Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I come to the floor to offer some amendments and to call up several amendments regarding the emergency disaster loan program and SBA disaster loan relief on the underlying bill.

I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be temporarily set aside to call up amendment No. 4179, which should be at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, I have a series of amendments that will, I believe, give some direct relief and support to individuals and businesses that are struggling with the disaster that is going on in the gulf area, as the Presiding Officer and everyone is aware. We have a terrible situation on our hands. I know the Federal Government, particularly the Coast Guard and the Department of the Interior, the Department of Homeland Security, and others are doing everything they can to stop the flow of this oil and to cap this well. While it is BP's responsibility, it is also our responsibility to make sure it gets done as soon as possible, and I know that is being worked on at many different levels.

But in the meantime, as the Presiding Officer can imagine, there is a tremendous amount of angst on behalf of the families and businesses along the gulf coast. Many have already, unfortunately, been directly affected in a very negative way.

So many of us have been working now for weeks thinking about what things we could do that could give some direct relief and support and help that didn't cost the Federal Government a huge amount of money, because we understand we are in fiscal times of constraint, but we also need to give help to people, and some confidence, now knowing that BP has said, and under the law will be required, to pick up the full tab on this.

The first amendment will allow the Small Business Administration--and they already have funding to do this and are supportive of this amendment--to provide relief of up to $15,000 of interest on current loans that are outstanding from previous disasters. Because when we think about it, one of the most troubling aspects of this is that this emergency is happening in the same place that Katrina and Rita took place--along the gulf coast--so businesses that are still trying to pay off loans from the last disaster are now, unfortunately, having to contemplate the idea that they may have to take out additional economic injury loans to help them through this. What I think we can do is allocate some money we already have allocated in that budget for this purpose, and it would be a tremendous help.

That is what the first amendment does. It would also require the SBA to prioritize applications for businesses with fewer than 50 employees or less, and businesses impacted by this recent Deepwater Horizon spill. It gives some targeted relief, and it could be significant. Some of these businesses could waive basically almost all of their interest associated with their loans which could cut their payments either

in half or by three-quarters. According to some of the analyses we have done, there are about 11,700 loans outstanding in the gulf, so that would be a great help.

Amendment No. 4180

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be temporarily set aside to call up another amendment that is at the desk, amendment No. 4180, disaster loan referral.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, this amendment is another tool we can use to give help to these businesses along the gulf coast. It would actually set up a relatively new procedure but based on past action.

This procedure would allow the SBA, in giving out an economic damage loan, to substitute the collateral that is normally required, which would be a house or some asset--a boat or something else--to substitute that for the pending BP claim, so that it is technically a loan, but it is acting as a cash advance, to keep businesses in business, to keep lights on, to keep mortgages being paid. I understand the SBA is looking closely at this and may very well want to do it, and this would authorize it.

That is the essence of this amendment, which is to give up to $2 million in what would be technically a loan, but with these changes I am proposing would actually act as more of an advance, because no interest or principle would be due for a year. Then, of course, we hope that by then, and maybe even before then, BP meets all of its obligations and all of its claims. A year may be enough time and, if not, we have language that would extend it.

Amendment No. 4184, As Modified

With that, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be temporarily set aside to call up amendment No. 4184.

I ask unanimous consent that my amendment No. 4184 be modified with the changes at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, this is a very important amendment, and it is something that our delegation has actually been working on for quite some time, and we have actually passed it before in the Senate, which is a happy circumstance.

This language has been unfortunately taken out in conference on several occasions by the Corps of Engineers, so I am thinking now that this disaster has maybe helped them to rethink the worthiness of this amendment, because, again, it doesn't add any money to the Federal budget. This amendment will allow beneficial use of dredged material, so when the Corps of Engineers spends the $170 million we give it every year to dredge our channels, to keep our navigation channels open, they can take that dredged material and use it for a beneficial use. That might be restoring a marsh. It might be building a levee, and it might be stopping oil from hitting the coastline, which would be a very good use, in my mind, of that beneficial dredge material.

Right now, our State has a pending request to the Corps of Engineers to try to help us build--not provide--well, we want them to provide boom, but the boom isn't working very well, to be honest. We need them to do some dredging, potentially a long number of miles, but strategic dredging and building sand barriers to keep that oil from these precious marshlands and estuary areas. This does not meet that full request, but it does allow the Corps of Engineers in the budget authority they already have to use some of that dredge material in a very strategic way, and if we can pass this bill this week and get this language to the President's desk very soon, which I hope we can, within a few weeks it is possible this could go right to work in the gulf.

That is the essence of that amendment. It will help protect our wetlands, again, within the budget constraints already in the President's budget.

Amendment No. 4213

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be temporarily set aside to call up amendment No. 4213.

I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, this is another I think smart action this Congress could take to help the gulf coast and particularly the State of Louisiana.

Before the Presiding Officer got to the Senate, in one of our last energy bills we were able to fund a very important program called the Coastal Impact Assistance Program. It is a precursor to the revenue- sharing program I helped to implement some years ago, although the money from that program hasn't yet started to flow. This was almost like a downpayment. It took some money from the Federal budget that we had made available, actually quite a bit--$1 billion--and divided it on a formula based on production and miles of coastline to the four gulf coast States that are bearing the brunt of this production, which is very obvious, painfully obvious today.

The happy news is we got that program passed and the money has been funded to the agency. The sad news is, it is still tied up in red tape. So my amendment would expedite the dispersal of these funds, particularly to States where programs have already been approved by the Federal agencies in charge and when these programs can be shown to be of use in fighting this current oilspill. The Presiding Officer knows, because he has heard me give this speech 10 times in committee and at least 25 times on the floor, if Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and Texas had had some of this money from offshore oil and gas that has gone almost all to the Treasury of the United States, we could have before now done some things to build up our barrier islands, protect our coastlines, protect our marshes, but we have been shortchanged year after year after year. This amendment is not going to fix that problem, but it will say that for the money Congress has already appropriated for this program, it could be expedited to the States that have their programs already approved, and that would be the State of Louisiana which is in, unfortunately, the eye of this storm as well.

Amendment No. 4182

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be temporarily set aside so that I may call up an amendment No. 4182.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

This amendment will cost $19 million, but in some ways it is simply advancing what the President already has in his budget for these very important projects. President Obama should get a tremendous amount of credit for being the first President in the last decade or more--actually, the last 15 or 16 years--to actually fund a construction project on Louisiana's coast--a wetlands construction project. All we have been doing for the last 35 years is studying the situation. It has been very difficult for our delegation, and maybe it won't be so difficult, now that people have watched us go through Katrina and Rita, and now the oilspill, to understand the impact we have been talking about.

It is hard to even say this, but neither President Clinton nor President Bush--although we had many plans that had been approved--ever sent any money for construction and for new programs for the wetlands. We finally got President Obama, to his credit, to send in his budget to us this year $19 million for the purpose of protecting vulnerable coastal wetlands and strengthening the resiliency of that coast. So while we have a score of $19 million--and I know we are trying to keep the bill to a minimum--it is almost as if we might spend it now, and save it later, as long as we don't respend the $19 million. It is in the President's budget. It would be good to get that signal now from the Congress that these programs can go forward.

I hope the administration will take a strong look at this. They have already gotten a tremendous amount of credit, as they deserve, from the people of Louisiana for even putting in the President's budget this $19 million, because we definitely need it. This would help us accelerate that. I hope we can get that done.

Amendment No. 4234

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside so that I may call up a final amendment, No. 4234.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, this is an amendment that will provide some additional funding for technical assistance grants--disaster assistance--for the gulf coast. The President had a fairly robust package represented in this bill--I think $118 million. I hope I am correct about that. It was a good package of aid. I think it needs to be made more robust.

In one section in particular, the President suggested that we spend $5 million along the gulf coast giving technical assistance to organizations and nonprofits to help these individuals, many who cannot afford, as you know, to hire a lawyer to process paperwork or hire an accountant to process the paperwork. After Katrina and Rita, we found it was very helpful to spend a little bit of money and give grants to some of these nonprofit groups that can work with large communities of people who are affected--the Vietnamese fishing community is a good example--so that each of the 100 fishermen don't have to go out--I am not trying to put lawyers out of business, and I don't want to get in trouble with them, but it is not necessary, and it can be a waste of money to hire lawyers and accountants to process what should be a simple claim. Even simple claims can be complicated in some of these situations. That is basically what this amendment does. I think it would provide more funding for claims across the gulf coast. I think we can use $5 million across Louisiana alone. My amendment would raise that number to $20 million.

Those are basically what these four or five amendments will do.

I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 5 minutes.

Mr. President, I know my good friend Bob Casey is here to speak, so I will be just a few more minutes. This is on a separate subject, but one that is very important.

We have several disasters going on in this country and around the world. One is the one I just spoke about--most important to me and the one that has captured the world's attention as oil continues to flow in the gulf. We have to do more and we have to be more focused. We have to hold BP's feet to the fire to get this well shut off. The best

scientists in the world need to be working on this. I have assurances from Secretary Salazar that they are.

New technologies need to be deployed quickly, and the cleaning process needs to be expedited and streamlined so that not one person, one boat owner, or one business goes out of business, or one fisherman goes broke because of this situation.

Across the ocean, in Haiti, a great disaster occurred not that long ago, as you will remember. So many things have happened since then, and sometimes the world's attention gets turned. I wish to turn it back for a minute. The people of Haiti live in one of the poorest countries in the world and the Western Hemisphere. It is a country that is close culturally to many of us in the United States--particularly people I represent in Louisiana. We have many Haitian families in New Orleans. We have a close tie with Haiti. We are not a Caribbean state, but we feel a little Caribbean and tropical at times, since we are in the South. We have a lot of business with Haiti and with many of our southern neighbors. We have longstanding musical and art connections. Our heart has gone out to Haiti, plus the people of Louisiana and the gulf coast, who have experienced tremendous disasters. We can empathize with what they are going through in the aftermath of the earthquake.

I will make three points about this Haiti rebuilding. In New Orleans, when my brother was sworn in as mayor a few weeks ago, he said: Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of New Orleans, the day of recovery and restoration needs to be over. The day of creating needs to begin. We need to create a new city--a new city that is more fair, just, and open. He said that we have to think about using the opportunity of the revenues that have come to create something new and better that wasn't here before for the people who deserve it. I think that is a great call of a very visionary leader.

The same is true for Haiti. While Haiti, for a time, will recover and try to stabilize itself, at some point it needs to think about creating a new kind of Haiti. In my view, and in the view of many Senators and Members of Congress, many NGOs and many members of the Haitian Diaspora, one of the most important cornerstones that should be laid down is a free, universal, publicly funded school system for the children of Haiti, which represents 50 percent of its population today and 100 percent of its future. I will repeat that. Fifty percent of the population today--one of the youngest nations on Earth--and 100 percent of Haiti's future. The shame of it is, before the earthquake, less than 50 percent of the children went to school. They didn't have an opportunity to go to school. Of that 50 percent who were enrolled in school, the shame of it is that the enrollment fees and the tuition fees ate up anywhere from 50 percent to 60 percent of the household income.

So when people say where is the capital in Haiti, the capital was being spent on poorly run, poorly licensed, nonquality schools that were too expensive and not doing the job. We need to help them create a new Haiti with the money the Americans have already given and donors have pledged. We are not required or expected to fund it and our taxpayers cannot do that. But we can put up our support and voice and use a portion of the money we are going to give and say if you are going to spend American taxpayer dollars, spend it well, creating a new, more just Haiti and begin by building a school system.

That is what one of my amendments tomorrow will do--when I lay it down--for Haiti and what some of us are working on.

The second thing is a little more sensitive and maybe not as popular a subject. I will say a word about it anyway. In Haiti, there is a terrible and very unjust system that exists. I am not an expert, but I have learned a lot in the last few weeks as I have studied it. It is called the restavec system. It is a system of domestic servitude, where poor children are basically given up by their families to go work for a slightly wealthier family. Restavec children have no rights. They are forced to work very long hours. Most restage children have never seen the front door of a school. It is a system that has gone on in Haiti for too long, and it needs to come to an end. I hope that the Senate of the United States will not pass up the opportunity to express a strong voice to the Government of Haiti, to our partners around the world, to good people of good will everywhere, to put pressure on the Haitian government. To some, it may not be that necessary. Many people there want this to change. It is a system that people are not comfortable talking about, but it exists. There are a lot of studies on it, and we will talk about it in the days to come. We must make a strong statement on that while this bill is on the floor.

I see my colleague, the Senator from Pennsylvania, here. I yield the floor and look forward to discussing and offering these amendments on the disaster in New Orleans, in Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast, and on the disaster in Haiti tomorrow.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, as Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I am pleased to introduce the Strengthening Entrepreneurship for America's Veterans Act of 2010. This vital and timely legislation builds upon the Small Business Administration's, SBA, existing counseling programs that successfully assist hundreds of thousands of veterans, service-disabled veterans and reservists annually, creating thousands of jobs. By strengthening and improving these programs, the SBA will be able to reach even more veterans, helping them to achieve their dream of starting or growing their own small businesses.

According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, there are currently more than 23.8 million veterans in the United States. Since 2001 alone, more than 2 million of these servicemembers have been deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This means that every day, hundreds of new veterans are returning home from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Seeking to move on with their lives after long deployments, many veterans become entrepreneurs to support both themselves and their families.

However, in the face of historically high unemployment and tight credit, starting a business has never been more difficult. During the 111th Congress, the Committee has heard from many small business owners throughout the country. They have told me that the programs and services currently offered by SBA provide access to important resources that enable them to start, grow and expand their businesses. But in the face of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, demand for these services is at an all time high. For these reasons, it is critical that we do more to help our entrepreneurs and small businesses, especially the hundreds of veterans returning home each day who are significantly more likely to struggle to find work.

That is why today I am introducing the Strengthening Entrepreneurship for America's Veterans Act of 2010. Since the passage of legislation establishing the Office of Veterans Business Development, OVBD, in 1999, the SBA has operated a network of centers and programs that provide technical assistance and support to veterans interested in starting or growing their own small businesses. This legislation will further enhance and improve these existing programs by providing more increased access to business counseling and technical assistance through a new network of Veterans Business Centers, modeled after the successful Small Business Development Centers, SBDC, and Women's Business Centers, WBC, programs. The Veterans Business Center Program will not only provide services to returning veterans and service- disabled veterans, but also to the families, spouses and surviving spouses of these heroic men and women.

In closing, I would like to thank Senator Snowe for her continued leadership on small business issues and especially for her cosponsorship of this important legislation. Senator Snowe has been a tireless advocate for the many veterans and reservists in her home state of Maine and I am pleased to have her support on this legislation.

I would also note that many of the provisions in this bill were included in S. 1229, the Entrepreneurial Development Act of 2009, which I introduced earlier this Congress with Senator Snowe's support. S. 1229 passed out of Committee with unanimous and bipartisan support in June of 2009. However, given the importance of this legislation to our more than 23 million veterans, I have decided to reintroduce these provisions as a standalone bill. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to bring this legislation to the President's desk in the coming months.

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

Mr. President, as Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I am pleased to introduce the Strengthening Entrepreneurship for America's Veterans Act of 2010. This vital and timely legislation builds upon the Small Business Administration's, SBA, existing counseling programs that successfully assist hundreds of thousands of veterans, service-disabled veterans and reservists annually, creating thousands of jobs. By strengthening and improving these programs, the SBA will be able to reach even more veterans, helping them to achieve their dream of starting or growing their own small businesses.

According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, there are currently more than 23.8 million veterans in the United States. Since 2001 alone, more than 2 million of these servicemembers have been deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This means that every day, hundreds of new veterans are returning home from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Seeking to move on with their lives after long deployments, many veterans become entrepreneurs to support both themselves and their families.

However, in the face of historically high unemployment and tight credit, starting a business has never been more difficult. During the 111th Congress, the Committee has heard from many small business owners throughout the country. They have told me that the programs and services currently offered by SBA provide access to important resources that enable them to start, grow and expand their businesses. But in the face of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, demand for these services is at an all time high. For these reasons, it is critical that we do more to help our entrepreneurs and small businesses, especially the hundreds of veterans returning home each day who are significantly more likely to struggle to find work.

That is why today I am introducing the Strengthening Entrepreneurship for America's Veterans Act of 2010. Since the passage of legislation establishing the Office of Veterans Business Development, OVBD, in 1999, the SBA has operated a network of centers and programs that provide technical assistance and support to veterans interested in starting or growing their own small businesses. This legislation will further enhance and improve these existing programs by providing more increased access to business counseling and technical assistance through a new network of Veterans Business Centers, modeled after the successful Small Business Development Centers, SBDC, and Women's Business Centers, WBC, programs. The Veterans Business Center Program will not only provide services to returning veterans and service- disabled veterans, but also to the families, spouses and surviving spouses of these heroic men and women.

In closing, I would like to thank Senator Snowe for her continued leadership on small business issues and especially for her cosponsorship of this important legislation. Senator Snowe has been a tireless advocate for the many veterans and reservists in her home state of Maine and I am pleased to have her support on this legislation.

I would also note that many of the provisions in this bill were included in S. 1229, the Entrepreneurial Development Act of 2009, which I introduced earlier this Congress with Senator Snowe's support. S. 1229 passed out of Committee with unanimous and bipartisan support in June of 2009. However, given the importance of this legislation to our more than 23 million veterans, I have decided to reintroduce these provisions as a standalone bill. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to bring this legislation to the President's desk in the coming months.

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

Mr. President, I thank the chairman for his acknowledgment and his work with us on this amendment. It has broad bipartisan support. I offer it on behalf of myself and the good Senator from Georgia, Mr. Isakson, whose expertise in housing matters is well known; also on behalf of Senator Warner, Senator Hagan, Senator Menendez, Senator Tester, Senators Lincoln, Levin, Burr, and Hutchison.

We have broad and deep bipartisan support for this amendment, and the reason we do is because it is a good amendment and, more specifically, it addresses the risk retention provisions currently in the bill by helping to eliminate the excessive risk taking we saw in the home mortgage market between 2004 and 2007, without raising interest rates for those home buyers who have maintained good credit, document their income and assets, and finance their home the old-fashioned way. Back to the basics, with savings.

I call up amendment No 3956 at this time, and offer it for the Senate's consideration. I wish to also give 1 minute on our side to the Senator from Virginia, Mr. Warner, and then turn it over to my colleague from Georgia. But we are proud to offer this amendment for the Senate's consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

I wish to ask for immediate consideration of the amendment, if it could be voice voted at this time and, if not, scheduled for the earliest possible vote.

I ask unanimous consent to add Senator Burris as a cosponsor of the amendment.

I thank my colleague, Senator Snowe, who chaired the Small Business Committee for many years, for her dogged determination to make sure the language in the underlying bill, which is most certainly necessary to curb gross abuses in the financial market, does not unintentionally do harm to small businesses that are the engines of growth to pull us out of this recession. Our amendment helps in a significant way to do that by drawing fine lines and clarifying definitions.

I thank the Federation of Small Businesses, the American Dental Association, and the American Association of Orthodontists, as well as dozens of other organizations that have supported this clarifying language.

I thank the chairman of the committee for giving us an opportunity to offer this important amendment, and I urge my colleagues to accept it. I urge them to look at the cosponsorship opportunity as well.

Madam President, I ask to speak as in morning business for up to 10 minutes.

Before I begin on my topic, which is different from the topic of the Senator from Ohio--I thank him for his comments about our focus on small business and assure him, as the Chair knows, that we are doubling our efforts this week to hone in on a package of support and help for small businesses in America. We believe the recovery can take place and will take place, but it will be led in large measure by the small businesses in America. We are going to do our very best, after we deal with this bill that is on the Senate floor, to focus the attention of the Senate in that regard.

I thank the Senator from Ohio and look forward to working with him in the weeks ahead.

Tragedy in the Gulf

Madam President, I rise today, though, to speak on an equally serious subject--actually, a tragedy and disaster that is occurring right now off the coast of my home State, in Louisiana. On Tuesday, on April 20, as we all now know, at approximately 10 p.m., a tremendous and terrible explosion occurred aboard a state-of-the-art drill ship, the Transocean Deepwater Horizon.

There were 126 men and women onboard that rig. It was drilling in almost 6,000 feet of water--a real technological feat--some 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The explosion, unfortunately and sadly, killed 11 men and 17 others were injured--3 of them critically--and today 1 remains in the hospital.

We don't know what precisely caused this accident, but at present it appears that the blow-out preventer failed. We do not know why.

The blowout preventer is a very large piece of equipment. I would like to try to explain.

It is, of course, very dark down in the depths of the ocean. This is the best picture we have. This is what the floor of the ocean looks like. This is the blowout preventer. This is a graph of it.

It is a standard piece of equipment on all wells, and it is a huge piece of equipment on a well like this. It would weigh up to 500 tons. It is about 18 feet in length. At some point this piece of equipment, which is standard--this piece of equipment, which is tested every 14 days, as required by law--

failed. This actual piece of equipment, this blowout preventer on this rig, was actually tested 10 days before this tragic incident, and it passed the inspection.

The investigation that is fully underway now and will continue for many weeks and months will tell us more. But what we know today is the blowout preventer failed. The explosion that occurred ignited the oil and gas that flowed from a riser pipe that was connected to the well at the sea bed. This riser pipe is a very thick and strong pipe. Right now, today, as we speak, it is curled on the bottom of the ocean floor much like a garden hose would be, twisted in many places, but the well is not closed. So there are anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 barrels of oil leaking from this well.

Despite heroic efforts that have been underway now for days, this has not been closed. This will continue to leach and leak until it is. The rig burned, as did the oil and gas that issued forth, for some 36 hours, and then the rig began to take on water and ultimately sank to the sea floor.

As I said, we know what the leak rate is, and it is headed to shore. These are the facts. Everyone agrees this accident was and is an unmitigated disaster. I know the hearts and prayers of everyone in the United States are with the families of those who lost their lives and those who are injured and we continue to pray for them as they recover.

But the issue for us is to acknowledge this and to make decisions about how to move forward. Today, the U.S. Coast Guard reports that a rainbow sheen can be seen in the water--I will put up a map in a minute--about 32 miles by 42 miles in length. What is important about this sheen is that 97 percent of it is a rainbow sheen. Only 3 percent contains emulsified crude.

I would like to take a moment to explain what emulsified crude means. It is a thicker oil clotted in water, but even in the areas where the crude has beaded or gathered on the water's surface, it is a very thin layer. In fact, in a briefing with the Coast Guard yesterday, the oil slick at its thickest point is about a millimeter or two in thickness, about the thickness of a couple of strands of hair.

So it is important to understand why this is an unprecedented disaster. The oil slick is wide and covers a large section of our ocean. It is very thin; 97 percent of it is an extremely thin sheen of relatively light oil on the surface.

I do not say that to diminish the tragedy, but to accurately convey to the American people what we are dealing with. This is not the heavy, thick oil that stained the Santa Barbara coast in 1969, nor does it look like Prudhoe Bay crude that spilled from the ruptured hull of a tanker in 1989.

But what is of immediate concern to the people of my State and the Gulf Coast is that the oil sheen is approaching our shores. The edge of the sheen is approximately 23 miles off the coast of Plaquemines Parish. This could change in a few days. We do not know. But it looks as though the spill is going to move right to the mouth of the Mississippi River, to the Bayou La Loutre Pass.

In the meantime, I do know that there are 56,000 feet of flexible barrier that have been deployed to contain the spill. That is about 15 miles of barrier. An additional 31 miles is available to be deployed, and 72 miles of barrier and buffer have been ordered.

I also know there are literally hundreds if not thousands of people-- I have been on the phone with the Commandant of the Coast Guard, I have been on the phone the last 3 days with the Admiral of the Coast Guard, Mary Landry. I have spoken to the Department of Interior, I have kept in touch with local and parish officials. I do know there are hundreds and thousands of people at work, in Houma, LA, outside of Hammond, LA, and hundreds along the coast doing everything they can to minimize potential damage to our shore.

We are investigating every hour what more can be done. There are 70 response vessels in place. They are being used as skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels, and approximately 1,000 government/ industry response personnel are on site responding to the incident. Some 65,000 gallons of dispersant have been deployed, and an additional 110,000 gallons are available. And, today, a controlled burn began. There are different views about how this oil can be eliminated. Some of it is dispersed naturally, some of it can be burned. It has to be corralled and burned and, of course, controlled.

This has not happened in this depth of water. So the industry and our government officials are using everything known at our disposal now to take care of it. Some of it will be trial and error.

I want to spend a minute about what the options should be. We have seen disasters such as this before. We have seen them in the oil industry when tankers explode or hit ground. We have seen them in shipping, when ships, for no apparent reason, sink in the middle of an ocean. We have seen them in the nuclear power industry. And, in fact, we have seen them in our space program.

We must react to this disaster in the measured but right way. We must apply the lessons of past tragedies to this one, so we can make the best and wisest decisions that will instruct us about how to move forward. I do not believe we can react in fear. I do not believe we should retreat.

One option would be the way we dealt with, and I think it was a poor choice, the Three Mile Island nuclear powerplant disaster. There were no deaths or injuries, but the disaster was so frightening to people, there was so much concern, that basically we brought all new nuclear powerplant applications to a screeching halt.

In hindsight, that was not the right decision. Today, we are 30 years behind the French in nuclear technology. France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear; we get less than 20. France is the largest net exporter of electric power, exporting 18 percent of its total production to Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain, and Germany. Its electricity cost is the lowest in Europe.

Today, Areva, a French company, is the world's leading nuclear company. It could have been a U.S. company, but it is not, because we ran, we retreated out of fear. We did not, in my view, respond the way we should have.

For those who are interested in reducing carbon emissions--and I am one of them--consider that France's carbon emissions per kilowatt hour are less than one-tenth of Germany's, and one-thirteenth that of Denmark. France's emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide have been reduced by 70 percent over 20 years, even though their total output of power has tripled. Let me repeat that. Its emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur have been reduced by 70 percent, even through their production has tripled because they moved forward with nuclear power, found a way, fine-tuned their technology.

But because of our poor and inappropriate and wrong reaction, our United States has largely sat out of the nuclear renaissance at great expense to our country. We have allowed foreign companies to step in as global leaders and 30 years later we are now trying to make up that ground. So retreat is not an option.

By contrast, we can look at how we, the United States, responded to the 1986 disaster of the Space Shuttle Challenger. I can remember exactly where I was, as many Americans can remember when that incident happened. We all remember the joy of the takeoff and of the launch, and then the unbelievable visual of that space shuttle exploding into a billion pieces in space, losing all seven lives, and, remember, there was a teacher on board, Christa McAuliffe. The horror of that disaster shocked us all, and it haunts us to this day. However, what we did not do is end the space program. We did not stop launching. We did not stop exploring.

As we go through with this disaster, and we handle it, whether it takes us a week or several weeks or a month or several months, we have to find a way to make sure it never happens again, strengthen our resolve, strengthen our technology, and continue to be the world leader in clean technology in this world. We did not declare the risks were too great and the benefits of the program were too few. We moved forward. As a result, the United States remains a global leader in the space race, and we must continue to remain a leader in energy production, even as we transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar and other offshore opportunities.

No one has ever claimed, including myself, an unabashed proponent of the

industry, that drilling is risk free. The people of my home State of Louisiana know these risks better than anyone, both the safety of the rig workers, and to the environment itself. But we also know that America needs 21 million gallons of oil a day to keep this economy moving. Twenty-one million gallons of oil a day are necessary for this economy. This well is leaching right now 5,000. That is less than one- fourth of 1 percent of the oil that is necessary.

So we must continue to drill. For advocates who say we cannot afford to drill off our coast, then what coast should we drill off of? Should we have all of our oil coming, 100 percent, from Saudi Arabia or Venezuela or Honduras or West Africa? We have to take responsibility to drill where we can safely. Out away from our shores is as safe as we can be. We obviously have to improve our technology, and that we will. Retreat, we will not.

Let me give a few more facts, and then I will wrap up my comments. It is more risky to import our oil in tankers than it is to drill for it offshore, even considering this disaster we are dealing with today. According to a report by the National Academy of Sciences, spills from tankers bringing oil in from overseas account for four times as many oil spills as does offshore drilling.

Compared to how much oil we use in this country, the industry spill rate is quite low. Minerals Management Service reports offshore operators have a spill rate of only .001 percent since 1980. That means that 99.99 percent of all oil is produced, transported, and consumed safely.

Again, I am not saying that to minimize this disaster. We know the blowout preventer failed. There may be other safeguards that must be put into place. The investigation will show that. There may be those who need to be held accountable. The investigation will show that as well.

But the fact is, natural seeps introduce as much as 150 times more oil into our oceans than does offshore drilling. I agree we do not want to drill everywhere. I do not think we should drill in Yosemite National Park. I believe there are places such as the Great Lakes and other places potentially off the Atlantic Coast that we should not drill. But using the right amount of buffer zone, whether it is 50 miles, or 35 miles, or 100 miles, using up-to-date technologies, backup blowout preventers, something I am learning about that actually goes on in Norway and other countries, might also reduce these risks even further.

But let me say one more word before I close, a word about revenue sharing. I have been probably the most outspoken advocate in this Senate, and will continue to be, and am proud of my advocacy on the part of coastal States, particularly the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, that have been host to this industry for the better part of 75 years. We have lived through its ups and downs. We have lived through disasters such as this, and periods of relative calm. We have benefitted from the millions of dollars that have benefitted our States indirectly through jobs. But with all that we have done, generating almost $5 billion in taxes off the Gulf Coast, out of this Gulf Coast, $5 billion a year comes to the Federal Treasury. The fishermen in Plaquemines Parish, the fishermen in St. Bernard, the schoolchildren in Orleans and in Jefferson have not received one penny, even though in our whole State today, many people along the coast are standing watch to keep this oil spill from our shores.

We have come here time and time again and said, we are proud to be partners in this industry, even today, in the midst of this disaster we still have. But you must understand the risk. We do. And we would like to have a portion of that funding to help us either have the kind of technology in place to invest in our wetlands, to fill up some of these canals that have been left, even as we make the industry reach to higher and better standards. I hope that as people watch this disaster unfold, they will hear again the call of the gulf coast Senators and House Members to allow us to share these revenues in a fair way so we can all benefit from the upside, and most certainly share the downside, as we will do in the next weeks and months ahead.

We are going to continue to monitor, to react, to do everything we can to save the environment, to investigate the accident, to continue to nurture and care for those who are still injured, and to comfort those who have lost members of their family. There is a young mother I spoke to who lost her 21-year-old husband, and will be raising a 3- month-old and a 3-year-old by herself, at least for the foreseeable future. There are many other stories like that. But we are proud to be part of producing the resources this country needs, as we work on technologies to prevent these kinds of disasters in the future. We do not believe that moving this production completely off of our shore is the answer. We do not believe burying our head in the sand and pretending the country does not need 21 million gallons of oil a day, or pretending we can get this energy tomorrow from somewhere else--we may get it somewhere else in 20 or 30 years, but not next week, and not the month after, and not the year after.

So let us be careful in the way we move forward. Let us be measured. Let us be open to hear the facts. Let us hold people accountable for what happened and understand what happened and prevent it again. In the meantime, I know the Coast Guard, the military, Louisiana's agencies, and our local officials are going to do everything we can to protect our people and our environment.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 5 minutes in morning business.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to pay tribute to a great civil rights leader of our Nation, a woman who was memorialized today at the National Cathedral here in Washington, DC. Of course, I am speaking of Dr. Dorothy Height, who was a tremendous trailblazer, a true heroine of our time, a great leader of the civil rights movement. She had tremendous courage and tremendous determination that allowed women all over our Nation and, in fact, the world to break through irrational limits set by society at large. She was an inspiration to me and I know to the Presiding Officer and to other women who serve in this Chamber and to women leaders in all 50 States.

She was the chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women. The council was founded, as we know, by Mary McLeod Bethune when she brought 28 women's organizations together to improve the quality of life for women. Dr. Height embraced that vision and continued her work, her crusade for justice. Through her leadership, she changed our Nation by shining a light on discrimination and injustice, which was all too common in the century that has just ended. And we still find versions and, unfortunately, visions of it here today.

She was a member of many other organizations that have come to represent so many good things about America, such as the YWCA. She was a very proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and traveled here frequently with her sorority sisters, who I know are in true mourning for her today as well. Through her dedication and commitment to these organizations, she encouraged women to be leaders in national and community organizations and on college campuses.

She had an extraordinary presence, a very big and warm heart. She was a great intellect. She had a passion for people, and in her own quiet but very forceful way, she brought great change to our Nation.

She has received any number of awards. Many of those were mentioned today and in the past weeks, as we remember her fondly--the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, the Congressional Gold Medal Award.

I was proud to join many of my colleagues in introducing a resolution honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Height. She will be greatly missed. She will be fondly remembered. There are very few women who will live in this century and have the kind of impact she has had on so many of us. So our prayers and thoughts are with her family and with her closest of friends. But I wanted to give a moment of honor to her on the Senate floor today.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleagues for the time this morning to speak about a very special flight that just took place. The Louisiana HonorAir flight that came into Washington on Saturday, April 10 included a group of 82 World War II veterans from Louisiana. These veterans visited the various memorials and monuments that recognize the sacrifices of our Nation's invaluable servicemembers.

Louisiana HonorAir, a group based in Lafayette, LA, sponsored this latest trip--its 21st flight--to the Nation's Capital. The organization honors surviving Louisiana World War II veterans by giving them an opportunity to see the memorials dedicated to their service. On this trip, the veterans visited the World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iwo Jima memorials. They traveled to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

World War II was one of America's greatest triumphs, but was also a conflict rife with individual sacrifice and tragedy. More than 60 million people worldwide were killed, including 40 million civilians, and more than 400,000 American servicemembers were slain during the long war. The ultimate victory over enemies in the Pacific and in Europe is a testament to the valor of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. The years 1941 to 1945 also witnessed an unprecedented mobilization of domestic industry, which supplied our military on two distant fronts.

In Louisiana, there are roughly 30,000 living WWII veterans, and each one has a heroic tale of achieving the noble victory of freedom over tyranny. The oldest in this HonorAir group was born in 1918. Some began their service as early as 1940, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and some members of this group served as late as 1972. This HonorAir group served in various branches of the military: 31 in the U.S. Army, 21 in the Navy, 16 in the Air Force, 7 in the Marine Corps, 2 in the Coast Guard, 2 in the Merchant Marines and 1 was a Women's Army Corps Member,

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for up to 5 minutes.

Madam President, I am so pleased to come to the floor this morning to acknowledge that in the Capitol today there are 17 young women from Louisiana, Florida, New York, and Washington who are my special guests for Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, which is today. I will submit their names for the Record to show that these young men and women have spent the day working with me in the Senate.

I also wish to acknowledge the Ms. Foundation that created such an exciting, popular, very effective, and useful day for our country to celebrate, almost 17 years ago to this day, this effort where thousands of young people, perhaps even millions, are today with their parents at places of work, exploring opportunities for themselves and their future, understanding a little bit better how our economy works, how our country works.

I know there are several Senators, including Senator Dodd, who are participating with me in this event. There are literally hundreds of young people throughout the Capitol today enjoying

this special day with their parents or special friends.

I would like to read into the Record names of these young men and women who are with me:

From A.M. Barbe High School, Mariah Celestine, Lake

Charles, LA; from Country Day School, Isabel Coleman, New

Orleans, LA; from St. Peters School, Dominique Cravins,

Washington, DC; from Amite West Side Middle School, Sarah

Ellen Edwards, Amite, LA; from Georgetown Day School,

Caroline Gottlieb, Washington, DC; from A.E. Phillips Lab

School, Devin Herbert, Ruston, LA; from Georgetown Day

School, Sydney Kamen, Washington, DC; from Alexandria Country

Day School, Larkin Massie, Alexandria, VA; Emma May,

Lafayette, LA; from Mount Carmel Academy, Ebony Marie Morris,

New Orleans, LA; from Miami Country Day School, Isabela

Osorio, Miami Beach, FL; from Miami Country Day School, her

sister, Megan Osorio, Miami Beach, FL; from Episcopal High

School, Natalie Ross, Plaquemine, LA; from Rye High School,

Heather Schindler, Rye, NY; from Georgetown Day School, my

own daughter, Mary Shannon Snellings, Washington, DC; from

Ernest Gallet Elementary, Cathy Tran, Lafeyette, LA; and from

Acadiana Christian School, Savannah Trumps, Lafayette, LA.

I thank them for joining me today in the Senate. I encourage all Senators and staff to think about this day as an opportunity for young people to come to the Capitol and learn about what we do, have a fuller appreciation for the way our government works. I particularly thank majority leader Harry Reid, who has been very supportive of this day, allowing a tour of the Senate floor earlier this morning, having special events throughout the complex. I thank him for his special interest in this occasion.

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

Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a great Civil Rights leader of our Nation, who passed away recently. I come to the floor in her memory to pause for just a moment and to remember this great lady.

Tuesday, the Nation lost a powerful advocate for justice, equality, and opportunity for all people. Dr. Dorothy I. Height was truly a heroine of the civil rights movement. She was a civil rights trailblazer whose courage and determination has allowed women around the nation to break through glass ceilings and realize their dreams. She has certainly been an inspiration to me personally.

Dr. Height was the chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, Incorporated. The council was founded by Mary McLeod Bethune. She brought 28 national women leaders together to improve the quality of life for women. Dr. Height embraced that vision and continued the crusade for justice. Through her leadership, she changed our nation by shining a light on discrimination and injustice that was all too common in America during the 20th century.

Dr. Height was also a member of many other organizations such as the YWCA and the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Through her dedication and commitment in these organizations, she encouraged women to be leaders in national and community organizations and on college campuses. She had an extraordinary presence, a really big and wonderful heart, she was a great intellect, and she had a passion for people. She is an example of the impact that women have on leadership. She was born not only to be all a woman could be, but all a person could be, all a leader could be. Dr. Dorothy Height will always be respectfully remembered.

She has received many awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, the Congressional Gold Medal Award. I was proud to join my Senate colleagues on sponsoring a Senate resolution honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Height. She will be greatly missed and her legacy will live on in the women she inspired.

Mr. President, I wish to congratulate the former senior Senator from Louisiana, Senator J. Bennett Johnston, on receiving the prestigious Centennial Leadership Award. As chairman and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Johnston oversaw the enactment of two decades' worth of legislation involving our Nation's national parks. It is most appropriate that my former colleague is being honored with this award, and I congratulate him on receiving it.

The Centennial Leadership Award is an appreciation of Senator Johnston's leadership in advancing the National Parks Second Century Commission. In 2008, the National Parks and Conservation Association established an independent commission to develop a 21st century vision for the National Park Service. This Commission was comprised of over 30 national leaders and experts with substantial knowledge of the Nation's National Park System. This Commission met several times, held public meetings, and produced a report recommending expansion of the National Park idea through educational opportunities, community conservation, and local partnerships to preserve our national heritage.

In 2016, this country will celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service. As we get ready to celebrate these breathtaking landscapes and historic treasures, I am especially grateful to Senator Johnston for his leadership over the years in preserving these areas. Senator Johnston's leadership created the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, the Cane River Creole National Historical Park and National Heritage Area, and the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. In addition, he also championed passage of the National Historic Preservation Act Amendments of 1990, the California Desert Protection Act, and has always been a staunch advocate of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Without his forethought and perseverance, Americans might not have many of these magnificent parks to visit and recreate with their families each year.

Again, I congratulate the former Senator from Louisiana on receiving this award. I think Senator Johnston said it best: ``The national parks truly are America's best idea.'' I couldn't agree more.

Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce the Small Business Parity Programs Act of 2010. As the Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I have held a number of hearings and roundtables on the issues affecting small businesses that contract with the Federal Government. The legislation I am introducing today represents the second of several steps the Committee is taking to address some of the disparities and inequalities that prevent our small businesses from receiving their fair share of government contracts.

As the largest purchaser in the world, the Federal Government is uniquely positioned to offer new and reliable business opportunities for our Main Street businesses. Government contracts are perhaps one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways the government can help immediately increase sales for America's entrepreneurs, giving them the tools they need to keep our economy strong and create jobs. When large businesses get government contracts, they can potentially absorb that new work into their workforce. When small businesses get government work they must ``staff up'' to meet the increased demand. By increasing contracts to small businesses by just 1 percent, we can create more than 100,000 new jobs--and today, we need those jobs more than ever.

But small businesses face significant challenges in competing for these contracts, including a maze of complicated regulations, contract bundling, size standards with loopholes for big businesses and a lack of protections for sub-contractors. Despite the fact that federal agencies have a statutory goal to spend 23 percent of their contract dollars on contracts to small firms, and to ensure fair participation by women-owned firms, small disadvantaged firms, service-disabled veteran firms, and HUBZone businesses, the agencies often fall short of these goals.

The Small Business Parity Programs Act of 2010 is just the second of several steps that I am undertaking to ensure that all small businesses have fair access to government contracting opportunities. This particular legislation will reaffirm Congress's intent that government contracting officers have the discretion to choose among any of the small business development and contracting programs when deciding to make a contract award. This legislation makes clear that small businesses that participate in the 8(a), service-disabled veterans, women, and HUBZone programs all have a fair opportunity to win these contracts.

Two recent decisions by the Government Accountability Office misinterpreted Congress's long-standing intent with regard to the operation of the current laws governing these programs. The decisions stated that the HUBZone program had preference over all other small business contracting programs. The decisions were also relied upon in a recent opinion issued by a judge of the Court of Federal Claims, in a case called Mission Critical Solutions v. United States.

I was disappointed by these decisions because they misinterpret the intent of Congress in passing the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997. For this reason, along with the Small Business Committee's Ranking Member, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, I filed an amendment containing the provisions included in this bill to S. 1390, the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. The amendment was accepted and passed the full Senate on July 24, 2009 with overwhelming and bipartisan support. To my disappointment, it did not make it through conference Committee with the House and was left out of the final bill. The Conference Report accompanying that bill did include, however, explicit language reaffirming Congress' intent that ``contracting officers of the Department of Defense and other federal agencies have the discretion whether or not to award contracts pursuant to the HUBZone program'' or any of the other small business procurement programs.

As Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I have focused a considerable amount of energy on promoting the interests of small businesses in the federal contracting arena. The legislation I am introducing will, quite simply, make clear that it has always been Congress' intent to allow contracting officers to accord parity to each restricted competition program authorized by the Small Business Act.

This legislation will have an immediate, positive impact for small businesses seeking fair access to federal contracts. It will reaffirm contracting officers' flexibility to award contracts to HUBZone businesses, which provide important benefits for hard-hit communities. At the same time, it also will reaffirm Congress's intent to ensure robust implementation of the 8(a), SDVO and Women-Owned small business development and procurement programs. Among other things, programs such as these are crucial to enable the government to address the significant discriminatory barriers that evidence submitted to us shows still limit the opportunities available for minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and SDVO businesses to participate in the marketplace.

The language of our bill is intended to make clear that no single restricted competition program has priority over any other, contrary to the misinterpretation of Congress' intent by the GAO and one decision of the Court of Federal Claims. However, nothing in the bill is intended to change the current requirement that, where a contracting officer chooses to make an award pursuant to the HUBZone program, that award must be made on the basis of restricted competition if the contracting officer has a reasonable expectation that at least two qualified HUBZone small business concerns will submit offers and that the award can be made at a fair market price.

It is well past time to provide greater opportunities for the thousands of small business owners who wish to do business with the Federal Government. I believe that this legislation is a good step toward opening those doors.

I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this simple yet commonsense bill and I look forward to working with them as we move this legislation forward.

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

Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce the Small Business Parity Programs Act of 2010. As the Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I have held a number of hearings and roundtables on the issues affecting small businesses that contract with the Federal Government. The legislation I am introducing today represents the second of several steps the Committee is taking to address some of the disparities and inequalities that prevent our small businesses from receiving their fair share of government contracts.

As the largest purchaser in the world, the Federal Government is uniquely positioned to offer new and reliable business opportunities for our Main Street businesses. Government contracts are perhaps one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways the government can help immediately increase sales for America's entrepreneurs, giving them the tools they need to keep our economy strong and create jobs. When large businesses get government contracts, they can potentially absorb that new work into their workforce. When small businesses get government work they must ``staff up'' to meet the increased demand. By increasing contracts to small businesses by just 1 percent, we can create more than 100,000 new jobs--and today, we need those jobs more than ever.

But small businesses face significant challenges in competing for these contracts, including a maze of complicated regulations, contract bundling, size standards with loopholes for big businesses and a lack of protections for sub-contractors. Despite the fact that federal agencies have a statutory goal to spend 23 percent of their contract dollars on contracts to small firms, and to ensure fair participation by women-owned firms, small disadvantaged firms, service-disabled veteran firms, and HUBZone businesses, the agencies often fall short of these goals.

The Small Business Parity Programs Act of 2010 is just the second of several steps that I am undertaking to ensure that all small businesses have fair access to government contracting opportunities. This particular legislation will reaffirm Congress's intent that government contracting officers have the discretion to choose among any of the small business development and contracting programs when deciding to make a contract award. This legislation makes clear that small businesses that participate in the 8(a), service-disabled veterans, women, and HUBZone programs all have a fair opportunity to win these contracts.

Two recent decisions by the Government Accountability Office misinterpreted Congress's long-standing intent with regard to the operation of the current laws governing these programs. The decisions stated that the HUBZone program had preference over all other small business contracting programs. The decisions were also relied upon in a recent opinion issued by a judge of the Court of Federal Claims, in a case called Mission Critical Solutions v. United States.

I was disappointed by these decisions because they misinterpret the intent of Congress in passing the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997. For this reason, along with the Small Business Committee's Ranking Member, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, I filed an amendment containing the provisions included in this bill to S. 1390, the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. The amendment was accepted and passed the full Senate on July 24, 2009 with overwhelming and bipartisan support. To my disappointment, it did not make it through conference Committee with the House and was left out of the final bill. The Conference Report accompanying that bill did include, however, explicit language reaffirming Congress' intent that ``contracting officers of the Department of Defense and other federal agencies have the discretion whether or not to award contracts pursuant to the HUBZone program'' or any of the other small business procurement programs.

As Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I have focused a considerable amount of energy on promoting the interests of small businesses in the federal contracting arena. The legislation I am introducing will, quite simply, make clear that it has always been Congress' intent to allow contracting officers to accord parity to each restricted competition program authorized by the Small Business Act.

This legislation will have an immediate, positive impact for small businesses seeking fair access to federal contracts. It will reaffirm contracting officers' flexibility to award contracts to HUBZone businesses, which provide important benefits for hard-hit communities. At the same time, it also will reaffirm Congress's intent to ensure robust implementation of the 8(a), SDVO and Women-Owned small business development and procurement programs. Among other things, programs such as these are crucial to enable the government to address the significant discriminatory barriers that evidence submitted to us shows still limit the opportunities available for minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and SDVO businesses to participate in the marketplace.

The language of our bill is intended to make clear that no single restricted competition program has priority over any other, contrary to the misinterpretation of Congress' intent by the GAO and one decision of the Court of Federal Claims. However, nothing in the bill is intended to change the current requirement that, where a contracting officer chooses to make an award pursuant to the HUBZone program, that award must be made on the basis of restricted competition if the contracting officer has a reasonable expectation that at least two qualified HUBZone small business concerns will submit offers and that the award can be made at a fair market price.

It is well past time to provide greater opportunities for the thousands of small business owners who wish to do business with the Federal Government. I believe that this legislation is a good step toward opening those doors.

I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this simple yet commonsense bill and I look forward to working with them as we move this legislation forward.

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

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