E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 111 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 156 WASHINGTON, MONDAY, JULY 12, 2010 No. 102 House of Representatives The House was not in session today. Its next meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, at 2 p.m. Senate MONDAY, JULY 12, 2010 The Senate met at 2 p.m. and was The legislative clerk read the fol- Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent called to order by the Honorable JEFF lowing letter: that the order for the quorum call be MERKLEY, a Senator from the State of U.S. SENATE, rescinded. Oregon. PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- Washington, DC, July 12, 2010. pore. Without objection, it is so or- PRAYER To the Senate: dered. The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby f fered the following prayer: appoint the Honorable JEFF MERKLEY, a Sen- MEASURE PLACED ON THE Let us pray. ator from the State of Oregon, to perform CALENDAR—H.R. 5552 Lord of life, we magnify Your Name the duties of the Chair. this day, for Your mercies are new DANIEL K. INOUYE, Mr. REID. Mr. President, H.R. 5552 is every morning. President pro tempore. at the desk and due for a second read- Take our Senators by the hand and Mr. MERKLEY thereupon assumed ing. lead them on the road You desire them the chair as Acting President pro tem- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- to travel. Help them to seek Your guid- pore. pore. The clerk will read the bill for ance as they establish their priorities, the second time. always remembering their account- f The legislative clerk read as follows: ability to You. May this accountability RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY A bill (H.R. 5552) to amend the Internal motivate them to never deviate from LEADER Revenue Code of 1986 to require that a pay- the path of integrity but to seek to en- ment of the manufacturers’ excise tax on The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- recreational equipment be paid quarterly sure that Your will is done on Earth pore. The majority leader is recog- even as it is done in heaven. Remind and to provide for the assessment by the Sec- nized. retary of the Treasury of certain criminal them that You are with them and will restitution. guide them to a desired destination. f Mr. REID. Mr. President, I object to We pray in Your sovereign Name. SCHEDULE Amen. any further proceedings at this time. Mr. REID. Mr. President, following The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- f leader remarks, the Senate will turn to pore. Objection having been heard, the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE a period of morning business. Senators bill will be placed on the calendar. will speak for up to 10 minutes each. The Honorable JEFF MERKLEY led the f Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: This week, the Senate will likely re- sume consideration of the small busi- JOBS AGENDA I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Repub- ness jobs bill, the emergency supple- Mr. REID. Mr. President, I welcome lic for which it stands, one nation under God, mental appropriations bill, the con- back my colleagues and hope they are indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. ference report on Wall Street reform or as eager to get to work as I am. f any other items on the legislative or During the week I spent in Nevada, I executive calendar cleared for this par- saw again how desperate our unem- APPOINTMENT OF ACTING ticular work period. ployment situation has become. As I PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE I suggest the absence of a quorum. talked to Nevadans, I heard over and The PRESIDING OFFICER. The The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- over how they need us to help create clerk will please read a communication pore. The clerk will call the roll. conditions to help businesses create to the Senate from the President pro The legislative clerk proceeded to jobs. For example, I met one man in tempore (Mr. INOUYE). call the roll. Reno who is 51 years old. He said he ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S5721 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 01:50 Jul 13, 2010 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4637 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A12JY6.000 S12JYPT1 smartinez on DSKG8SOYB1PROD with SENATE S5722 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE July 12, 2010 had never missed a payment on his pain in this recession. Two out of every RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY home since he had bought it many three jobs we have lost were from small LEADER years ago. He was going to this month business. Our bill, which is fully paid The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- because he was unemployed and for, will put people back to work pore. The Republican leader is recog- couldn’t find a job, and he had worked through a number of initiatives. nized. very hard to try to find a job. But now, First, it gives small business tax in- f like 14 percent of Nevadans, he is out of centives to help them hire and grow work and can’t find a new job. There more people. Two, it increases Small RECESS APPOINTMENT OF are just too many people looking for Business Administration loan limits. DONALD BERWICK too few jobs. Now he cannot make his Three, it makes it easier for small Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, or- mortgage payment, as I have indicated. businesses to export goods. And four, it dinarily Senators come to the floor to He is the kind of person we need to creates a small business lending fund talk about the things that happen in keep in mind when we talk about cre- that will give small banks more cap- Washington while we are here. Today I ating jobs. His family is the kind of ital. wish to talk about something that hap- family we need to keep in mind when Another step we will take this month pened last week while we were not we talk about helping the unemployed is the long overdue—it is long overdue; here. I am referring, of course, to the with emergency aid. This man knows and I have talked about it a little bit President’s truly outrageous decision he will not get rich off his unemploy- this morning—extention of emergency to take advantage of Congress’s ab- ment check, but it might help him unemployment insurance for so many sence last week to sneak Donald Ber- keep a roof over his head. who have been out of work for so long. wick in as the new head of Medicare Those unemployment benefits we are It is more than 2 million people. and Medicaid. working to extend—for every job that When millions of Americans lost As is well known, Congress has a con- becomes available, five people line up their jobs, they lost their incomes, stitutional duty to examine Presi- for that job. And for every $1 we spend their homes, their savings, their gas dential nominees such as Dr. Berwick. in unemployment benefits, $1.61 is re- money, their tuition payments, and on But apparently the prospect of giving turned to the economy because that and on and on—all through no fault of the American people an opportunity to money is spiraled into doing a lot of their own. Democrats are not about to hear this nominee defend his past good things because they can pay their turn our backs on out-of-work Ameri- praise for government-run systems rent, make their house payment, buy cans, which is why we are trying to that ration health care was worrisome some clothes. help them keep their heads above enough for the administration that it I repeat what I have said here before: water in this crisis. sought to ignore congressional over- Mark Zandi, who was, during the Presi- The third step is Wall Street reform. sight altogether. dential run, JOHN MCCAIN’s chief eco- It is just as much a jobs bill as the first As it turned out, the administra- nomic adviser, said the most important two I mentioned. We all know greed on tion’s plan backfired because even money we could spend right now is for Wall Street is what triggered the reces- Democrats are outraged at this blatant unemployment benefits. sion, suffocated the job market, and attempt to prevent the American peo- As to my friend in Reno, NV, his robbed millions of their incomes. By ple from hearing this man talk about struggle, his fears—what keeps this cleaning up Wall Street, we are going what he plans to do with Medicare and man up at night—is what we should re- to make sure big bankers can never Medicaid. As usual, the administration member when the other side pretends again gamble away our economy. We wants to blame Republicans for its fail- this is more about politics than it is are going to make sure there is not a ures. But in this case, the administra- about people. next time. tion’s failure to respect the right of the This work period, like every work pe- Helping small businesses, helping the American people to study Dr. Ber- riod, will be about jobs—the work pe- wick’s record is being criticized by just riod here in the Senate—how to create unemployed, and cracking down on Wall Street are three equally impor- about everyone, including the Demo- them, how to save them, and how to cratic chairman of the committee in prevent another crisis such as the one tant approaches to the same problem— and to our No.