dorgan: madam president, i ask consent the quoru cal be vacated.ding officer: without objection. mr. dorgan: madam president, on wednesday of last week the president gave a state of the union address and talked about a lot of the issues. one of the issues that he mentioned that is especially important to me is one that i've worked on for some long while here in the united states senate, and that is changing the tax code to begin cutting out and getting rid of the tax break that is offered to companies that shut their american factories and move their jobs overseas. it is strange to most people to hear, but we actually have in the american tax code a reward for companies that would say, you know what i should do? what i want to do is i want to shut down my american factory, i want to fire my american workers, i want to move those jobs to china and hire somebody for 50 cents an hour. and, by the way, if they do that, they actually get a tax break in this country. they get rewarded by the american tax system for moving american jobs to other countries

democrats are now vacating their seats, including connecticut's chris dodd, north dakota's byron dorgan, roland burris in illinois, and ted kaufman in delaware. republicans are leaving, too. that party will defend six open seats this fall-- in missouri, florida, new hampshire, ohio, kansas and kentucky. but retirements only begin to tell the story. incumbent democrats are at risk in arkansas, pennsylvania, colorado and nevada. the president travels this week to both nevada and colorado, where democratic leader harry reid and freshman democrat michael bennett, respectively, are each struggling. arizona senator john mccain, who was the republican presidential nominee just two years ago, is being challenged, too-- this time, from his right flank. former congressman j.d. hayworth. >> you could say there are two john mccains-- the one who campaigns like a conservative and the one who legislates like a liberal. ( cheers and applause ) in fact, when it comes time to debate, i'm going to ask for a third chair in case both john mccains show up. >> ifill: mccain jabbed back at hayworth, who lost

i was on with you last month with byron dorgan who was so çfrustrated over the fact he could not getportation of drugs the bill by, and he is easily in the senate -- re-importation of drugs bill. that is how the senate is failing as an institution and that the filibuster is being abused, these guys are really socializing with each other, -- are not socializing with any body or cutting deals. it is not liked -- because of a strategy by the republicans which is, you know, they learned. when they cooperated with clinton we got a lot of things done but not necessarily all their way and they learned from that and they decided, we are not going to cooperate, like what happens under the eight years of clinton because we did not want eight years of obama. that is what i believe. i would tell you this, my final comments would be that you might see some changes now that obama has brought back the guy -- sorry i cannot remember his name -- who was kind of a very influential in the campaign. he is now back in the white house. he wrote a book -- and he is, i believe, going to see a different atti

so i want to thank my colleague, senator dorgan, for his great leadership on this important issue.tourism is our country's truest form of economic stimulus. the average overseas visitor to the united states spends roughly $4,500 per trip to pay for hotels, transportation, dining, shopping and other things. tourism took a massive hit on 9/11. it has not recovered yet. this has been made worse by last year's recession. if the united states had managed to keep pace with global travel trends, 68 million more travelers would have visited the united states between 2000 and 2009. these travelers would have generated an estimated 250,000 new u.s. jobs in 2008 alone. now at a time when unemployment is at record high numbers in this country, we cannot afford to throw away anymore tourism-related job creation. we can take a cue from canada on successful ways to spur this tourism that we need so badly. if you've been watching the olympics, you've seen these ads about british columbia. i don't know about the rest of you, but it's made me want to actually go up and visit. and it isn't just watch

the majority leader asked senator byron dorgan and myself to meet with them to talk about ideas that might spur job creation across the country. we had several large meetings and a lot of staff meetings coming together. there were a lot of good ideas that came forward. we tried to call them down into a group of good ideas -- the strongest ideas. we tried also to make it clear that some of those would be going to the finance committee that chairman max baucus chairs. others would go through other committees. i will allow max baucus and charles schumer to address this as well. in general, what we are trying to do is to move jobs -- to spark the creation of jobs among small businesses. if you will notice here, at the bottom of the first page, we talk about creating opportunities for small businesses. lending programs, for example, that we know work, that will provide credit and opportunities, export promotion we know will create good paying jobs, credit opportunities for small business, not currently available. there is a move to make sure we try to lessen our dependence on foreign oil

democrats, who are already looking at the possibility of losing seats in north dakota, with byron dorgan's retirement, and also in delaware with beau bidden deciding not to run for his father's old seat, democrats are looking, you know, at some potential big losses come november when it comes to the u.s. senate. >> and i don't think for president obama there would be probably nothing larger than losing his own seat, and if it's alexi grun you'llas, because he's a friend of obama, obama was key to alexi getting he elected to state treasurer when he was 29, 30 years old, so i expect we'll -- if the president has only been home once since he took office, i think we'll probably see him moreover the next year as he tries both to save the governor's race and senate seat. jon: we'll read more about it in the chicago tribune, bruce dold, thank you. jane: we're getting breaking news on a member of congress we wanted to bring to you, politico.com is reporting at this hour congressman jack mirth, he's familiar to you probably, big on the prop operations committee, they're reporting he's back in the h

we've been working currently with the senate committee of indian affairs and senator dorgan's staff tout together an energy bill proposal that is yet to be introduced. but in that energy bill proposal, we're dealing with not only access to the transmission lines but also dealing with the economic and financial tools that we need to be able to create the kind of incentives that make energy development feasible in indian country. and so we are looking very forward to this bill being introduced early in this session. and we're working -- looking hard and strong for good bipartisan support. other questions? >> ron ellinger in washington state. what does nci advocating with the department of justice to advance the public safety interests of our communities? >> thank you, chairman. you know, we on a number of fronts we've been working with the department of justice. department of justice has really stepped up to be a player. several years ago we had reports that came to congress around the numbers, the amnesty report that came about, the extreme numbers of women against violence. and we got

a little over two months ago, majority leader asked senator dorgan and myself to me with a member's oflp to spur job creation across our country. we had several large meetings, and then a lot of staff meetings coming together. and there were a lot a very good ideas that came forward eric we tried to call them down into a group of good ideas, the strongest ideas, and we tried also to make it clear that some of those would be going through the finance committee that chairman baucus chairs. others would go through committee's. and i will allow chairman baucus and senator sherman to share some of that as well. but i will say in general we're trying to do first and foremost, is to move jobs, to spur creation of jobs among small businesses. if you will notice here, the bottom of the first page, we talk about creating opportunities for small businesses. sba lending programs, for example, that have worked, that we know work that will provide credit and opportunities for small businesses, and export promotion that we know will create good paying jobs, credit opportunities for small business not

we do have some people good people in the senate, byron dorgan.i don't know about most of the others. . caught up in the tree frayed nonsense, which in my book, it should be fair trade. host: columnist paul krugman writes in this morning -- six louis on the democrats' line about trade and jobs. -- st. louis. caller: it will not do anything until we get rid of cafta awnd nafta, which bill clinton really loved. our senators and congressman, they don't work for the people any more. so i'm not looking for any trade agreements that will bring jobs to our country unless you are in the military industrial complex. if we are not using depleted uranium and dropping an innocent people we are not doing anything. i don't understand my government any more. america used to be a place where you can get a good job but it seems like our senators and congressmen are hooked on slave labor. host: texas, republican collar. all because generally speaking, free trade is good for everyone. -- caller: generally speaking free- trade it is good for a name -- everyone. the p

senator byron dorgan stands to get more than $116,000. senator gregg an average of $63,000.enators bond and bunning taking away $58,900 in annual pensions. >> the federal congressional pension system is simply a direct line into the taxpayer's wallet. no investments that need to be made, no fund balances that get worried about, whatever the liability is for a given year, taxpayers cough up the money for it. >> reporter: we called the senators to get a response but our calls were not returned. the congressional retirement system was reformed in 1984 to make the system less generous and more in line with that of other federal workers. still representative howard kobel says the system is broken. >> it's too lavish, too generous when you compare it with pensions across the country. i elected to refuse the pension on the ground that taxpayers are subsidizing my salary now. i figure when i leave they've taken good care of me to do the left they can after i leave in the service in the congress has been accomplished. >> reporter: up until recently even if a congressional member comm

senator byron dorgan counting his years in the house and senate stands to get more than $116,000.d bond and bunning taking away $58,900 in state and federal pension plans. >> unlike the state and federal pension, it is a direct line into the taxpayers' wallet. no investments that need to be made and no fund balances that get worried about. whatever the liability is for a given year, taxpayers cough up the money for it. >> reporter: we called the senators to get a response, but the calls were not returned. the congressional retirement system was reformed in 1994 to make the system less generous and more in line with that of other federal workers, but howard cobble says that the system is broken, and he has tried repeatedly to reform the pension program which has not won him too many friends on capitol hill. >> it is too lavish when you comparet with pensions across the country. i elected to refuse the pension on the ground that taxpayers are subsidizing my salary now. i figure that when i leave, they have taken good care of me to let me do the best i can once i leave after the serv

we've been working currently with senate committee on indian affairs and senator dorgan's staff to put together an energy bill proposal that is yet to be introduced. but in that energy bill proposal we are dealing with not only access to the transmission lines but also dealing with economic and financial tools we need to be able to create the kind of incentives that make energy development feasible and in the in country so we are looking very forward to the bill being introduced early in the session and we are looking hard and strong for good bipartisan support. other questions? >> jamestown washington state. what does in cia advocate with the department justice to advance the public safety interest of the community's? >> thank you, chairman alan. on a number of fronts we've been working with department of justice. department of justice stepped up to be a player. several years ago we had a report that came to congress and around the members of amnesty report that cannot be extreme numbers of women against violence and we got a great coalition which is the co-chair, addressing the women

dorgan: i'll be brief. the vote that just occurred was a vote on a nomination of martha johnson of maryland to head the general services administration. that vote was reported by the committee unanimously to the u.s. senate on june 8th of last year. june 8th of last year. it has been blocked since that moment and now we have a vote. we didn't have a vote in july, not in august, september, october, november, december, january. we had it now, seven or eight months later. after blocking it for seven or eight months, 92 senators voted yes. explain to the american people how you block a nomination for seven months that you support. try to explain it. in my judgment it is a shameful disrespect for good government to block nominations for months after months. and the same is true with individual issues that are brought to the floor of the senate. and i'll give you a couple of quick examples. an appropriations bill blocked on the floor of the senate and then 80 people voted yes. credit card holders bill of rights,

number three, senators dorgan and mccain introduced a floor amendment on prescription drug reimportation in december. according to the hill d, the newspaper that -- according to "the hill," the newspaper that's circulated up here on the capitol, according to "the hill," quote, a deal between the white house and the pharmaceutical industry held up and helped them beat the amendment. what deal? with who? on whose authority was this deal made? now, for all my affection for senator mccain, i disagree with him about reimportation, but at the same time, let's have that debate, let's have that debate, let the people hear what the pros and cons are, but let's not carve up a deal behind closed doors, even though my position arguably won in that exchange, that doesn't make me feel any better. that some sort of deal was cut behind closed doors, that then would not allow reimportation to be included or considered in the process. you know, mr. speaker, here's the frustration as a member of congress, the press seems to know more about these deals and this process than any of us in this body or the oth

dorgan? >> sba. >> thank you, sir. >> mr. gruenberg? >> i don't think i'm in a position to make a judgment. >> banks and thrift. >> oh, my. thank you very much. let me come back to you, ms. mills, for something else that i'm not badgering you. i have learned that if i don't ask questions they give me a yes or no answer, i sometimes assume people mean just when they have actually been trying to communicate know. in a very nice way. so now, with the centcom you mention a 90% loan guarantee. is it important you think to indicate and let the public know that this is not a 90% guarantee of the loan, but rather 90 percent of the loss. because if there are assets to cover losses, that may make the loan totally covered with the assets the losses, then the government doesn't lose any money, the taxpayers don't lose any money, is that correct? >> it's 90 percent of the loan. >> not of the law? >> correct. >> so is the loan defaults and the borrower has assets that are going to be used to satisfy some portion of the loss, don't use of trackback fr

president, i want to thank senator dorgan for his great leadership. for so long he has been working on this, and i have a feeling this is finally going to get done. it is traourbgs we invite the presiding officer -- it is true, we invite the presiding officer to visit north dakota and minnesota. i think he thinks his state of new mexico is pretty cool but he never visited teddy roosevelt park. our market campaigns are done by specific cities -- las vegas, new york. that is very important. when you look at this country, marketing our country as a whole is going to mean something. we're competing against countries the world over that do this all the time. that's why we've seen a 20% decrease in our international visitors. when i held a hearing on this issue along with then-senator martinez this part year, there was a story in "the washington post." it was in good humor about all the senators kind of hawking their own states and the deals you could get, whether senator begich's $99 cruise in alaska or the stuff i was talking about with duluth, minnesota.