mr. president, i rise this evening to speak against the coburn amendment, which imposes the moratorium on congressional initiatives for the next three years. mr. president, our founding fathers bestowed upon the congress the authority to ensure that the people's representatives would make the final decisions upon spending, not the executive branch. they lived under monarchy in which the power of the purse resided with the executive and they had no desire to repeat that experience. in short, our founding fathers did not want another king. they wanted a president. but a president whose power would be held firmly in check by co-equal congress. none of us should be surprised that president obama has expressed his opposition to earmarks. earmarks would serve to strengthen the executive branch of government by empowering the president to make decisions that the constitution wisely places in the hands of congress. this is the exact same reason presidents clinton and bush sought the -- fought the line-item veto during their presidencies. as i've said many times before, the people of hawaii did no

mr. coburn: mr. president, senator harkin and many on the "help" committee have worked hard on the bill that's before us. but it has fatal flaws, especially in a time with a $14 trillion deficit, a $1.3 trillion deficit and it doesn't really -- fix the real problems. we can spend $1.4 billion in this bill. we can cause food prices to go up at least $300 million t to $400 million, we can put unfunded mandates on the -- on the state of $141 billion a year. this accomplishes the same thing given we have the safest food in the world, we'll continue to have the safest food, we'll move forward, but we won't do it by layers upon layers of additional costs. the problem with the food labor is that the agencies don't do what they're supposed to be doing now. they don't need more regulations, they need less. the presiding officer: the time has expired. the question is on the coburn motion. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

mr. coburn: because the g.a.o.does a wonderful job of telling us where we're failing, and we ought to address everything that they raised in this. and the question is even further than that, dr. hamburg, around the time we were having the salmonella with the eggs problem, released an egg standard. the bureaucracy took 11 years to develop that standard. now, that falls on the shoulders of president bush's administration as well as this one. i'm proud of her that she got it out. but the fact is 11 years to do what you're responsible for, to get an egg standard so that we don't have significant salmonella poisoning coming from eggs. and then lo and behold, after the egg standard is out, the f.d.a. inspectors on farms in iowa are violating their own protocols cross contaminating egg farms, as documented in the press. it's not a matter that we don't have enough rules and regulations. that's borne out by the fact that we're continuing to see a decline in foodborne illness. that's not the real problem. the problem is effe

mr. coburn and mr. demint and ask them what they intend to do.[laughter] >> i think that's true, but the other context just for those of you who really watch this, remember, at the same moment in time omb is preparing the president's budget for february, and if they don't know where you are, you may not know your next step where you're going, and that's part of the challenge here. so i hope, i hate that there is an ability to negotiate something and come to some reasonable conclusion to this year, but i think, unfortunately, it is probably more likely or just as likely that this breaks down given the fact there's only about 24 legislative days if you look at a calendar, a and, b, republicans are going to come back 'em emboldened and not necessarily wanting to negotiate, and democrats are going to come back, obviously, a little frustrated, possibly, with leadership races that sucked the oxygen out of the capitol building every time they happen. so you put all that on the table, that's like putting a five-pound bag of flour into a one-pound bag, an

mr. president. before i start my remarks i would ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor to senator coburn's amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lemieux: thank you, mr. president. it occurs to me that when i addressed this august chamber tonight and i follow my colleagues who have served here for a very long time and with distinction, that i am new to this chamber, and that i have a different perspective, but my comments tonight are not meant without respect, because i have a great deal of respect for those who have spoken in opposition to this amendment. but i have a differing view, mr. president. i'm new to the senate, as you know. i came here last year in 2009. i didn't have a specific position on earmarks before i got here. i knew that there was a problem with federal spending, but i had not yet made a decision as to whether or not i would support earmarks. and when you hear about a project for your home state, whether it be for a hospital or for a road or for a bridge or for a soothe treatment plant, and for the folks who are at home who are watching this, if they'v

mr. president. i the thought there was one. there are two. that there be a total of four hours of debate with respect to the coburn motions, equally divided and controlled between senators coburn an inouye or their designees. upon the use or yielding back of that time, the senate proceed to vote with respect to the motion to suspend in the order listed, johanns 1099, baucus 1099. coburn earmarks coburn -- if any motion is successful, then the senate vote immediately on the amendment. that no further motions or amendments be in order, the substitute amendment if amended abe greed to, the bill as amended be read add third time, the senate proceed to passage on the bill and cloture motion with respect to the bill be withdrawn. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent we now proceed to a period of morning business, senators allowed to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask consent we now proceed to calendar 520, s. 1609. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 520, s. 1609, a bill to authorize a single fisheries cooperative for

mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: the senate not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: mr. president, we have -- the presiding officer: please carry your conversations outside the chamber. mr. coburn: mr. president, we have just invoked cloture on the food safety bill, and i think it's important for the american people to know what that means. the presiding officer: thank you. mr. coburn: what that means is, we're going to spend another $1.4 billion of their money. number two is we're going to raise the cost of food over the next year and, therefore, we're about $200 million to $300 million. we set $141 million per year in unfunded mandates if we pass this bill on to the states and we didn't fix the real problem with food safety in this country, according to the government accountability office. i have two amendments. the other point i'd make is we went through this process over the

mr. coburn had some concerns, rightfully so, by the way, about approving the coordination between the f.d.a. and usda, so we offered to add his language that would force them to -- to get together and to not duplicate efforts and -- and on the custom side on u.s. department of customs so that we would eliminate any kind of duplication of inspections. we put that in the bill. so, anyway, we offered to do all of this stuff to put in the bill and we did. and that will be in our amendment that we offer. we will in good faith put those things in our bill. but then i'm told that now we're probably going to have to -- we're probably going to have to file cloture, fill the tree and do all that stuff which i was hoping we wouldn't have to do. that's not the way to do business here. i don't like doing it that way. that's why we worked so hard to try to reach these agreements. but i guess -- i guess we're going to be forced to do that and i -- i hope -- i hope that's not so. i also heard that maybe someone might want to read the bill. well, that's four hours of reading the bill. that bill's been out h