the signatures. every authorizing committee needs to be looking at what they can do to do the job better with less cost and more efficiently. the budget committee should be producing a budget that can be adhered to and passed that would bind the senate to change the spending trajectory we have been on but none of that is happening. instead we have a bill this morning to raise the debt limit because we spend so much money that if we don't raise the debt limit there will be substantial reductions in spending occurring pretty quickly. that is where we are. in this bill that was produced last night and i haven't had time to fool the study it, i believe it raises serious questions about the united states senate and how we do

business. i warned we would be at the eleventh hour when this came forward. i didn't think it would be at the 11.99th our at the last minute with tomorrow being august 2nd. i thought we would have more than one day to look at this. so we have this bill before us. a number of things. the one thing in particular that concerned me as ranking member of the budget committee is certain budget numbers. in a way gets around again the budget process. it is going to give my colleagues the democratic majority, additional avenues to avoid producing a budget for the third consecutive year. that is why it is in there. it was in there for that

purpose. i don't believe that is a healthy process. secondly i asked my colleagues to think about this and i will wrap up and go into great detail about it. we are being asked to allow our leaders to select up to 12 people who will be on a special committee and have almost complete jurisdiction to work on any issue they choose and after they reach an agreement if they do, that agreement will be presented to both houses of congress, there will be a leak 30 hours of debate. no opportunity to amend it and there will be an up or down vote. and i have to say the chances of that up or down vote being

successful is very high because the product will come out of that committee will be in harmony with what the leaders who appointed the committee desire because the power to appoint is the power to control. the committee will come back with this leadership proposal on the floor and it will be up or down vote and likely very likely to pass. hopefully it will have some good things in it. i don't deny that. hopefully it will be a very good thing but it can't really -- it is unlikely it will go past $2.4 billion. or $1.2 trillion in reduced spending over ten years. that is the range they have been given. 1.5 additional spending reductions on top of the $900 billion that will go into effect with the passage of the

legislation. you come out with 2.1 or $2.2 trillion total and i believe an insufficient number is not close to what we have got because over ten years the debt of the united states will increase $13 trillion. sort of reducing it is not enough. it just is not. we heard the economists and people testify before the budget committee, republicans and democrats say that. many economists said the absolute minimum is $4 trillion and this will be half that. we will have an up or down vote and presumably it will pass and the great traditions of the senate, opened the gates will not occur to the degree that it

ought to occur. the regular order will not be followed. committees will have only the ability to send over what they desire and as a result i think we as members of the senate need to ask ourselves, i know the majority leader and the republican leader of this body and respect it but we are getting pretty far away from the traditions of this body when you don't publicly debate a budget and create a committee of limited numbers of people to produce legislation that can't be amended and will only be up or down. no ability for a supermajority vote contrary to the normal process of this body so for those reasons i feel like as a

senator and ranking member who has wrestled with this for some time i would not be able to support the legislation. i truly believe it is a step forward and i respect my colleagues who have worked hard to bring it forward. i thank the chairman daniel before. >> debate from the senate floor yesterday on raising the nation's debt ceiling. it passed in the house yesterday by a vote of 269-161. the final debate moves to the senate this morning with a vote on final passage set for noon eastern today. leaders agree 60 votes will be needed to pass it on to president obama for his signature. live coverage of that debate right now on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senao order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, e senate in prayer.

the chaplain: let us pray. give ear to our prayers, eternal god, and guide us like a shepherd leads a flock. turn us toward you as you cause your face to shine so that we shall be saved. feed our lawmakers with the bread of wisdom so that they will accomplish your purposes. delivering them from the tyranny of the trivial, may they trust you to guide their steps. as they remember the high price and preciousness of freedom, inspire them with the relentless and sacrificial vigilance

required to preserve it. we pray in your great 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 communicae senate. the clerk: washington d.c., august 2, 2011. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable jeanne shaheen, a senator from the state of new hampshire,

to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, i'll make a motion to concur on the house message to accompany s. 365, the legislative vehicle for the debt limit compromise. the time until noon will be equally divided and controlled for debate. at noon the senate will conduct a roll call vote on the motion to concur on the house message with a 60-vote threshold. i ask unanimous consent that an intern in senator bingaman's office, trey debrian be granted floor privileges during today's session of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, i now ask the chair to lay before the senate the house message took company s. 365. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved.

the chair lays before the senate a message from the house. the clerk: resolved that the bill from the senate, s. 365, entitled an act to make a technical amendment to the education sciences reform act of 2002 do pass with an amendment. mr. reid: madam president, prior to the previous order i move to concur to the house amendment to s. 365. the presiding officer: the motion is pending. mr. reid: senator mcconnell and i have completed our statements. as i understand it, we move to the matter before senate; is that right? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr.mr. alexander: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i ask unanimous consent that speakers on the

republican side be allocated up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: madam president, finally washington is taking some responsibility for spending money that we don't have. at a time when the federal government is borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends, this is a welcome change in behavior, and i gladly support it. make no mistake, this is a change in behavior from spend, spend, spend to cut, cut, cut. let me give you one example. on christmas eve in 2010, congress raised the debt ceiling and attached to it $1 trillion in new spending over ten years in the new health care law. this time for every dollar we're raising the debt ceiling, we're reducing spending by $1, not adding to it. this reduction in spending over ten years is about $2.4 trillion.

here's another example. according to senator portman, who used to be the nation's budget director, the congressional budget office would say that if congress did this kind of dollar-for-dollar reduction for spending every time a president asked to us raise the debt ceiling, we'd balance the budget in ten years. and here's another one: the "wall street journal" reported yesterday that because of these spending cuts, the discretionary part of the budget, which is about 39% of the entire federal budget, will grow over the next ten years at a little less than the rate of inflation. if we could control the rest of the budget so that it would grow to anything close to the rate of inflation, we would balance the budget in no time. and balancing the budget is exactly what our goal ought to be. i did it every year as governor of tennessee. families in america do it every day. it's time to balance the government's books and live within our means.

these spending reductions are an important step, but they're just one step and no one should underestimate how difficult the next steps will be. these spending cuts do almost nothing to restructure medicare and social security so that seniors can count on them and taxpayers can afford them. the president's budget projections still double and triple the federal debt. under the president's budget, according to the congressional budget office, in ten years we'll be spending more in interest on the debt than we spend on national defense. and in january 2013, the very first thing the next president will have to do is to ask the congress to increase the debt ceiling. this problem wasn't created overnight and it won't be solved overnight. but if i were sitting at union station trying to catch a train to new york and someone offered me a ticket to philadelphia or

baltimore, i'd take it and then i'd find a way to get to new york from there. so today's vote is an opportunity to take an important step in the right direction towards stopping washington from spending money it doesn't have. we should take it and then get ready to find ways to take the next step and the next step and the next. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: madam president, this is an historic vote and it's one that has involved a lot of emotion and a lot of soul-searching and a lot of hard work. our leaders are on the floor, democrat and republican leaders in the senate -- senators reid and mcconnell. i want to salute both of them for working so hard to bring us to this moment where we have an opportunity to vote. the house has passed this legislation, so-called budget control act. the senate will take it up shortly. it is my belief that it will

also pass in the united states senate. but my vote for this legislation does not come without some pain. you're told in life to follow your conscience. well, madam president, on this matter my conscience is conflicted. if this bill should fail, we will default on our nation's debt. that will be the first time that has ever happened. and if we should default at midnight tonight on our nation's debt, terrible things will ensue. we will find america's credit rating in the world diminished. the interest rates tkh we pay as a -- which we pay as a nation increased, the cost of money for businesses and families across the united states will increase at exactly the wrong time, in the midst of recession. if we fail to pass this legislation, tomorrow the secretary of treasury would sit down with the president of the

united states and decide in the month of august which americans who were expecting a check will actually receive one. will we pay social security recipients? will we pay the members of our military? will we pay the central intelligence agency? it is an impossible choice that the president would face if we fail. but there's another side to this story. if this bill passes, we will reduce spending on critical programs. we have to be honest about it. fewer children from poor families will be enrolled in early childhood education. working families and their children will face even more debt to pay for college education. medical research will likely be cut and the list goes on. so from where i stand, it is not the clearest moral choice. i spoke to our chaplain before we started the session about a

line in shakespeare that i have always struggled to understand. it is from hamlet, and it's the line in his famous sol little kweu when he said -- soliliquy when he said conscience makes cowards of us you will. i struggle with the question of defunding on the debt and passing this bill with all of the consequences on innocent people in america. madam president, i've spent the last year and a half focused on this debt situation like i've never been focused before. i understand it a little better today than i did when i started, and i've come to the conclusion that if we are going to be honest about our debt and honest about reducing it, we have to be honest on how it will happen. sure, we must cut spending. that's where we have to start. but we also have to understand that it goes beyond that.

we have to be prepared to raise revenue. in the simpson-bowles commission and in the gang of six, i thought we came up with an honest answer to that question. it was a balanced approach that put everything on the table. well, this bill makes a serious and significant down payment in spending cuts. now a joint committee is created to take the next step. i will say this, if the next step is to be fair, if the next step is to be serious, it has to go beyond spending cuts. it has to look at serious questions about how we can save money in entitlement programs without compromising our commitment and how we can ask those who have profited so well in america, who live so comfortably to join us in this effort by paying more in taxes. that is the stark reality. if we continue to move toward more and more spending cuts, we

will literally disadvantage the poor and working families of america to the advantage of those who are well off. that isn't fair and it isn't right. many of us -- many people who criticize us say, you know, you don't even read these bills that you vote on. so yesterday i sat down to read this bill. it's not that long. and i will have to tell you that the front end of the bill is almost unintelligible. you need someone from budget committee sitting next to you to explain each paragraph. but i basically understand that portion of it. i also understand the portion that senator mcconnell proposed how we'll sequence for interest in the national debt. i certainly understand and am puzzled in some ways by the joint committee's basic charge to find in ten weeks anywhere from $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in savings over the next ten years. in ten weeks these 12 members of

the house and senate are to come together and reach an agreement. it's a daunting task. but there's one provision in here that i really want to call the attention of the senate to, and it is one that troubles me greatly. it is a provision that calls for, requires that the united states senate and house of representatives before december 31 of this year vote on a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. madam president, i searched this bill long and hard to find the language of that constitutional amendment, because i thought if we're going to have to face the prospect of amending the constitution, i want to know what the language is. this is a, an awesome responsibility. madam president, you can read this bill from top to bottom; there is not one word of substance about that amendment. all it says is the house and senate shall consider a bill which is a -- quote -- "joint resolution to amend the constitution of the united states to balance the budget." end of quote, end of substance,

end of reference in this bill. it gets better. not only do they require us to take up the balanced budget amendment and fail to include the language of that amendment, listen closely, this bill says there shall be no amendments to the proposed resolution in committee in the house or on the floor of the house, in the committees of the senate nor on the floor of the senate. take it or leave it. as i say these words, i can imagine robert c. byrd descending from heaven, standing at that desk and waiving this constitution and reminding members of the united states senate that one of the few times in our lives when we have taken a solemn oath, members of the senate swore up to hold and defend this document, this writing. he would find it nothing short of outrageous that we are mandating a vote on a constitutional amendment that is not even written, that we are

prohibiting the house and the senate from considering, even considering the change of one word in that proposed constitutional amendment. madam president, i think the language of this bill entirely discredits this effort toward a constitutional amendment. we cannot take it seriously if we take our oath seriously to uphold and defend this document. madam president, at the end of the day, i will vote for this measure, and obviously with a heavy heart there are parts of it that i will struggle to explain and defend, but i can't let this american economy descend into chaos if we fail to extend the debt ceiling. the job ahead will be hard, but let us hope that we will in reducing this deficit further do it in a balanced and fair way with everything on the table. at the end of the day, members of congress and people in higher income categories should feel that they, too, are called to

sacrifice. if we ask that of the poorest in america and of working families, we can ask no less of members of congress and those who are well off in this great nation. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the other senator from illinois. mr. kirk: thank you, madam president. although this bill reflects a balanced approach, americans also expect a balanced budget. we need to apply the common sense of the heartland to spend within our means as each family does with its monthly budget. the battle over this legislation was hard fought. we have finally started to change a 40-year culture of overspending and overborrowing in just 40 days. we hear the american people and we respect their judgment. they tell us that they are not

undertaxed. they tell us that washington overspends. we have a government that claims to support a strong economy but urges tax increases that will weaken it. we hear speeches from some who want to expand employment but then attack employers. they argue for more access to credit but then assail the banks that would provide it. they call for more american energy but decry the very explorers who would find it. we need more straight talk and accountability. small businesses provide the most jobs, and we should reward them. inventors create new economies, and we should encourage them. many government programs fail in their objectives. sometimes for decades, and we should cancel them. we face mounting government debts. the way to pay these debts is to

generate more jobs, creating more taxpayers who will provide additional revenue, not new federal job-killing taxes. given the views of our president and the economically liberal members of this senate, the legislation before us is the best deal that we can get. this legislation caps regular appropriations of the congress. it eliminates procedural impediments so that we will vote on how to cut automatic spending programs. we even installed automatic spending programs regardless of congressional gridlock as a back stop to ensure fiscal responsibility. this bill prevents a crisis from breaking out this week. it also begins to control automatic spending programs, many of whom have run without much accountability since the

1960's. all of this is a down payment on further ways to bring common sense, accountability and control to the spending of our government. these basic values are the foundation of america's 200-year experiment in self-government. if we fail, we deliver a free people into the hands of a financial bondage. if we succeed, we honor the promise of limited government that offers greater and greater liberties to each generation of americans so that they could reach their own potential. i will vote for this legislation because it begins to make the hard choices to keep us free, but it is only a first step and a crucial one to increase the transparency, performance and results we should demand from america's government.

this bill sets an important precedent, to reform automatic spending. if we use that precedent again, then i can imagine an america that once again becomes the best place on earth for inventors and families to start and expand businesses that will provide for their children and, in a few cases, will span the globe with american exports to each market of the planet. and, madam president, with that, i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. udall: thank you, madam president. over the past two years, our country has been struggling to recover from one of the worst economic recessions in our history. democrats have worked to pass legislation that would create jobs.

it's been our top priority, but at every turn, we faced resistance from idealogues that cared more about winning political points than protecting the wealthy and doing what is right for hard-working american families. that is exactly what happened during this debt ceiling debate. instead of passing a clean extension and getting to work on our economy, we have been forced to vote on a last-minute deal to prevent the economic catastrophe that would result in default. i spent the last few weeks and months highlighting the real-life consequences of default for new mexico families. at a time when families are already dealing with extremely tight budgets. a default would mean increased costs for just about everything. from food to gas to housing to sending the kids to college.

it would also jeopardize critical federal benefits that veterans, seniors and others depend on to pay the bills and stay healthy. it would mean more than 360,000 new mexicans in danger of losing their social security benefits. it would mean another 300,000 who would rely on medicare, seeing their health care disrupted. it would mean 174,000 new mexico veterans may not receive their benefits, and more than 1,400 active duty military personnel may not receive paychecks for their services. but it wouldn't stop there. even if you don't depend on a check from the federal government every month for health care or retirement or other benefits, you would still feel the financial pain of default. that's