president, this is on behalf of myself, senator graham, senator rockefeller, senator ayotte, senator akaka, senators alexander, baucus, begich, bennet, bingaman, blumenthal, blunt, boozman, boxer, scott brown, sherrod brown, burns, cantwell, carper, casey, coast, conrad, coons, corker, crapo, durbin, enzi, feinstein, franken, gillibrand, grassley, hagan, harkin, heller, hoeven, inhofe, inouye, johanns, ron johnson, tim johnson, klobuchar, landrieu, lautenberg, lee, lug lugar, manchin, mccaskill, menendez, merkley, mikulski, moran, murray, ben nelson, pryor, risch, sanders, schumer, shaheen, snowe, stabenow, test tester, toomey, mark udall, vitter, warner, whitehouse, and wyden. and it's been called up. i ask consent to have it set aside so we can go on and continue with the pending matter. the presiding officer: without objection. without objection, the foregoing request from the senator from arizona is granted. mr. levin: well, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: and i don't object because that is the way we should proceed, goi

, senator murray, senator blunt, senator hutchison, and senator collins for their exceptional efforts in completing these three bills. we all recognize that we would not have been able to accomplish this task without the countless hours put in by the staff of the subcommittees. and i i'd like to take a moment to recognize them for their efforts. and i want to publicly thank gayle fountain, jessica arden frederick, diane miller, bob ross, marlee breckman, gabriel backman, jessica barry, jeremy wyrick, gin tou icen, alec mccarthy, rachel milburg, stacey mcbride, rachel jones, james christopher son, alan cutler, goodlo sutton, heidi savment mariti, carl barriyc, and mike clark. they are the ones who should be receiving the medal this evening. mr. president, this conference report is a combination of a process that includes countless hours of hearings, markups, debate, and negotiations and posting online -- and i underline this -- all of the hearing testimony and legislative text for any citizen to review. and finally, mr. president, it represents the one essential ingredient to a functio

i want to thank senator tim johnson, senator boozman, senator jack reed, senator blunt, senator whitehouse, and many others who are going to join senator enzi and senator alexander and myself in this effort to pass this bipartisan bill. let's get this done. let's work together in a bipartisan basis to solve a problem that has haunted us for over a decked, to do it in a fair fashion that -- for over a decade, to do this in fair fashion that does not create any or taxes but gives states the right to collect the taxes that are already on the book. i yield the floor. mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. the minority has 20 seconds left. mr. alexander: i ask consent to extend the time -- the colloquy into democratic time? the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. durbin: no objection. the presiding officer: no withouwithoutobjection. mr. alexander: thank the democratic whip for that. i wnt want to congratulate senar enzi and senator durbin. here's what i want to congratulate them for. senator enzi said he came to this as a former mayor, as a form

senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, november 18, 2011. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable christopher a. coons, a senator from the state of delaware, to perform the duties of the chai. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. the senator from michigan. mr. levin: the senate -- the pending business now is senate bill p 1867, the defense authorization act; is that correct? the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 230, s. 1867, a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2012 for military activities of the department of defense, for military construction, and so forth and for other purposes. mr. levin: mr. president, senators are encouraged to come to the floor to offer their amendments this morning. we're going to be here doing business. senators that have remarks, speeches, p

senators thune and scott brown have companion bills here in the senate. we should take them up and we should pass them. you don't hear a lot about republicans and democrats agreeing on legislation these days, but here's some we do actually agree on. so i'd say let's take them up, pass them and send them to the president for his signature. the obama administration has already said it supports these ideas. 169 democrats in the house voted for one of these bills last week and 175 voted for the other. and republicans support both overwhelmingly as well. so let's do it. let's build on the momentum we have today after passing the 3% holding and the veterans bill. let's show the american people we've discovered and embraced a formula for success around here. now, mr. president, on another issue, tomorrow's a very important day, a very important day: veterans day. the day we set aside to honor the service and sacrifice of the heroic men and women who served in the united states armed forces. america remains a beacon of freedom throughout the world today because o

senator from georgia. the presiding officer: without objection, the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: thank you, mr. president. i first of all want to thank chairman levin and ranking member mccain and remind everyone that this particular amendment addressing the detainee provisions passed overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis from the armed services committee. and the reason that we addressed this issue was because we heard witness after witness in a series of months before the armed services committee from our department of defense tell us for example when i asked the commander of africa command saying he'd need lawyerly help on how to answer what to do with a member of al qaeda who was captured in africa. this is an area that cried out for clarification, and that's the genesis of this amendment which is a very, very important amendment. just briefly, two issues: number one, on 1031, the arguments that have been raised about 1031, the statement of authority, this is a red herring. this provision was

may we have order in the senate. who yields time? the senator from kentucky. senators. mr. paul: i rise in support of clean air, clean water, electricity and jobs. we need to, if we're going to maintain our economy, discontinue and not overreach with job-killing regulations. we are asking for the continuation of the existing regulations. the presiding officer: senators, please take your conversations out of the well of the senate. mr. paul: this amendment would allow for the continuation of the existing regulations. if you rook -- look at e.p.a. vs. north carolina, it says remand without vacating the order. the other side claims that we're for no regulations. we are asking for the continuation of the existing regulations on pollution. the rules are working, but if we keep increasing the burden, we are going to cause increased joblessness. i reserve the remainder of my time. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: madam president, could we have order. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: madam president, we still don't have

know by proxy. >> senator pryor. >> no. >> senator mccaskill. >> senator collins. >> no. >> senator brown. >> senator mccain. >> aye. >> senator paul. >> yes. >> senator marin. >> no. >> senator lieberman. >> no. >> on the vote of those present, the yaes are five and the nays are twelve. >> to strike title three regarding fica reform. leme tell you why i am offering this. fica reform should not be done in postal reform. most employees affected by this are not postal employees and the savings expected from the exchange will have very little effect on the postal service's deficit. fica has not been reforming close to 40 years. we neeto look at comprehensive reform to make sure we get it right and we could include adequate measures to reduce waste and fraud. there are complex issues related to the appropriate benefit levels that deserve more analysis before we cut benefits. in a hearing held in july, the witnesses raised serious concerns with reducing fica benefits, particularly at retirement age. employees may not be able to say for a deduction in income because of social security and

tester, and the senator from louisiana, senator landrieu; and the senator from connecticut, senator blumenthal and i have unanimous consent to engage during morning business time in a colloquy. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: and further that val milasa, a fellow in senator tester's office be granted floor privileges for today. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. we have just passed through a very significant landmark in this country, which is that student debt, the burden of college loan debt that americans have to carry, broke through $1 trillion. $1 trillion in debt. and because of the laws that have been set up to favor the banks, in particular in this congress, the debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. so that is a $1 trillion burden on folks who required loans to get through college that they can never shake off, that is going to stay with them for their lives, for as long as it takes to pay it down, even when things don't work out for them. so it is a very, very significant milestone when it hits $

former senator gregg and senator coats and senator begich. two democrats, two republicans have worked on this over the last five years. and i want the talk about the stimulative effect of what would happen if tax reform was enacted, certainly n2012313 -- in 2013. in other words, there's discussion about the timing of 2012 and 2013. but let's talk about, say, 2013. under the legislation that i've put together, bipartisan effort, if you're a couple that makes $50,000 a year, $60,000 a year, $70,000 a year, you would get permanent tax relief. permanent tax relief. of 3 to $4,000 a year, the typical person. and that comes about largely because what we do is we triple the standard deduction for those families. so the couple now gets about $10,000, it would triple to $30,000. so what that means for a couple making 60 or $70,000 a year, it, in the effect, puts half their income off limits from taxation. my sense is that that would be, based on your analysis at page 26 of the report, fiscal policy options for assisting households would be a pretty go

and the senator from ohio, senator portman. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator is recognized for that purpose. mr. mccain: i thank you, mr. president. and i think that it's -- i feel it's very important that we spend some time on this issue. i think that all americans realize that we are in almost unprecedented difficult economic times. that despite efforts that have been made over the now nearly three years that our economy has not grown, it has not provided the kind of job growth and opportunity that many of us had anticipated. when you look at previous recessions -- and this is a near depression, and by some calculations, the recovery has been amazing and agonizingly slow as compared to recovery from other recessionary periods. and in the view of this senator, the remedies have in many respects made the problem worse rather than better. if you look at some of objective criteria, i would argue that the situation in america today is worse than it was on january 2009 when this administration came to office. w

a no vote. .> senator begich > >> no. >> senator collins. >> no. >> senator brown. >> no. >> senator mccain. >> no by proxy. >> senator paul. >> aye. >> senator moran. >> aye. >> senator lieberman. >> no. can i go back -- >> senator mccaskill. >> senator mccaskill is no by proxy. >> senator brown has just appeared. >> underground. ok. -- senator brown. ok. mr. chairman, the yays are two, the nays are seven. on this vote, the yays are six, the nays are 10, and the amendment is not agreed to. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think the senator wanted to be noted that she based her vote on the napoleonic code. [laughter] listen, this amendment -- i do not think we have passed the amendment yet so maybe this will be the first 1. we passed one? there we go. maybe mine will be non- controversial. i would like to ask senator mccaskill to be added as a co- sponsor. my amendment is very straightforward. >> number one? >> eminem number two. -- amendment numbered two. whenever the post to regulatory commission makes recommendations through their advisory process, that the postal servi

senator?" the answer is real simple, mr. president. sylvia gillespie really cares about other people. she has helped countless people during the 12 years she has worked in my office. from helping people get their passports so they wouldn't miss a family wedding in some foreign country, speaking on behalf of constituents who ran into trouble with federal agencies like the internal revenue service, sylvia has been such a positive force in the lives of so many people. but the work she's most proud of and the one that she'll really talk you to about is what she's been working on for the last two years: helping families in illinois stay in their homes. sylvia has helped dozens of families stay in their homes during the mortgage crisis, when they'd thought they lost everything through foreclosure. she'd sit on conference calls with banks for hours at a time refusing to take "no" for an answer. you don't want to cross sille sa gillespie. "i just felt like we couldn't just one more home. if i can prev

senator from indiana. mr. coats: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: senator, the senate is in a quorum call. mr. coats: mr. president, i ask for vitiation of the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coats: now i ask for i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coats: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, we've been seized with obviously pressing issues and emergencies and i fear that we have not been paying enough attention to the issue of iran and the growing nuclear threat posed by that country. the repeat release of the report by the international atomic energy commission has returned the iran nuclear issue to the front pages, and hopefully to the top of our list of priority issues that need to be discussed and need to be evaluated. the iaea nuclear watchdog which i visited last march with a group of the house and senate intellige

senator levin, senator mccain disagree. in an op-ed piece for "the washington post" they recently wrote quo tkpwho*e provision in the legislation expands the authority under which detainees can be held in military custody." end of quote. but look at the plain language of section 1301, there is -- section 1031, there is no exclusion for united states citizens. and so the question is: if you believe that american citizen is guilty or will be guilty of acts of terrorism, can you detain them indefinitely? can you ignore their constitutional rights and hold them indefinitely without warning them of their right to remain silent, without advising them of their right to counsel, without giving them the basic protections of our constitution? i don't believe that that should be the standard. i listened to senator mccain. he makes a pretty compelling argument. wait a minute, you're telling me that if you've got someone in front of you that you think is a terrorist who could repeat 9/11, you're going to read their miranda rights to the

thank you senator mccain and senator levin. i appreciate this opportunity to offer the amendment and to be paired with the amendment that the senator from kentucky and the senator from oregon have offered. i will take five minutes to explain it, because a longer explanation would not be necessary because i think the body is very, very familiar with the reauthorization of the sbir program, and the reason that i believe that the chairman and the ranking member allowed me to offer this amendment with my colleague, senator snowe, is twofold. one, it does have a bearing on the department of defense in that, mr. president, the department of defense is the largest contributor to the sbir and sttr program, which are the two most important research and development programs for small business that the federal government runs and operates, and senator levin and senator mccain know full well the importance for the department of defense and therefore extrapolate correctly the importance of this program for all of our agencies. we take a sma

senator barrasso and senator thune? mr. barrasso: well, you know, you would hear about it a lot, and this speaks to the problems that we have in this body when you write legislation in the cloak of darkness, behind closed doors, come in and vote at 1:00 in the morning and try to jam things through at a time when an administration calls for openness and transparency and then they do this sort of thing with -- with the books in a manipulative way to try to come up with ways to say that it saves money. in any other true, real busine business, people would go to jail for this sort of behavior, i would assume. the -- it's -- is it wrong, all the way wrong? we've seen other so-called bets that this administration has made which have the american people scratching their head. and just yesterday, it was noted that fannie mae, freddie mac, bonuses have been paid to ten of their executives to the tune of over $12 million. i've called for the president to cancel those bonuses. the white house is fairly silent on that. yet when senator

in the senate or have ever had, actually, senators feinstein and senator alexander. they are knowledgeable, they're easy to work with, and they understand that legislation is the art of compromise. to work through issues. and they've done a wonderful job in the last 24 hours breaking down the amendments. we have a number of amendments on the republican side, a finite list of amendments. we should have the democratic side of those very quickly. i think we need to work it down a little more, but i appreciate very much the good work of senator alexander and senator feinstein. the normal process would be to pull the bill and come back some other time. we're not going to do that. we're going to have the bill on the calendar of the senate so we can move to it at a minute's notice, really. and we'll keep this around, we hope to be able to move to that soon. we're going to have also around here there's down time and there we should be able to finish this bill in a day, a day and a half once we get these amendments worked out. this will give us the opportunity to move to the

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr.blumenthal: i thank the senator from arizona for his remarks. and for me, at least, he owes no apology for having spoken his mind. i always welcome the opportunity to listen and more than honored to follow him. today as we approach veterans day, and i believe this veterans day may be particularly significant for our nation in part because we have the opportunity in this chamber to honor some very special veterans. the monford point marines who graced us with their presence yesterday as we celebrated the 236th birthday of the united states marine corps. they were present then. they were present in 1942 when they stepped forward to serve and fight for this nation. they are african-americans who fought and served for this nation at a time when they anticipated no recognition, certainly no honor. and we have the opportunity between now and veterans day to approve a measure that would grant them the congressional gold medal kh-rbgs they richly -- medal, which they richly deserve. they have

senate report was made. and for this reason, i ask that a summary of the cuts be included in the record immediately following my statement. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. levin: i unanimous consent. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. levin: second, the new bill would modify the detainee provisions to address concerns and misconceptions about the provisions in our initial bill. in particular, the new bill, first, modifies section 1031 of the bill, was requested by the administration, to assure that the provision which provides a statutory basis for the detention of individuals captured in the course of hostilities conducted pursuant to the 2001 authorization for use of military force, the aumf, to make sure that those provisions and that statutory basis is consistent with the existing authority that has been upheld in the courts and neither limits nor expands the scope of the activities authorized by the aumf. it also modifies sections 1033 and 1034 of the bill, as reques

1296, senator pryor 1151 and 1152, and senator senator -- senator bill nelson 1209, 1210, 1236 and 1255. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ayotte: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to temporarily set aside the pending amendment and call up the following amendments en bloc. senator mccain's amendment 1281 regarding the transfer of arms to georgia, senator blunt's two amendments, 1133 and 1134, senator murkowski's two amendments, amendment 1286 and 1287, and senator rubio's two amendments, 1290 and 1291. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. levin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: i would then ask for the regular order after all those actions are taken. the presiding officer: the amendments are now pending. mr. levin: mr. president, i now ask unanimous consent to call up en bloc five amendments which have been cleared by myself and the ranking member as follows -- amendment number 1071 on behalf o

that's not me, that's not senator graham, that's not senator mccain. that's the supreme court of the united states recently. there is no bar to this nation's holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant. mr. graham: would the senator yield for a question? mr. levin: i would rather not at this point. now, there are a number of sections in this bill. my dear friend senator udall says these sections as though it is a whole bunch of sections which are at issue. there is really only one section which is at issue here, and that's section 1032, and that's the so-called mandatory detention section that has a waiver in it. section 1031 was written and approved by the administration. okay? section 1031, which my friend from illinois has just said is an abomination, was written and approved by the administration. now, section 1031 is the authorities section. this authorizes. it doesn't mandate anything with the waiver, the 1032 does. section 1031. and now i'm going to use the words in the administration's own so-called s.a.p. or statement of administrati

tests, senator:, senator coburn, senator brown, senator mccain, senator johnston, senator gore, senator paul, centre moran, senator lieberman. mr. chairman, on the both of those press t comehe yeas are 5 and the nays are 8. on this of those ,the yeas are 5 and the nays are 11 and the amendment is not agreed to. of those here, let me indicate that next we will go to senator johnson and then senator mccaskill, then senator paul, that senatetester, all of whom have amendments pending. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would like to offer johnson amendment number 1. like my colleague from kansas, i am new to this process. as i studied the issue, there is an eye-popping chart the that the gao studied laying out the postal service. when you total up to 2020, it ends up being a lot of money. if we experience those kind of deficits, the taxpayers will be on the hook for this. that governs my votes in this process. my amendment recognizes the concern about the $6.9 billion, what is referred to as an overpayment. i think the overpayment is primarily the result of a read- calculation based on actuaria

dank, senator paul, mr. seaton, senator isakson. can we -- i mean, we can sit here for the next two hours and discuss performance and evaluations. there's other aspects of the bill to get to, so could we perhaps, and maybe you're going to bring up other things, i don't know, but hopefully we can -- or -- >> perhaps they can quickly mention what they think is good and needs improvement, and then go back to the format so nobody is left out. >> okay. let's go to ms. danks first here. >> good morning. >> do you want to address the performance? >> well, i just wanted to respond to your question about how the rubric was created, and in baltimore city, we recently passed a contract where the teachers are paid for performance, and we went there the process creating a rubric, and that took about a year, and we had old stake holder, administrators, teachers, family members working together through drafts to create a rubric that truly defined what highly effective teaching looked like in the classroom and with the atonmy, and the question abou

senate. weeknights what key public policy events and every week and the latest nonfiction authors and books on booktv. you can see past programs and get our schedules that are website and join in the conversation on social media sites. >> on monday at a news conference in massachusetts congressman barney frank announced he would be retiring at the end of his current term. yesterday he held a news conference from capitol hill to talk about his decision. this is just under an hour. >> thank you. hi am just going -- it is real complicated and throw it wide open on the concept of my retirement. i had decided tentatively will last year that i would make this my last term. this will round up 40 years of elected office after doing my political work or somebody else's in october of 1967, one six months period off. i will take it easy. i don't -- have long had this desire to do some serious writing. as i mentioned yesterday are probably am at least tied for the longest trailing ph.d. thesis in the dep

senator goldwater. most democrats and most republicans in the the senate voted to halt the united nations and its peacekeeping functions when it was in financial difficulty, but not goldwater. >> i cannot help but think that particular moment how far we had,, all the hard work and effort, this was a great moment in my life. >> mr. johnson said in his judgment, mr. humphrey was the best man to be president in case anything happened to have. no longer is the vice presidency just another job. >> that video is from mick caouette's documentary on hubert humphrey. first of all, the scene of the energetic hubert humphrey addressing the crowd and having the crowd eating out of his hand and the cutaway to lyndon johnson, who did not seem to share the moment. what was happening? >> he did not like the spotlight being taken from him. humphrey was believed to be a better public speaker. he was a little bit upset about a humphrey taking the show away. that was lyndon johnson. the goldwater part of that speech was wr

what's going to happen in the senate? >> well, the first thing we're going to do when we get back this week is put the payroll tax holiday on the floor of the senate. it would give middle-class families about $1,000 extra in their pockets. the average family would get that. it would boost the economy. and we paid for it with a small surtax on incomes over $1 million. it's essential that we do this. we're going to keep at it and at it and at it, because it's so important for the economy. >> why do you think the republicans will go along with that in the senate? do you have the votes? >> well, it's hard to believe the republicans would oppose this for two reasons. first of all, they spent so much time fighting to preserve the bush tax cuts for the millionaires, it's hard to believe they wouldn't want to preserve a tax cut for the middle-class. that's number one. and number two, most of them have supported things like this in the past. they say the way to get the economy going is cut taxes. they don't like increased spending

the presiding officer: the senate is in morning business, senator, and the senator is recognized. mr. inhofe: madam president, after the vote today, i -- i think that any effort to pass a bill such as the ones that we just now voted on would be very difficult, but something good does happen from that, and that is that we had the vast majority of people in this chamber recognizing that we need to do something that would be stimulative to the economy, something like -- or i should say something unlike the stimulus bill that we had before where only 3% of the money actually went to building roads, highways and maintenance and that type of thing. so i do appreciate the fact that we are now in a position where i think with this behind us we can be looking at a good, legitimate highway transportation and reauthorization bill. i have been working very closely with senators boxer, vitter and baucus. we are considered the big four in the -- in the environment and public works committee to come up with something. i have to say we have worked very hard, and i am talking hours and hours. any

eewant to thank senator tim johnson, senator bozeman, jack reid by senator p blunt, senator white house andas many others who will joinlet'set senator randy and senator don alexander and myself in thiset effort to pass this bipartisanhs bill.aunted u let's get this done. a let's work together on ahat bipartisan basis to solve a problem of it as forever decade and do it in a fair fashion itny does not create any new taxes,ts the cases states the right tohe collect taxes already on the boat. i yield the floor.cer: thesena >> mr. president. >> senator from tennessee. >> minority has 20 seconds lefte s> i ask consent to expand theei colloquy into democratic time. >> is there objection no objection. >> i think the democratic whip. well, i want to congratulate sen senator and seeing senator durbin and say how pleased i amt to join as a cosponsor of theaie legislation.is and here's what i want to congratulate them for it. center in seeking to this is a a former mayor come as a formeri o shoe shop owner. i., save a former governor. and in our constitutionalit wasn framework, esi have always tho

senate. on weeknights watch key public policy events and every weekend the latest nonfiction authors and books on "book tv" you can see past programs and get our schedules at our website. join in the conversation on social media sites. >> now national security editor for "the washington times", bill gertz. he was on this morning's "washington journal" talking about a report on efforts in iran to develop the technology and skills needed to make nuclear bombs. >> host: bill gertz is our guest here. he is national security editor with the "washington times" here to talk about the u.n. atomic watchdog's report on iran expected to come out this week. what's the latest on this report? >> guest: well, good to be on the show. and thanks, greta. the report will be released wednesday night vienna time and it will have three main takeaways. it is going to provide more information than it has in the past. the first is that basically the iranians have conducted computer modeling for a nuclear weapon. they

the senator from south carolina. a senator: the e.p.a. three years ago came out with a ruling that bans these over-the-counterren hailers that that -- mr. roberts: i don think the senate is in order. i have a bill on this amendment which is the same thing. by ask for regular order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senator from south carolina. mr. demint: the e.p.a. has banned inhalers even though acknowledged neglect religionable impact on the environment. my amendment keeps this rule from going into -- into effect until the manufacturer can complete its work with f.d.a. to change its propel apartment. let's allow americans to continue their quality of life while we solve the problem. we don't need to do that this january. it will be solved without the f.d.a. enforcing this rule. and i reserve the balance of my time. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: the senate is not in order. colleagues, this amendment affects the ability of people with asthma to purchase an inhaler that works. and th

>> thank you, senator. thank you, senator. first, we want to say thank you for having a accountability component in there focusing on the bottom 5% of our schools that are persistently low achieving schools that have an achievement gap and allowing states some discretion in developing an accountability system in their state i think is all positive. we also would like very much that we no longer have to set aside money for a supplemental education services. in our district, this after-school tutoring program has not yielded any results. we actually have had vendors that would give students rides to movie theaters and stretch limousines for signing up. last year in our district we created our own tutorial program in our schools. we reconstituted four -- five middle schools and five high schools and we tutored those students in math every day. one tutor per two children and at the end of the year, we had twice the academic gains that the harlem school program -- and based on our own experience with turn-around models, we would li

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: i listened to parts of what senator reid had to say as we opened the senate today, and i was struck by the fact that so many people are unemployed and our economy is still barely growing, that there probably is not any firm objections to trying to alleviate some of the pain by continuing a process where we lessen the tax burden through a decline in the social security tax. and i don't think that's going to be the issue with many senators. the question is, is: do we do that by raising taxes on other people or do we do that by getting rid of waste? and i had an interesting phone call today with somebody i trust, and i've been talking to for three years who has actually predicted everything that's happened so far. and he's predicted what's going to happen in europe and predicted in the fact that ultimately there's going to be default in europe on govern

that's not me, that's not senator graham, that's not senator mccain. that's the supreme court of the united states recently. there is no bar to this nation's holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant. mr. graham: would the senator yield for a question? mr. levin: i would rather not at this point. now, there are a number of sections in this bill. my dear friend senator udall says these sections as though it is a whole bunch of sections which are at issue. there is really only one section which is at issue here, and that's section 1032, and that's the so-called mandatory detention section that has a waiver in it. section 1031 was written and approved by the administration. okay? section 1031, which my friend from illinois has just said is an abomination, was written and approved by the administration. now, section 1031 is the authorities section. this authorizes. it doesn't mandate anything with the waiver, the 1032 does. section 1031. and now i'm going to use the words in the administration's own so-called s.a.p. or statement of administrati

last march, i introduced the bipartisan build act with senator kerry, senator warner, senator graham and myself. it puts forward a method of addressing our infrastructure needs that i think is the right way forward. the need and demand for greater infrastructure investment is unprecedented. the american society of civil engineers estimates that a 2.2 trillion investment is needed over the next five years to restore our infrastructure to an adequate condition. ignoring these needs hampers our economic growth, impedes the flow of inter and intrastate commerce, and slows the development and distribution of domestic energy production. we should consider new, innovative ways of financing our infrastructure. traditional government mechanisms alone cannot keep pace with our national demand. our legislation, senator kerry's and mine, creates the american infrastructure financing authority. this would be an independent authority designed to facilitate private investment in critical infrastructure projects. it is designed like a bank, providing loans or loan guarantees for regionally or nation

we've got 45 senators now. and i have helped organize this group, bipartisan senators, 100 members of the house saying if they will step up and be bold, we got their back, we'll try to give them that cover. as tom has indicated, we really need to be shooting for more like a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan. if there's one thing we've seen from the last few months in europe, it is when you take these incremental steps, the market comes back and burns you time and again. at some point we're going to have to face that same kind of abyss that the greeks faced, now the italians are facing, and i believe we need to get ahead of it. frankly, if the super committee doesn't come up with a result, i go back to our gang of six. that had $4 trillion of deficit reduction. it had balance. maybe that ought to get a vote if the super committee can't produce. >> after a committee produces a product, of course the entire senate and entire house has to pass it. i want to play you something grover norquist, a very influential re

for the senator from remaining for the senator from georgia. fro >> without objection the senator ,rom new hampshire.k you specs before mr. president. i first of all one to thank andg chairman leavening and ranking t member mccain and remindamendmt everyone that this particular amendment addressing the thebas provision passed overwhelminglye on a bipartisan basis from then armed services committee, and as the reason that we address thisw issue is because h we heard an a witness after witness in a series of months before thertmet service armed services committee from the department of defense to callis for example when i asked the command saying she lay would need some help on how toam answer what to do with a member of al qaeda who was captured in africa. this is an area thathat cried ot for clarification and that is a, the genesis of this amendment dment. which is a very important amendment.juriefly, just briefly, to issues. o number one, on a 1031. raise the argument that had been o raised about 1031, the statemend is a red as, this herring.

senator grassley and then on the order of arrival senator feinstein, senator kunes and senator klobuchar. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. speaker, yesterday he made a public statement saying that the atf and the attorney's office officials, quote on quote, repeatedly assured officials in the criminal division and the leadership of the part of justice the allegations about walking guns "fast and furious" for not true. please be more specific. who exactly at atf said that the gun walking allegations were untrue and who said the allegations were not true? >> senator grassley, as i said yesterday it was my office that ultimately prosecuted the wide receiver case and i want to be very clear to you, senator, when i learned of this in april of 2010 and i decided to prosecute this case from 2006 and 2007i regret that i dillinger then, knowing now, knowing now i wish that that time the lawyer said clearly to the deputy attorney general and the attorney general that in this case wide receiver we have determined that in 2006 and 2007 guns did what. >> who told you atf and the attorney general's offi

right now -- i know many of my colleagues joined with me and senator brown, senator stabenow, senator casey in saying china has got to play fair. we're all worried that china will get ahead of us economically. well, right now china is spending four times as much on infrastructure as the united states -- four times as much. that's not four times per capita as much. that's four times as much. and here's the real kicker: according to a recent survey of 1,400 business leaders in 142 countries, the u.s. ranks number 24 in overall infrastructure quality. is that a shame? we're behind countries like barbados and oman. we also rank number 20 in roads, behind the united arab emirates and libya. 29th in ports, behind malaysia, bahrain and panama. and 31st in air transportation infrastructure, behind chile, and malta. how can it be? these great united states which we dearly love, which always was at the top in creating roads and bridges and tunnels and great water systems. the third water tunnel in new york is being built right now. it is an engineering wonder. it started in the 1950's, the plan

, the modern senate uses a filibuster. but let's say i were a political conservative who thought that the affordable care act is terrible and should be repealed as soon as possible. well, it's not unrealistic to imagine that president obama will be reelected in 2012 and that the republican party will continue to control the house and gain the senate. so one would expect them -- h.r. 1 you might very well expect to be a bill to repeal what they call obamacare. but the president will veto it. now, as a political liberal, that's fine with me, but if i were conservative, i would be furious. i would say, look, we've had this national debate, we've won the house and the senate, but it really doesn't matter because this one person can block the legislation. so i really do think that americans spend an insufficient amount of time thinking of issues that if they've ever been taught it might well have been when they were in the seventh grade. because what i'm really talking about is what used to be the subject matter of very old-fas

senator schumer is the leader of the democrats in the senate. the senate didn't do a budget this year. they didn't do a budget the year before. they didn't do a budget the year before that. so if they would write down a budget, not talk about it, remember obama gave the speech and the congressional budget office says we can't do an economic score of the speech. okay, if they knock off with the talking points and write a budget, and get it scored, then we could have something to look at. >> you mention lucy and the football. you heard senator schumer about the payroll tax cut extension, which democrats would like to do, republicans, including yourself, are opposed to. look, when people talked about the bush-era tax cuts expiring, republicans described that as a tax increase. these were on a ten-year time horizon. why is it that a payroll tax extension that is not extended, why isn't that a tax increase? >> well, two things. i'm not opposed to extending the payroll tax particularly. i think it's destructive to extend it and raise some other tax th

senator williams voted for it as well as the different republicans in the house and senate.and we totally revise our economic toolbox to give ourselves the ability to not only try to attract businesses from out of the state to move into the states but to work with existing kentucky businesses to help them expand and create new jobs. that strategy is working. we have 350 companies that have been approved for one or more of these new economic incentive programs. those companies are going to invest about $3.4 billion in new investment in the commonwealth. it will create 19,000 jobs. and the jobs we are retaining is 2808200 jobs. are we out of the recession? of course not. we have way too many people still a lot of work, but we have things moving in the right direction and we need to keep them moving that way. >> senator, you did vote for that plan? >> absolutely. the reason i voted for it is because i put the military pay exemption bill in the middle of it that the governor was against and had a ceremonial signing at fort campbell few months later. it is not the incentive progr

senator kyl, thank you very much. we will turn now to senator john kerry. also of the super committee. senior senator of massachusetts. let's start right there. how do you respond? >> well, i'm glad we're starting right there. because what jon just said is patently not true. we just cut $917 billion without one dime of new revenue. he knows it. we just did it. we cut $550 billion in the health care act from medicare. we didn't raise -- you know, this is just nonsense. look, david, if this weren't so serious, i might laugh. but you know, the united states of america is in a position right now, with europe, financial system crumbling, you ask about a downgrade a moment ago. the downgrade may -- they may look at the $1.2 trillion of sequester but jon just talked about how they're not going to do that sequester. he just talked about how they're going to get out from under it. there is a real threat that not only will there be a downgrade but that the market on monday will look again at washington and say, you guys can't get the job done. and just the political

, senator inhofe. and they've arrived at a conclusion. i had a are conversation yesterday with senator inhofe and they've worked out almost all the details on that bill. that bill we have to do something on that, because it expires at the end of this year. first of february i believe. mr. president, my friend the republican leader who i care a great deal about personally is absolutely wrong. the american people support our approach, 76% of the american people like it, of all political definitions support it. why? because it's so fair. we're asking the top .2% of people who make money in this country to contribute a surtax of .7% of the money they make over a million dollars. job creators? i don't think so. the funding mechanism that the republicans use this time is in violation of the agreement that we made last july. we have an agreement. we have cut domestic screngs enough -- discretionary spending enough. that was the agreement we made and they come back and they whack it more which i repeat is goin

the senator rubio of florida and a democratic senator have a land to get companies hiring. and soon. called "the agree," act part of the president's job land that both parties could agree on. and, they say it is our best chance to get the economy going again. the senators join me. welcome both of you. senator rubio, do you first, you have not talked much to the media since you were elected and you have chosen your chats very carefully but you have made a full court press for this. why? >>guest: it is important. i get letters and e-mails from people in florida hurting including one from a young lady worked here entire life and out of work for a year and trying to find a job every day. this is nothing. real people are hurting. the economic downturn has taken a turn for the likes of real people in my state and across the country and we have to do something. we have big disagreements and we will have an election and help decide the way forward but we can not it is around for 12 months and do nothing on the things we agree we have to act. >>neil: senator there is a lot of common