the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, on this vote, the ayes are 54, the nays are 44. the motion is agreed to. under the previous order, the senate will r resume legislative session.

the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. 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 debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 333, h.r. 3979, an act to amend the internal revenue code of ^19 8 1986 and so forth, sigy 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 3979, an act to amend the internal revenue code of 1986, to ensure that emergency service volunteers are not taken into account as employees under the shared responsibility requirements contained in the patient protection and affordable care act shall be brought it a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: any other senator wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, on this vote, the yeas are 65, the nays are 34. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: department of state, matthew h.tueller of utah, a career member of the senior foreign service to be ambassador of the united states of america to the republic of yemen. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: i would ask unanimous consent to yield back all time. the presiding officer: without

objection. all time is yielded back. if there is no further debate, all in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table. the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action, and the senate will resume legislative session. mr. reed: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: madam president, i just want to thank all my colleagues for this very strong bipartisan vote to move a step closer to restoring unemployment insurance benefits for over two million americans. i particularly want to thank senator heller whose leadership from the beginning has been instrumental. senator collins, whose leadership, wise counsel, thoughtful proposals have been

one of the really strong forces sustaining our efforts throughout. senator portman, who has consistently thought about progressive changes for our training program so that people are better prepared for jobs, senator murkowski for her support and senator kirk, both of them valuable contributors. but all of my colleagues today who came forward, this is not the end of the story, but it's an important step forward for, again, over two million americans who are looking desperately forward, who need the benefits and will contribute to our economy. with that, mr. president, i will yield the floor. madam president, i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: thank you, madam president. request that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: thank you. madam president, over the past several days, we have all watched the news of the massive landslide in washington state. we've watched that with sadness, with shock, truly, truly an awful, awful episode. our thoughts, our prayers are certainly with all those that have been affected by this

terrible tragedy. we continue to hope for the best as rescue and recovery efforts continue. today, madam president, i have come to the floor to speak about a different natural disaster. this is a natural disaster that affected alaska on good friday exactly 50 years ago today, in 1964. this is the great alaska earthquake, the good friday earthquake, the epic earthquake of 1964. at at the time that alaska was struck by this massive earthquake, i was a young child. i was living in the southeastern community of wrangle, alaska. i've got an order here but i'm going to go out of order here and start with the map.

map of the state of alaska. epicenter of the earthquake he here. in south central. about a year prior to the quake, my family and i moved down to a small southeastern community of wrangle, tucked safely in the inland passage waterways there. we were all looking forward to easter. and when the earthquake hit, i certainly didn't know that we had been struck by a massive, massive 9.2 earthquake. a magnitude on the richter scale that decimated south central alaska. the earthquake struck at 5:36 in the evening. i didn't know that what had just occurred was the largest earthquake to strike the united states in recorded history.

and it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on modern instrumentation. and those of us that -- that lived in alaska at the time have memories of what happened on good friday 50 years ago, have stories that will -- will live with us for generations, passed down from generation to generation. you talk to alaskans about, "where were you in the quake of 1964?" well, we had just moved, as i said, from -- from anchorage to wrangle, alaska. and while we didn't feel the shake in wrangle, we waited for the big wave to come, we waited for the tsunami. and we sat listening to the

radio, but our home was situated directly on the beach. so everyone was told to move up to higher ground. so we moved everybody in the family -- five kids at the time -- up the hill. we went to my first grade teacher's house which was really quite exciting for me and were allowed to stay up late, late, late into the evening. and as a small child there was a buzz. it was kind of exciting but kind of scary because we didn't know what was happening in other parts of the state. my mom had basically packed some diapers for the smallest of the children in the family and she tells me that she brought along her silver tea set. it was the only thing she brought from the house along with the five kids. but we tell that story. we also tell the story of the home that we lived in just before we had moved to wrangell. it was situated in a residential

area called turnigan. and turnigan was the area most immediately and massive the hit. this is the turnigan neighbor. our home that we lived in prior to moving to wrangell was situated about two blocks back from the bluff. after the quake, the -- the bluff slid down, taking tens and tens of houses with it. the home that we were in then became luf property. it was condemned, never to be lived in again. we all have the stories of -- of the earthquake. we -- we saw the news accounts as they came slowly to us. we saw the photographs of the

collapsed buildings. the picture that -- i'm going to go back to the first one here. this first one that was up initially is downtown anchorage, alaska, 1964. this is on 4th avenue. and you can see from the picture the ground just sunk, dropped. the crumbled buildings, the cars cattywompus. the destruction and the devastation in the downtown area literally took your breath away. one very photographed picture was the j.c. penney building which had just recently been constructed and the whole front facade of the j.c. penney building just crushed down on to the streets and on the cars below. this is a -- this is a picture here of government hill

elementary school. i showed you the previous picture where my family and i had lived in the neighborhood of turnigan when i was a child. when my husband and i bought our home where our sons were raised, it's directly across the street from this property, where government hill elementary literally slid down the hill. and as you can see from the picture there, the devastation to the school was extraordinary. fortunately it was 5:36 in the evening on good friday and so there were no children at the school. but the devastation, the visual impact that still remains as we -- as we look back 50 years now at what happened, the stories of -- of loss of

property, of damage to property, the stories of loss of life and truly miraculous survival, slowly started to reveal the extent of the decimation from an earthquake that federal scientists would tell us years later was roughly equivalent to 100 million tons of t.n.t. exploding. massive. the good friday earthquake reshaped the alaskan landscape. land lifted 33 feet in some places and then in other places it sank the ground, sank it as much as six feet in places. cliffs and buildings crumb balanced budget amendmented. balanced budgebuildings crumble. waves approximately 200 feet high were measured near the community of valdez. 200 feet wall of water coming

into the community of valdez. communities were literally washed off the map. anchorage, this is a picture here of seward, which, again, is in resurrection bay along the coast. but the wave literally just came in and swept everything out with it. but it was not just one wave. it was a series of waves. in anchorage, which is our state's most populous city and really the center of infrastructure in the state, was just 74 miles from the epicenter of the quake and that's where we see so many pictures of the tremendous damage there. there has been a series of articles in our local newspaper, "the anchorage daily news" that has been leading up to this historic 50th anniversary. it's a series written by mike dunnham. and i will ask that a portion of

these series be included as part of the record. but in the series discussing the tsunamis that hit alaska, i'd like to share with my colleagues some of the information that mike outlines. he says, "noaa's national geophysical data center puts the total number of deaths resulting from the great alaska earthquake of 1964 at 139. 15 of those deaths are attributed to falling buildings or crumbling ground during the quake itself. the rest were killed by the water. 32 people died when a wave 30 feet high boiled up in valdez. similar sized waves took 12 lives in seward, 15 in kodiak and its surrounding villages. another dozen pair rished when a wall of water 40 feet high smashed into whittier. in the prince william sound village of chinniga, a third of the population, 23 people, were swept away by a 90-foot wave."

and, madam president, one thing that i found very, very fascinating and understanding some of the attributes of -- of this earthquake and the tsunamis that came, in many places, the ground was still shaking when the water hit. keep in mind, this earthquake lasted 4 1/2 minutes. 4 1/2 minutes where the earth is heaving and shuttering and shaking is a horribly long time. and the -- the first tsunami that hit valdez i'm told hit just two minutes after the quake had begun. so imagine the terror. you've got the ground moving all around you, up and down, heaving back and forth, and two minutes into it, you have a tsunami at

literally your doorstep. the loe tsunamis did not stop at the alaska border, though? four children died at beverly state park in oregon, but we know that it could have been much worse. the death toll was low for an earthquake of this magnitude, because as i've mentioned, it was after work. it was on a holiday. and it occurred in an area with small population that constructed buildings from wood not bricks or other heavier materials. but the good friday earthquake and the subsequent tsunamis that followed, caused by $3.75 billion in damage drn an -- ands in today's dollars; this is 50 years ago.

that's amazing. but also consider that that is largely done to a state that was barely five years old, just barely five years as a state. but the impacts reached far beyond, far beyond alaska. sue ma'asee nametsunamis also co california, oregon, washington, and hawaii. they destroy everything in their path, houses, cars, fishing gear, all along the pacific coast. in ocean stirks washington, a bridge collapsed, in crescent city, california, a dockside tavern was destroyed. in hilo, hawaii, 12 1/2-foot waves overran the waterfront. waves in rivers and lakes and harbors caused damage. it wasn't extensive damage but caused damage along the gulf coasts of louisiana and texas.

just think about how this massive earthquake just really reverberated around the world. if you look again to the map that has the epicenter here, you would think that the extent would just be where the epicenter lines the felt limits go. but in fact when you account for the tsunami effect, it truly was an amazing, amazing amazing inse where mother nature comes together in a massive and violent way. as we think about the devastation, the loss of life, the lost property, you have to ask the question whether or not anything good can come from a tranl did tragedy like the goody

earthquake? the answer has to be yes. we came together to help rebuild the worst-hit communities. we rebuilt them to withstand earthquakes and in locations that are protected hopefully from the ravages of future tsunamis. we put aside parks to remember the historic earthquake and to prevent future building on landslide-prone cliffs. i think we really did gain a better understanding of what's happening below the surface in alaska and other earthquake-prone areas. back in the 1960's, we had very little information about what caused massive shifts in the good friday earthquake. there was little understanding of the giant tectonic plates that make up the surface of the earth and how their movements cause earthquakes. but the 1964 earthquake resulted

in greater seismic monitoring across the country and has led scientists to have a far better understanding of how earthquakes occur and where they occur. we can now better protect our citizens by implementing better building codes and preparing for earthquake disaster response in regions prone to earthquakes, thereby reducing the dhans anothe--the chance that another earthquake would result in so many deaths. the tsunamis spawned by the good friday earthquake provided scientists with a unique and important set of tsunami arrival times and heights that has been used to validate new models of tsunami proppation. these mod violence allowed our authorities to warn coastal populations of potential tsunamis protecting life and property. we see these exercises and drills conducted certainly in my state, i know in hawaii, and again in our coastal

communities. so science has really come a long way in the past 50 years. alaska has, too. but as we mark this historic anniversary, we remember those who perished in the good friday earthquake. we salute the men and the women who helped protect our safety by monitoring and researching earthquakes and tsunamis, both in our state and in others. and we thank the first responders who helped alaskans back in 1964, just as we thank those who are helping with the recovery in washington today. and let us also use this occasion to consider whether we ourselves are prepared for the worst, should we ever face a similar day of recognize congressing in the future. -- rick conning i reckoning in . i have introduced a senate resolution that comem rates the great alaska earthquake and my cheetion from alaska, senator

begich, my colleagues from oregon, california, and hawaii have joined me in that, and with that, madam president, i would unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 400 submitted earlier today. the presidinthe presiding office clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 400, recognizing the 50th anniversary of the great alaska earthquake which struck the state of alaska at 5:36 p.m. on good friday, march 27, 1964, honoring those who lost their iive loos in the great alaska earthquake and associated tsunamis and expressing continued support for research on earthquake and tsunami prediction and mitigation strategies. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. murkowski: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate.

the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: with that, madam president, i thank you for the opportunity to speak again to this historic event, to recognize those who lost lives, lost family, those who helped to not only ensure that alaska was able to regroup and regain but, knowing that we have used these lessons learned 50 years ago to help us going forward. with that, madam president, i thank the chair, and i would yield the floor. mr. leahy: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, over the past 20 years, i've spoken many times about the toll inflicted on innocent civilians

and u.s. soldiers from land mines. i have talked about it here, in ottawa, actually in most parts of the world. the reason i've talked so much about land mines is that like boob by traps, they're indiscriminate. they're triggered by who ever -y whoever comes in contact with them. 161 nations, including most of our allies and friends, certainly those in nato, have signed a treaty banning them. 161 nations have had the courage to sign a treaty banning use of land mines. unfortunately, the united states is conspicuously not among the countries that have had the courage to do that.

in 1994, 20 years ago, in a speech to the u.n. general assembly, president bill clinton called for the elimination of antipersonnel land mines. two years later, in 1996, president clinton said this: "today em i'm launching an international effort to ban antipersonnel land mines." and he went on, president clinton did, to announce the u.s. plan to develop alternatives to land mines, with the goal that the u.s. would end its use of antipersonnel land mines by 2006. we had a meeting in ottawa where nations came together and said, let's have -- let's have an antipersonnel land mine treaty. and nations came together. but in 1997, the united states

missed an opportunity to be a leader in the international effort to ban antipersonnel mines. they didn't become a member. they did not sign the mine-ban treaty. gave up not only their leadership role, some would say gave up a followership role. so 2006 came and went. president clinton's administration ended. president george w. bush served for eight years. president obama was then elected and then reelected. in the meantime, u.s. troops fought two long ground wars and, incidentally, madam president, they fought those ground wars without using antipersonnel land mines. but in 2010, along with 67 other united states senators, democrats and republicans, i

sent a letter to president oba obama. we commended him -- we, both republicans and democrats, for agreeing to review the u.s. policy on antipersonnel mines. we urged him to conform u.s. policy to the mine-ban treaty. that could be a first step. that was five years ago. five years since the start of that review. we're still waiting for the results. so after 20 years, three united states presidents, there is no evidence the united states is any closer to joining the treaty when president clinton made that speech. i find it dishearteninening as n american to think that my country is unwilling to stand with these 161 other countries, many who have faced many great threats. we wonts join them.

the pentagon has long argued that these land mines defend south korea. in 1996 the then-secretary of defense william perry said the pentagon would -- quote -- "move vigorousry to achieve alternative ways to prevent a north korean attack so they no longer need land mines." so back in the last century, in 1996, it was announced that we'd move vigorously. well, i don't know what their definition of "vigorous" is, but after 20 years, there is no evidence they've done anything to revise their career war plans without antipersonnel mines or any of the three presidents have told them to do that. now, one could ask what

difference it would make it the u.s. joins a mine ban treaty? as i said, we have not used antipersonnel mines for 23 years. the united states does more to support humanitarian demining than any other country in the world. we've not exported antipersonnel mines since the leahy law was passed in 1992. and we've spent many tens of millions of dollars for the leahy war victims' fund to aid those injured by mines. so if we're not causing the problems, why even bother? well, antipersonnel land mines continue to kill and cripple innocent people. indiscriminate victim-activated weapons have no place in the

world. there is only on one leader that uses poissouses poison gas toda. when you a go for countries as diverse as afghanistan to great britain, they've signed it. and here's the united states unwilling to join. of course the united states has by far the most powerful military in the world, and this treaty needs the strong leadership of the united states. as president obama said in his answer is speech for the nobel peace price, "i'm convinced international standards strengthens those who do and isolates and weakens those who don't." well 20 years after president clinton's u.n. speech, president obama can give real minin meanig

tories words by putting the u.s. on the path to joint treaty. that means destroying what remains of our stockpile of mines p. we're never going to use them. get rid of them. it means we vicing our -- rees vicing our career war plans. president obama the only one that can make it happen. time is running out. madam president, let me tell you a story. during the ill-fated contra war, back in the time of the reagan administration, i was visiting one of the contra camps along the nicarauga border, the nicaraguan-honduras border.

and as i looked at a helicopter, we saw a clearing inside nicarauga where there was a field hospital. so we decided to land. there was a heliport there; we could land. and i talked to the doctors who were treating victims; there was a little boy about 10 or 12 years old came out. he had a makeshift crutch. he had one leg. and we talked with him and came from a family that earned their ability to live from what they could hunt and gather in the jungles along the border. and as we talked to him, it turned out he lost a leg by stepping on an antipersonnel mine, mines that weren't going to stop any army. they were just there to terrorize and injure civilians.

you know, i think of these victims. this is not the person, but this is an example of what we see. and i asked him which side put this mine there. he had only a vague knowledge of what the two countries were, and if there's a border there. all he knew was his life was changed forever. he would not be able to earn a living like his parents and grandparents and others had. he had a place to stay only because the doctors put a pile of rags and sheets in the corner of the floor, a dirt floor in the place where people

recovering would stay, and he could sleep there at night. a nice boy, tragic case. and then it became more and more interested in the case when i look at people like this young girl, legs gone, hands gone. i think of those in conflicts, children who have seen what they thought was a pretty and shiny toy on the side of the road and touched it only to have their limbs blown off or their eyesight lost. i think of the girl i met, teenage girl in an area where there was a conflict. i met her in a hospital, and her story was this. she was getting artificial legs

through the leahy war victims fund, but her parents were in the conflict and sent her away where she could be safe. the conflict was over, she's coming down the road, she sees her parents. she calls out toward them and runs toward them and nlrb, steps on -- and flash, steps on a land mine and loses both legs. after world war 1, countries came together to say we should ban poison gas. we had meetings, international meetings to do that. the reaction of our pentagon was to our negotiators, don't be too quick, we may need them sometime, even though we never used them. i still get the same reaction. this is one of the places, the leahy war victims' fund.

we make artificial legs out of indigenous material. any one of the senators here in this body were to lose a leg, insurance would buy us a high-tech leg to replace it. or we might be told but you could have an even more high-tech one but it would be another $1,000 or $500 beyond what the insurance would pay. we would all take out our checkbook and pay it. we're talking about countries where the per capita income is $300 or $400 a year. signing a land mine treaty is not going to by itself stop everything. there are millions of these buried throughout the world. and the united states, as i said earlier, to its credit, spends, and has spent hundreds of

millions of dollars to clear them and to help people. but -- but -- why shouldn't the united states of america, a country that should be the moral leader on this, why shouldn't we sign the treaty? how do we lecture countries that are going to use these, and they say, yeah, but you never even signed the treaty. you reserved your own right to use them. why shouldn't we. you're the most powerful nation on earth. we're not. why shouldn't we? now, i am proud of the leahy war victims' fund, but, madam president, i would give anything to think there was no need for it, to think there was no need for it. maybe that day will come. tell president obama time is running out.

you know what you should do. you know what you should do. i think if you talked to president clinton, you'd find president clinton wished he had signed it. well, sign it now. do that. that could be part of his legacy. madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: madam speaker? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. a senator: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. begich: motion to vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: all right. mr. begich: i rise to remember the earthquake of alaska which struck in 1964. over 100 alaskans died and coastal towns were wiped off the town. i was very young, two years old but remember my family telling stories when i was growing up and showing pictures. in those days it was not like it exists today on a computer. in a family of six, we always had the slide show night.

we had these little slides my mother would put in this carousel and off it would go and we would be reminded of the vacations and other things we went on. but we'd always see these slides about what happened in the earthquake in 1964. we were lucky. we lived in east anchorage in half of a small apartment complex, and the only thing that broke in our house were these three swinging lights that went back and forth because our house was built on gravel soil and very strong and sturdy in many ways of its development. but when you look back at the houses, third avenue there were some that literally disappeared. downtown, around turnigan, there is a community that literally fell off and sunk. time i'm cosponsoring a resolution marking this tragic yet important event in our history and thanking those who helped us survive and recover.

because in those days, you had limited access anyway, but when you had an earthquake especially in a small town or community, the first responders sometimes couldn't get there because of the uniqueness of the situation of the earthquake. but every alaskan, every first responder, everybody that was available got to the business of doing everything we could to help people in need. we were coming out of a winter and still cold and yet spring wharbgs we would call -- what we would call a spring-winter day. alaskans know the importance of tsunami preparedness and warnings and making sure we are prepared for what could happen. today we are proud to host noaa's national tsunami warning center in palmer, alaska. i have been out there. it is the most amazing technology to see what we can do and what we can see or sense through sensors and other scientific evidence we have when a tsunami may be occurring or the magnitude.

we monitor on a 24-hour basis with scientists. the tsunami's impacts were felt from our earthquake as far away from hawaii, california and washington. that is why today i join senator cantwell and senator schatz to introduce the tsunami warning and education reauthorization act for 2014. this bill would improve noaa tsunami warning center, bringing super computer power to the tsunami modeling. it would ensure all coastal weather forecast offices are better prepared to issue tsunami warnings. the bill also ensures coastal communities who will be more tsunami-resill kwrapbt through the national -- resill kwrapbt. plan to mine phaoeuz damage and ready to bounce back critically after the damage occurs and recognize the critical role that our technology through scientific research plays in

meeting the tsunami threat. this bill was originally envisioned by the late senator inouye. i have been proud to pick up where he was unable to continue on an issue that i know in his home state was critical. 50 years ago alaska was a young state with a bright but uncertain future. we still had foreign fishing vessels coming in and taking our fish just a few miles off the coast. the transalaska oil pipeline and energy deliveries was a dream. after the damage from the quake and tsunami there were serious questions from outside if alaska could survive. keep in mind this was only a few years after becoming a state. but alaskans already knew the answer. they knew that we would rebuild and become stronger. and we have. alaska's now the nation's arctic energy storehouse and feeds the nation with sustainable seafood stocks. i know with the president sitting today, madam president, you also understand the value of

fisheries, and that is an incredible element of our food inventory and storage for our country, and alaska being one of them but also your home state of massachusetts. but still, we must be very vigilant against the threat of earthquakes and tsunamis. that's why i introduced the bill joining again senator cantwell, senator schatz in this endeavor and encourage its swift passage to make sure our safety no matter where you live when it comes to this is protected. let me end on another personal note. when i think of growing up in alaska, someone born and raised there, living in east anchorage, i can remember growing up and my dad thought about it where he bought land to build this house and this apartment building was on incredible soil. but as i -- years later when i became mayor of anchorage and sat on the city assembly, i remember the great debate on building codes and earthquake

capacity and stability and making sure they were designed right. i remember the federal building which is now city hall, and i was on the arrange rapblg assembly then -- anchorage stkpwhreu -- assembly came up and there was a debate but we decided to stay downtown. the building was built at a time it would probably not withstand an earthquake at the time of the 1964 earthquake. they stripped the building, left the shell. you'd walk in and i was walking through a tour of the building with the developer and he was showing me what he called the shock absorbers, these incredible columns within the building that not only if an earthquake hit it would try to absorb it, it would help your building move up or side way to sideways absorbing the impact of the erbg ensuring the building and investment of the lives would be saved.

to me it was amazing because in the old days we put the building together, slapped them up and thank god we had a home to live in the cold winter. technology has advanced so significantly and the safety and improvements that have been done in an area that is earthquake zone. it is not uncommon for me to be back home and be at a meeting or be at a hotel presentation at a ballroom, giving a speech on something or sitting at a home with someone and having a conversation and an earthquake kind of come through. it's always amazing to me if i'm there with visitors from out of town they get a little nervous, but as alaskans, we know we have improved our building codes, we know we have improved our warning systems. we continue to make sure that those natural disasters that occur we can minimize or mitigate the damage. this bill of reauthorization especially around a tsunami focuses on that, because we saw, like i said earlier, whole

cities, whole towns just wash away, off the map, gone because of a tsunami and the power of it. so i think the time given to me today to remember a little bit of our history of alaska and the uniqueness of being there during times of growth but also of times of tragedy, but today being able to be part of a piece of legislation that in an odd way full circle as a 2-year-old experiencing an earthquake to where i am today being able to ensure that i'm here to help make sure, not only for my state but any coastal state has the capacity to ensure that the tsunami warning system is not only the best but the best in the world. so, madam president, i yield the floor and thanks for the opportunity to have a few minutes here. mr. sanders: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you very much. as the longest serving independent in the history of the u.s. congress, i want to

address a -- an issue that i think does not get the kind of discussion that it should from either political party but certainly not from our republican colleagues, and that is the moral, economic and political dimensions of the kind of income and wealth inequality which we have in our country today. in my view, this is the most important issue facing the united states because it impacts on virtually every aspect of our lives. it is an issue that we must be discussing thoroughly and one in which the american people have got to be engaged. the fact of the matter is that while we often speak of the united states of america being

the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth, that is only partially true because within the context of total wealth is the reality that the middle class, the great middle class of this country is disappearing. the reality is that we have more people living in poverty today than at any time in the history of the united states of america. the fact of the matter is that we have by far the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major industrialized nation on earth. so if you add it all together, yes, we are the wealthiest nation on earth but the reality is that the people on top own a huge amount of that wealth while the middle class is shrinking and poverty is increasing. and i want to bore you, madam president, although i think you already know this issue, but i do want to speak to

our colleagues and the american people about some of the realities out there in terms of income and wealth distribution. today, madam president, the top 1% owns 38% of the financial wealth of america, 38%. and i wonder how many americans know how much the bottom 60% own. they want people to think about it. top 1% own 38% of the wealth. what do the bottom 60% own? the answer is all of 2.3%. top 1% owns 38% of the financial wealth. the bottom 60% owns 2.3%. madam president, there is one family in this country, the walton family, the owners of wal-mart, who are now worth as a family $148 billion.

that is more wealth than the bottom 40% of american society. one family owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of american society. today the richest 400 americans own more wealth than the bottom half of america, 150 million people. that's distribution of wealth. that's what we own. in terms of income, what we made last year, the latest information that we have in terms of distribution of income is that from 2009-2012, 95% of all new income earned in this country went to the top 1%. have you all got that? 95% of all new income went to

the top 1%, which tells us that when we talk about economic growth, which is 2%, 3%, 4%, whatever it is, that really doesn't mean all that much because almost all of the new income generated in that growth has gone to the very, very, very wealthiest people in this country. madam president, the top 25 hedge fund managers made last year over $24 billion. 25 hedge fund managers made over $24 billion last year. that is enough to pay the salaries of more than 425,000 public school teachers. 24 hedge fund managers and 425,000 public school teachers.

over the past decade, the net worth of the top 400 billionaires in this country has doubled, up by an astronomical $1 trillion in the last ten years. we have heard -- i will be talking about this in a moment -- the extraordinary political power of the koch brothers, a family that is investing very, very heavily in the political process, spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to elect right-wing candidates who will protect the interests of the wealthy and the powerful. to give you some idea of what is going on in this economy, everybody should understand that charles and david koch, the koch brothers, they are the second wealthiest family in this country. in the last year alone, that one family saw a $12 billion

increase in their wealth. $12 billion in one year, bringing their total wealth to up to $80 billion. the other day in "the washington post," madam president, you may have seen an article talking about the aid he willson -- the edelson primary. now, when we talk about a political primary, what it means is you have candidates in the democratic party, candidates in the republican party competing against each other to get the support of the people in their respective parties. well, forget about that. that's old news. now the goal is to appeal to one multibillionaire so that that can't -- that individual can contribute hundreds of millions of dollars into your campaign, and that is what is going on right now in the republican parties. now, while the wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well,

while the united states today has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth and while that income and equality is worse today than at any time since 1928, what we are also seeing is the collapse of the middle class and an increase in poverty. madam president, since 1999, the typical middle-class family has seen its income go down by more than $5,000 after adjusting for inflation. the typical middle-class american family earn less income -- earned less income last year than it did 25 years ago back in 1989. and in fact, you're probably the last person in the world i have to explain this to because you wrote several books on this subject. what we are also looking at is

that typical male workers -- and i want people to hear this. do you want to know why people are angry in this country? typical, that's the median male worker in this country, made $283 less last year than he did 44 years ago. so the question -- and i should say in terms of the typical female worker, she earned $1,700 less than she did in 2007. so the question that i think every american should be asking is how does it happen that when we have a huge increase in productivity, everybody has a cell phone, everybody has a sophisticated computer, we have robotics in all of our factories, we have a huge increase in productivity. where is all of the wealth going that increased productivity has

created? and the answer is pretty clear. it has gone to the top 1%. so the moral issue that we have got to address as a nation, are we comfortable as a nation in which in recent years we have seen a huge increase in the number of millionaires and billionaires while at the same time we have more people living in poverty than we have ever had before. madam president, this is just to me an incredible fact. as an aging nation, more and more people are reaching retirement. half of the american people have less than $10,000 in their savings account and have in many ways no idea as to how they are going to retire with dignity. so the first issue that we have to deal with is a moral issue. are we comfortable living in a

nation when so few have so much while so many have so little and so many of our brothers and sisters, our fellow americans, are struggling economically every single day. today we are addressing the issue of extending long-term unemployment benefits, and what that means is there are millions of workers right now, including people who have worked their entire lives, who no longer can find a job. they have virtually no income coming in. they are struggling to survive. you have got single moms out there trying to raise families with very limited income. is that the nation that we are comfortable being, and the answer is i don't think we are. but it is not just an issue of individual income. today corporate profits are at an all-time high while wages are near an all-time low.

and then when you look at issues about how can we fund early childhood education, how can we make sure that every american has health care as a right, how do we make sure that when people lose their jobs, they are going to get the unemployment that they need, we should remember that every single year, corporations, large multinational corporations avoid paying at least $100 billion a year in taxes because they stash their cash in the cayman islands and other offshore tax havens, and the result is that one out of four american corporations pays nothing in federal income taxes. in fact, over the last five years, huge companies, profitable companies like general electric, boeing and verizon paid nothing, zero in

federal income taxes even though all of those companies made a combined profit of $78 billion since 2008. now, here is the irony of all ironies. it is one thing to understand that the very wealthy are becoming wealthier while everybody else is becoming poorer, but it is another thing to understand that the people who had the money, the billionaire class, is going to war against working americans. you would ask yourself if you had $80 billion, do you really need to invest in the political process so that you can elect candidates who will give you even more tax breaks? do you really have to invest in right-wing candidates who are out there trying to cut social

security, medicare, medicaid, the environmental protection agency, nutrition, food stamps, education? why if somebody has $80 billion are they working so hard for more tax breaks for themselves and for more cuts for the middle class and working class in terms of programs that people desperately need? frankly i think this is not an economic issue. i think it's a psychiatric issue. i think it is an issue that suggests that people are simply power hungry, they need more and more and more, and i think that that is a very sad state of affairs. so, mr. president, the struggle that we are engaged in now is stopping the billionaire class from cutting social security,