inhofe: thank you. mr. president? i ask unanimous consent -- the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent that the junior senator from kentucky be recognized for up to seven minutes. he has been trying to get on for quite some time and i think that's agreeable. the presiding officer: is there objection? so ordered. mr. paul: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky is recognized. mr. paul: i'd like to commend the senator from oklahoma for being a leader on trying to restore and repair our infrastructure. i think the senator from oklahoma shows that this is a bipartisan issue. i rise today not only to support the bipartisan nature of rebuilding our infrastructure but also to address an important concern that is happening in egypt. i rise today to introduce an amendment to suspend foreign aid to egypt until they release our american citizens. the situation in egypt over the past year has been tumultuous and there are people in government stand at a moment w

i want to congratulate senator inhofe for pulling together and subcommittee staffs as well. i want to start for congratulating them for pulling together a bipartisan transportation bill that begins to address america's infrastructure needs. this comes on the heels of our passage earlier this week of a conference report, a compromise on f.a.a. reauthorization to bring the air traffic control system of our country into the 21st century and to also begin rebuilding and improving our airports as well. this is a pretty good one-two punch in the period of one week. this legislation before us today makes key reforms to our federal transportation policy that will help make us the -- help make the best use of our taxpayers dollars. the legislation sets clear national goals for transportation investments. we don't just throw money at this problem. we actually do so to achieve a number of specific goals. and this bill asks state transportation departments to do their part to achieve those national goals. it accomplished this by implementing new peformance measures that will help to hol

committee has worked tirelessly on for years, along with senator inhofe. it's a very important piece of legislation authorizing billions of dollars of programs and projects, and i really want to say that i appreciate her leadership so much and i'm so hoping that the republican leadership and the democratic leadership can come together so sometime in the next few days we can have some votes relative to this important piece of legislation and move forward, because i know for the people that i represent in louisiana, this is one of our most important infrastructure bills, and i'm sure, mr. president, that you have many people in pennsylvania talking with you about the importance of getting these road projects authorized at a time when people are looking for jobs and looking for work, this would be one of the bills we'd like to pass. so let's all be patient but not too patient to get this through because it's very important. but while we're waiting for that, i thought i'd come to the floor on this very special day, valentine's day, to talk about a very special

inhofe for himself and mrs. hutchison, proposes amendment number 1500. at the end of the amendment insert the following: "prohibition on unauthority earmarks --" mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading of the officer without objection. mr. inhofe: i would like to ask unanimous consent that senator susan collins be added as -- withdraw that request. mr. president, today i'm -- i understand that senator toomey is going to be introducing an amendment that will -- it is quite an oversimplifying to say it that way, but it would make permanent the temporary ban on earmarks. and i think this is something that we have talked about and talked about and talked about on this floor. in fact, the last time we talked about the amendment to do -- to put a moratorium on earmarks, my conservative rating of number one in the united states senate moved to number 20 because i was telling the truth, not demagoguing an issue. the problem we have is this: when the -- when we -- the house of representatives first of all came up some time ago -- two year

inhofe: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, we are going to be considering today and i think the rest of this week and probably go into next week one of the most significant things that we are supposed to be doing here, and i would like to start off by saying that in endorsing and encouraging a highway reauthorization bill, i want people to know this is coming from someone who is a conservative. i think there are a lot of conservative organizations out there that have mistakenly thought of this as being a big spending bill without realizing that this has been since its inception back during the eisenhower administration an approach to build roads, highways, infrastructure that is necessary in this country and to have that as a top priority. now, there are some problems that have come up with the highway trust fund, and i want to share that with my colleagues, but first of all make sure everyone knows who might be watching and particularly some of the organizations that are conservative organizations that these words

i congratulate senator boxer and senator inhofe and those who serve on the epw committee for the work they have done and also senator baucus for working very hard to find the pay for. at the same time on monday the president detailed his plan for a six-year surface transportation reauthorization proposal, which is part of his blueprint for an america built to last. here are the facts. our budget proposal has three broad goals. number one, creating jobs by investing in our infrastructure. number two, spurring innovation across our transportation systems. and three, maintaining our laser focus on safety, our number one priority. and all of this would be fully paid for. president obama is proposing to cap the funding for the overseas contingency operations over the next 10 years there by saving hundreds of billions of dollars. then we'd used half of those savings to pay down the debt and the other half on a six-year transportation bill that let's us do some nation building at home. so let's take these goals one at a time. number one, an america built to last needs a strong transportation

senators boxer, inhofe, vitter and i worked hard to achieve tkpwraefplts. i thank -- achieve agreements. i especially want to applaud chairman boxer and ranking member inhofe for their leadership. they worked very hard and they worked together. sometimes people think washington can't work together. let me tell you, mr. president, i've worked these two people work very closely together. they're a team to get a highway bill here before the senate. next, from the perspective of the finance committee, the bill provides the highway trust fund with sufficient funding to last at least until the end of fiscal 2013. the highway trust fund does not bring in tphreuf knew from the -- revenue from the traditional funding sources such as the fuel tax to meet our national needs. as a result, democrats and republicans on the committee had to look elsewhere to ensure in the short term that we could maintain current levels of federal investment. in the long term we should use the opportunity to decide what we want for our transportation network in the 21st century. we're goi

the gentleman knows that the senate has passed a bipartisan bill out of sneet with senator inhofe, republican, and senator boxer, not exactly ideological sole mates, coming together and -- soulmates, coming together. i'm trying to figure out from you you go from other aspects of the bill that create jobs but -- you say infrastructure is necessary for growth, my readling of that -- reading of that is as the president pointed out, investing in infrastructure does in fact grow jobs. to the extent we can pass a bill scheduling a bill that has bipartisan support here and bipartisan support there and the support of the president of the united states is what we ought to be doing. doing it in a partisan fashion undercuts our scheduling of moving that forward. that's my point. i think the gentleman understands that point. but i would hope that as we work on this bill we could do what the senate's done, which they don't do very off, and come together in a bipartisan way as we have historically done in this house on transportation and infrastructure bills. so important for the growth of our country and

to get i could really say that senator inhofe and i work in the most remarkable bipartisan way to ged a great bill out of yourtuck, committee. the banking committee did the same, senators johnson and shalh be. done the commerce committee got a little stuck with your bidding e that piece and they've done anpn excellent job of finding the mde funds for us to serve the trustl fund. mr. president, i bwant you to e think in your mind's eye of a football stadium that hosts the super bowl. think of what it looks like wheo it is jammed packed with peopled it's about 100,000 seats, right? 15 of those stadiums could bet t filled with unemployed construction workers, think about without would look like. 15 super bowl stadium is soldtrn out every seat filled.he that's how many unemployedwork. construction workers we haveon,v because the housing crisis. this bill will put them back tot work in a bipartisan fashion with protected the one to 8 million jobs coming and we create up to another millione. dollars so, i can't believe we ' are discussing birth control on, a highway bill, but such ise on li

of other -- i shouldn't say dozens -- hundreds, hundreds of other organizations support the boxer-inhofe bill. i'm disappoint thad house republicans have once again chosen this very partisan path. rebuilding a transportation system our economy can rely on shouldn't be divisive. given a choice between working with democrats to create good-paying jobs for american workers and playing politics, house republicans chose politics, and that's too bad. mr. president, this bill before the senate is a good bill. we need to pass this, and i'm very disappointed that the house has taken this road that has recently been well traveled, that is what we get from the house is the same old stuff, and we have to change. mr. president, following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour. the majority will control the first half. the republicans will the will -- control the final half. following morning business, the senate will resume executive session in consideration of the jordan nomination postcloture. the senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 for our weekly caucus

let me give another quote from senator inhofe. "as i have said we can make great strides by developing our own domestic resources. we can do this and support millions of american jobs produce affordable energy for consumers and reduce our dependence on foreign oil." he said that march, 2010. i think that's important. mr. chairman, i want to make one other point. there's been implication here that it's the policy of this administration to increase oil and gas supplies. but if you look at the president's own budget that came out this week, there are two aspects of revenue coming in from oil and gas production. you have the lease sales and you have the royalties. if you look at the president's own budget this year it came out just two days ago, you will see that this year and in the outyear money coming in from lease sales decreases. that means that the policy of this administration is not more energy production on public lands. it's less. he's taking advantage of the situation that's going on, state and private lands and taking cred

jim inhofe. thank you. >> thank you. bill. bill: martha. martha: a stunning look at a new wave of foreclosures. who thought there could be another wave of this, now hitting our country. bill: a lot of them too, right? also new fallout in the solar panel company failure that cost taxpayers more than half a billion dollars. a white house committee set to subpoena key white house staffers about solyndra. >> you tell me what you as a person in charge did with half a billion dollars of taxpayer money saying it is all my staff's fault, i didn't know, i can't do anything about it. you tell me what you're going to tell the taxpayers. bill: maxine waters facing a backlash for comments she made during a recent speech in california. she's a democrat talking at a state party convention last weekend in san diego. and using some strong words to describe republican leaders john boehner and eric cantor. have a listen here. >> we've got to take back the house. i saw pictures of boehner and cantor on our screens. don't ever let me see again in life those rep

senators boxer and inhofe, the be chairman and ranking member of that important committee, environmentc works. this is a vital job-creating measure. the bill would create or maintain up to 2.8 million jobs. on february 9, two days after i moved to this bill, the senate voted 85-11 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed. the bill has brought bipartisan support. but immediately after the senate moved to the bill on february 9, senator blunt asked unanimous consent that it be in order to offer his amendment on contraception and women's health. i was stunned. i couldn't believe this. i said what's going on here? i objected at the time, i didn't see why this surface transportation jobs bill was the appropriate place for an amendment on contraception and women's health. but the republican leader and others on the republican side of the aisle made it very clear the senate is not going to be able to move forward on this important surface are transportation bill unless we vote on contraception and women's health. the republican leader said it on national tv. on "face the nation" senator mcc

portman 1505, toomey toomey-mccaskill, 1472, inhofe 1500, mccain 1471, leahy-cornyn 1483, coburn 1473t, 1488, grassley 1493, brown of ohio 1481. as modified. that all other pending amendments be withdrawn from -- with the exception of a substitute amendment, that the time until 2:00 p.m. be for debate on the bill and amendments with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. at 2:00 p.m., the senate proceed to votes in relation to amendments in the order that i have just listed. there be no amendments or points of order to any of the amendments prior to the votes other than budget points of order. that the following amendments be subject to a 50-vote affirmative threshold -- paul 1487, collins collins -- following amendments be subject to a 60-vote affirmative vote threshold -- paul 1487, collins side by side to boxer 1489, boxer at 1489 as modified, blumenthal 1498, toomey-mccaskill, inhofe 1500, leahy 1483, demint 1488, grassley 1493, brown 1481. further, that the coburn amendment 1473 be subject to a two-thirds affirmative vote threshold. th

let me give another quote from senator inhofe. "as i have said we can make great strides by developing our own domestic resources. we can do this and support millions of american jobs produce affordable energy for consumers and reduce our dependence on foreign oil." he said that march, 2010. i think that's important. mr. chairman, i want to make one other point. there's been implication here that it's the policy of this administration to increasoil and gas supplies. but if you look at the president's own budget that came out this week, there are two aspects of revenue coming in from oil and gas production. you have the lease sales and you have the royalties. if you look at the president's own budget this year it came out just two days ago, you will see that this year and in the outyear money coming in from lease sales decreases. that means that the policy of this administration is not more energy production on public lands. it's less. he's taking advantage of the situation that's going on, state and private lands and taking credit

senator inhofe and i, who represent very different points of view on most things, came together becauseknow it's essential we have a strong highway system and transit system and that our bridges aren't falling down. we work together. we get the bill to the floor. three weeks now, reverend. nothing has happened because the right wing of the republican party that has taken over that party. i always say this is not my grandpa's republican party. this is a party that's so far to the right, they are going to fall off the cliff there. they have wasted three weeks while we have 2.8 million jobs hanging in the balance. and a terribly high unemployment rate for construction workers who want to get back to work. >> senator barbara boxer, keep on fighting. thank you for your time today. >> i will. thanks. >> still ahead, scott walker's paying the price for attacking workers rights. a new poll shows him sinking fast. in that state's critical recall. >>> plus, president obama's moving the economy forward, but republicans are stuck in reverse. you won't believe how they are trying to spin the recover

i paid tribute to my staff, my democratic staff, to senator inhofe's republican staff. they worked night after night after night to come together on this bill. and then we were given another assignment two weeks ago, to try and resolve the germane amendments and they have come together and they hav they haved i don't know how many but dozens of amendments. so is the message here, work your little hearts out, you know, have your staff give up their -- their nights with their family and -- and come up with a bipartisan bill and all of a sudden have it subjected to some polarizing amendments? that have nothing to do with the subject? please. let's not see this bill go down, because if this bill goes down, let me tell you, i, for one, will go to, really, as many cities as i can and counties in this country and tell the truth about what happened. there's no reason for us not to get this done. and when you have the chamber of commerce working with the afl-cio, you have, you know, republican leaning business organizations working with democratic leaning worker organizations al

what it means for your future, senator jim inhofe with that next.fox news exclusive and the coolest video you will see all day. we have the never before seen video of the navy's newest weapon. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for excellent fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion, also refreshing plus tea. could've had a v8. >> all right. now your news by the numbers. first 100. that's the whopping number of fundraising events that president obama will have attended for his re-election campaign as of tomorrow night. he's reportedly raised at least $82 million already. next, five million much that's how many leap year babies are celebrating their birthdays today. that includes 200,000 right here in the u.s. and nine in our control room and finally one, that's how the rab labrador retriever ranked on the kennel club's list of top breeds. all have a reason to be proud. steve? >> we have number four. the golden retriever. thank you, brian. meanwhile, the controversy over climate change

we have myself, senator inhofe as partners in this effort. we have senator baucus working with the republicans in the finance committee. we have senator johnson working in concert with senator shelby on the banking committee. and on the commerce committee we have a few bumps in the road, but we're going to straighten those out because senators hutchison and rockefeller are working together. so, why is it that we're doing nothing? it's because senators on the other side don't want us to move ahead. it's no wonder we have a 13% approval from the american people. and i'll tell you, if they didn't let our families vote, it would be less. how low can it go? well, we're going to know. you know, i have to say, we want to get to this highway bill. it also had 85-11 vote to move forward, okay? 85-11 vote to move forward. and guess what the first amendment is? it's not about making sure our highways keep up with the demand p. it's not about how we can make shower our transit systems are functional. it's not about how woe make our bridges safer. it's ab

chairman and senator inhofe both actually the writer in me has to say this. before you use that quote from general burgess, believe the first person who made that statement was winston churchill when he said that the united states and britain were two countries separated by a common language. i did not want to out you general burgess but someone was going to do it sooner or later. it actually goes to one of the points that i need to make this morning and to ask both of you for your advice and that is ports do count. i also sit on the foreign relations committee and the last few days we ve been trying to put together a resolution with respect to syia and first i would say director that your comments, your testimony and your commes were very helpful today and you can hear the frustration from people like senator mccain on the fact that people think they need to do something but we have to be careful what we do and we have to be careful about the statements that we make as a senate. i have had a number of oasions since i've been here to attempt to look at some o

[applause] you just heard from my good friend senator jim inhofe.rson of the committee on environment and public works is today? barbara boxer. there is more than one way to skin a cat. i could not beat her, but we can get her out of her chairmanship and put him in. [applause] as conservatives, we are engaged in a great battle of ideas. what will it take to reignite our economy, to bring the american dream back and read for more people? what will it take to make this a land of equal opportunity for all? how do we install the of entrepreneurial foundation of this country? i am from california, the state blessed with an abundance of beauty and natural resources. california is also proof positive you can take one of the largest and most vibrant economies in the world, and you can bring into a tipping point. you can transform it into a state of persistent double- digit unemployment, yawning budget deficits, deteriorating public services, he constantly increasing tax rate with a constantly eroding tax base, and a dysfunctional political process. californ

oklahoma senator james inhofe helped secure $2 million of widen of a road that runs next to his wife'sar tulsa. thois are a few of long list of funding projects that raise some eyebrows. we have the national reporter with "the washington post" and part of the team that investigated all of this. so, kimberly, big question i guess after two days of listening to the reports, how bad is it when it comes to earmarks? >> well, that's a good question. i don't think that we were thinking of it that way. we weren't thinking how bad is it. we were really were talking an unprecedented systemic approach looking at all of their financial records and then comparing it to the earmark requests that they asked for. and what we tried to do was just tell readers something that they're supposed to learn from financial disclosure forms. you're supposed to be able to see the intersection between a member's financial interest and their holdings and whatever they do on the hill. in this case earmark, requesting special money, and what we were able to find was that, time after time they were asking for either

here, i say it again, i so admire and respect and appreciate the work done by senator boxer, senator inhofe on this bipartisan bill. unfortunately our house colleagues our republicans have gone in the direct opposite direction. they have a bill that is a love note to the tea party. the house bill didn't get a single democratic vote in committee and obviously for reasons that are very clear. the senate bill on the other hand passed out of the committee unanimously. even some republicans don't support the house bill the way it is paid for, drilling in anwr. mr. president, that issue has a beard that has turned white. that is so outdated. drilling in anwar. -- anwr. transportation secretary ray lahood, a member of the president obama's cabinet, he is republican, long-time republican from illinois, says this is the house transportation bill is the worst he's seen in 35 years of public service that is our secretary of transportation, a republican. there are lots of reasons but here's a few. the house legislation would gut public health and environmental protections. and that is a gross understat

[applause] you just heard from my good friend senator jim inhofe. the chair person of the committee on environment and public works is today? barbara boxer. there is more than one way to skin a cat. i could not beat her, but we can get her out of her chairmanship and put him in. [applause] as conservatives, we are engaged in a great battle of ideas. what will it take to reignite our economy, to bring the american dream back and read for more people? what will it take to make this a land of equal opportunity for all? how do we install the of entrepreneurial foundation of this country? i am from california, the state blessed with an abundance of beauty and natural resources. california is also proof positive you can take one of the largest and most vibrant economies in the world, and you can bring into a tipping point. you can transform it into a state of persistent double-digit unemployment, yawning budget deficits, deteriorating public services, he constantly increasing tax rate with a constantly eroding tax base, and a dysfunctional political proce

members of the senate, senator boxer, and one of the most conservative members of the senate, jim inhofe, who are cosponsoring this legislation. it's a piece of legislation to continue our highway program, our surface transportation program. it's so needed. i had yesterday the director of the department of transportation from the state of nevada, susan martinovic. i'm confident most senators here have had someone from their state because there's a conference back here for these people. it will -- it will bring construction in nevada to a standstill on our highways, our bridges, some of our mass transit programs. but we can't even get on the bill. i've agreed to do these unrelated amendments. my caucus has agreed we'll do these. we don't want to, they're not productive. they're message amendments. they're not germane. they're not relevant but we'll do those. we'll have a limited number of these bad amendments. there's been over a hundred of them filed. i mean, i am with a loss of words of what the republicans expect me to do. stand around for another week and look at each other? the amend

senator inhofe? >> let me just get on the record, secretary, that i would be one of them opposing another round for two reasons. one is i think that we have reduced the force and capability to an unacceptable level and to bring the infrastructure down to meet what i would consider to be is a member of the committee an unacceptable level is something i would not want to do. second is the problem we're facing now is an immediate problem. everything is on fire. we are trying to throw out the biggest fires. and i am going from memory now but as i recall all of these backrubs and i have been here since the first one you lose money in the first five years, it isn't going to gain anything in terms of that so there is going to be opposition appeared. secretary panetta, i saw you on the 60 minutes, and i didn't envy you when you have to answer the question to stop and think about how many combat operations there are and you started thinking on your fingers so it is something we've been thinking about and some

inhofe. >> there are some at this table that would be opposing another brac round. i think we have reduced our ability to an unacceptable level, and bringing this to what i consider to be an unacceptable level is something i don't want to do. the problem we're facing is an immediate problem. everything is on fire and we're trying to put out the biggest fires. i am going from memory now, but i've been here since the very first brac. you lose money in the first five years. there is going to be opposition. secretary panetta, i saw you on 60 minutes and i did not envy when you had to answer the question of how many combat operations there are and you start counting on your fingers. when you talk about the budget, i just want to get in here -- now we have the budget. we keep hearing about inheriting that this is an all of this -- iheritin -- inheriting deficits and all this. $3.20 trillion. this president with his budget he has proposed is $5.30 trillion in four years. huge amount of money. i saw in this morning's "washington post," the talk about everything growing anti

senator inhofe? >> let me just get on the record, secretary, that i would be one of them opposing another round for two reasons. one is i think that we have reduced the force and capability to an unacceptable level and to bring the infrastructure down to meet what i would consider to be is a member of the committee an unacceptable level is something i would not want to do. second is the problem we're facing now is an immediate problem. everything is on fire. we are trying to throw out the biggest fires. and i am going from memory now but as i recall all of these backrubs and i have been here since the first one you lose money in the first five years, it isn't going to gain anything in terms of that so there is going to be opposition appeared. secretary panetta, i saw you on the 60 minutes, and i didn't envy you when you have to answer the question to stop and think about how many combat operations there are and you started thinking on your fingers so it is something we've been thinking about and some

the gentleman knows that the senate has passed a bipartisan bill out of sneet with senator inhofe, republican, and senator boxer, not exactly ideological sole mates, coming together and -- soulmates, coming together. i'm trying to figure out from you you go from other aspects of the bill that create jobs but -- you say infrastructure is necessary for growth, my readling of that -- reading of that is as the president pointed out, investing in infrastructure does in fact grow jobs. to the extent we can pass a bill scheduling a bill that has bipartisan support here and bipartisan support there and the support of the president of the united states is what we ought to be doing. doing it in a partisan fashion undercuts our scheduling of moving that forward. that's my point. i think the gentleman understands that point. but i would hope that as we work on this bill we could do what the senate's done, which they don't do very off, and come together in a bipartisan way as we have historically done in this house on transportation and infrastructure bills. so important for the growth of our country and

senator inhofe. >> thank you mr. chairman. i really think this is a better hearing than we would have with the straightforward responses and i appreciate that very much and your comment about language i'm going to get that from the record and use it later on. >> i just wrote wrote adelle. >> that was a good one, general. i think we pretty much have decided on this 20% getting back to iran now that's it's something that is being achieved as we talk. general burgess said we have the scientific, technical and industrial capabilities for producing a weapon that we didn't really talk about when. when is the big issue? i remember what secretary panetta said just the other day about and we repeated that several times some of the questioners have and i think that is consistent. back in the debate where we have difference of opinion as to whether not we should continue with the ground-based interceptor in poland. at that time the unclassified date was actually 2015 so this is pretty consistent. one thing i don't understand, and i think

then, of course, there's the recent progress, and some talk like senator inhofe and others going after the recently finalized mercury air toxics standards. we are going to have to remain vigilant against all kinds of insidious attacks throughout 2012. >> what would you say is the primary point of this scorecard, politically? what do you hope to achieve with this, primarily? >> this is not a political or an electoral document in any way. the scorecard we think is a valuable tool for measuring the way members of congress vote when it comes to some of the most important environmental energy and public health issues. and then, of course, critically important to educate the public so that they know how their the representative and senators are voting on these key issues that are so central to them which is why we are encouraging everyone he was able to, to check at the full scorecard on our website. >> any other questions? great. would be happy to talk to people individually. thank you all again for coming. [inaudible conversations] >> we are live on capitol hill for a house ways and means

, by the chairman of the committee barbara boxer and the ranking member of the committee, senator inhofesident reagan called a world-class transportation system an investment into tomorrow that we must make today. so it's no wonder this strong bipartisan surface transportation legislation passed the committee unanimously. i am cautiously optimistic that a spirit of cooperation will continue this week, and i hope that the junior senator from south carolina did not speak for the majority of republicans last week when he said this -- quote -- "we don't have shared goals with the democrats." end of quote. i'd like to believe republicans share our goal in strengthening the economy and creating millions of jobs for american workers. i'd like to believe they share a goal as eisenhower and clinton and reagan did of building a world-class transportation system to support a world-class economy. this week, republicans have an opportunity to prove they share these goals. the surface transportation jobs bill is too important to get bogged down with ideological amendments, unrelated legislation that w

that often in this chamber, but a bipartisan bill with senator barbara boxer of california, senator inhofe of oklahoma. they have agreed on a transportation bill for two years which moves us forward. we need to make that investment. the president understands that in his budget. we should understand it in the senate, and we should make it happen. the last point i'll make is this: mr. president, there was a breakthrough yesterday. some people will be critical perhaps of the house speaker for reversing field and changing his position. it's not a question of whether or not -- it's a question of whether the payroll tax cut which president obama put in place will be continued beyond the end of this month. many may remember the flap that occurred in december when we were questioning whether to extendt for two additional months. i went back to my state and talked about it county by county as to how much it meant to working families and the republicans releapted in the house and agreed to extend it to the end of february. and, unfortunately, just a short time ago the speaker said, and i with quote,

inhofe. this amendment is also subject to a 60-vote threshold. mr. inhofe: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. who have could we get some order, please. the presiding officer: please take your conversations out of the well. the senate will be in order. mr. inhofe: first of all, madam president, i have the utmost respect for senator toomey and what he is trying to do. to me, this bill is compatible -- this amendment is compatible with what he is trying to do. it merely defines and earmark as an appropriation that has not been authorized. now, my junior senator said on the floor a year ago, he said in a way that's good because if a bad earmark comes up, we have two shots at it, one on authorization, one on appropriation. and both senator toomey, senator mccain, and others have been very supportive of the idea that we should -- we should go back to authorizing. we've been fighting this battle since 1816, and it's thyme that we end it. this is a way of doing it. defining an earmark as an appropriation that hasn't been authorized. i retain the balan