mr. bennet: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. ennet: thank you, madam president. i thank the senator from illinois for his leadership and agree it's vital that we pass this transportation bill. madam president, in my town halls, we talk about a lot of things that are very different from the things people argue about in this place. one of the things we talk about are the structural issues facing this economy. the first is our gross domestic product, the economic output of the united states of america, which is higher today than it was before we went into this recession. a lot of people don't know that. we're producing more than we were producing before we went into the recession. our productivity has gone up dramatically since the early 1990's as we responded to competition from china, india and other places, as we used technology to enhance economic output. we have the most productive economy we have ever seen. but we also face some very potentially catastrophic circumstances in this economy, one of which is that median family inc

mr. bennet: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: mr. president, thank you very much. and i want to recognize the senator from oregon, senator merkley, for his leadership on this issue, for his willingness when times got tough to dig even deeper and make sure we could get to the balanced approach that's reflected in this amendment. it is a bipartisan amendment which around this place i think is worthy of -- of all of us taking a moment to recognize. and it's an amendment that the people that know most about crowdfunding support. and i just wanted to read several paragraphs from -- from some of those folks. from launch is the crowdfunding platform. they note that the compromise -- quote -- "is important because unlike previous bills, for the first time, we have a senate bill with bipartisan sponsorsh sponsorship, a balance of state oversight and federal uniformity, industry standard investor protections, and workable funding caps." from "the national small business association, "we are that our compromise -- quote -- "would promote entrep

mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. since he's on the floor i want to recognize the senator from utah and his extraordinary service in the united states senate. we don't agree on this issue, but he's done a tremendous job for the people of utah over many years. i wanted to rise to talk a little bit about the amendment that we're considering that would allow all employers and insurers to deny coverage particularly for women on any health care procedure or service they object to, not the women, but the employers or the insurance companies, on moral or religious grounds. the first thing i want to do -- and i haven't been around here for a long time, but i wanted to first observe what context we're discussing this in and we're debating this amendment. we devoted extensive floor time on this amendment about contraception and lack of coverage for women's health care in the context of a job creation bill, in the context of the transportation bill. this is the bill. this is the bill that is on the floor of the united states sen

bennet and others, senator brown of massachusetts, despite my efforts, i'm afraid that the final version of this legislation will not protect investors as it should, and therefore should be rejected. with that mr. chairman i would yield the floor. mr. reed: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any time remaining in the quorum call be equally divided between my republican colleagues and my democratic ones. the presiding officer: is there objection? so ordered. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. toomey: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to yield myself five minutes to discuss the jobs act. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. toomey: mr. president, i think we are on the verge of doing something very, very constructive in this body, something very, very constructive for our economy, for the american people, for economic growth, and for job creation, and after a congress that has thus far been a little frustrating for the lack of progress we've made on this front, today is a very, very big day. we've got a chance to pass a bill that has passed the house overwhelmingly with a huge bipartisan majority, a bill