before returning to work on a bill that promotes u.s. tourism abroad. a legislation creates a nonprofit corporation to attract foreign tourists while providing information about entry requirements and documentation for the u.s. about to move forward on the bill occurs at noon eastern. we expect a recess from 12:30 to 2:15 eastern so they can attend party launches. live now to the senate floor here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the senate will be led in prayer by the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer.

the chaplain: let us pray. lord god almighty, may our hearts be right with you so that our lives will honor you. bless the members of this body. provide them with all the direction, defense, support, and consolation they need for life's journey. as they keep their minds on you, infuse them with your wonderful peace. lord, give them an abundant supply of your spirit that they will

submit to you in every trial, trusting you even when walking through the valley of shadows. uphold them by your might that they may move forward with faith and perseverance. we pray in your sacred name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, june 16, 2009. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable roland w. burris, a senator from the state of illinois, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. reid: i ask that the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: mr. president, following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour. senators will be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the majority will control the first 30 minutes and the republicans will control the next 30 minutes. following that morning business, senate the senate will resume the motion to proceed to s. 1023, the travel promotion afnlgt there will be within hour for debate prior to the cloture on that motion to proceed. senators should expect a vote to begin as early as 11:45 today. the senate will recess, as we do on every tuesday, from 12:30 to 2:15 for our wkly caucus luncheons. mr. president, every day, like every senator, i get mail from men and women across my state.

people still write letters. it's not all over the internet. people still write handwritten letters, lots of them. people offer advice and criticism, suggestions and stories for making sure their representative democracy works the way they believe it should. if anyone is watching at home and wondering if the representative us you send to washington tilely read these lerks i can tell you that we do. i can tell you that on no other issue have the letters that my constituents have sent me underscored the urgent need to act more on health care nightmares that they've shared with me. for example, lisa lives in gardnerville, nevada, a beautiful place, mr. president, right under the sierra nevada mountains. it is really scenic and beautiful. she lives there in gardnerville with her two daughters, 10 and 7. the youngest little girl suffers

seizures and her teachers think she has a learning disafnlt because of her family history, lease sarks the mom, is at high risk for cervical cancer. though she's been told by her doctors that she should get an exam every three months, she now goes once a year because she doesn't have the money to go every three months. when lisa lost her job recently, she lost her health coverage. now both lisa and her daughters miss out on the tests and preventive medicine to keep them healthy. her long letter ended with a simple plea, and i quote, "we want to go to the doctor." end of quote. bray deny lives in sparks, nevada. the 5-hour weeks he works to support his family just barely covers his bills. he doesn't have enough money to buy health insurance for his family, so he doesn't buy it. bray deny owes the hospital $12,000 for a trip to the emergency room, the only place he could go, as he has no health

care. bray deny is brave, though. in his letter he doesn't dread the debt he carries or complain about how hard he works. "if i was seriously sick or injured, i would lose it all." alicia is a 21-year-old woman from las vegas. she needs surgery for a kidney disease which she has suffered with since she was born. but because recently she lost her job, health care isn't part of her life anymore. alicia has done everything she had k. it try to get help. medicaid tells her she doesn't qualify because she isn't pregnant, descrn children, doesn't have disability insurance. insurance companies refuse to cover her, calling her kidney disorder a preexisting conditieg condition. everyone else calls it a tragedy. letters are written by people who play by the rules and don't understand why the health care system doesn't play by the

rules. they're written from the heart and many are written through pain, tears, and uncertainty. sadly, they're not unique. many, many americans like sleys is a skip routine medical checkups or like bray deny live just one accident away from bankruptcy or one sickness away from bankruptcy, or like alicia fear for the worst while they fight through the red tape. our republican colleagues like things, obviously, just the way they are -- the status quo. they've committed themselves to a strategy of misinformation and misrepresentation. heard it again on the radio this morning. government health care. in fact one senator said, if he heard a republican senator say anything other than government health care and not -- he instructed 24e8 not to use public choice or public option -- he jokingly said, i'd like to put some money in the kitty. well, misinformation and misrepresentation is not where

we should be, mr. president. this together with their attempt to delay is only going to hurt people like alicia, bray deny, and lisa. -- brayden, and lease savmen li. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, the health care system in this country is in urgent need of reform. people are frustrated with the soaring cost of care and they're frustrated that so many of their fellow americans lack the coverage they need and they should be able to expect in a nation as prosperous as ours. people are also worried about the enormous burden that the rising health care costs are placing on american businesses which are being forced to put off pay increases and lay off workers to cope with rising insurance premiums. and now people are concerned that a new government health

plan that's being talked about will make all of these problems even worse. for weeks many of us have been warning about plans for a government takeover of health care along the lines of takeovers we've seen in other areas of the private sector. now the details of these plans are coming to light, and they raise two questions: how much is all this going to cost? and how are we going to pay for it? let's take just three proposals in the plan that's currently taking shape over in the health, education, labor, and pensions committee. the details of which are just beginning to emerger. first, there's a massive expansion of medicaid. here is a program that was originally established as a partnership between the federal government and the states to assist the poor and disabled and which has become fiscally unsustainable. yet rather than reform this broken program, the "help" committee is proposing a massive new expansion instead.

second, the "help" committee bill includes massive new subsidies for americans with incomes higher than $100,000 a year. the purpose of these subsidies is to help defray the cost of rising insurance premiums. well, we all know that health insurance is too expensive. but we ought to be working to lower those premiums, not opening up the federal checkbook to drive them even higher. third, the "help" committee bill establishes a new so-called prevention in public health prevention fund. the details of this fund are a little murky but early indications are that it will direct billions of dollars to things like having the government build sidewalks and government-subsidized farmers markets. the eye here is to use tax dollars to -- the idea here is to use tax dollars. at a time when americans are buried under medical bills, farmers' markets and sidewalks

around the reforms they had in mind. americans want serious health care reform, not expansion of programs that are already fiscally unsustainable. subsidies that disguise rising costs instead of addressing their causes and billions of sidewalks and asparagus. these are precisely the kinds of proposals that mask the underlying problems and cause people to lose faith in government solutions and they're simply not acceptable. the details we're seeing from the "help" committee should make us more skeptical of a government health plan, not less and they should underscore for every american the need for a -- the kind of real comprehensive reforms some of us have been calling for over the last few weeks. the irony in this whole debate is that we're being told america's fiscal future will be jeopardized if we don't allow the same people who are proposing these outrageous so-called reforms to take over the entire health care system. preliminary estimates for this

flawed legislative proposal are simply staggering. just yesterday the congressional budget office released an estimate of just part -- just part -- of the "help" committee bill. focusing on just this one section, the c.b.o. determined the bill will spend $1.3 trillion over ten years, even though 37 million people would still be left without health insurance. let me say that again, mr. president. just part of the "help" committee bill would spend $1.3 trillion over ten years, after which 37 million americans would still be uninsured. mr. president, let me say that again, as i just have. just one section of the bill -- one section -- $1.3 trillion and 37 million still unemployed. this isn't a complete evaluation of the bill.

large proposals such as the medicaid expansion and government-run plan have not been factored in yet. moreover, according to details of the "help" committee plan, a newly created health care exchange would result in 15 million americans losing the employer coverage they currently have, further evidence that if you like what you have, you may well loose it under a government-run plan. how does the "help" committee propose we pay for all this? well, it's proposal is full of creative new ways to spend taxpayer dollars, but it offers little in the way of off setting the cost of the overall bill. they will either charge the money to the national credit card or more likely raise taxes on working families. in other words, more spending, higher taxes, and even more debt. so far some of the taxes under discussion includes a new tax on soda, juice boxes, the creation of a new tax on jobs, and new limits on charitable deductions. based on the c.b.o. estimate,

these taxes would just be the beginning. the health care proposal being put together is not only extremely defective, it will cost a fortune. and that cost will come straight out of the taxpayers' pocketbook. the bottom line is this. under the illusion of reform, americans will be asked to give up the care they look for something worse, and then they'll be taxed to the hilt to pay for it. americans don't want changes that make the entire health care system as unsustainable as medicaid, and they don't want to go broke covering the cost. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time be reserved. under the previous order, there will now be a period of morning business for one hour with senators permitted to speak for up to ten 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 second half. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized for 15 minutes. and after that the senator from illinois be recognized subsequently. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. menendez: thank you, mr. president. last wednesday, just a few blocks down the street, a neonazi opened fire at the holocaust museum. he murdered a security guard and terrorized the museum's visitors including schoolchildren who had come to learn, to express sympathy to pray. that evil act was the work of a killer who had made his hatred of other religious and ethnic groups well known. and it was a reminder that intolerance, ignorance and anti-semitism have not yet been defeated in our world. this tragedy reminds us of the

need for sound understanding of one of the darkest episodes in the history of the world. far too many misrepresent the significance of the holocaust, especially in regards to the state of israel and her people. and far too many deny it happened altogether, out of bigotry, hatred and spite. in the face of so much misunderstanding, i'm compelled to speak up about the roll of the holocaust in israel's history, in israel's challenge in kpraoefpbting antisemitic murder continuing to happen. the holocaust was a reminder that the jewish population in compile was in constant jeopardy. it was a definitive argument that anti-semitism could appear anywhere and its hor radars galvanized international support for -- horrors galvanized international support for the state of israel. while the shoa has a central role in israel's identity it is not the reason behind its

founding and it is not the main justification for its existence. the extreme characterization of this mistaken view is the following: that western powers established israel in 1948 based on their own guilt at the expense of the arab people who live there. therefore, the current state is illegitimate and should be wiped off the face of the map. this flawed argument is not only in defiance of basic human dignity but in plain defiance of history, in defiance of ancient history as told through archeological evidence and ignores the history of the last several centuries. because of what's at stake, it is well worth reviewing this history in detail. and let me make a modest attempt at a very broad opening. there has been a continuity of jewish presence in the holy land for thousands of years. jewish kings and governments were established in that area that is now israel several millennia ago. after untold years of jewish

sovereignty based in jerusalem, the land of the jewish people fell repeatedly to invaders, the syrians, persians, greeks, romans. jews were massacred and expelled and departure for so many developed into an unparalleled diaspora. from the 15th century to the early 20th century, it was under control of a caliphate based in eus tan buell. during this time many jews trourpbd their ancestral homeland. the ottoman empire collapsed after world war i and there was a mandate over the area known as palestine. the league of nations endorse and clarified this mandate in 1922, requiring britain to reconstitute a jewish national home within the territory they control in accordance with the declaration made by british foreign secretary balfour in

1917 making the restoration of jewish communities in that area a matter of international law. by the time world war ii had ended, there were more than 600,000 jews living in the british mandate of palestine. in 1947 the united nations approved a plan to partition the territory into arab and jewish states. the jewish agency accepted the plan. the arabs did not. on may 14, 1948, the state of israel declared its independence. on may 15 five arab nations declared war. despite being surrounded on all sides, israel prevailed and expanded its borders, providing a small additional measure of security against attacks which were certain to come, and did. so to be clear, the more than 700,000 palestinians who left israel were refugees of a war instigated by arab governments bent on seizing more land for themselves. the arabs who left israel after

its modern founding weren't the only displaced population in the middle east. in addition to the hundreds of thousands of jews who left europe during and after the holocaust in the 20th century, more than three-quarts of a million jews fled or were expelled from their homes in cities that many of their families had lived in for nearly a millennium. their possessions were taken, their livelihoods destroyed, victims of nationalism and hatred of israel. several thousand years of history lead to an undeniable conclusion, the reestablishment of the state of israel in modern times is a political reality with roots going back to the time of abraham. and so the way to consider the immeasurable kpwafbgt holocaust on israel -- impact of the holocaust on israel is not to ask whether the state would exist other ayes. it is in one sense to imagine

how vibrant israel would be if millions upon millions had been -- had not been denied a chance to know it. mr. president, the attacks on israel have barely stopped since 1948, not just attacks by armies but attacks by individuals, attacks by tanks and terrorists, attacks have come in the form of stones and they have come in the form of speeches. its enemies taepltd to as sass -- have attempted to assassinate people with rockets and its character with hateful rhetoric. today it is still surrounded by hostility. its back is still to the sea and surrounded by hos teuflt from hezbollah in lebanon and hamas in the gaza strip. one thing must be absolutely, indisputably clear there is no more equivalency between israel and hamas. israel is a sovereign democratic state of 7.5 million people, jews, muslims and christians.

hamas is a terrorist organization. it won control of gaza after men in ski masks based battle with another leadership. it launched rockets in nearby cities. this is the thanks israel got for withdrawing from gaza. haplgz does not recognize agreements that -- hamas does not recognize agreements palestinian leaders recognized with israel in the past, does not recognize israel's right to exist at all and is ideologically committed to israel's annihilation. gaza's people thrift for freedom and opportunity. even today after the consequences of menacing israel became clear in a disastrous war, weapons are flowing freely through tunnels into gaza. hamas is rearmed and it is readying itself for the day when it is going to take on israel again. hamas and hezbollah may be the head of the snake when it comes

to terrorism, but the tame extends much farther back. the weapons terrorists use were sent from iran. money they received was sent from iran. propaganda supporting hamas' campaign of terror and calling for israel's destruction was conceived in, produced by and broadcast from iran. the fundamentalist regime in tehran isn't just an emerging threat. it doesn't just have the potential to be a threat to israel's existence. it is a threat to israel's existence. and under no circumstances whatsoever can we allow that conventional threat to become a nuclear one. especially in light of the threat of iran, and in the light of the threat extremists pose to so many innocent civilians around the globe. the importance of israel as a strategic ally and friend to the united states could not be clearer. it's hard to overstate the value of having such a stalwart democratic ally in such a

critical part of the world, an ally in terms of intelligence gathering, economics, politics and culture. israel is a rose in a desert rampant with repression, a force of moderation against fundamentalism and extremism. it is an ally we can constantly depend on and count on to be with us in innational fora -- international fora. for more than six decades it has been a key u.s. partner. we have israeli engineers to thank for tprefrg advances in solar power to a.o.l. instant messaging. equipment we're using in iraq to fight terrorism was developed in israel. medical treatments we're using in u.s. hospitals to fight cancer, heart disease and chronic pain were developed in israel. israeli-born actors are stars of hollywood and an israeli astronaut has put americans into

space. it is not just in the interest of israel to have its full history recognized. it is in the national interest and the national security interests of the united states. it is our interest to fully remember the unbreakable bond that has made us both stronger over the last 61 years and to make it unmistakable that our commitment is as strong as ever. mr. president, the argument for israel's legitimacy does not depend on what we say in speeches. it has been made in history. it has been made by the men and women who made the desert green, by nobel prizes earned, by groundbreaking innovations and by lives saved, democracy defended, peace made, battles won. there can be no denying the jewish people's legitimate right to live in peace and security in a homeland to which they have a connection for thousands of years. we can and must move forward in the peace process and look for ways to reach agreement between all sides. but waoeubg not erase the -- we cannot erase the moral distinctions between tyranny and

freedom and not edit history. if we stay true to history, i'm optimistic talks can lead to understanding and resolution of the detailed and tough issues we face. the next pages of middle eastern history are not doomed to be stained by a fight to the death. it doesn't have to be that wait a minute different peoples of vastly different background have thrived in the middle east for generations and this coexistence can happen once more. let us remember the words of egyptian president anwr sadat when he accepted the nobel prize for people, words that not long before would have seemed incredibly unlikely. he said -- quote -- "let us put an toned wars. let us reshape life on the basis of equity and truth. in this call of the great majority of the arab and israeli peoples and millions of men and women and children around the world that you today honoring.