mr. baucus: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. baucus: i ask unanimous consent that senator murkowski be add add as a cosponsor to the preceding amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: mr. president, could we have order? the presiding officer: the senate will be in order.the sen. -- the senate will come to order. the senator from maine. ms. collins: mr. president, this is a very modest, bipartisan amendment. it simply gives the e.p.a. more time to get these regulations right and our struggling manufacturers more time to comply with them. it is a false choice to say that this is the environment versus the economy. we can have both. the presiding officer: the senator deserves to be heard. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, if this amendment is not adopted and the current regulations go into effect, the estimates are that they will cost manufacturers $14 billion to comply and that we will lose 200,000 manufacturing jobs at a time when we can least afford it. all we're asking is for more tim

mr. baucus. subject of the congressional investigation over insider trading. the allegations have been dogging him for months including in his home state. tonight he was challenged for his seat by a republican state senator named scott beason who gained national attention for sponsoring the toughest immigration law in alabama. in that congressional district, baucus coming in more than 30 points ahead of his challenge her congressional district 6. in alabama's 1st congressional district, another primary challenger joe bonner. he faced a change there from a far right tea party challenger who was in local businessman but again, joe boner from tonight's results with 67% of the vote in looks to be holden on to his seat. the other seat we're watching here in alabama was on the alabama supreme court. you may remember the name roy moore. alabama judge roy moore got himself nationally famous in 2003 when as a state supreme court justice he refused an order by a judge to remove a tenneco handmentless monument from the grounds of the courthouse. he was removeds by a stat

mr. baucus. subject of the congressional investigation over insider trading. the allegations have been dogging him for months including in his home state. tonight he was challenged for his seat by a republican state senator named scott beason who gained national attention for sponsoring the toughest immigration law in alabama. in that congressional district, baucus coming in more than 30 points ahead of his challenge her congressional district 6. in alabama's 1st congressional district, another primary challenger joe bonner. he faced a change there from a far right tea party challenger who was in local businessman but again, joe bonner from tonight's results with 67% of the vote in looks to be holden on to his seat. the other seat we're watching here in alabama was on the alabama supreme court. you may remember the name roy moore. alabama judge roy moore got himself nationally famous in 2003 when as a state supreme court justice he refused an order by a judge to remove a tenneco handmentless monument from the grounds of the courthouse. he was removed by a stat

mr. baucus: mr. president, i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. baucus: mr. president, i ask consent that the following staff of the finance committee be allowed on the senate floor for the duration of the session for debate on s. 2204: juan mcado, david sklar, maroon dobo and evita banara. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. baucus: edmund girk said every prudent act is found on compromise and barter. compromise and barter, that means give-and-take in order to work things out. i want to apply burke's famous aphorism to the two leaders of the public works committee: the chairman, senator barbara boxer of california and jim inhofe of oklahoma. one of the senate's leading liberals and one of the senate's most dyed in the wool conservatives. while senators boxer and inhofe openly acknowledge there is much they do not agree on, they both agree transportation infrastructure is a smart investment in american roads, safety

mr. allen, you're first. >> thank you, chairman baucus. senator kyl, distinguished members of the committee, my name is sam allen, chairman and ceo of deere company. on behalf of john deere and the business roundtable, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony today on the importance of establishing permanent normal trade relations with russian to john deere and the u.s. business community. granting pntr is crucial for u.s. manufacturers, service providers, and agricultural producers to receive the full benefits of russia's wto accession. it is essential to enable to compete on a level playing field for russian customers. the reasons are clear. first, pntr will ensure equal treatment for u.s. companies doing business in russia. here is a concrete example. russia has committed upon ascension to significantly reduce its tariffs on imported agricultural equipment from 15% to 5%. however, it is likely that russia would not extend the lower tariff rates to u.s.-made products until it's granted pntr. u.s. companies like john deere thus

mr. williams. >> chairman baucus senator kyl members of the committee.my name is paul williams and i'm an american songwriter. to not opposed to appear as my capacity as the chairman of ascap, the american society of composers authors and publishers and on behalf of of our 427,000 american songwriter, composer and music publisher members. senators i'm not here today to address rampant russian copyright piracy which other u.s. copyright interest have -- whether i'm here to bear witness to the challenges u.s. music phase in securing fair compensation for public performance of our music through quote normal channels in russia, unquote. public performance royalties increasingly determined whether a talented music creator can remain a professional or is forced to take a day job to subsidize the music copying bill withers was the one-time senator who said you don't want is taking a job senator, you're you are liable to end up with ozzy osborne as your plumber and you will be in a lot of trouble. such a transition would be a huge loss not only for american cult

mr. cordray, i want to follow up on the line of questioning that our chairman, spencer baucus had. i think what i heard you say with respect to the term "abusive" that the law was clear in this area. but i thought i also heard you say it was situational and subjective. i know that at least the coauthor of dodd/frank, senator dodd, during the senate debate on the creation of the act, said on the senate floor, quote, "i have never claimed or proposed my consumer protection is perfect. i acknowledge the word abusive does need to be debated defined and we are talking about striking that or making it better." the language never changed after that. so, number one, for the record, i want to say at least the coauthor of the act doesn't find it too clear. and i'm just wondering, is it clear or is it subjective? is it clearly subjective? are those competing or complimentary terms? i don't understand your point of view. >> okay. well, congressman, what i was saying, which is i think undeniable, is this is not an undefined term in the law. some people have mistakenly said abusive, it's vague,

mr. larson, undersecretary of state? >> yes, sir. >> in the bush administration. >> clinton and bush. >> clinton and bush. so thank you very much. the honorable allen larson. thank you very much. >> chairman baucus, senator kyl, distinguished senators, thank you for the invitation to testify. my testimony is informed by many experiences. formally as undersecretary of state for economics during the clinton and george w. bush administrations. currently as senior international policy adviser at covington and burling. and currently as chairman of the board of directors of transparency international usa. in 2009, my transparency international counterpart, whom i'm very pleased you had the opportunity to meet, mr. chairman, and i participated in a private sector group that prepared and submitted a joint report to president medvedev and president obama. entitled russia u.s. joint working group on joint institutional integrity. simply in 2009 i served as co-chair of a public sector advisory committee that provided the administration with recommendations on a new bilateral investment treaty, new model bit. my written statement describes three sets of disciplines. you could think of them as a triangle, th

mr. allen, you are first. >> thank you, chairman max baucus. on behalf option john deere and the business roundtable, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on the importance of establishing permanent normal trade relations with russia to john deere and the business community. granting a pntr is crucial for u.s. manufacturers and agricultural producers to receive the full benefits. it is essential to enable us to compete on a level playing field for russian customers. the reasons are clear. first, pntr will ensure equal treatment for u.s. companies doing business in russia. here is a concrete example. russia has committed to significantly reduce taxes on imported agricultural equipment from 15%, to 5%, however it is likely they would not be extended until they're granted pntr. u.s. companies like john deere thus would be at a competitive disadvantage relative to foreign competitors, and would have no recourse to the wto should disputes arise. this would negatively effect u.s. operations because many products we sell in russia utiliz

mr. baucus: mr. president, this amendment does two things. first, it increases taxes on businessmen and women trying to provide some alternative energy for this country. it increases taxes on those men and women. second, it uses that revenue by increasing taxes on individuals and uses it to lower the corporate tax rate. that's one of the main things this does. it repeals credits and reductions on one section of our energy industry, the renewables, the alternatives. it doesn't for conventional for oil and gas. so, number one, this raises taxes on individuals and uses it to lower the corporate rate. and, number two, it's unbalanced because it reduces credits and deductions in the alternative area but not on the convention energy area. it's unbalanced, wrong. i urge us to vote against this amendment. the presiding officer: all -- i'm sorry. all time had expired. the question is on the amendment. the yeas and nays? is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any sen

mr. president, senator baucus, i want to thank particularly, senator bickman, we were automobile -- bingaman, we were able to add, not in the restore bill, but a side-by-side basically, finding some money to find the land and water conservation fund, only for two years, but it's going to be more money in that fund than has been in there for a while, to also accommodate the environment nationally. which there's a balance and a synergy there. the gulf coast wants to be fair here. our people have suffered, but we also know that the country has been very generous to us through a series of very unfortunate events in the last six years. katrina, rita, gustav and ike, horrible hurricanes. but every part of the nation has experienced disaster, whether it was too the fires in california or the flooding in the northeast or the hurricane last season that raked the northeast. last season, in fact, mr. president, you will remember was the worst -- well, let me say this: it was the season that had the largest number of disasters. there were ten that cost over a billion dollars. i'm sorry, 12 that cost ove