got it done and brought our economy back from the brink of disaster. in the end, the two sides together. that's how our system works. neither side got what they wanted, each side lamented some of the things we had to give up, but that's the way it is. it's that way because that's how our system works. it was a bipartisan compromise. it wasn't the right wing cap, cut and whatever it is over there. that was not bipartisan. it's nothing that we could agree to. it was really a disaster for america. this agreement cuts the deficit by $1 trillion and lays the groundwork for much more in the near future. we look forward to the work on the committee to make sure that millionaires and billionaires and corporate jet owners and people who have yachts, oil

companies who get these huge tax subsidies, that that is in the mix of what goes on. that is what this select committee is going to be about. we need to do more for families. number one job we have as a congress must be creating jobs for the american people. there are a number of things we are going to do. senator schumer will address that. today, we made sure that america will pay its bills and it's time to make sure all americans can pay theirs. senator durbin. >> with this vote, 74-26, we have averted a crisis. america has avoided defaulting for the first time in our history on the national debt. the fears and concerns of americans across the board were considered by this congress and as a result, we have come together on a bipartisan basis. i did not vote for this with a great deal of enthusiasm, because the down payment on the

deficit included in this bill comes primarily from working families and those struggling in america. if we are going to have true deficit reduction and address this debt, we have to put everything on the table and bring everyone to the table for shared sacrifice. the joint committee has a particular responsibility here called on together. another $1 trillion in savings. let us make sure when we do it, we do it in a fair and just manner for all the people in america. when we return as senator schumer will spell out, that we address the number one issue in america, creating good paying jobs right here at home for the people who are struggling in this economy. >> well, now washington, the nation, the world can breathe a sigh of relief. a horrible crisis that would have occurred if we defaulted, likelihood of a recession if we defaulted has been averted, but we have a lot more work to do, a

lot more work to do. the bill, which had things as leader reid and leader durbin mentioned, had a lot of things we didn't like. it had some things we liked, particularly making sure that no benefits in medicare, social security and medicaid were cut. but it's now time for congress to get back to our regularly scheduled programming, and that means jobs. while washington has been consumed with averting a default, our nation's unemployment problem worsening. it's time for jobs to be moved back to the front burner. with this debt reduction package completed, the decks are now cleared for a single-minded focus on jobs in september. by removing the threat of default for the next 18 months and by proving that both parties can come together to get our deficits under control, we have

provided certainty to the credit markets. the debt limit agreement largely resolves the budgets for the next two years, so the wrangling over spending should be greatly reduced in coming months. we now have the chance to pivot away from budget battles to jobs. we can reset the debate and that's what we intend to do. the jobs issue won't have to play second fiddle to the deficit issue anymore and that's what the american people want. the public is glad to see we moved to rein in our deficits but they will put the political premium on efforts to create jobs. as democrats, that's our strong suit, our high ground. we welcome this chance to shift the playing field to jobs. >> this was obviously a very important vote. we needed to raise the debt ceiling to avoid an economic calament and we needed to cut

spending and get our deficit and debt under control. but we have a long road ahead of us and we are going to continue to work hard to make sure we tackle these challenges, we do it in a fair and balanced way for americans across this country. it is time now to get back to our priority number one, getting our economy back on track and people back to work. this vote that we just had begins to address the budget deficit, but as every family and business in this country knows, we have an infrastructure deficit, an education and skills training deficit and a jobs deficit. we want to get back on track and address that critical issue so american families can feel secure again that they will have a pay check and their family will be able to put food on the table and send their kids to college. importantly, i think this vote just showed us that we can work

in a bipartisan way. i hope we can do that moving forward now to address the number one issue for every family, jobs. >> why would this special committee be more successful in addressing either taxes or entitlement programs when the biden group or the boehner -- >> the answer is pretty obvious, hanging over the head of the joint committee is this trigger that is pretty drastic >> is there a chance that the tea party caucus once again will say, no, we're not going to support a debt ceiling increase after 2013? >> first of all, i think the joint committee will set a tone for what happens in the near future.

and if it doesn't, the trigger kicks in and i think it makes it pretty easy for the ensuring -- ensuing years. of course there have will have been an election take place between that and 2013. >> a republican has -- [inaudible] . will you guys accept the house version and reopen the f.a.a.? >> yes. i have said that we have 80,000 jobs at least on the line. in nevada, as an example, we have a new airport tower there, where they started the construction about two weeks ago, all those people have been laid off. that's a huge project. i don't know -- did you it's nearly a $1 million -- nearly a $100 million project. they have problem with the control power in palm springs and as i understood, they've shut down the construction on that and they only have one there. so that's difficult. the essential air service is a program that i believe in, but i also believe that $3,500 per

passenger is a little extreme. do i my best to protect the state but sometimes you have to be reasonable and i think we learned with this big deal we've just done, sometimes you have to step back and find out what's best for the country and not be bound by some of your own personal issues. and i'm willing to give that up. i hope the other senators will do the same. >> [inaudible]. >> we're going to have, we're working on it, this next few weeks we'll do it and bring to recess but there are all kinds of things. for example, i'm going to file close clotheure today on a motion to proceed with the patent bill. that's important. that will be the first vote we have when we get back. it's too bad it's taken so long but that's 270,000 jobs.

i indicated to high friends here, i spoke to chairman bachus today, he's found a source of money to complete the highway bill. so there are many things we can do and we also of course are concerned about the new energy jobs that are out there and we have a lot of other things that we don't have finalized yet but we will. >> [inaudible]. >> i think that people are going on the joint committee should be open to solving the debt problems of this country and not let ideology stand in the way. this is more about saving our country from the future long-term deficit problems that we have than political ideology. >> [inaudible]. >> under the law, you'll have to do it within 14 days after the president signs the bill. thanks, everyone.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> senate republicans also held a briefing with reporters earlier today. minority leader mitch mcconnell said the single focus of the republican party is job creation. he and several other senators talked about the u.s. economy and private sector job creation for 15 minutes. >> i know you all are going to miss this, you just hate to see us go. [laughter] we're going to miss you, too, of course. yeah. well, obviously the biggest concern the american people have is jobs and the economy. things have actually gotten worse since the president came to office. we need to move in a different direction. we don't believe and american people don't believe that raising taxes, job-killing tax increases in the middle of this serious recession is a direction we ought to take.

and the bill we just passed avoided doing that even though the administration desperately wanted to raise taxes. every meeting i'm in talks about the regulatory burden that we're experiencing throughout the american economy. massive increases in regulation, i'm often asked, what would you do to get the economy going? my answer is always the same. we need to quit doing what we've been doing. quit borrowing, quit spending, quit trying to raise taxes, quit overregulating and let the private sector flourish so we have a chance again to have a growing economy which of course will produce more revenue for the government. so that ought to be our single focus, not only at home during the recess but when we come back here. one very big thing the administration could do in that direction is get those trade agreements up here, they enjoy bipartisan support, they will create jobs in america, for

americans. we hope they'll be waiting for us when we get back from the august break. with that, senator kyle. >> i'm always amazed how the white house seems to believe that it's press shop and the president's eloquence and the campaign team of the president can override the substance of issues with rhetoric. and it's very interesting therefore that the moment we got this debt ceiling issue behind us the president decided to pivot to job creation. now, as leader mcconnell pointed out, republicans have never taken our eye off of job creation. but just to illustrate with a very sfisk example of one of the things that we had toosh -- a very specific example of one of the things we had to deal with during this debate of the deficit and the debt ceiling, one of the taxes that the president actually proposed that we increase was the subject of a report by his own small business administration office of

advocacy. and they reported that this particular tax could ultimately force many small businesses to close. that's a direct quotation. , so while the president today would have all of us believe that now he's gotten the light and he wants to pivot to job creation, i would just ask, what about that whole debate that we had over the last month or so about the pernicious effects of your tax proposals on job creation? that's why republicans were so fixated on stopping these job-killing tax increases. >> senator rubio said yesterday, washington is talking about the debt but americans are talking about jobs. and the president has pivoted to jobs and usually he begins by blaming his predecessor for the problems he's inherited.

we don't blame the president for the problems he's inherited but we do hold him responsible for making the economy worse. he's made it worse in terms of unemployment, he's made it worse in terms of the federal debt, made it worse in terms of higher gas prices, individual health insurance premiums are higher, home values are down, debt projections are up. he proposes high cost energy plans, he's basically thrown a big, wet blanket over private sector job creation and given a chance we know how to make it better. we'll have simpler taxes with fewer loopholes, lower rates, fewer regulations, less debt, more exports, fewer health care mandates, job training and finding more american energy and using less. our goal is to make it easier and cheaper to create private sector jobs. >> i too want to welcome the white house and the administration and the democrats into a debate about jobs after 2

1/2 years of piling up the record that senator alexander just alluded to. if you think about the legacy of this administration so far, it's chronic high unemployment and massive amounts of debt. they've added 35% to the debt and we've got unemployment at over 9% and we saw last week the anemic growth numbers for the second quarter, 1.3% advance estimate and a downward revision in the first quarter growth from 1.9% down to 4%. so this economy is sluggish, the reason it's sluggish is because the job creators out there, the small businesses in this country are worried about what washington is going to do next. and i think that was probably best -- probably verified in a poll that was done by the u.s. chamber of commerce in which they polled small businesses about what they're going to do with regard to job creation this next year. 64% of them said they were not going to add to their payrolls, 12% said they were actually going to cut jobs this next year and of the businesses who responded to that survey, half

of them said the reason for that is economic uncertainty. economic uncertainty because of washington, d.c., policies and this administration's economic record which has had a job-crushing agenda since the day they came into office. and so i am delighted to welcome them to the debate about jobs after 2 1/2 years of being missing in action. >> when the president came to office the unemployment rate was 7.8%, now it's 9.2% unemployment, millions and million of americans looking for work and can't find someone to employ them. and a lot of that has to do with the regulations coming out of washington. in this past month alone, in the month of july, the 31 days of july, there have been approximately 300 new expensive regulations coming out of washington. 10 of those are major regulations in terms of an impact which means they have an impact of over $100 million, the impact on abilities to create jobs and impact on those

businesses. the total impact has been almost $10 billion of expenses when you look at these hundreds of regulations in the month of july alone. this administration seems to be fixated on finding ways to make it tougher and more expensive for the private sector to create jobs in america. >> looking forward, one of the most important things to come out of the -- of this debt ceiling agreement is a commitment for a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the united states constitution. sometime by october. when you look at everything congress can do, it can't bind future congresses which is one of the biggest challenges we've had which is why i believe that a balanced budget amendment to the constitution is absolutely essential. all 47 republicans have co-sponsored a version of that balanced budget amendment and what we now have the opportunity to do as we've taken a small step in the right direction toward fiscal responsibility is to finish that job by passing by

a 2/3 margin a balanced budget amendment both in the house and the senate and then sending it to the states for ratification. we know there's a lot we could do between now and the time that amendment is ratified. but ultimately the question is, are we going to be living by the same rules that apply to every family, every small business and 49 states which is that they cannot spend more money than they have. and i think we've all seen that this is really the ultimate measure of fiscal responsibility and i congratulate our leadership for getting that commitment. as you know, being in the minority, we can't get a vote on anything unless harry reid agrees to give us a vote. well, we have a right to that vote and that's what the national conversation is going to be about going forward and this is perhaps the most important thing, one of the most important things to come out of this agreement. >> we'll take a couple of questionless. >> [inaudible].

>> i'm going to be considering these appointments, senator kyle and i are going to consider them together. and i'll be acting very soon. >> [inaudible]. >> federal government spend more money or less money -- [inaudible]? >> do you have a top shrine in anybody got the top line on that? we set -- i don't have it in my head but we set the number on the discretionary side for 12 and 13. it should be immediately available to you. what that allows us to do is to have a normal appropriations process, i mean, normally the senate would pass a budget and, you know, it's been over 800

days since we actually passed a budget in the senate. and the house would pass one which they have done. you reconcile the differences and then you get at the beginning of that a top line. how much you're going to spend. not being optimistic that we were going to have a budget process, since we haven't had one for 800 days in the senate, we have put into the measure that was just passed and the president will sign the top line for fiscal year 2012 and 2013. >> you can talk about the president of the white house saying that this deal cut $350 billion from defense and even further cuts from the joint committee. you can speak to both of those? >> well, the joint committee is not going to gridlock in my opinion. the joint committee is designed to function. and to tackle some of the very difficult problems that we have been unwilling or unable to deal with. the trustees appointed by the

president of medicare and social security say both programs are in trouble, medicare sooner than social security. we have haven't yet been able -- we haven't yet been able to do anything on the tax reform side. we decided to concentrate power on this joint committee because we have an extraordinary problem. if the normal way we do business was adequate we wouldn't have a $14 trillion debt and over $50 trillion of unfunded liability. we needed to do something different. and this is clearly not kicking the can down the road, they're going to report by november 23, it will be voted on before the end of the year and i wouldn't focus a whole lot on the -- what would happen if they didn't function, because i think they are. >> -- saying $350 billion will come out of defense in the next 10 years. >> knick want to tackle that? -- anybody want to tackle that? >> [inaudible].

>> we're so laden -- we're so late, fiscal year 2012 begins at the end of next month. so it probably will be difficult to have a normal appropriations process, they'll have to be clumped together. but in 013, now knowing well in advance what the top line is going to be for 2013, it's my hope and i know it's the majority leader's hope that we will be able to do the basic work of government which is the appropriations committee who report bills, move them across the floor of the senate and get them done. but this year we're so late it will be very difficult to have that kind of normal process for the fiscal year 2012. >> [inaudible]. >> what happens as you know, we don't have enough time so we end up in either a c.r. or putting together several different appropriation bills. that's not the best way to do

it. hopefully that will not be done in 2013. i don't see any way to avoid it for 2012 buzz taws -- because that begins in two months. we'll see how we sort it out. it would be hard to move 12 bills across the floor in the month of september. thank you, everyone. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> more about job creation from nancy pelosi. she and other democratic leaders spoke with reporter at the capitol for a half hour. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> we just completed a very lively leadership meetinging of the house democrats where we talked about the democrats and necessity of democrats to save the day yesterday, pulling our

country back from the brink of default. it was a bitter pill for us to swallow but we did and as we did, we saved medicare, medicaid and social security. and you'll be hearing more about that. yesterday we crossed a bridge. enough talk about the debt, we have to talk about jobs. every time i've met with you we started our session with how many days it has been since the republicans have been in office. well, today it's 210 and we haven't seen any legislation yet that has created jobs. in fact we've seen legislation which has cost nearly two million jobs. more than 9,000 jobs a day would be lost if the republicans legislation were signed into law. in addition to that we see a hold up on the infrastructure bill and on f.a.a. which we're hoping will be resolved today. we'll be hearing more about that from my colleagues.

jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. you can't say it enough. i really liked what willy nelson said or at least he was quoted as saying, the american people are more concerned about a ceiling over their heads than raising the debt ceiling. we know we need to do both. i was very pleased to hear the president pivot to jobs and to talk about infrastructure, to talk about how we create jobs to meet the needs of the american people am some of his suggestions have -- people. some of his suggestions have very strong support in our caucus, whether it's infrastructure, rebuilding our country, whether it is make it in america, he said made in america, steny, mr. hoyer will be talking to us about make it in america and when he talks about the f.a.a. bill which we'll talk more about now. so, again, everybody's been inintensely involved in this discussion of debt. the american people's top

priority is the creation of jobs. we have crossed the bridge this from that important discussion, interesting that it was something that the republicans did not have the votes to pass. proud of my members that they took the step to pull us from the brink of default even though they did not -- were not happy about the legislation but what was good about it was it's over and now it's time to talk about jobs and a person who has been a leader in beating the drum for make it in america, he'll tell you more about it, our distinguished whip, mr. hoyer. >> thank you very much, madam leader. let me suggest at the outset that talking about jobs is talking about the debt. the only way we're going to successfully deal with debt is to create jobs and economic growth in america. we know that but eight months on the job, no jobs bill for the

american people. that is the neglect record of the republican majority. -- negligent record of the republican majority. democrats have focused on our make it in america plan because america's innovation, invention and manufacturing creates middle class jobs and is essential to the growth of our whole economy. on our agenda, as you know, among a long list on our agenda is, a, a manufacturing strategy. our competitors throughout the world all have manufacturing strategies. and we need our own effective game plan to outproduce, outinnovate, outbuild and, yes, outinvest our competitors around the world. we must develop plans to increase manufacturing and manufacturing jobs.

on infrastructure bank. with me on the podium is our chairman of our security and policy committee, rosa delauro, who has been a champion of an infrastructure bank which the president mentioned just a few minutes ago. we need to facilitate efficient, private sector investments in infrastructure. we need to compete from broadband energy systems to ports. we need to outbuild. with an infrastructure bank we will be able to outbuild. a partnership between the public sector and the private sector. clean energy, clearly that is the future, thank you the vision we have of an america that has -- powers it self by clean energy. we need to invest in clean energy, to create jobs and make america competitive in the most important new economic sector. china is doing that.

europe is doing that. america is and must do that, it is doing it as a result of the bill that we passed, the american recovery and reinvestment act and we need to continue on that path. currency reform. under democratic leadership we passed a bipartisan bill that sought to level the playing field by holding accountable countries that manipulate currency to gain unfair trade advantages. we know china is doing that. and we know others are doing it. we need to pass legislation that will again send to the senate a bill which will level the playing field for our manufacturers and our ketters to. -- competitors. i am pleased now to yield to my good friend from south carolina