mr. coburn: would the senator yield for a a question? mr. thune: yes. mr. coburn: could you deghien a subdid i is to you. we cape saying "subsidies," but we don't have any subdismiss the true oil and gas industry. what we have accelerated depreciation which even if you took away the dollars is to the federal government would not increase. so how is there a subsidy to the oil and gas industry in. mr. thune: what i would characterize -- i think you have to say when we characterize what you call tax spend chiewrks there are a whole bunch that fall into that category. i know you're familiar with that because you served on the president's debt commission. that in some way, form, or another, reduce the tax liability of various individuals and businesses around this country. now, i don't disagree. nrvetion i would work with you on a proposal that would address and look at all those types of tax expenditures. i just think it is punitive to single out one, say we're going to kill this one, after we made a dmiment december with 81 votes in the united states senate tha

mr. coburn, proposes an amendment numbered 436. mr. coburn: i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: madam president, as a matter of right, i ask that my amendment be modified with the changes that i now send to the desk. further, i make the point that i retain my right to the floor after the modifications are made under the precedent of the senate. the presiding officer: the senator has the right to modify the amendment. mr. coburn: madam president, i now send a cloture motion to the desk on the pending amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the pending amendment number 436 as modified to s. 782, signed by 17 senators as follows: coburn, demint, mccain, burr, vitter, ensign, ayotte -- mr. coburn: i ask that the reading of the names be waived. mr. me

mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: we have introduced into the record the industry that gets this tax credit, they represent 97 mr of all ethanol that's blended. they don't want the $3 billion. it's $3 billion that we cannot afford to pay. it is something that already is accomplished -- has accomplished its purpose through a government mandate. i'd yield the rest of my time to the senator from california, senator feinstein. the presiding officer: the senator from california is recognized. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much, mr. president. i thank the senator from oklahoma. i think everybody in this body now knows that i am strongly for this measure. unfortunately, it has created, i think, a lot of feelings that really don't work to the benefit of this body. it is my understanding that there is an offer from the leader that we will have a vote by friday next, which means a week from this friday. let me -- i tend to just say what i think. on our side, i think there are real concerns about the process used to brin

mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: can i confine o inqe chair what the status is of the bill and are there pending amendments? the presiding officer: currently there are no amendments pending. mr. coburn: i would ask unanimous consent to call up amendment 521. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from oklahoma, mr. coburn, proposes an amendment numbered 521. mr. coburn: i ask unanimous consent that it be considered as read. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator is recognized. mr. coburn: mr. president, thank you for the recognition. about three months ago one of the results of the last time we raised the debt limit was a report by the government accounting office. 97 senators in this body voted to put that in the last debt limit extension. and what was that? that was a requirement for the government accounting office over the next three years to list every program for us in every area so we knew what we were doing. and the purpose for that amendment, that happened

mr. coburn for himself and others proposed amendment numbered 500. mr. coburn: i ask that it be considered read and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: without objection. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois is recognized. mr. durbin: unanimous consent that marie and -- be given privilege of the law during the presidential appointment efficiency and streamlining act. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. deutsche deutschmr. durbin: mr.i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: without objection, the clerk will call the roll. quorumquorum call: quorum call: mr. kerry: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. kerry: i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. kerry: mr. president, yesterday senator mccain and i introduced -- mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that we go to morning business. i ask unanimous consent that we be permitted to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer:

mr. coburn: may i make an inquiry of the chair? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: how much time remains for the republican morning business? the presiding officer: 15 minutes and 20 seconds. mr. coburn: thank you. it's interesting days in our country. we find ourselves in a very deep hole, and it's not the american people's fault. it's congress's fault. we continue to spend money that we don't have on things that we don't need. and when we do that personally, we end up filing bankruptcy. pretty soon we run out of new credit cards to take on, and we get to the point where we can't pay our debts. and that's a question that's in front of our country today, as our economy is struggling, we have this massive debt, and we ought to be about every small, medium and large thing we can do to solve the problem. not to solve the problem to say that we can't pay our bills, but to solve the problem so we create a prosperous future for our kids and those that follow us. there's a lot of controversy over the amendment that i offered and its claim by the majority leader inac

mr. president. i rise to speak today on behalf of the coburn-feinstein amendment that we'll be voting on later. . president, it is rare that people in this country that are receiving a tax credit tell us, as servants of the united states, that they don't want the tax credit that they're receiving. i think that most people in this room are aware that we're spending about $6 billion a year on something called a blenders' tax credit. it is my understand pg the blenders who receive this tax credit have shared with us that this is a waste of money and they'd like for this to end. so we have an amendment today at an especially fortunate time for us, at a time when we're having tremendous fiscal issues in this country -- we have an amendment before us today to do away with this tax credit, which seems to me to be only something of common sense. i think most people in america know that in congress years ago we passed a mandate that requires a certain amount of ethanol to be used in our country. and so this mandate already is in place. this mandate forces the use of certain numbers of gallons of ethanol

mr. coburn: i'm sorry? the presiding officer: objection is heard. quorum call: mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: i ask consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i have 12 unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session. they have the approval of senator mcconnell and of me. i would ask consent these requests be agreed to and printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of s. 782, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 38, s. 782, a bill to amend the public works and economic development act of 1965, to reauthorize that act, and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: if i call for regular order, which i am, that means the snowe amendment would be pending; is that right? the presiding officer: the amendment is now pending. mr. reid: mr. president, firs

mr. coburn and i have talked about it. mr. chairman, we have talked about 8. it is the right movement to do. this is not make it too complicated or it will never happen, we will have a 14 a dozen properties back up. >> senator begich, are you suggesting be invoked the kiss principle, keep it simple, stupid? >> keep it simple, senate. [laughter] >> thank you for your work, appreciate you being here today. thank you. i was going to reply di senator begich that it is that simple because you have every roadblock in the world. we have -- $1.2 billion does not come close to the cost of maintaining those 17,000. we have billions of dollars. the question i would ask ms. foscarinis, should we use cost- benefit analysis? we have title 5 here,, we can sell for 5 million, and the whole list and use it, -- and yet it's not -- the homeless can use it, and yet is not -- what we do that instead of saying that we will do this because we have title 5 blocking the good sale of the building for a real purpose when we could take the profits of that and put it for the homeless? why

mr. coburn: thank you. it's interesting days in our country. we find ourselves in a very deep hole, and it's not the american people's fault. it's congress's fault. we continue to spend money that we don't have on things that we don't need. and when we do that personally, we end up filing bankruptcy. pretty soon we run out of new credit cards to take on, and we get to the point where we can't pay our debts. and that's a question that's in front of our country today, as our economy is struggling, we have this massive debt, and we ought to be about every small, medium and large thing we can do to solve the problem. not to solve the problem to say that we can't pay our bills, but to solve the problem so we create a prosperous future for our kids and those that follow us. there's a lot of controversy over the amendment that i offered and its claim by the majority leader inaccurately that this amendment was rule 14. it wasn't rule 14. according to the procedures of the senate, you can file cloture on any amendment at any time. that's a privilege tha

senator coburn. >> mr. comey, we have heard testimony as to the constitutionality of this. would you see any problem with us doing this in different ways that we do not allow the potential risks from the duties of the fbi director? if there was not a constitutional challenge? >> i am no constitutional scholar. i am not in a position to argue the merits of the disagreement. >> there are some pretty savvy out there that were used any angle they can to challenge the proper duties of the director of the fbi. we do not agree with should do this in a way to minimize that? >> we should do this in a way to make a bulletproof. >> professor van alstyne, he said the tenure term is unconstitutional. >> i have come to doubt it. i was only concerned with the question -- >> you said you did not think it was constitutional. that is what you just said. >> i think tourism more severe doubt about the constitutionality of congress presuming to limit the term of service of a subordinate executive officer then there is reason to doubt the capacity to extend the term -- >> if that is the case, wh

mr. president, i'm pleased to join with senators coburn and feinstein in offering an amendment to repeal the ethanol excise tax credit and the ethanol import tariff. these policies are fiscally irresponsible, environmentally unwise and economically indefensible. historically, mr. president, our government has helped a product compete in one of three ways. either we subsidize it, we protect it from competition or we require its use. right now, ethanol may be the only product receiving all three forms of support. the ethanol tax break is extraordinarily expensive. the government accountability office has found that the tax credit costs american taxpayers a staggering $6 billion annually. this is quite a sum to prop up a fuel that is causing land conversion for corn production, commodity and food prices to rise and is barely putting a dent into our nation's defendens on foreign oil. with our amendment which has an effective date of july 1, we have the opportunity to immediately save american taxpayers nearly $3 billion in just the six months remaining in this fiscal year. mr. president, the

coburn. we'll hear from the senator along with senators feinstein. this is 40 minutes. >> mr. president, i rise today in support of the ethanol subsidy repeal agent which senator coburn offered and i have co-sponsoredded along with senators collins, corkers lieberman, tiewmy, and webb. i know that the fact that this amendment is on the floor scheduled to be voted on at 2:15 this afternoon caused deep consternation on my side of the aisle. there is objection to the procedures used. i am not going to get into that. i'm going to say a vote a is vote, and we are facing a vote at 2:15 unless something changes. now, to be candid, if there were an offer to bring to in the floor next week or the week after for a time specific in a commitment specific, i believe that the author and myself and co-sponsors would certainly agree to that, but in the absence of that offer, it is important that the united states -- the united states senate takes a position on a program has become both gross and egregious, and i want to explain why i feel that way. madam president, no other product i know of h

mr. mcconnell: on behalf of senator snowe and coburn, i ask unanimous consent to temporarily set aside the pending amendment so that i may call up my amendment number 390 which is at the desk. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that the readying of the amendment be dispense with. the clerk: mr. mccome for ms. snowe introduces amendment 309. mr. reid: we're going to vote on the amendment now? the presiding officer: the senator's correct. there a sufficient second? -- is there a sufficient second? it's already been called. durbin amendment is withdrawn. the clerk will call the roll on the tester amendment. vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if nottings on this vote, the yeas 54, the nays are 45. under the previous order, requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is not agreed to. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid on the table. the majority leader. mr. reid: i suggest t

mr. harkin: madam president, i strongly oppose both the amendment offered by senators feinstein and coburn and the one that was offered by senator mccain that we'll be voting o on in a couple of hours. my message is very simple. this assault on america's ethanol industry both misguided and undeserved. this is truly a homegrown industry, built on the investment and labor of many thousands of americans. providing a product that helps us with one of our most pressing national issues: our dependency on imported oil. yet here we are debating amendments that i think clearly tell the industry you aren't important, you don't matter, and you don't have the support of the american people. well, i think that is the wrong, misguided emergency to be -- misguided message to be sending. we've been struggling with our dependence on foreign oil for almost 30 years. one of our strategies over that period of time has been to develop and commercialize biofuels. i'm proud to have been in the beginning and continue to be a strong advocate for renewable biofuels produced from domestic feedstocks. we started work

in order to clarify a number of questions on this matter, senator coburn and i sent a follow-up letter seeking additional answers from mr. cole. mr. cole's reply clarified that the department of justice, the security and exchange commission, and the new york attorney general's office were aware of his practice of seeking input from a.i.g. and making modifications to the reports. he indicated that the changes a.i.g. made were often factual changes, such as a.i.g. employee names, dates, and materials and events. he also indicated that some of the changes requested by a.i.g. were included in a section of the report entitled -- quote unquote -- "a.i.g. response." however, he added on -- quote unquote -- on a few occasions, a.i.g. would -- quote -- "suggest a stylistic change of phrasing in the analytical section of the report." he stated while it included the edits made by a.i.g., he -- quote -- "did not believe that a detailed presentation of this factual review process was necessary to an understanding of each party's position." end of quote. as a result, the reports did not necessarily show which edits a.i.g. made that w

mr. president. i rise in support of the ethanol subsidy and tariff repeal act that senator coburn and i are offering. the other co-sponsors on this amendment are senator webb and senator collins. this is identical to a bill that we have submitted, and on that bill, there are many co-sponsors. they are cardin, webb, lee, collins, and tuomy, and so i wanted to have the record straight that this amendment is in response to a bill which we have crafted. on tuesday, the senate voted on the proposals, but unfortunately, we saw a process battle which i spoke to on the floor which i think overwhelmed in some respects the debate. if that is not the case today, there are ongoing negotiations to see if it's possible to put together a solution which can bring all sides together on this amendment that we will be voting on at two o'clock. thus far, we do not have an agreement, however, at least one of our co-sponsors of this said to me, senator webb, that he would appreciate a straight up or down vote on coburn-feinstein so we know where the senate stands. it is still possible even after that cloture vote that if

coburn. apply -- you have to redo the analysis. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have heard many cases where you have tried to justify the ends or the means for the end -- and eddie have talked about libya and muammar gaddafi in your handling of this. those are two very, very separate issues. people have very differing opinions about what is happening in libya but still have strong concerns about the way the administration has handled the process itself. i do not think it is helpful to meld the two together and i think of waters down the issue at hand. i find a humorous, sitting here on the foreign relations committee, the most deliberative body in the world, some say. basically you guys have not provided witnesses from the department of justice or the pentagon. we seem to take that as a humorous thing. the administration has basically said there's no reason for us to get any better resolution from congress, and yet the senate today in this urge to be relevant is rushing to give the administration irresolution even though it is basically saying in this case that

sitting up here, if you were senator brown or senator coburn or senator begich or me, what would you do? what if you are part of this committee? and mr. werfel, my question, i understand that a month or so ago the administration released about 14,000 properties i think. you said have been reported access by the federal agencies. for the average person it sounds like a lot of properties. it sounds like a lot to me. and the sale of these proceeds to generate a substantial amount of revenue and cost that could be used to pay down the deficit. i think you mentioned as much as $15 billion over three years. my staff has had the data sort of drill down o on the data a little bit. and found that of those 14,000 or so copies on the list there's about, oh, about 1800 that may be already have disposed of. and about, oh, roughly 5500 were in the disposition process. i'm at the disposition process takes a month, year, a decade or whatever. but in other words, about 50% or more of these assets appear to be somewhere in the disposition process. and i would just like to ask today, how many excess properties are in the federal inventory? any idea how

mr. reid: there will be no further roll call votes today. the next vote will be tuesday before caucus. there will be no votes on monday or tomorrow. i ask unanimous consent that the pending coburn amendment number 500 be withdrawn, and when the senate considers s. res. 116, it be in order for senator coburn to offer his duplication amendment to the resolution. that there be up to one hour of debate on the amendment equally divided between senators coburn and the majority leader with their designees. that the amendment be subject to a two-thirds threshold, that the amendment not be divisible and no amendments, motions or points of order be in order prior to any vote in relation to the coburn amendment other than budget points of order and applicable motions to waive and all other provisions of the previous order with respect to the motion -- with respect to the resolution remain in effect. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator tennessee. cork coirk rise to speak a cork quark i rise to speak as if we're in -- i ask un

mr. coburn: i will withdraw my unanimous consent, mr. president. this is a very straightforward amendment. the people who vote against this rule change, what they're going to be telling you is they don't want you to know what's going on in the senate, and they don't want us to know what's going on in the senate, because all this rule does is make it a force of habit of the senate that before we look at legislation, we ought to determine whether it duplicates things that are already out there in the government. and we ought to determine if it's overlapping to other programs. had this amendment been in effect, a third of what we passed in the past wouldn't pass, because we would then see, which we're ignore of today, all the other programs that are available and out there that accomplish the same purposes for which we pass another new program. on one of my committees in this year -- in the last year, not this year but in the last year, colleagues have offered amendments, well-intentioned, good motives to accomplish a good purpose, but they lack knowl

mr. president, i would ask that senator coburn be listed as the second sponsor of that amendment, feinstein 476. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: ask unanimous consent that when the senate resumes consideration of s. 782 on thursday, june 16, the feinstein amendment 476 and mccain amendment 411 be debated concurrently, there be up to four hours divided between between, the senate proceed to votes on amendments in the following order: feinstein 476, mccain 411. further, neither amendment be divisible. there be no amendments or points of order or motions in order -- or budgets point of order and applicable motions to waifnlt both amendments be subject to a 60-vote threshold. the motion to reconsider be laid and -- on the table and finally the majority leader be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president the majority leader. mr. reid: i want to thank the senator from south carolina. senator demint wanted to make sure that this agreement does not limit his ability to offer votes on an amendment that he cares about, it's number 460, regarding

the motion to invoke cloture on the coburn amendment number 436 as modified and that the mandatory quorum under 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mrreid: i ask consent when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2:00 p.m. on monday, june 13, following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved until later in the day, and that following any leader remarks the senate proceed to a period of morning business until 6:00 p.m. with senators permitted speak up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, as previously announce there had will be no votes on monday. the first votes of the week will be on tuesday june 14, at noon there will be two roll call votes in reconciliation to checking -- in relation to checking. at 2:15 there will be a roll call vote on the cloture motion that senator coburn filed. if there is no further business if there is no further business the >> president obama signed an executive order today establishing a white house council on rural issues. agri