quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senate majority leader. mr. reid: we've worked -- mr., i ask consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, we have worked several days this week trying to move forward on the tourism bill. it's an extremely important piece of legislation. it is important to every state in the union. that's why it is so heavily bipartisan. we have almost 50 cosponsors of this legislation. lots of republicans cosponsored this legislation. bond, brownback, enzi, graham,

martinez, thune, wicker, alexander, cochran, ensign, vitter, and i'm sure there are others. it's a bipartisan bill. now, mr. president, we have already wasted so much time on this. we had to file cloture on a motion to proceed to this heavily bipartisan bill. and once we're on the bill -- i spoke to the republican leader and we thought when he a pathway to having civility here so the republicans would try help us. but, of course, we learned that yesterday the senate g.o.p. still saying "no." democrats need to know when the bring bills up we're going to extend the debate as long as we can even if we can't win. we said okay, let's -- you

offer -- you, the republicans, offer four amendments. and they did. they picked all the amendments they wanted to offer want germane to this bill. and i said okay. they were all involving tarp, the money that we all know about by now. and so i said, well, senator -- i told senator from vermont, senator sanders, i said, if republicans want to offer nongermane amendments, i'll be happy to offer your amendment. his is -- his is really a fairly simple amendment, mr. president. we see what's happening in the world today as it relates to o oil. again we're seeing speculation. we knew it was there before. we're seeing it again. we have large inventories. no reason for the price to spike. but we have these people and these commodity traders who are rolling the dice as they're

coming to las vegas. i think i'll roll the dice on oil because i think the price of oil is going to go up. so what sanders is doing is really nothing, not unique, he wanted to make sure that the entity responsible for making sure there's no shenanigans being conducted by these traders, that we pass some legislation saying you've got to do better than what you've done, in effect, and i'm paraphrasing and making a shorthand-pick tour of what this legislatio -- a shk tour of what that legislation was. fairly noncontroversial but the republicans said. no. -- but the republicans said no. who's trying protect -- who are they trying to protect, mr. president? so we were generous in our off offer. they came back and said, let's see, what is another amendment they wanted to offer?

they still had another amendment, and i said, fine, go ahead. no, i said, fine go, ahead. you know, mr. president, the senate should take hard votes. i'm not concerned about my folks having to take difficult votes. the presiding officer knows in the short time he's been here, we've taken some hard votes. but that's what we're elected to do. we're not elected to run from issues. just to be clear, some of the amendments which my republican colleagues wanted to include would have been votes that had nothing to do with this bill, but i said, let's do it any is way. but the standard for a democrat offering an amendment that was not germane i guess is different -- before i said we don't even need the same number of amendments. i guess what's good for us is not good for them. so i'm disappointed, mr. president, this hasn't worked out. i was going to propound an agreement which, if agreed upon,

would permit the senate to begin the process of legislating on this most important tourism bi bill, but i'm not able to do so because we don't have a republican here to object and i certainly am not going to take advantage of anyone because no one's here to object. but i do want the record to reflect that the majority is ready to move forward with amendments. now or monday. and i hope that on monday, when our managers are here, that senators dorgan and martinez, that we may still be able to reach an agreement and begin in earnest a process of working through this legislation. we can, mr. president. we're going to vote at 5:30 on monday on a -- cloture on this bill. the decision's going to have to be made. i haven't tried to jam anybody. we haven't tried to jam anybody. we have been as reasonable as anyone could be. but people are going to have to make a decision. this legislation, the state of oregon, the home of the presiding officer, a couple years ago i took my family to

oregon every summer we'd take all five children and all 16 grandchildren and try to go someplace. we went to oregon. we rented a home on the beautiful coast. it was stark. for eight days, mr. president, the sun didn't shine. but i loved it, being from the desert, i loved that. it and a little bit. it was wonderful. i'd love to go back. there was so many things to do around there. we drove 20 miles to see afall. a water -- a waterfall. a waterfay of some 300 or -- a waterfall of some 300 or 400 feet there. wasn't a lot of volume but, boy, did it fall a long ways of the point i'm make, mr. president, is there's so much for people to see. years ago, unlv had a great basketball team. they're great but they were great. tarkanian years. so i flew into portland with my wife. we drove over the course, drove

down the coast and went to i think it was called salem, university of oregon, or oregon state, whatever university it was, where they had this tournament. and, you know, i watched unlv play. the reason i mention that, oh, driving down that coast, it was so beautiful. so -- but every state -- every state i've ever been to -- i've been to most of them -- i think i've been to awful them -- have beautiful things for people to come and see. and that's what this legislation is all about. the number one, two, or three most important driver of the economy in every state is tourism. every state. it's the same in oregon, where unemployment now is over 23 percent. in nevada, it's over 1%. any people come to oregon and nevada, it would be tremendous for those economies. that's what this legislation does. it sets up a public-private partnership. it's modeled, frankly, over what the las vegas convention

visitor's story did. which has been so successful. and that's what we -- that's what this legislation is all about, this bipartisan legislation. i hope that because we couldn't work anything out on the amendments, i hope we'll get cloture on the bill. but whether we do or not, i'm happy to work with my republican colleagues to move forward on this. mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that we close morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, morning business is closed. mr. reid: it's my understanding a bill is going to now be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report them. the clerk: calendar number 71, s. 1023, a bill to establish a nonprofit corporation to communicate united states entry policies and otherwise promote leisure, business and scholarly travel to the united states. mr. reid: mr. president, the majority on the commerce committee has provided authority to the chairman, senator

rockefeller, to withdraw the committee amendments and the chairman has now provided me with that authority. therefore, mr. president, under the authority granted by senator rockefeller of the commerce committee, i now withdraw the committee amendments. the presiding officer: the committee amendments are withdrawn. before reid: on behalf of senators dorgan and rockefeller, i offer a perfecting amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, for mr. dorgan and mr. rockefeller, proposes an amendment numbered 1347. mr. reid reid: i ask further reg of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: it's my understanding that there is a cloture motion at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the dorgan amendment number 1347 to s. 1023, the travel promotion act of 2009. signed by 17 senators as follows -- mr. reid: mr. president, i would ask consent that further reading

of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: but die ask for the yeas and -- but i do ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 1348 to amendment numbered 1347. at the end of the amendment -- supply reid: i ask further reading of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i now call up my amendment to the language proposed to be stricken and ask for its consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 1349 to the language proposed be stricken by amendment number 1347. mr. reid: i now ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there is. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment that's now at the desk