals are harmed by human activities--whether intentional or unintentional, direct or indirect--we have an ethical obligation to do what we can to help.

As stewards of the oceans, we owe it to our coastal communities, our precious marine mammals, and future generations to fulfill that obligation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Marine Mammals Rescue Assistance Amendments Act.

In my home State of Washington, our history and economy is based on a rich maritime tradition that contributes as much as $3 billion to the State's economy each year. There are 3,000 vessels in Washington's fishing fleet that employ 10,000 fishermen. Nationwide, ocean-dependent industries generate approximately $138 billion and millions of jobs to the U.S. economy. According to the National Ocean Economic Project, 30 U.S. coastal states accounted for 82 percent of total population and 81 percent of U.S. jobs in 2006.

For these communities, their histories and economies literally ebb and flow with the tide. It is vital we remember the ocean resources these communities depend on are a public trust, and a resource to be both treasured and protected.

One important element of the oceans' ecosystems is marine mammals. They reflect the greater health of the ocean environment, like a canary in a coal mine.

In Washington state, marine mammals like the endangered Puget Sound southern resident orcas are icons for our region.

My State's coastal waters are inhabited by gray whales, harbor seals, orcas, humpback whales, Dall's porpoise, California sea lions, and sea otters. They are an important part of Washington's marine environment, and deserve to be protected and respected.

But occasionally these remarkable animals run into trouble and need our help. They become stranded on beaches, ensnared in fishing gear, hit by boats, or harmed by marine trash. Human activities endanger these animals, as such, it is our responsibility to do all that we can to protect them.

The Marine Mammals Rescue Assistance Amendments Act continues our Government's efforts to protect and preserve these remarkable creatures.

It would reauthorize and amend provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 relating to the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program, Prescott program.

Before this program was created, saving troubled marine mammals was the burden of small, locally-funded volunteer organizations, many of whom were members of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. These groups of local citizens took on the financial burden of rescuing and rehabilitating stranded mammals, relied mainly on piecemeal fundraising, and were woefully underfunded.

The Prescott program lends a much-needed helping hand to these organizations, helping to defray their costs for marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation. It also allows eligible Marine Mammal Stranding Network participants to use funds to collect scientific data to improve the treatment and operation of rescue and rehabilitation centers.

Reauthorization of this program is important to the Marine Mammal Stranding Networks around the nation, aquariums and zoos, the environmental community, and NOAA.

For example, in my home state of Washington, organizations like the Orca Network, the Makah Tribe, The Whale Museum, and the Cascadia Research Collective rely on this funding, and last year received a total of $319,000 in Prescott grant funding to help support their work preserving and protecting marine mammals.

The Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Amendments Act would amend section 403 of the MMPA to: define the term ``entanglement'' and add authorization for entanglement response as eligible for funding under the program; require the Secretary of Commerce to collect and update existing practices and procedures for rescuing and rehabilitating entangled marine mammals; establishes an interest bearing fund in the Treasury for emergency response to marine mammal entanglement and stranding, and allow the program to solicit and accept gifts and other donations to increase the impact of the program; increase authorization for the program to $7 million for each fiscal years 2009 to 2013; and increase the maximum grant for projects from $100,000 to $200,000.

We cannot turn our backs on the damage we do to our marine mammals every day. When marine mammals are harmed by human activities--whether intentional or unintentional, direct or indirect--we have an ethical obligation to do what we can to help.

As stewards of the oceans, we owe it to our coastal communities, our precious marine mammals, and future generations to fulfill that obligation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Pacific Salmon Stronghold Conservation Act of 2009, together with my colleague from Alaska Senator Murkowski. I am grateful for all the input and collaboration from key stakeholders in Washington State that I have received on this legislation. I am especially grateful for the input from the Quileute Tribe, the Wild Salmon Center, and Bill Ruckelshaus.

Wild Pacific salmon are central to the culture, economy, and environment of western North America. While current Federal, State, and local salmon recovery efforts are focused on recovering salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act, ESA, seeking to restore what we've lost--the Salmon Stronghold Act seeks to protect what we have. Current efforts to recover threatened or endangered salmon stocks are vital. This is why I have consistently fought for increased funding for the Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund, PCSRF, and will continue to proudly do so.

The PCSRF, since its inception in 2000, has allowed my home State of Washington to focus the efforts of counties and conservation districts, on average, to remove 300 barriers to fish passage and to open 300 miles of habitat each year. That's 2,400 barriers removed and 2,400 miles of habitat restored. In 2008, for every Federal dollar spent on this program it leveraged about $2 local and State dollars.

I will continue the fight to protect this salmon recovery funding. But more must be done. A key purpose of this act is to complement existing Federal, State and local salmon recovery efforts by directing new Federal resources to conserve healthy salmon populations. This legislation will utilize sound science to identify and sustain core centers of salmon abundance, productivity, and diversity in the healthiest remaining salmon ecosystems throughout the Pacific States.

This bill establishes a new regional Salmon Stronghold Partnership program that provides federal support and resources to protect a network of the healthiest remaining wild Pacific salmon ecosystems in North America. The bill promotes enhanced coordination and cooperation of Federal, tribal, State and local governments, public and private land managers, fisheries managers, power authorities, and non- governmental organizations in efforts to protect salmon strongholds.

It is time to increase funding for recovery efforts, but also focus on prevention. It is time to adopt the kind of comprehensive solution that can solidify the place wild Pacific salmon hold in American culture for generations to come.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Pacific Salmon Stronghold Conservation Act of 2009, together with my colleague from Alaska Senator Murkowski. I am grateful for all the input and collaboration from key stakeholders in Washington State that I have received on this legislation. I am especially grateful for the input from the Quileute Tribe, the Wild Salmon Center, and Bill Ruckelshaus.

Wild Pacific salmon are central to the culture, economy, and environment of western North America. While current Federal, State, and local salmon recovery efforts are focused on recovering salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act, ESA, seeking to restore what we've lost--the Salmon Stronghold Act seeks to protect what we have. Current efforts to recover threatened or endangered salmon stocks are vital. This is why I have consistently fought for increased funding for the Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund, PCSRF, and will continue to proudly do so.

The PCSRF, since its inception in 2000, has allowed my home State of Washington to focus the efforts of counties and conservation districts, on average, to remove 300 barriers to fish passage and to open 300 miles of habitat each year. That's 2,400 barriers removed and 2,400 miles of habitat restored. In 2008, for every Federal dollar spent on this program it leveraged about $2 local and State dollars.

I will continue the fight to protect this salmon recovery funding. But more must be done. A key purpose of this act is to complement existing Federal, State and local salmon recovery efforts by directing new Federal resources to conserve healthy salmon populations. This legislation will utilize sound science to identify and sustain core centers of salmon abundance, productivity, and diversity in the healthiest remaining salmon ecosystems throughout the Pacific States.

This bill establishes a new regional Salmon Stronghold Partnership program that provides federal support and resources to protect a network of the healthiest remaining wild Pacific salmon ecosystems in North America. The bill promotes enhanced coordination and cooperation of Federal, tribal, State and local governments, public and private land managers, fisheries managers, power authorities, and non- governmental organizations in efforts to protect salmon strongholds.

It is time to increase funding for recovery efforts, but also focus on prevention. It is time to adopt the kind of comprehensive solution that can solidify the place wild Pacific salmon hold in American culture for generations to come.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today, Congress can be very proud of a very significant accomplishment.

Because today, Congress stood up for the enjoyment and protection of some of our nation's most pristine and breathtaking wilderness areas, historical sites, national parks, forests, trails, scenic rivers, and oceans. This bill will help our country address the impacts of climate change on our coastal areas, and provide educational opportunities for our Nation's children.

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 one of the most sweeping conservation bills that Congress has passed in many years.

It is a huge victory for the generations of Americans who enjoy these sites each year.

It is a huge victory for our American heritage.

And, it is a huge victory for Washington State.

This bill has been through many twists and turns over the last year.

But today's successful vote could not have been possible without the tenacity and dedication of Majority Leader Reid.

I thank the majority leader for his steadfast support and dedication to seeing that these important public land and ocean priorities became law.

Today, I would like to highlight some of the provisions in this bill that I am especially pleased to see go to the President's desk.

First, this package includes the Snoqualmie Pass Land Conveyance Act, which I sponsored. This bill would transfer an acre and a half of Forest Service land to the Snoqualmie Pass Fire District to help them build a new fire station.

For decades, the Fire District has been leasing its current site from the Forest Service. They operate out of an aging building that was not designed to be a fire station.

While they have been able to serve their community despite this building's many shortcomings, the time has come for us to pay them back for their hard work and dedication. With traffic on the rise and the need for emergency services in the area growing, the Fire District needs to move to a true fire station and this bill will finally help them do that.

Second, the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Designation Act is included in this bill.

Since 2001, I have been working with communities in Central and Eastern Washington, the National Park Service, and community stakeholders to create an Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail through portions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.

Visitors to the trail will not only provide an important economic boost to central and eastern Washington communities, but they will learn about an amazing, and often overlooked, part of our region's history.

You see, most people don't know that during the last Ice Age, when a glacial lake in Montana formed and deepened enough, the sheer force of the backed up water undermined the glacial ice-dam. And, the ice gave way in a cracking explosion.

The huge lake, bigger than all the rivers of the world today combined, was released all at once and carved its way through the Pacific Northwest. This changed the region's geography. But these cataclysmic floods have been a story that's gone largely untold. Because of this bill, more people will know this important part of Pacific Northwest history.

Third, this package includes my Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail Act.

The Pacific Northwest Trail runs from the Continental Divide to the Pacific Coast, is 1,200 miles long, and is one of the most pristine and breathtaking trails in the world.

This carefully chosen path runs through the Rocky Mountains, Selkirk Mountains, Pasayten Wilderness, North Cascades, Olympic Mountains, and Wilderness Coast.

From beginning to end it passes through three states. It crosses three National Parks. And it winds through seven National Forests.

Finally, this trail will receive the designation is deserves.

This package also includes my Wildland Firefighter Safety legislation.

Wildland firefighting and the safety of wildland firefighters is vitally important to our brave men and women who battle these blazes, and for the communities that depend on them. This legislation will improve accountability and transparency in wildland firefighter safety training programs.

Through training and certification we can lower the risk to the brave men and women who protect our forests and communities. It's critical that Congress is actively engaged to make sure this happens.

I would also like to mention the three provisions in this package aimed and conserving and protecting our nation's oceans and the communities that depend on them.

This is particularly important in these days of economic turmoil, as millions of Americans depend directly and indirectly on healthy oceans and coasts.

Also, as our climate changes, we must work to address some of the issues that have the potential to affect millions of jobs.

That is why I was thankful that Majority Leader Reid included several provisions in this package that address our oceans.

I am particularly thrilled about the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act.

The world's oceans are absorbing roughly 22 million tons of carbon dioxide every day, causing seawater chemistry to become more acidic possibly withholding the basic chemical building blocks needed by many marine organisms.

This act creates a comprehensive national ocean acidification research and monitoring program that will take a hard look at the devastating impacts greenhouse gas emissions are having on our oceans.

All of this could not have been accomplished without the strong support and hard work and dedication of the majority leader and I thank the leader for successfully moving these priorities.

Today is a proud day for Congress, for Washington State, for our world's ocean and marine environments, and for some of the most breathtaking views and important legacies this Nation has to offer.

Because the steps we have taken in this package will protect our lands, our coastal areas, and our first responders.

Mr. President, 20 years ago today, the tanker Exxon Valdez, en route from Valdez, Alaska to Los Angeles, failed to turn back into the shipping lane after detouring to avoid ice. At 12:04 am, it ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound.

Within 6 hours, the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Sound's pristine waters and wrote itself into the history books as the worst oil spill ever in U.S. waters. Eventually, oil covered 11,000 square miles of ocean.

The environmental and economic damage is impossible to both fathom and assess; countless seabirds, marine mammals, and fish were killed. As a result, companies like the Chugach Alaska Corporation went bankrupt. There were huge losses to recreational sports, fisheries, and tourism. Today, 20 years later, there is still oil in the area.

But most of all, Exxon Valdez showed us just how unprepared we were. Today, this disaster serves as a constant reminder that we cannot allow complacency to drive the ship when it comes to protecting our oceans from oil spills.

This is why I rise today--on the anniversary of this catastrophe--to introduce the Oil Pollution Prevention and Response Act of 2009.

This legislation is designed to address some of the events that perfectly aligned to make the Exxon Valdez disaster possible. It will put mechanisms in place that will work to protect our Nation's environment and economy from this kind of devastation, and add another layer to our oil spill safety net.

Because while our oil spill safety net has come a long way since 1989, it could still be stronger.

In response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to say once and for all that complacency has no place in this country's oil shipping industry. It revolutionized oil spill risk management, and demonstrated that prevention, preparedness, and response were the key to filling some of the gaps.

The probability of a major spill has been greatly reduced.

In my home State of Washington, the Coast Guard's District 13 leads the Nation in oil spill prevention and works closely with the State of Washington, tribal governments, and industry.

But while the probability of a spill has decreased, the potential impacts are greater than ever, and just one spill could catastrophically damage our pristine waterways, ecosystems, and economy.

This is especially true in places like Washington State's Puget Sound, where every year, 600 oil tankers and 3,000 oil barges travel through the Sound, carrying about 15 billion gallons of oil. Or in a place like the Port of Seattle, where port facilities and activities support more than 190,000 jobs in the region and generate more than $17 billion in revenue for businesses.

Alarmingly, in 2005, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer identified 650 near-miss incidents, including traffic violations, collisions, and groundings that occurred in the Sound between 1985 and 2004.

Unfortunately, these close calls are not all we have to worry about.

According to Coast Guard data, although the number of oil spills from vessels has decreased enormously since passage of OPA 90, the volume of oil spilled nationwide is still significant.

In 1992, vessels spilled more than 665,000 gallons of oil.

In 2004, the total was higher, at almost 723,000 gallons.

In 2004, there were 36 spills from tank ships, 141 spills from barges, and 1,562 spills from other vessels, including cargo ships.

I know that many of my colleagues have examples of their own, as there have been recent spills involving significant amounts of oil off the coasts of Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, Virginia, Hawaii, and Washington.

In the last 2 years, we have seen oil on the beaches of San Francisco and the shores of the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

We must learn from these incidents, from Exxon Valdez, from every close call. We must pass iron-clad policies that show there is no room for complacency.

The Oil Pollution and Prevention and Response Act of 2009 is designed to do just that.

It builds on previous efforts, like the Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Fisheries and Coast Guard field hearing I chaired in Seattle in 2005. This hearing focused on improving our oil pollution prevention and response capabilities, and as a result of the testimony from many people during that hearing and conversations with the Coast Guard and other stakeholders, I introduced the Oil Pollution Prevention and Response Act in March of 2006.

This bill updates that effort and includes additional provisions to reinvigorate our commitment to oil spill prevention and strengthen our oil spill safety net.

This bill will strengthen navigational measures in sensitive areas by requiring the identification of natural resources of particular ecological or economic importance--such as fisheries, marine sanctuaries, and important estuaries. Because if we know where the critically important resources are, we can re-route ships away from them.

It will improve the Coast Guard's coordination with State Oil Spill Prevention and Response.

The bill will mandate the Coast Guard to further reduce the risks of oil spills from activities that have been put on a back burner in the past; such as the potential for a spill when oil is transferred between vessels.

The bill will augment the Coast Guard's vessel inspection manpower.

It will require the Coast Guard to track and report on instances of human error, the most frequent cause of accidental spills.

This is an important step in the right direction for our Nation's oil spill safety net.

It is a proclamation that we are not going to allow complacency back at the wheel, nor are we going to allow politics to get in the way of doing what's right.

Twenty years ago we saw exactly what can happen. Today it is up to us to ensure that this country's environment, economy, and people never have to witness the aftermath of another Exxon Valdez.

The truth is, until we move this country away from its dangerous dependence on oil and toward a cleaner,

more affordable, sustainable energy future, oil spills will be inevitable. So while we must continue to fight for a new energy future, we must also take responsibility and precautions for the symptoms of our actions today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.