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Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 112 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 112 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION SENATE—Thursday, February 10, 2011 The Senate met at 4 p.m. and was Ms. KLOBUCHAR thereupon assumed I want to talk about taking police of- called to order by the Honorable the chair as Acting President pro tem- ficers off the street. In the Repub- SHERROD BROWN, a Senator from the pore. licans’ haste to make as many cuts as State of Ohio. f possible, they have proposed elimi- nating the COPS hiring program. COPS PRAYER RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY stands for Community Oriented Polic- LEADER The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- ing Services, and it has helped put fered the following prayer: The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- thousands and thousands of police offi- Let us pray. pore. The majority leader is recog- cers and sheriffs on patrol around the Mighty God, thank You for Your nized. country, about 450 of them in Nevada. great compassion that removes our f Under the Republican plan, many could lose those jobs and many more guilt and purifies us from trans- SCHEDULE gressions. As our lawmakers and those who want to join the force will not be who work with them face the chal- Mr. REID. Madam President, fol- able to. The COPS program also helps lenges to liberty, give them light for lowing any leader remarks there will our law enforcement departments af- their path and courage to live for You. be a period of morning business with ford the computers and communica- Lord, enrich them with the durable Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 tions equipment they need to do their satisfaction that comes from doing minutes each. jobs. These jobs are keeping us safe. So Your will. In their attitudes and ex- There will be no rollcall votes during cutting COPS does not just put them pressions, remind them that those who today’s session of the Senate. However, at risk, it puts all of us at risk. are slow to anger are better than the I hope we will be able to extend the This is not the kind of investment we mighty. Give them courage to passion- trade adjustment assistance legislation gain from losing. This extreme plan ately seek the truth and the reverence today. does nothing to grow our economy or to follow Your light that illuminates Senators should expect the next se- keep us competitive. It does not make their path. ries of votes to begin at 5:30 p.m. on our future more secure; it makes our We pray in Your merciful Name. Monday. We hope to have as many as neighborhoods less so. We have to cut Amen. three votes on Monday starting at 5:30. responsibly. That is not the kind of cut f we have talked about, wiping out the f COPS program. We cannot support CUTTING GOVERNMENT SPENDING PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE that. Mr. REID. Madam President, saying The Honorable AMY KLOBUCHAR, a When we talk about cutting govern- Senator from the State of Minnesota, you want to cut government spending ment waste and excess, this is what we led the Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: is an easy applause line. We all want to mean, among other things. We mean lower the deficit. We all wish Ameri- I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the eliminating handouts to oil companies United States of America, and to the Repub- cans had less debt sitting in the treas- that are already making record profits. lic for which it stands, one nation under God, uries of other countries. None of us We mean cutting billions in wasteful indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. wants to leave the most difficult deci- Pentagon spending to contractors such f sions to the next generation. They de- as Halliburton. It means stopping the serve better from us. government giveaways to companies APPOINTMENT OF ACTING But actually figuring out what and that ship American jobs overseas. PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE where to cut is the hard work. That is These are commonsense cuts and a The PRESIDING OFFICER. The an entirely different story. The Amer- good place to start the conversation. clerk will please read a communication ican people do not need to hear an ap- But so far Republicans have shown no to the Senate from the President pro plause line. They need us to ease the interest in meeting us halfway and tempore (Mr. INOUYE). burden on our Nation’s bottom line, have shown every intention of pro- The legislative clerk read the fol- and there is a fine line between doing tecting their rich corporate friends. As lowing letter: so responsibly and recklessly. this conversation continues, Demo- U.S. SENATE, It is our job to do that hard work, to crats do not need any lectures from the PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, figure out what and where to cut, to do other side on fiscal responsibility. Re- Washington, DC, February 10, 2011. the math carefully and practically and member, we were the ones who bal- To the Senate: with common sense. It is our responsi- anced the budget during the Clinton Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, bility to remember we are not just tak- years. We did it. We were accused of re- of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby ing numbers off a ledger. In many ducing the deficit too much. We were appoint the Honorable AMY KLOBUCHAR, a Senator from the State of Minnesota, to per- cases, these proposals may mean tak- spending less money than we were tak- form the duties of the Chair. ing workers off the assembly line, tak- ing in. Because of the work we did dur- DANIEL K. INOUYE, ing teachers out of the classroom or ing the last of the Clinton administra- President pro tempore. police officers off the street. tion, even President Bush, during his ● This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a member of the Senate on the floor. 1451 VerDate Mar 15 2010 10:29 Dec 26, 2013 Jkt 099102 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 0685 Sfmt 0634 E:\BR11\S10FE1.000 S10FE1 rmajette on DSK2TPTVN1PROD with BOUND RECORD 1452 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE, Vol. 157, Pt. 2 February 10, 2011 first year, because he got all of the lar- countries and also helps American ments that undermine Ohio workers gess from the Clinton administration, businesses and workers by granting ac- and then turn our backs on those work- turned in a record budget surplus. But cess to new inputs and products. ers when their jobs are offshored. as soon as his policies went into effect, Second, critically important to our The TAA and HCTC enhancements he changed that very quickly. In a two States, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are not expensive; they are not com- matter of months, he turned a record and I know to the Presiding Officer’s plicated. They are modest improve- surplus into a record deficit that we State of Minnesota, we extended trade ments that Congress passed to pro- are fighting today. adjustment assistance. That is the grams that help tens of thousands of In conclusion, any budget debate is least we can do when this Congress Americans either get back to work or going to be about numbers. That is the passes wrong-headed trade agreements. regain some measure of the financial way it should be. But that is not the We extended the health coverage tax security that had been stripped real priority, and those figures should credit so that together workers who unceremoniously from them. not blind us to the real story behind lose their jobs because of bad trade Last week, 12 Senators and I, includ- the numbers. Our goal and our charge agreements, such as NAFTA and ing the majority leader, sent House is not to cut billions of dollars just to CAFTA, and bad trade positioning such leadership a request for a long-term ex- say we did it. Our task is to make our as PNTR for China, can at least get tension of trade adjustment assistance, government more efficient, our econ- some help for retraining so they can the health care tax credit, and the An- omy healthier, and our future more se- get back to work in comparably paying dean Trade Preferences Act. TAA is a cure. Our challenge is to do so in a way jobs, we hope, and get some assistance, critical part of our Nation’s competi- that does not put our public safety at some tax credits to buy health insur- tiveness strategy. In the last 2 years, more than 155,000 risk or break our promise to seniors. ance for them and their families. As a result, thousands of workers and additional trade-affected workers So we need to think about what we retirees who depend on TAA and the across the country who might not have are cutting and making sure those cuts HCTC made it through the holidays, been certified under the former TAA are not counterproductive. We need to when we did this in late December, at program became eligible for TAA bene- pay attention to the quality of those the last minute—it should not have fits because a year and a half, almost 2 cuts, not just the quantity of those been that long, but in the last years ago, in the Recovery Act, we cuts. After all, you can lose a lot of minute—with these critical sources of added expanded trade adjustment to weight by cutting off your arms and support.
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