Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 9 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 2:15 p.m. in room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 10 a.m., in SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct an executive business meeting.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 10 a.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Contracting Oversight of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 2:30 p.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``Interagency Contracts (Part I): Overview and Recommendations for Reform.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 9:30 a.m. in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Water and Power be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 25, 2010, at 10:30 a.m., in room SD- 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, I come down to the floor and I hear the Senator from Louisiana saying he has been in the Senate for years and he cannot believe we cannot debate these things. I have watched over the last 13 months since President Obama took the oath of office-- 13 months and less than a week--and I am incredulous the Senator from Louisiana would say what he says; that we, in fact, do not allow debate in this institution, when more than 100 times, just in the last 13 months--I think maybe 110 times; I cannot keep count because we add a few every day or every week--more than 100 times the other party, the Republicans, have obstructed, have delayed, have stopped us from moving forward.

We have had plenty of time to debate. We will stay here weekends. We will stay here evenings. But when it is not debate they want, it is to block things--maybe talking things to death is the way they block things; maybe they just object to things--but time and time again we have had the ``slow walk'' on health care, so we have not been able to put a bill on the President's desk. That is not because people do not have ideas. It is not because people want to shut down debate. It is because they have tried to stop these bills on issue after issue after issue.

I remember something so simple as the children's health insurance bill, which President Bush vetoed but many people in both parties supported. They tried to slow that down. They tried to slow the Lilly Ledbetter legislation which we passed to try to make sure women doing the same job in the same place are paid as much as men doing the same job in the same place.

I could stand here, Mr. President, as you could, representing your constituents in Santa Fe and Taos and all over New Mexico--you could do the same as I can do, representing my constituents in Toledo and Dayton and Galion and Saint Clairsville--and point out that when we have tried to get things done, they have blocked it.

We do want bipartisanship. But the public, more than anything, wants us to get things done. The Senator from Louisiana has been one of the leaders, in conjunction with one of his other regional Senators, who has said health care could be President Obama's Waterloo. There are people in this institution on the other side of the aisle--not all of them; the senior Senator from my State, George Voinovich, has cooperated a lot of times on a lot of things, unlike some of his colleagues, but there are senior Senators on that side of the aisle, where their goal is to see the President of the United States fail. If the President of the United States fails, this country does not move forward.

We are in the worst economic times of my lifetime, brought on by terrible policies in the last 8 years: bank deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, a war not paid for, a giveaway to drug companies and the insurance companies in the name of Medicare privatization, causing all these problems that we inherited a year ago, and all they want to do is stop the jobs bill. They voted last night--the Senator who just complained about not being able to debate voted last night not to even allow the bill on the floor, as he did on health care, as he has done on issue after issue after issue.

It is not personal to me what they are doing, but it is certainly wrong when they try to block issue after issue, bill after bill. We can disagree on what we need to do to bring this country forward. We can disagree on the jobs bill. We can disagree on the health care bill. But we ought to be able to agree we can have full debate, move forward, work on this legislation, and pass it in a reasonable time so every Senator does not talk it to death in the way of stopping it, in the way of obstructionism.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now recess until 2:15 p.m., as provided for under the previous order.

Madam President, I thank Senator Dorgan, who has led with Senator Durbin on all kinds of job creation efforts, understanding that although the private sector creates these jobs, it is a partnership with the private and public sector and State and local and Federal governments. He had it right. We need to follow his suggestions and those of Senator Durbin as we move forward, including what was on the floor earlier this evening.

There are in my State some 640,000 unemployed people, in a State of about 11 million. There are hundreds of thousands more who are underemployed. There are tens of thousands of small businesses across Ohio. There are hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who help ensure that roads and bridges and transit systems serve the best interests of residents and businesses.

The bill we voted on today would help those Ohioans. These Ohioans didn't bring about our Nation's economic crisis. It wasn't people who work every day in Zaynesville and Lima or Findley who brought this on, but they are paying the price for it every day. Too many people are losing health insurance.

I was just on public television with the senior Senator from New Hampshire. I pointed out that 390 Ohioans every day lose their health insurance. This economy has squeezed more and more people, people who have jobs, let alone the anxiety of people who have jobs and are afraid that they will lose those jobs. Small businesses in my State have everything it takes to thrive, but they are undermined by this perilous economic climate. Construction workers, manufacturing workers, small businesses, other hard-working Ohioans who keep our State going are losing jobs, not because they are not good employees, not because they don't show up, not because they aren't working hard, but because the dollars aren't there to pay them because employers are laying them off, whether in the private or public sector. Unemployed workers are remaining that way not because they don't have the drive or the skills to succeed.

Majority Leader Reid has introduced a bill based on proposals from Democrats and Republicans alike that would give tax breaks to small businesses and ensure dollars continue to flow into the highway trust fund. It is a bill designed to cut businesses a break. It is a bill designed to sustain our roads and bridges and transit systems to prevent massive job loss among the millions of Americans who work to ensure the safety and the effectiveness of our transportation infrastructure. If they are working, if people are working construction, if our bus drivers in the cities who are getting particularly the elderly and low-income people to their doctors' appointments or to their workplace, if they are working, if the bus drivers and the transit workers and the construction workers and the highway builders, if they are working, then there is more money in the economy and more people are working.

It is a bill, unfortunately, most Republicans in this Chamber, for whatever reason--they always have a reason to be obstructive literally 100 times in this session, more than 100 times--it is a bill that most of my Republican colleagues are determined to kill. I thank Senator Voinovich, the senior Republican in my State, for his support. I thank the other four or five Republicans who voted at least to let us debate this bill, something in the past they haven't even been willing to do on other legislation.

So at least we have made progress that way. But if the press is right, the Republican leadership and their lobbying friends gathered together. They have been working 24/7 to convince the public that a bill solely focused on small businesses and middle-class jobs is a bad bill. You may have seen news reports that 100 lobbyists sat down with Republicans and figured out a strategy to try to kill this jobs bill. It is the same story, it is the same movie we watched last year on health care. It is the same story again that we have seen, that they are doing whatever it takes to kill this legislation. Fortunately for the American people, fortunately for these hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who are unemployed or underemployed, they did not get away with it today, that enough Republicans broke with their leadership and supported efforts to move forward on jobs legislation.

Earlier today, I met with 200 to 300 Ohioans to unveil a report on how to get our State's economy back on track. This was a group of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, and it was a group that had everyone from the mayor of Mansfield and the mayor of Marietta, to small businesses, to large companies, a couple of executives, American Electric Power Company, to a whole host of citizen activists who want to do whatever it takes. They want to fight for made-in-America legislation that Senator Dorgan mentioned. They want a manufacturing industrial policy in this country. We are the only country in the developed world that does not have a real plan on how to do manufacturing, on how to build an industrial economy, on how we begin to lead the world not just in the technology, which we have done in solar and wind turbines and biomass and fuel cells--we lead in technology; we do not lead in industrial development and making those products. We developed the wind turbine technology in Sandusky, OH, about 30 miles from where I live, but most of the wind turbines, the components--a lot of components are made in Ohio, but most of the wind turbines are manufactured and assembled overseas. It is the same on solar technology, the same on biomass, the same on fuel cells. Our scientists, our engineers, our professors,

and our researchers develop a lot of this technology, but we are not making it in Ohio and New Hampshire and States around the country.

So today, as I said, all couple hundred, 250, 300 Ohioans--Democrats, Independents, Republicans--gathered to figure out how to do this, to move our State forward. As I said, there were a lot of Republicans. But Republicans in Washington look at the world differently. Many of them are trying to demonize a bill that provides tax breaks, that saves jobs. They need to take a step back, the Republicans in this body who I believe are very out of step with Republicans and everybody else in States such as mine. They need to take a step back and remember for whom they work.

Opposition for opposition's sake is not working for the American people. On the Senate floor, we need to work together to save small businesses, to help these small businesses get credit, to help these small businesses work with local communities to provide jobs. That is what they want to do. We can do this if we work together.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, 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 that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4532, received from the House and at the desk.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 213, S. Res. 345.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Boxer amendment to the resolution be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the Boxer amendment to the preamble be agreed to; the preamble be agreed to; a title amendment which is at the desk be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 23; that following the prayer and the 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 Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half; that following morning business the Senate resume consideration of the House message with respect to H.R. 2847, the legislative vehicle for the jobs bill; that time during any period of morning business, recess, or adjournment count postcloture; finally, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons.

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

Mr. President, in the years leading up to the financial crisis, risky and reckless bonus-laden pay packages ruled at Wall Street banks.

After crashing our economy, these too-big-to-fail banks needed the Bush administration and the American taxpayer to bail them out.

The Temporary Asset Relief Program, TARP, pumped billions and billions of taxpayer dollars into the financial system to stabilize our economy and prevent another Great Depression.

The Obama administration continued the TARP program while also taking necessary and swift action passing the Recovery Act.

But unemployment remains high even as our economy begins to recover, and Wall Street is back to its old ways.

Insurance giant AIG got $182.3 billion in bailout money. Last Wednesday, AIG paid $100 million more in bonuses to its employees.

Goldman Sachs got $10 billion directly from TARP and another $12.9 billion in taxpayer aid through the AIG bailout. Goldman will pay its employees bonuses worth $16 billion.

The average banker at Bank of America got a $400,000 bonus one year after the bank took $45 billion from TARP. The average worker in Ohio makes just over $41,000 a year.

The Federal Reserve has taken extraordinary steps and made trillions of dollars available in low-interest loans to American banks. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are just about the only buyers today for mortgages in the secondary market.

Big banks received hundreds of billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers in half a dozen ways to stabilize their finances and increase financing to businesses and consumers.

Our economy is reliant on small businesses, which account for more than 65 percent of jobs created in our Nation.

But despite the banks' rapid recovery, their small business lending continues to decrease, month after month.

In November 2009, the U.S. Treasury Department reported that the 22 largest financial institutions receiving taxpayer assistance reduced lending by $10.5 billion over the previous six months.

These same banks reduced small business loans by another $1 billion according to a report released in December 2009.

I have heard from too many small business owners--from Youngstown to Mansfield, from Athens to Elyria--that they simply can't access the credit they need to hire workers or expand business.

For 10 years wealthy bankers were partying like it was 1999. When the economy came crashing down the middle class was forced to sacrifice their money and their children's money to save the banks and unfreeze credit. They are still waiting for Wall Street to live up to their end of the bargain.

That is why today I introduced The Wall Street Bonus Tax Act, which would use Wall Street's excess to fund small businesses.

The Wall Street Bonus Tax Act imposes a 50 percent excise tax for 2010 on bonuses awarded at financial institutions that received TARP assistance.

The revenue generated by the tax would go to the Small Business Administration to implement a direct small business lending program to help small businesses in towns like Bucyrus and Dublin.

Wall Street's lavish bonuses were made possible by the taxpayers' money--money that was supposed to be lent to businesses.

Instead of patting themselves on the back, the banks should be making loans that help the middle class recover.

This bill is a critical step in that direction.

Mr. President, in the years leading up to the financial crisis, risky and reckless bonus-laden pay packages ruled at Wall Street banks.

After crashing our economy, these too-big-to-fail banks needed the Bush administration and the American taxpayer to bail them out.

The Temporary Asset Relief Program, TARP, pumped billions and billions of taxpayer dollars into the financial system to stabilize our economy and prevent another Great Depression.

The Obama administration continued the TARP program while also taking necessary and swift action passing the Recovery Act.

But unemployment remains high even as our economy begins to recover, and Wall Street is back to its old ways.

Insurance giant AIG got $182.3 billion in bailout money. Last Wednesday, AIG paid $100 million more in bonuses to its employees.

Goldman Sachs got $10 billion directly from TARP and another $12.9 billion in taxpayer aid through the AIG bailout. Goldman will pay its employees bonuses worth $16 billion.

The average banker at Bank of America got a $400,000 bonus one year after the bank took $45 billion from TARP. The average worker in Ohio makes just over $41,000 a year.

The Federal Reserve has taken extraordinary steps and made trillions of dollars available in low-interest loans to American banks. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are just about the only buyers today for mortgages in the secondary market.

Big banks received hundreds of billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers in half a dozen ways to stabilize their finances and increase financing to businesses and consumers.

Our economy is reliant on small businesses, which account for more than 65 percent of jobs created in our Nation.

But despite the banks' rapid recovery, their small business lending continues to decrease, month after month.

In November 2009, the U.S. Treasury Department reported that the 22 largest financial institutions receiving taxpayer assistance reduced lending by $10.5 billion over the previous six months.

These same banks reduced small business loans by another $1 billion according to a report released in December 2009.

I have heard from too many small business owners--from Youngstown to Mansfield, from Athens to Elyria--that they simply can't access the credit they need to hire workers or expand business.

For 10 years wealthy bankers were partying like it was 1999. When the economy came crashing down the middle class was forced to sacrifice their money and their children's money to save the banks and unfreeze credit. They are still waiting for Wall Street to live up to their end of the bargain.

That is why today I introduced The Wall Street Bonus Tax Act, which would use Wall Street's excess to fund small businesses.

The Wall Street Bonus Tax Act imposes a 50 percent excise tax for 2010 on bonuses awarded at financial institutions that received TARP assistance.

The revenue generated by the tax would go to the Small Business Administration to implement a direct small business lending program to help small businesses in towns like Bucyrus and Dublin.

Wall Street's lavish bonuses were made possible by the taxpayers' money--money that was supposed to be lent to businesses.

Instead of patting themselves on the back, the banks should be making loans that help the middle class recover.

This bill is a critical step in that direction.

Madam President, I rise in support of the confirmation of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.

It is policymakers--not outside organizations, it is not political strategists, it is not anti-union activists, and it is not pro-union advocates--who are making this decision. It is policymakers--100 Members of the Senate who are asked to confirm the nomination of Craig Becker to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board,

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

Mr. President, a week or so ago we marked Earned- Income Tax Credit Awareness Day, a day to highlight a vital tool for Americans working their way out of poverty. These are challenging economic times. The costs of food, housing, transportation and, basic necessities increase while wages stagnate. We know for the last 10 years, even before this recession, even in times of relative prosperity where profits were up and there was growth in the economy, most people's wages were flat even though costs went up. Tuition especially, energy costs, health care costs have meant difficult times for a decade; obviously more acutely difficult now. That is one of the reasons the earned-income tax credit, one of the most important tax cuts for our Nation, is so important.

The EITC is designed to fill that gap that so many working families suffer from. It provides millions of Americans, including hundreds of thousands of Ohioans, from Bellaire to Van Wert, from Ashtabula to Middletown--provides hundreds of thousands of Ohioans earning low to moderate wages, a potentially lifesaving tax credit. If you work and you play by the rules but you earn low wages, the earned-income tax credit can provide for your children, help you build economic security, help you extend your reach for the American dream.

According to a recent study, the earned-income tax credit has lifted more children above the poverty line than any government program. The earned-income tax credit, again, is available for people who have jobs and get a tax credit as a result of that job. In 2005, more than 22 million U.S. households applied for the earned-income tax credit. They received on average $1,800 a household. An estimated 2.6 million children were lifted above the poverty line because of the earned- income tax credit.

This is no handout. This is earned. It is the earned-income tax credit because people in lower wage jobs are working hard and playing by the rules and doing the right thing. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has increased the earned-income tax credit refund, expanding it to help thousands more Ohioans. Approximately 875,000 Ohio families qualify for the earned-income tax credit, but as much as 20 percent do not take advantage of it. They do not know about it or they do not know how to apply for it. That is 175,000 working families from Chillicothe to Dayton, from Maumee to Bryan; 175,000 working families in my State have earned the earned-income tax credit but they are not receiving it.

There are millions of dollars on the table, if you will, millions of dollars in tax credits for Ohio's working families. These are the criteria: If you earned less than $48,000 last year, depending on the size of your family, you could be eligible to receive an earned-income tax credit of up to about $5,000. Even if your income is lower than the threshold for filing taxes, file them anyway to obtain the earned- income tax credit.

That is all you have to do. You earned it, you absolutely earned it, just ask for it.

I encourage people who are not sure to call my office or call the offices of your Senators or your Congress men and women around the country.

The Presiding Officer from Illinois has been very active in this, and his office is available also to make sure in his State that these families who work hard, play by the rules--maybe they are making $20,000 $30,000, $40,000 a year; they are struggling--can get several thousand dollars tax credit, money in their pocket as they work to pursue the American dream.

We have seen what the earned-income tax credit can do for working families. In Hamilton County, southwest Ohio, the Cincinnati area, a woman and her three children became homeless after she lost her job. But because of her work, the wages she earned, she qualified for the earned-income tax credit. Every dime of her $2,000 earned-income tax credit went back into her pocket to help her overcome the daunting economic challenges she faced--$2,000 which went, for somebody at that income level, so very far.

An elderly couple was grateful they qualified for the earned-income tax credit. They used the $3,700 to cover a tragic occurrence, a grandchild's funeral expenses, expenses otherwise beyond their reach.

There are hundreds of thousands of stories like this across Ohio and across our Nation. I encourage Ohioans in Ashtabula and Bellaire and Zainsville and Springfield and Xenia who may by eligible for the earned-income tax credit to visit the IRS tax site at www.irs.gov or call 1-800-906-9887 and find a local Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Center. Remember, if you think you might be eligible for the earned- income tax credit, it is a tax credit that, if you are working and you are working hard and playing by the rules and you are not making a lot of money--not just minimum wage, but if you are not making more than $30,000 or $40,000 a year, even up to $48,000 year--you should call that number or visit the Web site, irs.gov. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Center, or VITA, is a vital and free resource for working families where accountants and tax experts volunteer their time to help you file your taxes so you can receive the EITC.

In Lorain, OH, in my home county, where President Obama visited just 10 days ago, in a program which we began when I was a Member of Congress, a couple visited a free tax preparation center after trying to do their taxes on their own. They found help; they qualified for the EITC. They received a refund of $5,000, which helped replace the roof of their house which required replacement.

To receive EITC, all you have to do is file your taxes. That is it. You earned it, just ask for it. Spread the word, Mr. President, and all of my colleagues and anyone listening--spread the word about the earned-income tax credit. It is a bridge out of poverty that serves millions of families across Ohio and across the Nation. Remember, you earned it.

Mr. President, last month, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations, U.S. or multinational, are equivalent to people and should be able to spend an unlimited amount of company money on political campaigns.

I bet the framers of our constitution could not only tell the difference between businesses and people, but could predict the result if businesses are permitted to spend without limit to elect their favorite politicians.

The top three Fortune 500 companies brought in an average profit of more than $27 billion last year. The average Ohio household brought home an income of about $48,000.

If you believe our government should be by the people and for the people--flesh and blood people--then corporations already have far more influence on our political process than they should.

In 2009, corporations spent $3.3 billion lobbying Congress to influence insurance legislation and prescription drug legislation and financial reform legislation and the list goes on. Now they will be able to spend unlimited funds to elect their favorite candidates to Congress, getting in on the ground floor in the hopes that legislation they don't like will never see the light of day.

Grassroots organizations like, conservative organization and Families USA, whose members are real people with real concerns, will be left in the dust by the drug industry and other deep pocketed special interests.

The bottom-line is that our democratic form of government will sit on a cushion of corporate cash. If Corporate America wants to decide who runs our country, they will have a billion ways to do it.

Congress has--and must exercise--its constitutionally granted authority to minimize the negative impact of this decision. Today, I introduced The Citizens Right to Know Act, legislation that is intended to reduce the incentive for corporations to buy out the political process. It would also put a stop to foreign influence on U.S. elections.

To protect shareholder investments, this legislation would require all the shareholders of a corporation to vote for election spending before it happens, with approval by a majority of shareholders. Each shareholder would get one vote per share of common stock held. If shareholders know that millions or billions in potential dividends are about to be spent on campaign ads, they may help instill some reason into the, elected, leadership of the corporations they own.

It would also require corporate CEOs to do what political candidates do when they pay for political advertising: political candidates face the camera and tell the public that they sponsored the commercial. Corporate CEOs would have to do the same for their political advertisements. Issue organizations or trade groups would have to disclose their three top corporate contributors, and to disclose funding information for certain radio and print ads on their website. Shedding sunlight on the political shenanigans of billion dollar corporations may do a world of good in dampening the effects of their spending.

Finally, the bill would close a loophole that permits foreign investors, including foreign governments, to influence U.S. elections by channeling money through a U.S. affiliate. Any company that has a 51 percent or greater ownership stake from a foreign entity, be it a foreign individual, business association, or government, would be prohibited from spending money to influence. I think we can all agree that foreign governments should not have the same right to contribute to campaigns as the American people, and it would be outrageous if they could spend money to influence the outcome of the Presidential or any other race.

Americans--true, red blooded Americans--should decide who represents them in our democratic system. Billion dollar corporations make important contributions to our nation, but tilting our democratic system their way is not one of them.