Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 344, S. Res. 409.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 14; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then observe a moment of silence in solidarity with the people of Poland; that following the moment of silence, the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak on the topic of Poland; that following those statements, there be a period of morning business for 1 hour with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the Republicans controlling the first 30 minutes and the majority controlling the final 30 minutes; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 4851, the Continuing Extension Act, as provided for under the previous order.

Before finalizing the end of the day, I would add that in support of this resolution we will discuss tomorrow, in 1991, working for Ohio State University, I spent some time in Poland working with their government to transition from communism to democracy. And my friend Tomaz, who is a Polish academician, later rose to be the Minister of Culture in Poland. He was on that plane. I miss him. I had not seen him in years. But I miss him and the contribution he made to Poland and to our country in the work we did together on cultural issues, and certainly support this moment of silence and ask that we all remember the terrible thing that happened to so many of the leaders in Poland and what that means for how we have to come together and assist that country as it moves forward in another crisis that the great 38 million people of Poland face day after day.

Mr. President, when the Senate convenes tomorrow, we will observe a moment of silence to express the Senate's solidarity with the people of Poland.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Continuing Extensions Act. Under a previous order, if a point of order is raised against the pending Baucus amendment, then at 12:30 p.m. the Senate will proceed to a rollcall vote on the motion to waive the applicable point of order.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

I would agree about the part about Lula Davis, for sure.

We have all been back in our State for the last 2 weeks. I have been everywhere from Marietta to Cleveland to Toledo to Defiance to Youngstown to Columbus to Dayton--all over my State. There are a lot of things I hear. Of course there is a lot of pain. There are a lot of people who are looking for work, a lot of people who believe they are about to lose their health care or they have lost their health care.

I heard a lot, frankly, of gratitude that Congress moved on this health insurance bill so that now, immediately, small business people in Ohio, whether they are in Marion or Mansfield, whether they are in Warren or Wapakoneta, have a much better chance because of these tax breaks that take effect immediately to insure their employees, something that most small businesses I know, whether they are in New Hampshire or Ohio, want to do.

Also, we did not hear much of this during this debate, but the number of people who came up to me--and the majority leader was talking to me and he sees this in Nevada too--the number of people who came up to me in Youngstown or Cleveland or Bay Village or different places who have 22-year-old daughters or 20-year-old sons who might be home from the Army or home from college, finished college, finished their time in the Army and they do not have insurance and they cannot find a job with insurance. As a 23-year-old, it is pretty hard to find a job with decent health insurance. They like this new law because it means they can stay on their parents' health insurance until the age of 26. I heard people all over the State, in the 2 weeks I traveled in Ohio in the time since we have been talking here, talking with senior citizens in senior centers, talk about closing the doughnut hole. So the bill President Bush pushed through more than anything gave huge subsidies and giveaways to the drug companies and the insurance industry but now we are taking care of the seniors by closing the doughnut hole at the same time this health care bill will provide the seniors once a year an opportunity to get a physical with no copay.

In spite of the difficulties people face, there is good news that way.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel.

When I was at a GM plant in Defiance, they are beginning to hire people to build the engine for the Cruise. The Cruise will be assembled in Lorantville, OH. They are hiring 1,100 people on the third shift. That was a decision President Obama made at the urging of many of us in the Senate--Senator Casey, Governor Strikland in Ohio, many others--to enforce U.S. trade laws on oil country tubular steel which we use for piping for oil and gas lines--oil and gas drilling. That company in Youngstown, V&M Star Steel, is hiring 400 people and probably more in the future.

We are hearing some pieces of good news. That doesn't mean anyone thinks this recession is over. It does not mean there is yet that much good news. It means people are still struggling and it shows how important it is to do what we did today. In spite of 34 Republicans opposed to the bill, we were able to get 4 Republican votes. I applaud the four of them: the newest Senator here, Senator Brown from Massachusetts; Senators Collins and Snowe from Maine, the neighboring State of the Presiding Officer; and Senator Voinovich, the senior Senator from my State--Senator Voinovich, who is retiring at the end of the year. They all voted to move forward on unemployment compensation.

It is too bad that Senator Coburn and Senator Bunning, day after day, tried to block the extension of unemployment. It looks as though we are going to be able to move forward now.

There seems to be some misunderstanding about what unemployment is. It is not called unemployment welfare, it is called unemployment insurance. That means all of us who are lucky enough, in this economy we have been in in the last couple or 3 years, to have jobs, all pay into an unemployment fund, we pay into an insurance fund. If we lose our jobs, the money we have paid in as insurance, we get assistance. Many people never receive unemployment insurance, just as some people don't use their health insurance if they are healthy. But those who are sick sometimes get more money out of their health insurance than they put in. Some people put into unemployment insurance, get more out if they lose their jobs and they are unemployed for a long time. That is why this bill is so important, because it is unemployment insurance.

That means if people lose their jobs, they should get some help. It is the right thing to do morally. It is also the right thing to do for the economy because if people are getting unemployment insurance, they are spending that money in Zanesville at the local drugstore, they are spending that money in Cambridge at the local grocery store, in Springfield and Xenia, OH, to buy books and to buy clothes for their kids for school. So unemployment insurance gives the economy a bump and some help and some stimulus. It goes back into the economy quicker than anything else government can do--unemployment insurance. That is the other reason it is important.

Then I heard my colleagues say we are for unemployment insurance extension and we are for helping with COBRA, the health care subsidy, so people can stay in their health care plan after they have lost their job and get some assistance from the government to do that because it is expensive. My colleagues say we want--we are OK with that, we think it is all right, but we have to pay for it.

There are certain emergency situations over the years that government has made a decision that you need to respond to quickly. You don't have to cut spending somewhere else or increase taxes to pay for it.

That is what I hear my colleagues say, but they never talk about how, when they voted for tax cuts for the richest Americans, that was added to the budget deficit. So a few rich people got huge tax cuts and my kids and grandchildren pay for it. They don't mention that.

They don't mention this war in Iraq which they enthusiastically supported, costing us $1 trillion in terms of the costs of war and the costs of veterans' benefits and the costs of veterans' health care. They did not pay for that.

They don't talk about the Medicare privatization bill, the giveaway to the drug companies and the insurance companies and how they did that and didn't pay for that.

It is only unemployment. It is only unemployed workers. Now they get some fiscal religion. All of a sudden they are for a balanced budget. They are not for a balanced budget in paying for the war, not for a balanced budget in paying for tax cuts for the rich, not for a balanced budget when they are shoveling subsidies to the insurance companies and drug companies, but all of a sudden it is unemployed workers, people who are struggling, people who have paid into this insurance fund, people who send out--listen to them in your State in Hanover or in Mansfield, OH, listen to people say how they are sending out 10 and 20 and 30 and 50 resumes a week to try to find jobs and they still can't find them. We are going to penalize them and say we are not going to pay for it, but they will not on the cost of war or the cost of veterans' benefits or the cost of tax cuts for the rich and the cost of the giveaways to the drug and insurance companies.

Let me close with this. As we were home the last 2 weeks--most of us were back in our States. Some were elsewhere. We talked to people more, but we also get letters when we get back. We see the kinds of letters that I am getting all the time from people at home. Let me read two of these letters. James from Franklin County, OH--that is the middle of the State where Columbus is, the State capital.

At this point in my life my future is uncertain. I have

been unemployed for almost a year. Along with my other former

co-workers from the optical lab, we continue to look for

jobs.

I am an American to the bone. I have worked nearly every

day of my life. I am now 55 years old.

Like many thousands of fellow Ohioans, our current

unemployment benefits are about to expire.

I can make it financially with two or three part-time jobs

to make sure I can pay for my daughter's nursing school. I

will live in my car if I lose my apartment, but I will make

sure my daughter continues her education. Please help the

hard-working people of Ohio.

``I will live in my car if I lose my apartment, but I will make sure my daughter continues her education.'' How can you say those people do not matter as much as giving tax cuts to the rich? How can anybody in this institution stand and with a good conscience and a straight face say that James from Franklin County is not doing everything right in order to provide for his family and for the future?

Do not blame James for this budget deficit that this crowd in this body voted for; the war, unpaid for; the tax cuts, unpaid for; the drug company subsidies, unpaid for; that James is not trying to do the right thing to provide for the future for his daughter to get her through nursing school.

Derek from Cuyahoga County, the State's largest county on Lake Erie, the Cleveland area, writes:

I have just exhausted my unemployment benefits. I have been

sending resumes like crazy, but there is just no work in this

part of Northeastern Ohio. Pretty soon I won't be able to

afford my bills--or anything for that matter. I'm 26 years

old, don't have health insurance, and need help while I look

for a job. We bailed out large corporations when they were in

a financial jam. Why can't we help the American people who

are in their own financial struggle?

Unemployment benefits do not make you comfortable. They do not make you rich. They are not what you plan for in the future. They are not something anybody wants to live on for very long. But they help people while they are trying to find a job. Unemployment insurance gives people that helping hand. It may be another week, it may be another month or 3 months. At least four of my colleagues today voted to extend unemployment for a month. It should have been longer. I wish we could do better. I wish we could get some Republican votes to do this right and to help get us on the track so people can plan better in their lives and can continue to go out and try to get jobs. That is what we need to do. It is what this economy needs.

I urge my colleagues to do the right thing this week with the unemployment extension and to do the right thing with the jobs bill to begin to put more people in this country back to work.

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

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Finance Committee be discharged of H.R. 4887, the TRICARE Affirmation Act, and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that any statements be printed in the Record.

I understand that S. 3194, introduced earlier today by Senator Reid, is at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

I now ask for its second reading and I object to my own request.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Tuesday, April 13; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business for 1 hour, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume the motion to proceed to H.R. 4851, as provided for under the previous order, with the time during any period of morning business, adjournment, and recess count postcloture; finally, I ask that the Senate recess from 12:30 until 2:15 p.m. tomorrow to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons.

Under the previous order, the Senate will adopt the motion to proceed to the bill after the caucus luncheons. Votes are possible tomorrow afternoon in relation to amendments to the bill.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

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

Mr. President, I have listened to the debate in the last few hours, yesterday, and today. I have heard these debates for years about unemployment compensation, unemployment insurance. In the end, some of my colleagues vote for extension of unemployment benefits for hard-working Americans, Americans who have had jobs and are trying to find jobs but have lost their jobs.

When I saw what happened a month ago when Senator Bunning, time and time again, single-handedly for a period of time--because of the peculiar rules of this institution, one Senator representing a State that has less than 1 percent of the population, one Senator representing a State which makes up less than 1 percent of the country--granted the minority leader is in that State too--one Senator can block the extension of unemployment compensation to millions of Americans, to people in Youngstown, Lima, Mansfield, or Chillicothe and Toledo. Now we have a handful of his colleagues doing the same thing.

Sometimes I think they don't understand unemployment compensation. They believe unemployment is welfare. It is called unemployment insurance. That doesn't mean people are looking for a handout. It means workers, as virtually everyone does who is working, pay into an insurance fund when they are working. The whole point is, if they lose their job they collect unemployment insurance.

It is like you buy car insurance, hoping you don't have to use it. But if you get in a car accident, you use the insurance to pay for it. Many people don't ever have to collect unemployment insurance. They are the lucky ones. It is the same with health insurance. You buy health insurance and you hope to not use it, but if you get sick, then you use your health insurance. Whether you are a worker in Boulder or Pueblo or Trinidad or Columbus or Dayton, you need that unemployment insurance as a backup.

So many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, so many conservatives think it is a welfare program: I got laid off. I can draw unemployment and stay on it, and I don't have to work. I can enjoy my time off.

It is not vacation. The New York Times had some articles the other day

about the number of people who can't find jobs and how it affects their health. It affects their mental health, their relationships with their children and spouses. It affects their views of themselves and their self-worth. It is not a welfare program. It is not enough money to get by comfortably. It is enough to keep them going with the hopes that they will find a job pretty soon.

There are, of course, requirements too. They don't just sit home and draw unemployment. They are required to actively seek work in most States. I know of people in my State, as does the Presiding Officer, in Colorado, who have sent out 20, 30, 50 resumes a week. Most of them are not even answered or the answers are curt and negative over and over.

My colleagues, all of whom dress up, men and women both, wear decent clothes, are paid $170,000 a year. Many more come from great wealth. They probably don't experience what unemployment compensation is like. I will not be personal, and I will not mention any names, but for them to stand on the Senate floor--I know what they really think sometimes-- for them to come up with all kinds of reasons to block the extension of unemployment benefits--not to mention COBRA, the program, the government helps people continue to get health insurance after they have lost their job, when they have almost no money to spend on it-- don't know how important that is to people's lives. I hear some of my colleagues say: I am voting against an unemployment extension because we are not paying for it.

First, unemployment insurance is considered emergency spending. This is a little bit too much beltway talk, but it has always been considered emergency spending. We don't have to find a way to compensate for it, to pay for it, any more than when there is a flood in North Dakota or there is a hurricane in Louisiana or, unfortunately, there is a war in Iraq which had always historically been paid for. Senator Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming, said the Iraq war is the first time he ever knew about in American history when we didn't pay for a war. I hear these lectures--and that is what they are--from our conservative colleagues, preaching to us, talking to us like we are children because we are not paying for an unemployment extension.

In the last 10 years, they voted for a war that they refused to pay for. Only $1 trillion it has cost. They voted for the giveaway for drug companies and insurance companies, all in the name of Medicare privatization. That was $100 billion or more. They didn't pay for it. Then they voted for tax cuts that went to the richest Americans. They just forgot to pay for that too.

We do tax cuts for the rich; we do giveaways to the drug companies and insurance companies. Tax cuts for the rich, not paid for; giveaway to the insurance companies and the drug companies, not paid for; a war in Iraq, not paid for. Yet they are all of a sudden shrinking it down to: We are not going to let workers in this country who are laid off get their sustenance--just a few dollars for rent, for food, kids' school supplies--we are going to block that. That is, frankly, why people around the country are angry at Congress.

They say: Why can't you just do the right thing here instead of making it political? They have made it political by saying: This is where we are drawing the line. We are not paying for unemployment insurance extension. If you are not going to pay for it, we are not going to do it.

It is the same over and over. Offer another drug company giveaway or tax cuts for the rich, they will say: Where do I sign up? That will help the country. Their way of thinking is a bit peculiar.

Senator Kaufman, who has such insight on preventing another disaster on Wall Street--if people would have listened to him a few years earlier, we would be in a better situation. He is waiting to speak. I will read a few letters I have received.

Marianne from Lorain County, the county I live in, says: I am a single mom of a 4-year-old. I have been unemployed for over a year. I have never been unemployed before. I have worked since I was 15. It is a terribly difficult situation. I am at the end of my rope, not knowing what do I have to give up next. Do I have to give up my home, my car, my son's preschool. I am writing to ask you to push another unemployment extension, please.

How can that not be an emergency. How can they stand on this floor and say: Sorry, can't do it, just can't do the unemployment extension? This is exactly the kind of person who is so often afflicted by this situation. She works and she has worked since she was 15. She has a 4- year-old. She is making a choice: Do I give up my home? Do I give up my car?

I live in Lorain County. Unless you are lucky and you live in exactly the right place, you have a lot of trouble getting to work if you don't have a car. So we are going to say: You get rid of your car, but we want you to find work. Or if she gives up preschool, we know, by any measurement, if we are going to get this country competitive economically, internationally, and do what we need to do, we need to do better with education. The Presiding Officer understands that preschool education is such an important component for children for preparing for the future.

Let me read a second letter from Stephen from Tuscarawas County, a county south of Canton, west of Youngstown, a fairly small county.

Stephen writes:

I am a union electrician who started my apprenticeship in

1992. I have been an electrician ever since. I have never

been at a loss for work until September 2009. As much as I

wish I didn't have to collect unemployment, I am terrified it

will run out. I will have no means to take care of my family

of five. I will have no idea what to do if that happens. I am

the sole breadwinner for my family. My wife has had to have

surgery twice in the past year and a half. She broke her knee

and currently can't walk.

She is a mother of five and busy doing what she is doing taking care of this family. For many families, there are two breadwinners. In Stephen's case, with electrician's wages, he has had enough income for a wife and three children.

He continues:

I just ask that you take into consideration our situation.

We need this extension.

I will not share other letters. I wanted to share those two from a single mother who has worked all her life, and an electrician in Tuscarawas County who has, for more than 20 years, been a well-paid union electrician. We know those are good jobs with good benefits and contribute a lot to our country.

I will close with this: Again, I plead with my colleagues, my conservative colleagues, put aside your ideology for a minute. Put aside your ideology that says that unemployment is welfare because it is not; it is insurance. People have paid into it. They should collect when they have paid into it and when they have done well; they collect from it when they have done badly. It is an American concept of insurance, social insurance, private insurance, whatever. Put aside your ideology, put aside your politics that you want to score points by saying: We will not do this because we have to ``pay for it.''

If they had shown us they cared a little more about the budget deficit 10 years ago, when we had a huge budget surplus, soon after the Presiding Officer came to the House--he was part of the effort that put a budget together and we had economic growth and we had a budget surplus. They took that surplus and put all that money to their contractor friends in Iraq and put all that money into drug companies and insurance company subsidies, put all that money into tax cuts for the richest Americans. Now they want to take it out on those people who have lost their jobs. It is unconscionable. It is not what the American people stand for. It is not American values.

I ask them to reconsider what they are doing.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I wish today to recognize World Tuberculosis Day.

It is a day that allows us to take stock of how far we have come, and how far we have to go, in the fight against this deadly disease. Claiming about 1.8 million lives each year, TB is a vicious killer that must be stopped in order to protect the global public health.

Today we recognize not only that we must do more, but that, with the technology, medical expertise, and a worldwide commitment, we can do more.

We have waged an aggressive campaign to eliminate TB in the U.S. However, progress toward TB elimination has slackened.

Anywhere from 9 to 14 million Americans are infected with latent TB. Without treatment, about 5 to 10 percent of them will develop active TB. As the global pandemic of drug resistant TB spreads, the disease poses an imminent public health threat to the United States.

According to the World Health Organization, 5 percent of all new TB cases are drug resistant, with estimates of up to 28 percent in some parts of Russia. Of these cases, it is estimated that only 7 percent are being treated.

Over the past decade, the U.S. has had more than 83 cases of an extremely drug resistant strain of TB, known as XDR-TB, which is very difficult and expensive to treat. Because XDR-TB recognizes no borders, these cases will continue to rise unless we adopt control measures on a global scale.

As it stands, drug resistant and extremely drug resistant forms of TB are not easily transmittable; however, should an easily transmittable strain arise, we face the real possibility of a deadly pandemic in our country and across the globe.

TB control is not just an imperative for the developing world; it is an imperative for every nation on this planet.

Our current drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines are out of date and increasingly inadequate to control the spread of TB. The TB vaccine, for instance, provides some protection to children, but provides little to no help to prevent TB in adults.

In addition, the most commonly used TB diagnostic in the world, sputum microscopy, is more than 100 years old and lacks sensitivity to detect TB in most HIV/AIDS patients and in children.

Finally, the course of treatment available today is simply too long, resulting in skipped doses and the development of resistant strains.

New TB drug regimens are long overdue, and Congress must act to help accelerate the development, approval, and delivery of new TB medicines around the globe. We must bring our methods of prevention and treatment into the 21st century so we can fight the new age of the TB epidemic.

Congress has made significant strides toward this goal. The enactment of the Lantos-Hyde Act and the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act reaffirmed our commitment to research, treatment, and prevention.

These laws put the U.S. on the path to successfully treating 4.5 million TB patients and 90,000 new multidrug resistant TB cases by 2013. However, Congress and this administration must not underfund the commitment we made with this legislation.

World Tuberculosis Day provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress made to eradicate TB, acknowledge the

millions of lives this disease takes as it orphans children and destabilizes communities throughout the world, and recommit to fighting TB with the sense of urgency and level of resources this global public health battle requires.