vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, the ayes are 67, the nays are 32. the conference report to accompany h.r. 2055 is agreed to. the majority leader.

mr. reid: i ask the senate proceed -- i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business until 2:00 p.m. today, senators during that period of time be permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: i note the absence of a quorum. mr. president, i withdraw that. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i rise to ask unanimous consent of all of my colleagues, before i explain the unanimous consent request, i will give a little bit of background. this is senate bill 1874 that senator snowe and i have worked on for some time because of our mutual interest in making the hub zone process for rural economic development work better. when this process occurs with each census, there is a two-yea nightmare of red tape before communities that should benefit from this economic development opportunity have the ability to do so, and across the country

right now, we have rural communities that absolutely need to benefit from this most recent census. they have high unemployment rates. they are hit hard by the drop in exports. they are hit hard by the collapse of the housing community. sawmills have shut down, paper mills have shut down. and so so many folks come to this floor to talk about cutting red tape and talking about helping economy in the heart of rural america. they come to this floor and they talk about how important economic development and jobs is, and this is a little fix that takes a year out of the bureaucracy, and that's why senator snowe and i have worked together on this process. now, twice we have brought this forward and twice it has been cleared by every member of this body. neither time did it make it into

a bill that got to the president's desk. so we are coming back once more to say let common sense to fix this snafus -- the snafus in the bureaucracy that are taking away opportunity for rural america. let's put an end to that today. and i will defer to my colleague to speak and then we will ask for unanimous consent. i yield to the senator from maine. ms. snowe: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. snowe: thank you, and i want to thank the senator from oregon regarding this critical issue that we have been working on for a considerable period of time, that we thought we had really cleared on both sides. there is no objections to this language, which is mightily important to improving the rural economies of this country, particularly because it would expedite the hub zone designation to allow small businesses in those hub zones to

provide jobs by virtue of the fact that they would get preferential treatment in the contracting process. as we know, the federal government has more than $400 billion worth of contracts. we want to make sure that small businesses and particularly those located in hard-hit areas of our country have access to those contracting dollars and are able to participate on an equal footing. this would create jobs. so i regret the fact that we are not able to get support to move this legislation forward because i know the senator from oregon has tested it on both sides. we have run it through the hotline. there are no objections to the language, and i cannot understand why we can't move this very important proposition that absolutely would be central to creating jobs in the areas that need it most throughout the country, especially when we get such a high unemployment rate. so this isn't a difficult issue

to understand. it's very straightforward. everybody agrees to the language. it's making sure that we can improve the language so we can expedite the time frame in which these des nations occur for hub zones, particularly because hub zones are those areas that are suffering most with respect to the downturn of this economy. when we have a paltry economic growth of 1.3%, .4% or 2%, when we have an unemployment rate that's 8.6% but we have had 9% or higher for a good 28 months or the last 34 months, we need to do something about it, and this could help small businesses and it could help those people in those areas who are currently unemployed. so i would hope that there would be no objections with respect to this initiative. and i want to thank the senator from oregon for his leadership on this matter. mr. merkley: i thank my colleague. and the third sponsor on this bill is senator landrieu, the

chair of the small business committee, and i yield to her. mr. kyl: mr. president, i ask the indulgence of my colleague. if my colleague could ask the unanimous consent request to which i can respond, then i can leave. would my colleague be willing to do that, please? mr. merkley: we would be willing to do that, absolutely. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the banking committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 1874, the hub zone qualified census track act of 2011, and the senate proceed to its consideration, that the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to the bill be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. kyl: mr. president, on -- there is objection on our side, and i will object, but i do want to make the point that as a result of senator snowe and senator merkley's intercession here, our staff has talked to senator shelby who says that he

will try to work to get it cleared and to hotline it again on our side today. so at this time i cannot clear it, but there will be an effort to accomplish that result. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i thank my colleague from arizona. we appreciate his help. we appreciate the -- the ranking member of the banking committee assisting in this matter, and i yield to my colleague from louisiana. ms. landrieu: thank you. mr. president, i want to add my voice to the strong work that has been done by senator merkley and senator snowe, and as the chair of the committee that has some jurisdiction over the hub zone program, i want to urge the banking committee and the staff and offer the staff of the small business committee for the majority side to work very hard today to see if we can get this cleared. it's very, very important to the ranking member of our committee who has worked so hard on this and to the senator from oregon

who has made very strong arguments about the expediting and streamlining some of these approvals. so i wish them the best. we're going to work today to see if we can get this cleared, and it would be the second really substantial victory in sort of the home -- in the small business space, having gotten our sbir bill through just recently, after six years of very acrimonious debate, if we could get this fix to the hub zone program, it would be terrific, and i just thank the senators for their hard work, and i yield the floor. mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i thank all my colleagues. do you have additional comments you would like to make? thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. pryor: i understand we're in a quorum call. i ask that be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: mr. president, as we close out the year, i want to take time today to honor the work and career of tim massinelli. last month tim stepped down as his position as parliamentarian of the arkansas house of representatives, a place that he has worked since 1973, 39 good years of valuable public service. when tim first came to work for the arkansas house of representatives, things were much different than they are today. my long-time friend dale bumpers was our governor and richard nixon was president. i was in the fourth grade. upholding the mantra of citizen

legislature, the arkansas house had no permanent employees and only a small story system in the bureau of legislative research, with our nation and state modernizing full-time employees were needed in the house, and tim was in the right place at the right time. he was also exactly the right man for the job. growing up in pine bluff, arkansas, tim's family raised him to be civiccally engaged and active in his community, traits he has since passed on to his three sons. with a background in small business and politics and an expertise in parliament procedure, tim was a natural fit for the parliamentarian position. however, he did not start there. his first session, he worked for the house sound board. tim through his hard work and smarts and charismatic personality transformed the office and role of parliamentarian. he took on the responsibility for making the house operations

run as smooth as possible, whether the legislature was in or out of session. naturally, the parliamentarian advises the appreciation and all 100 members of the state house about procedural matters, and tim did a great job of that over the years, but he became much more important to the body than that. during his time of service, 19 speakers of the house, seven governors and over 1,000 members of the arkansas house came to rely on tim for his knowledge and skills in navigating the legislative process. in years past, the arkansas general assembly was dominated by senior legislators with sometimes decades of experience each. when arkansas adopted term limits in 1992, members could only serve three terms, so the constant turnover meant dramatically increased reliance on tim's skills and knowledge.

he established a more rigorous orientation for each new class of new legislators that taught them how to be good and effective representatives. without his experience and insight, the arkansas house and the current members would not be nearly as strong as they are today. on a personal note, let me say this about tim massinelli. i consider him a friend. when i was a 27-year-old freshman representative, i was determined to learn the rules, and tim was my teacher. you know the old saying that there is no such thing as a dumb question. well, i put that to the test a few times, but he was a mentor, a counselor, a father figure, and he just took care of me. truthfully, he made himself available to anybody who needed anything. i suspect that same commitment that he has to others and to the institution that he loves makes him the best deacon our lady of

the holy souls catholic church has ever had. he has helped me in many, many ways over the years, but i think the biggest favor he ever did for me was when he told me that his son randy would be a good hire in the attorney general's office. now, we hired a lot of good people in that office, but everybody agrees that randy massinelli was the best hire i ever made, and he is still the best hire i ever made. the qualities that make randy so valuable to others were ingrained in him by tim massinelli, and i bet dotty had a little bit to do with that as well. whether it's a sense of humor, wise counsel or his skills in parliament procedure, i know tim's daily presence will be missed around the arkansas state house of representatives. i wish him the best in his transition and thank him for his many years of service to the state of arkansas. i yield the floor.

mr. pryor: i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i rise to pay tribute to a woman who is a dear friend of mine, now sadly departed, who was deeply committed to serving her community in northern kentucky and who left everything she touched a little better off than it was before she found it. i'm speaking of mary middleton of fort mitchell, kentucky, who tragically died in an accident on november 22, 2011. mary was 83 years old. i know northern kentucky would not be the same if not for the timeless dedication of mary and her family over more than five

decades. a community leader, philanthropist, lifelong adventurer and supporter of public service, mary middleton's loss is a great loss for the people of kenton county and the entire commonwealth of kentucky. mary actually grew up in wisconsin, although there is no doubt that after more than 50 years, kentucky was her home. as a young woman, she was keen on traveling the world. also, a frugal woman, she attempted to do so on dollars 10 a day. somewhere in france, she ran out of money and had to telegraph her father to send her some more. mary also went to work for the ywca as a tray to travel -- way to travel and to have someone other than her father foot the bill. on a ywca assignment in hawaii, she met a young naval officer named clyde middleton. the couple married and when clyde was transferred to cincinnati by his employer

procter and gamble, they eventually settled in northern kentucky. test. they got off the airplane and saw ought beautiful trees and said, this is where we want to live, says their son, john middleton who is the kenton county circuit court clerk. and northern kentucky's a much better place because she was here. mary was determined to make her mark early. in the 1950's, she ran for a kentucky statehouse seat as a republican, at a time in kentucky when it was impossible to be elected unless you were a man and a democrat. thankful, times have changed on both counts. mary did -- mary did not succeed in that race but she didn't let that stop her from having an influence. in 1960, she founded the kenton county republican women's club, an organization that is still one of the strongest and most active of its type in the state. and mary continued to be involved with the club until her

passing. mary also played a critical role in supporting her husband collide's political can -- clyde's political career during his two decades of public service in the kentucky legislature, and as a kenton county executive. and as i mentioned, her son john is the court clerk. public service runs in the middleton family. so does compassion for those who are less fortunate. mary showed that compassion in so many different ways. through her volunteer work with the salvation army, the red cross, church women united, and her home church of gloria dodd lutheran. somehow she also found time to dedicate to the covington optimist club and the florence women's club, as well as the kenton county republican women's club that she had actually founded. the day before she died, mary drove a cancer patient to treatment at st. elizabeth hospital, something she and

clyde had done for many years. mary was a teacher at the mcmillen center alternative school, the cincinnati inquirer, in fact, honored her in 1981 as woman of the year. this christmas season, as kentuckians flock to the shopping malls and stores, they will walk by the familiar salvation army red kettle and hear the bell. sadly, one bell ringer who will be missing is mary middleton. it's a testament to the effect that she had on others, that within days of her death, dozens of volunteers in kenton county stepped forward to fill the hole she left behind and ring that bell. elaine and i are profoundly saddened by the loss of mary middleton and her deepest condolences go to her family, her husband clyde, her sons, john, david and richard, her daughter, anne smith, her eight grandchildren and many other beloved family members and

friends. mr. president, i know my colleagues here in the u.s. senate join me in honoring mrs. mary middleton, mourning her loss and wishing for comfort for her family. the "cincinnati inquirer" recently published an article celebrating mary's life. i ask unanimous consent that it appear in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: ms. landrieu: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the roll call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'm here to put in a few remarks regarding the homeland security

budget. before i do, i just want to commend the minority leader for that beautiful tribute. i've been privileged to be on the floor several times when he's offered tributes to his constituents in kentucky and others and i always find them to be so beautifully written and delivered. and i understand he writes them himself. so i was very touched by his memories of a special constituent and i wish him and all the people of kentucky a great holiday season. mr. president, i wanted to say just a few words about the homeland security appropriations bills, one of the nine that we just approved this morning. i was proud to work with my ranking member, the senator from indiana, senator dan coats, as my ranking member and very fraud work with the senator from new jersey, frank lautenberg, who serves in a very honorary sort of vice chair of the committee because of his seniority and tremendous expertise in this

area. i wanted to put into the record some facts about the bill. this bill has been openly and publicly debated for almost a year and there are some very important components of this bill that i think are of great interest to the people that we serve. first, the bill totals for 2012 $39.858 billion, so just slightly below $40 billion. it's not one of the largest in our government but it's neither the smallest. it's sort of in the mid-range of departments but a very important department, one that was just created. as you know, mr. president, in the aftermath and the heartbreak of 9/11. it's a department that has had tremendous success in the ten years but with a lot of growing pains, a lot of difficulty

getting their feet underneath them, bringing in agencies from around the government to provide the front line of defense against attacks to our home lann. and i want to commend -- against attacks to our homeland. and i want to commend secretary napolitano for the great work that she has done in the last two years to strengthen this department, to make very tough decisions which all of our administrators are having to make about how to allocate resources and how to set priorities because we are reducing budgets, we are in a process of eliminating, of trimming, of rescinding. and that's very difficult, because, frankly, everything we do here, almost everything we do at the federal level is important to somebody, to some entity, to some state, to some business cluster, to some activity of the government. and despite the -- the common refrain, that there's a lot of waste, fraud and abuse, the fact of the matter, mr. president,

we've been shaving that, eliminating that substantially over the last several years. now we're down to the bone and muscle. and when you're defending a country, you need to have a lot of muscle. and when you're defending a country, you have to have a lot of brainpower and you've got to have a lot of backbone. and that's what this bill represents, a lot of muscle and a lot of strength to defend our country. now, there's no guarantee that we won't have another attack but this is the bill that makes that less likely. and that's why i fight as the chair of this committee to strengthen it, to have reliable partners at the state and local level because we cannot do this alone. we need our local police, we need our state government eyes on the ground, in neighborhoods, both in urban areas, mr. president, as you basically represent in delaware, but we

also need them out in rural areas where we have very sophisticated and serious potential targets for terrorists in terms of power structure, power generation, electrical structure, energy structures, our ports, which are mostly in urban areas but sometimes you'll find a certain niche port somewhere out where there sort of off the beaten path. we need to protect it all, and so i've got to be very careful and the members of my committee worked very hard to allocate the $40 billion that was given to us, $39 billion, which was less than we got last year, in an appropriate way. and it was less than we got last year, mr. president, but the needs are greater. drug trafficking is increasing in mexico, not decreasing. the pressures on our southern border are increasing, not

decreasing. the need to expedite our travelers faster through the screening, both for commercial and vacation travelers, is increasing, not decreasing. so people think that there's some kind of way we can come to washington and wave a magic wand and make all of these needs go down. actually, mr. president, you know that as the needs are going oup, we are flattening and cutting budgets, which makes it very difficult. and my job -- i just want to get this point in -- is made as appropriators even harder because despite the good work that my ranking member has done on helping us to build this bi bill, as you know, the republican caucus has been absolutely unmovable on putting any new money on the table from any source, including trying t to -- we have tried, the president has tried -- to raise

some revenues from people making over a million dollars a year. actually, you have to make over a million dollars to pay this surcharge. we have been unable to convince anyone on the other side, or very few -- i think we've had one or two republicans that have stood up and i'm very proud of them -- to say that we've got to put some more money on the table as we continue to cut programs to close this deficit gap and to make sure that we have the basics covered. and i think that senator mccain and senator kyl think the basics are the border and they may be right and i've supported them. we've added a thousand new border patrol agents in the last year, but it costs money. we've had to find that money to this bill and so other things had to be reduced. i understand that. businesses do that all the time. but businesses also sell more products and bring in more

money. businesses also can increase the prices of their products sometimes to bring in more revenue. we're having a hard time getting the other side of this body to understand that sometimes you've got to bring in more revenue as well as cutting to make this work. so i'm presenting a bill that i'm proud of at $39 billion. i'm just going to say that it's going to be very difficult to go much further down and to continue to do the things that i'm going to outline that we do in this bill. first of all, we've spent a lot of time this year because we had to, talking about disasters, because this was the worst year on record for disasters in the united states. from fires in the west to floods in the mississippi to hurricanes raking the northeast to tornadoes. we've just had our -- our fill. and the weather service just last week came out and said that this year for the first time

since they recorded this, mr. president, that we had over 12 disasters over a billion dollars each. so this year, 2011, was a very tough year. so i've spent, as the chair, our members, a lot of time talking about disasters. i'm not going to do that at this moment because i think we've done enough talking. we had a great vote. we funded fema. it was a great victory for people that were looking for our help. but what i want to talk about is what else our homeland security bill does because it's not just responding to disasters, which i'm very proud we took care of this morning. but we also do a lot of other important things and fund a lot of other important things in this bill, including securing our borders. the whole border -- the northern border, the southern border, ports of entry -- i think we have over 125.

people don't realize this. you don't see t like if you live in missouri or you live in kansas or you live maybe in arkansas, you're not familiar with the borders along texas, how big they are, in arizona. but it is a lot of land that has to be covered, and it's the federal government's responsibility. it takes a tremendous amount of money to secure the border, but our country wants us to do that. we've invested in more border agents, in better technology, and i'm even coming -- trying to come up with some very cost-effective ways to improve the physical infrastructure of borders, because not only do they serve to protect our nation from people that shouldn't come in, but we also have to get a lot of things across our border, like all the commerce and traffic and vegetables and agriculture products and manufactured products that our businesses depend on to have

good trade with canada and mexico, with nafta, which is a very important trade foundation for our continent. we just can't close our borders and shut it down. we have to keep it open, so america, unlike every other country in the world, mr. president, really, we're one of the only countries that is both has to fight hard for a -- fight hard for our security but we're also very open. this is a very hard thing to do. we have to have smarter border crossings, not old-fashioned ones and out of date. that's what our bill supports, or we try to. we're having a very difficult time because no one will put the dime on the table. we have to keep finding ways to do this. we have to enforce our immigration laws. everybody at home tells us they want the laws enforced. it costs money to enforce those laws. that is in this bill.

we have to, as i said, facilitate trade. we have to protect our currency. we secure the cyberspace, which is a whole growing enterprise in space that we're learning a great deal about. we won't be fighting wars the way we have in the past. our enemies will be attacking us in very different and innovative ways, not army-to-army, navy-to-navy, men and women on the battlefield as we've become accustomed. they will be attacking our utility sector, trying to shut down our financial systems. we're so reliant and interrelated on all of the digital networking. iternetworking it's very fritessenning, mr. president, to think about what could happen. this bill helps protect all of our federal agencies and businesses, except for defense -- defense protects themselves. but our bill has to protect the

homelanhomeland and the privater and we have a long way to go. not just big companies but small companies have to be protected. we have to work in partnership with them. may i mention our t.s.a., aviation -- we fund that. and then we make sure that the trade -- and i want to mention this for louisiana. our fish hemen have had a terrible time. maybe in delaware and other places along the east coast and the west coast you all understand this. but in the gulf, our fish hemen are trying to make a living in the middle of hurricanes and oil spills. in addition, we get crawfish and shrimp dumped from places like china and vietnam, and we need money in this bill to enforce those trade laws. so i stepped up and significantly enhanced that effort in this bill. and i was proud to do it for the maritime -- well, not maritime, but shrimping and fishing

industries in our country, and particularly the gulf coast the and so that is in this bill as well. and i might mention secret service, which we have to support in addition to the coast guard, customs and border protection. it's a lot in our $40 billion bill. let me just make one other point. we have eliminated $204 million of rescissions, as i said, low-priority programs have been eliminated to spend money on high-priority programs. we have reduced administrative funding by over $800 million, and we have reduced the headquarters account by almost $100 million. now, i am one to shave some of this money off of administration, but i can't go much further. and i'll tell you why. because this department is a hard department to manage. and it can't manage itself.

and secretary napolitano must have the resources to manage a department that's only ten years old, that dis disparate agencies together, to have them function. we've seen what happens when you don't invest in management. we've seen what happens when you gut administration. you have a weak shell of a fema show up after katrina and just about ruined our efforts for recovery. we're never going to see that again. so i am committed to fund fema administration, to fund the department. we can cut, we've made some cuts, but i'm telling the other side, you just can't keep cutting administration and then turn around and expect the same agencies to ferret out fraud, waste, and abuse. you need good managers to do that, and we must continue to fund them. i'm proud that i was able to

include $358 million for six fast coast guard cutters. those happen to be built in louisiana. i'm proud of that. but the decision was made well before i got to be chair of this committee for that construction, and i'm proud to have funded that effort and to give the coast guard the upgrade of equipment that they need to do the work that we're asking them to do. and their work just continues to go up. they are very popular -- they are a very popular part of our federal government. everyone, i think, loves the coast guard. we are very fond of them in louisiana because we depend on them for so many things, and i think that their fleet needs to be upgraded. some of these ships are built in other states, some of their infrastructure is in other states. i'll proud to support the offshore patrol cutter, $110 million for 40 response boats, another $129 million for

maritime patrol aircraft mission palates and spares. we have $18 million to replace a helicopter that crashed, and i could give you some other things, but we've tried to do our best by the coast guard to upgrade their equipment that they need us to -- to help in this bill. we've also put in this bill -- and i'm very proud of this, and i hope the public will see some immediate improvement -- $250 million for additional advanced imaging machine machine -- i'm , 250 machines themselves. we put in funding to pay for this so people can get through the security lines faster. we're losing a lot of money as a nation with people stuck in lines, and it's just slowing down our productivity, which is important, as business needs people to travel and of course

being from a state that depends, mr. president, on hospitality, you just recently visited louisiana. we're grateful for you and your family coming to spend some time with us. we'd like everyone to come and spend some time in new orleans and lafayette, baton rouge. i know you had a great fipple, w you have a great time, spending time? n. hotels. when people get too much hassle in travel, they just stop going. and you can't drive your car everywhere you want to go much so making flying a little bit easier -- still safe but easier is something i want to work on. and just a couple more comments and then i'll close. i want to commend the group in louisiana at our cyber innovation center. they received -- not out of this bill but out of the department -- a very small grant to help

with the improvement on training the workforce to be the cyber warriors we need them to be. we need to do that in delaware, we need to do that in louisiana, we need to do it in tax deduction, we need to do it every -- we need to do it in texas, we need do it everywhere. we don't want to have our warrior force, as much as we're proud to have legal immigrants in our country -- we don't want to have to go to india or china or japan to have ph.d.'s or master's omasters to come do th. i'm provided to support some of the efforts in this bill. so it remains the responsibility of each generation to make the necessary investments to secure our homeland. i take this responsibility seriously. my members take it seriously as part of our homeland security committee and we've worked very

hard to produce a good bill for the country. we're proud of this bill. it's about $40 billion of their money. i hope they believe that we are allocating it expandin and spent accordingly. he look forward to the hearings we're going to have next year on some important top iefnlings i submit the rest of my statement for the record, mr. president, i wish you and the staff and everyone here a merry christmas and a happy and blessed holiday. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: we're in morning business, so i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized to speak for up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: thank you, mr. president. it's quiet around here. where did everybody go? actually, it's a pleasure to be here. this will be my last speech of the year. as i said yesterday in another speech, it has been an extraordinary honor and privilege to serve here in the united states senate. i look forward to the next years of doing that, god willing. it's a phenomenal institution. i'm proud of it. although some days make you scratch your head. i'm here on two things before we close out the year. i have a specific interest in

items that impact the western hemisphere. i will take this opportunity to say it's been one of the real treats of the last year, being able to work with senator menendez on the western hemisphere committee. we share a lot of views in common. even on the ones we don't, we have a very cooperative working relationship. it's been a great experience to work with him on that. i look forward to more of that next year on that committee, and with everyone on foreign relations. i know there are a lot of big domestic issues happening, but the things happening around the world matter. they matter a lot to us. whether we relations it or not. i know times are tough economically, you think why should we care what's happening halfway around the world? well, we're not luxembourg, with all respect to luxembourg. we're the united states of america. what that means is every aspect of our life is directly impacted by things that are happening, sometimes halfway around the world. one of the things always in our interest is the promotion of freedom and democracy. it's one of the things that sets us apart from other nations. our greatest export is the american example, the fact that

people look to this country and see it is possible for people to have self-government. i know self-government and this republic sometimes looks messy from the outside looking in. as i tell people often, if you saw the way some of your food was made, you wouldn't eat it. i think sometimes when you look at the political process and the lights that shine on it, there are some things about it in the process that i don't like and you don't like, but it's still better than virtually any other form of government that's existed on the earth. we are all privileged and blessed to be able to live in this republic. any time we have the opportunity to speak out on behalf of democracy and freedom, we should. i had this week the opportunity to engage on that issue, and i want to publicly acknowledge the work of under secretary sherman who has spent a lot of time this week talking to me about gnawing and about elections in -- about nicaragua and about elections in nicaragua that were fraudulent. the western hemisphere is moving toward democracy, free and fair elections. in latin america, sometimes people win elections that we don't agree with, people who don't like us who believe the national interests of their country are contrary to ours,

but the people chose them. unfortunately, what happened in nicaragua is grotesque. this gentleman or this person, daniel ortega, who was a sand nis that, who was a dictator of that country ran for office again. the carter center, for example, wasn't allowed to come in and observe it. the o.a.s. has already talked about real problems with that election. we hope to see their report soon. so let me publicly acknowledge the time and effort the department of state spent talking to me on the phone about ensuring that the united states is a forceful voice on behalf of democracy and freedom in nicaragua and the hemisphere and i appreciate their work on that behalf. i know we're looking forward to the o.a.s. report soon. senator menendez and i have filed a recommendation in this institution that we hope will pass that recognizes this this country should stand firmly on the side of the nicaraguan people for freedom and

democracy. there is another thing i touched on. that is the people to people travel to cuba. i went through the itineraries that show that basically what these trips are all about. it's nothing more than tourism, just tourism. people going to cuba, and the reason why this is problematic is it gives money to the castro government. today in the "miami herald," there is this very disturbing article. this article is called "dissidents send out images of police crackdown. cuban dissidents have sent out photos and videos of a large police crackdown in their town that have left at least five government opponents with head wounds, black eyes and other injuries. one photo of the december 2 roundup of 46 dissidents shows henry perallas with two wounds on his shaved head that required nine striches to close. another shows a man with one stitch on his forehead. cabrera said that wound bled a lot because it was on a blood vessel, but it was a kick to the ribs on the right side that made

me fall to the ground. it still hurts, end quote. the images were sent to the newspaper by luis garcia who is the u.s. representative of the dissident cuban patriotic union, his brother former political prisoner heads the union and was one of the men arrested in the crackdown. union members and supporters took two weeks to smuggle out the photos and videos via emails because they had to work slowly and carefully to avoid police agents who were trying to find and seize the images. this roundup was one of the largest and harshest police crackdowns on dissidents in years. all were freed hours or days later, one of them 12 days later without charges. 46 member had gathered at the house, starting on november 30, with plans to stage a street protest. two days later to demand the release of all political prisoners and respect for human rights. those sound like pretty reasonable requests to me.

release of political prisoners and respect of human rights. this is what they were going to protest on behalf of. cell phone video shot inside the house showed many of the dissidents saying they wanted to show they were not u.s. paid -- quote -- mercenaries, unquote, as the government brands them but rather defenders of human rights. the narrator referred to some of the police deployed outside and he said -- quote -- the oppression that awaits us. these protesters knew what was about to happen. they have seen this before. this is what happens in cuban when you speak out in favor of human rights and against political prisoners, you get your head cracked open. these guys knew this was going to happen but yet they had the bravery to go forward with it. the police indeed did arrest the dissidents as they left the house in groups of four or five and a video taken from a second story balcony showed them punching some of the protesters and forcing them onto a u.s.-styled yellow school bus parked at the end of the block. cabrera said the bus driver who was dressed in civilian clothes hit him as well with a wrench

once inside the bus. the bus driver hit them with a wrench once they got inside the bus. other photos show disdents with black eyes and another with a large bump on his forehead. other dissidents reported black and blue from police strikes. a former political prisoner who was reported beaten said police punched him on the way from the house to the school bus but not afterwards. how nice of them not to punch him afterwards. he spent 12 days in a police lockup in a cell that was smelly and had no water or lights and he shared with common criminals. this was cuba. i doubt that this experience is something that these tourists traveling on u.s. licenses are going to get to see on their next visit to cuba. so the other day i talked about this -- one of these visits that the united states has licensed. it's called ethics and the cuban revolution. how interesting. ethics and the cuban revolution. i wonder if part of that ethics course will be the part about

school bus drivers or drivers dressed as civilians hitting protestors with a wrench. i wonder if that's part of their itinerary. i wonder about the part about cracking people's heads open because they will peacefully protest in the street are part of the itinerary of the ethics in the cuban revolution. why do i bring this up? this is a great forum to do it. the world needs to know what happens 90 miles from our shores. this is one of the most repressive regimes in the western hemisphere's history. it's still in place and ongoing. here is number two. where do they get the money to pay these people? don't you think this guy is getting paid? the civilian bus driver is getting paid to hit people with a wrench or do you think he is doing it for free? how are they paying these police officers? how do you get people to do this stuff? you have to pay them. where do they get the money to pay them? cuba, the government is a fiasco. they don't know anything about the economy. the cuban economy is in the tank because the people who run cuba are incompetent. they have no idea about what a modern economy looks like or how

to create one, apart from the fact that they cling to a broken ideology. so where do they get the money to pay for all these things? sadly, sadly where they are getting a lot of the money to pay for these things is from us, is from people who live in this country that are curious about what happens in cuba, that are curious and some who outright sympathize with this idea that somehow cuba is this socialist paradise and they travel there and they leave money there. all these trips, cuba gets a huge take, and they use it to fund this repressive appear rat is. -- apparatus. so as i said, i don't have any false illusions that the president is going to change his travel policy to cuba or these people to people programs, but at least make sure that these programs are really furthering what you say you are trying to further, which is bringing freedom and democracy to cuba instead of being a source of hard currencicy and hard revenue. so a few days ago, i denounced two specific itinerari