Floor Statements

Mr. President, I rise today to honor another great Federal employee and a constituent of mine from Fredericksburg, VA.

As we debate this week and over the coming weeks about making sure the Federal Government stays open, I think it is important to realize what we are talking about are the real lives of many of our great Federal employees who provide the services day-in and day-out to make sure many important public purposes are served.

I know the Presiding Officer realizes this is an initiative that our former colleague, the Senator from Delaware, started. I was proud, when Senator Kaufman moved on, to pick up that mantle on a regular basis, coming to the floor of the Senate to recognize Federal employees who very often, in an unsung way, do great things for our country.

The Federal employee I am going to recognize is someone who the Presiding Officer, who I know, spends a lot of time in the air, coming from the great State of New Mexico, will be particularly interested in. My colleague, the Senator from Illinois, who is also present, spends a lot of time in the air as well. That is the subject of what we will talk about today.

Nearly 2 million people in the United States take to the skies every day. Once in flight, their safety relies on the diligent work of individuals responsible for ensuring that airplanes are well-designed and safe. When we reach our destination, as we often do, it is because of their tireless work.

In the rare moments when accidents happen, we rely on individuals like Robert Benzon who possess the skill and innovative thinking to find the cause of the accident and ensure we don't make the same mistake twice.

Robert Benzon is a senior air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. His job is to investigate aircraft accidents. He analyzes the equipment and data, identifies the cause of the accident and makes recommendations to the industry on how to improve safety.

He began his career flying combat missions in Vietnam as an Air Force pilot. In 1984, he went to work for the National Transportation Safety Board in Chicago.

Over his 25-year career, he has served as the lead investigator in several high-profile cases and is considered the best in his field. More than 80 percent of his team's recommendations have been adopted by the industry.

In 1996, Mr. Benzon led the investigation of the TWA flight 800 crash in the Atlantic Ocean. His investigation following this crash led to the recommendation that oxygen contained in aircraft fuel tanks be replaced with another nonburning gas, like Nitrogen, to prevent fuel tank explosions.

In 2001, Mr. Benzon led the investigation of the fatal crash of American Airlines flight 587 in Queens, NY. His investigation led to an industry-wide redesign of the rudder system, as well as changes to the pilot training program for similar aircrafts.

Mr. Benzon also led the investigation of U.S. Airways flight 1549, known nationwide as the ``Miracle on the Hudson,'' which made Captain Sullenberger a household name. His investigation included an analysis of the engine damage and black box flight recorders,

interviews with the pilots, cabin crew, air traffic controllers and passengers, and meetings with the manufacturers of both the airplane and its engines.

Mr. Benzon has also been a strong advocate for the collection of more in-flight data points from flight recorder black boxes, which he believes is critical to understanding what exactly may have gone wrong during a flight. His efforts have led to a significant increase in data: from less than 10 data points collected in-flight to over 1,000.

In an interview, Mr. Benzon said, ``[My work] is a way of giving back--I get a good feeling after every one of these investigations is over. It's service to the country.''

It is this sentiment that inspires me to highlight great Federal employees on the Senate floor. There are countless Federal employees who dedicate their lives to making the rest of our lives better and safer.

Each day we set foot on an airplane and arrive safely at our destination, we have Robert Benzon and his team to thank. I hope that my Senate colleagues will join me in honoring Robert Benzon and all those at the National Transportation Safety Board for their dedicated service and important contribution to our Nation's aviation safety.

I know Senators share the regard for this Federal employee and the many others who make our country a better place. It is my hope that in the coming weeks we can come to some resolution so these Federal employees can know that for the balance of this fiscal year the Federal Government will stay in operation and that they can continue to do their work.

With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, let me thank the chair and the ranking member for their leadership on this issue. Along with my colleagues from Maryland, we have the airports that are most affected by these changes, and we have worked in that spirit of compromise. As the Senator from Arizona noted, I don't think anyone is totally satisfied.

I wish to particularly single out the ranking member and the chair for their willingness to acknowledge our work on the issue of the effects of these additional flights. Going up from where the House position was and the airport authority's original position was to make sure--vis-a-vis Dulles--that the economic effects of this and the question involving the potential shared debt service between the two airports be addressed. This was an issue, again, that we were not able to resolve, but I appreciate the chair, the ranking member and their staffs' willingness to continue to work as this bill goes to conference.

It is very important that we get this bill passed and we move forward on NextGen and all the other important parts of the FAA bill.

Mr. President, I was unable to vote today because of a family emergency. I want to be clear that if I were present in the Chamber, I would have voted in favor of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's amendment No. 8 to provide penalties for pointing laser pointers at airplanes. Instances of this dangerous practice doubled last year, and I believe we need to take the strong actions necessary to protect our flight crews and the flying public from dangers such as this.

I also would have voted in support of the motion to table Senator Rand Paul's amendment No. 19 to prohibit any funds made available by the FAA Reauthorization Act to be used to administer or enforce wage- rate requirements with respect to any project or program funded under the bill. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to protect American workers, especially in these tough economic times.

Mr. President, I voted for the Affordable Care Act because the current health care system is simply unsustainable and it will bankrupt our Nation. This law helps lay the groundwork for containing health care costs through leveraging private sector innovation and competition to improve the quality and value of care in this country. I was unable to vote today because of a family emergency, but I wanted to register my strong opposition to Senator McConnell's amendment which would repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The Affordable Care Act is already helping millions of Virginians and Americans. The law has helped lower prescription costs for seniors, including over 63,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It has provided affordable coverage for millions of young adults throughout the country who have been able to stay on their parent's plan and stopped insurers from denying coverage to children due to a preexisting condition. Small businesses are benefiting from tax credits to cover the cost of offering health insurance coverage to their employees.

The Congressional Budget Office has stated that repealing the health care reform law would add $230 billion to the deficit and take away these immediate benefits and many other critical delivery systems reforms which currently are being implemented. Taking us back to the status quo is not an option.

This law is not perfect, nor will it be the final say in efforts to ensure that we have a quality, affordable health care system which works for American families and businesses.I have continued to push for fixes to parts of this law, including repealing the provision which placed a burdensome requirement on small businesses to file a form 1099, and will continue to pursue additional steps to further lower health care costs.

I look forward to working with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to provide affordable, quality care to all Americans.

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

Mr. President, this is the second week of the 112th Congress. I welcome back the Presiding Officer. I have spent many a Monday afternoon presiding over this Chamber as a new Member in my first 2 years. While they are not here, I welcome my new colleagues in the Senate and, obviously, our new colleagues in the House.

We still have an enormous number of challenges facing us as a country, and I look forward to working with Members in both bodies to make sure we meet these challenges in a bipartisan way.

Last year, I took up the banner that had actually been started by the Presiding Officer's colleague who preceded him in this Chamber, and that was the effort of honoring, on a regular basis, exemplary Federal employees right here on the Senate floor. It is a tradition that was begun by Senator Ted Kaufman.

I want to start this new 112th Congress with what will be a weekly occurrence where I will come forward and recognize Federal employees who play an extraordinarily important role in our country. I have been blessed to have had a great number of those employees in the Commonwealth of Virginia, as the occupant of the Chair has been in Delaware.

Today, I thought I would actually rise on no specific employee but to honor congressional staff on Capitol Hill and in the many congressional districts across the country. There are nearly 6,000 Federal employees in the Senate, and nearly 10,000 serve in the House of Representatives. I am referring to the individuals who sort the mail, the clerks who sit before you in the presiding chair, the folks who manage the Chamber day in and day out, and the Capitol Police, who do an incredibly important job of making sure we are able to work in a safe environment. I am also referring to those folks who work directly for us as Members of Congress. They work their hearts out for us. Beatriz is here with me today. They work long hours and get little attention. Clearly, they impact the lives of millions of Americans every day.

I know a little about this firsthand because I started my career in politics as a staff member for then-Congressman Chris Dodd. I did manage to get him lost a number of times when I drove him around his district in eastern Connecticut. That experience taught me how dedicated the congressional staff is and that they are truly public servants and are instrumental to the democratic process that takes place on the floor of the Senate and on the floor of the House.

Congressional staff help Members of Congress draft and analyze legislation. They respond to literally thousands of letters, phone calls, and e-mails on a regular basis. More often than not, they are out in the district or back at home when we are in Washington.

I know my State staff has helped Virginians with securing adoptions, reuniting families through our immigration casework, and simply helping countless Virginia families navigate the complex bureaucracy that we know as the Federal Government.

Congressional staff also help us plan events that bring us closer to those we represent so we can continue to hear their views or complaints as we try to communicate our agenda.

I want to take a special moment--and we did this as a body last week--to pay tribute to those who were lost in the horrible shooting in Tucson. It is important to remember as we pray for the recovery of Congresswoman Giffords that we recall as well a member of her staff, Gabe Zimmerman, who was Congresswoman Giffords' director of community outreach. Gabe was one of the victims of that mass shooting. He was simply doing his job organizing ``Congress On Your Corner'' for the Congresswoman to make sure the folks who hired her, the people of Arizona, had a chance to see her firsthand and express their views.

I want to make sure we also recognize and continue to keep in our prayers Pamela Simon and Ronald Barber who were injured on that day and are in the process of making their recovery.

As we keep in mind that tragedy, I think it is important that we recall not only are those of us who are directly hired sometimes put in harm's way by this job, but there are literally thousands of particularly young people who work for us day in and day out without a lot of recognition who are public servants as well. As we saw with the tragedy a month or so ago in Tucson, they sometimes give the greatest devotion of service as well.

I hope my colleagues will join me over the coming week or two and say a special thanks to all of those who work long and hard for us on our staffs, including the pages who keep the order; the reporters who make sure, even when we are a little bit too long-winded, that they take down virtually every word; and those special folks on the dais who have been known at times to keep new Members awake during particularly long- winded speeches by Members.

I thank our congressional staff. We will be back on a regular basis to celebrate the very good work of Federal employees in various walks of life. I can't think of a better way to restart this tradition than this week honoring those great staff members who serve us in the Senate and in the House.

With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, it is a great honor to join in recognizing and celebrating my colleague, the senior Senator from Maryland. Senator Barbara Mikulski became the longest serving woman Senator in our Nation's

history today when she completed the oath to begin her fifth term in the Senate. Indeed, this is not the first time Senator Mikulski's name will be etched in history for her groundbreaking service: she was the first woman elected to statewide office in Maryland and the first female Democrat to serve in both Chambers of Congress.

During her 24 years in the Senate, she has won the admiration of her colleagues for her resolve, hard work and dedication to her constituents. It is an honor to call Senator Mikulski a friend. As representatives of neighboring States, we have often had the opportunity to work together on issues of regional importance. I can never thank her enough for her commitment to NASA-Wallops, one of many examples in this regard.

Today marks a special milestone in the Senate's history. I join my colleagues in commending Senator Mikulski, not only for her enormous service to this body and to our country but as someone who has been a tireless advocate for her home State of Maryland.

Madam President, I rise today to express my support for the passage of H.R. 6392, a bill to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 5003 Westfields Boulevard in Centreville, VA, as the Colonel George Juskalian Post Office Building.

Colonel Juskalian passed away this past Fourth of July, at the age of 96, having served our nation for nearly 30 years on active duty, including campaigns during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. After growing up in Massachusetts, he joined the U.S. Army in 1939 and was called to active duty as a first lieutenant in 1940. He served with distinction in World War II, during which time he was captured by the Germans in Tunisia and spent 27 months in prisoner of war camps in Italy, Germany and Poland.

Upon his return home, Colonel Juskalian served in General Eisenhower's secretariat in the Pentagon between 1945 and 1948, and continued to serve our nation with distinction until his retirement with the rank of colonel in 1967. He received the Army's highest award for noncombat service, the Legion of Merit, as well as four Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars, and the Army Commendation Medal, among others.

Apart from his military service, the colonel was a longtime resident of Centreville and was actively involved in his community. He was an active participant in organizations such as the Armenian Assembly of America, American Legion Post 1995, and the Blue and Grey Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8469 up until his death earlier this year. Many knew the colonel through his volunteer work at local schools, where he shared his strong belief in giving back to our communities and our nation, through military service or otherwise.

By passing this bill and naming the Centreville Post Office facility after Colonel George Juskalian, we will be honoring both Colonel Juskalian's many years of service as well as the sacrifices made by all members of the United States Armed Services. H.R. 6392 has the strong support of the Virginia American Legion, Post 1995, as well as the local division of Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 8469. I have letters of support from both organizations and, without objection, would like to submit them for the record.

I applaud the efforts of my friend and colleague in the House, Congressman Frank Wolf, who united the Virginia delegation as co- sponsors of this bill and effectively ushered it through the House of Representatives by a unanimous vote. Now it is time for the Senate to act. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting swift passage of this bill to honor such a courageous, admirable veteran and proud Virginian.

Mr. President, let me echo the comments of my good friend, the Senator from Georgia, Senator Chambliss. It is time for us in this Senate--and excuse the language--to put up or shut up. A lot of folks talk about deficit reduction in both parties time and again, but over the next year, there is a growing group of us--and I think folks will see this group in the next 45 minutes, hopefully briefly, each one of us--starting to raise the issue that next year we have to take on deficit reduction and major tax reform.

The country is approaching $14 trillion in national debt. It has been estimated that every day we delay, we add close to $5 billion to that national debt. So whether your issue is the solvency of Social Security, whether your issue is tax rates, whether your issue is making sure we pass on a balance sheet to our kids and our grandkids and allow America to continue to be the economic superpower it has been, unless we take on this issue, we won't be able to accomplish those goals.

While I believe, as imperfect as this compromise between the President and others is in terms of short-term stimulus that we will vote on later tonight, we also have to demonstrate that this body can actually walk and chew gum, that we can do short-term stimulus now, but next year engage in meaningful tax reform and deficit reduction. Because if we act later tonight, we will be adding $900 billion over the next 2 years to our national deficit.

So today--and we will come back on a regular basis--we will hear very briefly from a number of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and I think in our new respectful way--we may not agree on the ultimate solutions, but we are going to agree to listen to each other respectfully and recognize that at the end of the day, meaningful tax reform and meaningful deficit reduction has to be a goal of this Senate, of this Congress in the next year.

I yield the floor to my good friend, the Senator from Mississippi.

Madam President, I know the Senator from Illinois is going to do his maiden speech in a couple of moments. I ask his forbearance for an extra 4 or 5 minutes.

Our colleagues have been a little bit over subscribed, which I think is an indication of the enormous interest in this issue and Senator Shaheen, Senator Corker, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Nelson wanted to speak briefly on this issue. If the Senator from Illinois would grant us those couple of minutes, we would all be very grateful because I know, once he makes his maiden speech, he will be part of this effort as well.

With that, to Senator Corker.

Madam President, I again thank my colleague, Senator Chambliss. There will be more to come. There were a number of other colleagues who couldn't be here. The Senator from Illinois has been more than kind. He will be part of meeting this challenge as well.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 5 minutes and that Senator Sanders be recognized upon the conclusion of my remarks.

Mr. President, I rise again to recognize the service of another great Federal employee. This is a tradition that was started by our friend and former colleague, Senator Kaufman, and I am proud to carry on that tradition. But I want to first say that I appreciate the remarks of the Presiding Officer about our colleagues who are leaving this body, and I share his great respect for not only Senator Kaufman but all of the colleagues who are leaving the body at the end of this Congress.

Mr. President, oftentimes we forget that thousands of Federal employees go to work every day with the sole mission of making this country a safer place to live. Ms. Deborah Autor is one of those employees.

As we enter into the cold and flu season, there is great concern about harmful medications that may fall into the hands of our children or other loved ones. As Director of the Food and Drug Administration's Drug Compliance Office, Ms. Autor works to protect public health by minimizing Americans' exposure to unsafe, ineffective, and poor-quality drugs that enter the marketplace.

Ms. Autor is particularly focused on removing potentially dangerous prescription medicines, including cough medicines, anti-inflammatory drugs, antihistamines, and migraine medications, just to name a few. Under her leadership, the FDA has taken enforcement action to remove more than 500 unapproved prescription drugs from the market. She is also credited with designing a program used to identify unapproved drugs, evaluate the public health consequences, and explore any potential legal challenges.

Many believe Ms. Autor is the brains behind the FDA's aggressive enforcement efforts. In conducting the research for these remarks, we found a quote from Mr. Steven Galson, a former Acting U.S. Surgeon General, and this is what he had to say about Ms. Autor:

She developed the program under budget constraints,

withstood scrutiny and criticism from some in the drug

industry and

Congress, successfully navigated the internal FDA process and

took aggressive action to clamp down on illegal drug

marketers.

There are many others who have sung her praises and highlighted her commitment to public service.

Prior to work at the FDA, Ms. Autor was a trial attorney for the Office of Consumer Litigation at the Department of Justice, where she served for 7 years. In this role, she litigated civil and criminal cases on behalf of the FDA.

I hope my colleagues will join me in honoring Ms. Autor for her dedicated public service and important contributions to our Nation's health and safety.

I would also add that in these challenging fiscal times, as we approach and go through the holiday season, I hope we all recognize the enormous contribution all of our Federal employees make. The Presiding Officer many times reminds all of us of the enormous role our men and women in the armed services play, and our thoughts and prayers are with all of them. But I think it is also important to recognize these great Federal employees such as Ms. Autor and literally the countless others who oftentimes--and sometimes at the disdain of folks in elective office--are the folks who provide enormous public service to all Americans. So I hope we keep them in our thoughts as well during this holiday season.

Before I conclude my remarks, I also wish to thank my friend, the Senator from Vermont, who is a passionate advocate for trying to end the growing income inequality in this country. I know he is going to be making some impassioned comments, and I appreciate his giving me a couple of moments to recognize this Federal employee, and I look forward to hearing his comments.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I associate myself with the remarks of the Senator from North Dakota and add my voice as well to celebrate Senator Dorgan's tenure in the Senate. I wish he was going to stay. He has been someone about getting things done. As somebody who has sat in the presiding chair a number of times, I have heard Senator Dorgan. Even when I don't fully agree with him, no one is more persuasive in arguing his case.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, just 3 days ago, a bipartisan majority of the members of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform endorsed a package of proposals to reposition our Nation on a more responsible fiscal course.

I wish to commend my good friend, the Senator from Illinois, who was a member of that Commission and took what I thought was an extraordinarily courageous vote on a package of proposals. Honestly, I know he didn't agree with every one of them, but he did understand how serious this issue is. I thank him and all my other colleagues from both sides of the aisle, along with the economists and policymakers and others who invested the time and effort and courageously grappled with these difficult choices.

On Friday, 11 of the 18 members of the Commission voted to support a tough, bipartisan prescription for fiscal health. I regret that the 11 ``yes'' votes fell short of the 14 votes required to forward this plan to Congress for our consideration.

In the hours leading up to Friday's vote, I was proud to work with 13 of my Senate colleagues, including the Presiding Officer, to draft a joint letter to the White House and to the bipartisan congressional leadership.

This letter, signed by 14 Senators and distributed before the Commission's final vote on Friday, requested that the panel's recommendation come to Congress for our consideration regardless of the outcome of the Commission's final vote.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have a copy of this joint letter printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I have a reason for coming to the floor and drawing attention to our letter and this issue again.

The seriousness of our Nation's fiscal challenges--the compelling need to address these issues in a responsible and bipartisan way--did not suddenly dissipate or magically disappear over the course of the weekend that just ended.

In fact, since the Commission's final meeting ended on Friday afternoon, the national debt--the running tally of what the U.S. Government owes--has increased by an estimated $15 billion. Our total national debt is a staggering $13.8 trillion. I will repeat that. Our national debt is approaching $14 trillion.

Every day you can listen to a lot of talk from people in this town about deficit reduction. But as I said, when the Commission first unveiled its proposals 1 week ago, while I would have made some different choices, we were being presented with a unique opportunity to finally get real about the deficits and debt.

Actually, when the Commission came out, I was a little more blunt than that. I said that after all the campaign rhetoric about deficit reduction, the time had come to put up or shut up. I believe this Commission earned credibility by describing our fiscal challenges in stark and honest terms. They

deserve our respect for crafting a clear roadmap to help steer our Nation back to a more responsible fiscal path.

The Commission's leaders and its members made difficult decisions, and they didn't shy away from examining expenditures and revenues.

They concluded, correctly, that our Nation's fiscal challenges are too serious, and the fiscal hole we have dug ourselves into is too deep to be solved by simply looking at only one side of the ledger. To say we can tax our way out of this or cut spending alone will not get us there.

To be sure, there is something for everyone to dislike in these recommendations, but that is simply a reflection of how large the problem is.

Whether you look at this report and are concerned about the viability of Social Security or tax rates, levels of Defense spending or any other specific government program or service, failing to act makes those choices and decisions even tougher with every day that goes by.

The fiscal commission came forward with a framework for improving our country's global economic competitiveness while still maintaining our shared commitment to protect our most vulnerable citizens. One of the things that got lost in the headlines was that while this took a positive step toward deficit reduction, this Commission did two other things we talk about. One is that they would lower business tax rates and also dramatically simplify the individual Tax Code and get rid of a lot of clutter.

This Commission also deserves enormous credit for recognizing that the hard work of getting our Nation's fiscal house in order is also an urgent matter of national security because it is clear America cannot be a leader in the world, projecting strength and promoting democracy, if we are weakened at home by our deficits and debt.

Ever since this economic downturn began, individual Americans and their families have been required to make tough choices of their own about how to make ends meet. It is time we did the same here in Washington.

Many of you know I came to public service after a relatively successful career in business. In the business world, investors and shareholders have a reasonable expectation that at the end of each fiscal year, we would end up balancing our company's books. Similar to the Presiding Officer, who was a mayor of a great city, I had the honor of serving as the Governor of Virginia, where there was a 2-to-1 Republican legislature. We worked in a bipartisan way to make the tough choices required to balance our State's budget during tough economic times. Proudly, Virginia has been named as the best-managed State and the best State for business.

I have only been in this body, as has the Presiding Officer, for about 2 years. One thing I have already learned is that if Washington can find an excuse to punt on a difficult decision, it almost always will.

Most days, it is easier to retreat to our partisan corners and default to the political gamesmanship you see every day on cable TV.

As the current economic upheaval in Europe so clearly demonstrates, we cannot simply ignore this challenge because it is inconvenient or because the choices are too tough. Maybe 20 years ago our country had the luxury of having the rest of the world have to wait until we got our act together before they could move forward. But anybody who surveys the other economies around the world realizes China, India, and even Brazil are not waiting for us to get our financial house in order or get our act together.

Now is the time to make these tough choices--not when the bond markets lose their patience and confidence in our long-term economic viability, which is what recently happened in Greece and now Ireland and who knows who is next.

The fact is that if interest rates were not at historic lows today, we would already be in a world of hurt at this point. As it is, if we don't take action soon to stabilize our debt, we could be spending upward of $1 trillion a year just on debt service by 2020. Think about how many taxes would have to be raised and programs that would have to be cut just to meet basic debt service.

So now it is time for us to agree that we will not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Our own political discomfort should not be used as an excuse to delay holding an honest and long overdue discussion about the complicated fiscal choices confronting us today. Every day, every week, every month that we put off that discussion, our options become more limited and the choices become tougher.

Resolving America's fiscal problems must be one of our top priorities. Yes, it will require difficult decisions. There is no easy fix or easy way out. But those of us who were hired by folks across the country should expect nothing less.

I appreciate the chance to address this issue. Again, I compliment my good friend, the Senator from Illinois, for his courage and leadership on this issue and for his vote on what I know had to be a very difficult decision. He and some other Members on the other side said that even though this was not a perfect plan, it was more important to bring this discussion forward. I compliment them on their action, and I thank the Presiding Officer for joining me and a number of other colleagues. We will be back to continue to bring this issue before our fellow colleagues and the people of the country.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, will the Senator from Illinois yield for a question?

I thank the Senator from Illinois for laying out the facts, but there is one additional fact--again, vis-a-vis the Bush tax cuts--that I think has been absent from some of this debate.

The efforts of the Senator from Illinois--Herculean as it was--to try to get 11 out of 18 votes, and all the painful choices the Senator made in terms of spending cuts, raising revenues, opening, as I think the Senator appropriately said, the whole question of tax expenditures, if my memory is correct, over the next decade-plus, the commission's plan--as dramatic as it was and as controversial as it was--basically took out about $4 trillion.

If we were to make permanent--as some on the other side of the aisle have stated--all the Bush tax cuts, that adds another $4 trillion to our deficit; is that not correct?

Before I get to my remarks, Madam President, I want to commend my friend, the Senator from Oklahoma, for his comments. I don't always agree with him, but I have had the opportunity to sit in the Presiding Officer chair and listen to his views over the last 2 years, and let me make sure I make clear that his characterization of some of those folks with those cameras, I would not fall into that category.

I also want to wish the Senator a very happy birthday. I understand it was yesterday, and I wish him all the best. Our offices are next to each other and we are good neighbors.

Tribute To Federal Employees

Madam President, I rise today to continue a recent tradition of the Senate--the tradition of honoring exemplary Federal employees--my friend Senator Ted Kaufman began last year. Senator Kaufman believes, as I do, that our Federal employees deserve recognition for their admirable patriotism which drives them in their daily work as civil servants.

Senator Kaufman highlighted 100 Federal employees in his close to 2 years of service--100 Federal employees with significant accomplishments in the fields of medicine, science, technology, diplomacy, and defense. Today I will start to continue that tradition. I am very proud that the first Federal employee I am going to have a chance to honor is currently a resident of Virginia who combined his engineering expertise with his past experiences in the Navy to help save 33 Chilean miners after they had been trapped 2000 feet underground for 69 days. This was an incident that captured the attention of the world, as we all watched the rescue of those miners. Again, I will only take a couple of moments to describe this employee and how he contributed to that remarkable worldwide success story.

Clint Cragg served in the Navy for 26 years. He, as I mentioned, is currently a resident of Virginia. His lifetime of service to our country led him to many exciting opportunities, including serving as the Chief of Current Operations, U.S. European Command. While in Europe, he participated in a number of operations, including the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Today, Cragg is principal engineer for NASA's Engineering and Safety Center, a center which NASA established after the 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy. Clint has given a lifetime of service to his country since his graduation from the Naval Academy in 1978, and his service was never more important than it was when he took part in the worldwide effort to save the Chilean miners.

Clint and his colleagues were asked by the Chilean Government to assist in rescuing their 33 countrymen trapped underground in a collapsed copper and gold mine. Clint rose to the challenge and flew to Chile with three fellow NASA employees to examine the scene. Using his experience as a commanding officer of a submarine in the Navy, Clint provided valuable insight to the miners on how to cope with the underground existence they were in for a sustained period of time. Clint and his team also met with Chilean officials to discuss the development of a rescue squad capsule that at that time was a completely untested idea.

Upon his arrival home, Clint received a message from the Chilean Health Minister in which the Minister asked for NASA's help in thinking of specific features that would make the rescue capsule idea a reality. Clint assembled a team of 20 engineers, 10 from NASA Langley and 10 from around the country. They commenced brainstorming innovative ideas for a capsule design. This was thinking whole cloth. The only information the team had available was the capsule's maximum length and the diameter of the rescue shaft through which the capsule was required to fit. Seventy-two hours later, the team had a written, comprehensive report that included 75 proposals for the rescue capsule. The paper concluded that the rescue capsule should include a harness inside the capsule that can hold a miner in case the miner fell unconscious during ascent.

I think we all remember those images on CNN as they kind of drew up the capsule. I didn't know, but that capsule was designed by a Federal employee and his team we honor today.

As the 33 men rose from beneath the Earth, Clint could take pride in his work for NASA and in the knowledge that he and his colleagues had made the reunion between these men and their families possible.

I was privileged to meet Clint Cragg and his family and other members of the rescue team during a visit to NASA Langley last week and present them with a framed American flag that had flown at the U.S. Capitol in honor of their contributions. The successful rescue of the miners was a testament to the American spirit of cooperation and ingenuity, a spirit exemplified by the NASA team.

I hope my colleagues will join me in honoring Clint for his service and his leadership team at NASA as this

week's example of a great Federal employee.

I yield the floor.