mr. dorgan: mr. president? e presiding offir: the senator from north dakota. mr. dorgan: mr. preside, how much time remains? the presiding officer: 8 minutes, 15 seconds. mr. dorgan: mr. president, first of all, let mehank senator klobuchar for her work and senator ensign. i think they've said what nee to be said. if 48 million more people are now traveling internationally, foreign travelers moving around the world, 48 million more but 600,000 fewer are traveling in the united states as foreign travelers, then something is wrong. and we need to fix it. i want to market this country to foreign trooferlsay, come to all of america. yes, come to the -- see the statue of liberty and come to see new york cit and its vibrancy and the empire state ilding andas vegas and universal studios in los angeles and the golden gat bridge and, in my state, the peminau gorge, the red river valley and the badlands. i mean, i would love to have foreign tourism come to experience the hisry and the lture and the values of a

mr. dorgan: mr. president? e presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. dorgan: mr. president this legislation is now in the 30 hours postcloture period. we had a cloture vote yesterday, late yesterday afternoon%, and i believe that the 30 hours postcloture will expire sometime later thi afternoon it 4:00 or so, 4:30. let me again explain what we're trying to do. this is reasonably simple, and one of the few pieces of legislation i think in the dust that'sreated -- all of the partisan dust in this country, this is one of the few piecesf legislation that has broad bipartisan support. we had, i believe, 52 cosponsors for this bill, republicans and democrats, and the proposition is very simple: first of all, we've lost a lot of jobs in this country. we are in the deepest recession since the great depression. a whole lot of folks have lost their jobs. this is a bill to try to create more jobs, but it is a bill that especially addresses a problem that has been created in the last eight or nine years, and since the year 2000, here's a couple of numbers. since the yr 2000,

mr. dorgan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. dorgan: mr. president, let me ask consent to speak for as long as i may consume -- for as much time as i may consume in our allotted 30 minutes. the presiding officer: wo*ubgz. mr. dorgan: mr. president -- the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dorgan: mr. president, most of us spend all of our day having a better day because of energy and think very little about it. get up in the morning perhaps and use an electric razor or perhaps an electric toothbrush, go to the kitchen and have some coffee that was made by plugging the coffee maker in, or turning on a stove. then get in the car and put a key in the ignition and start an engine, and off to work. all the while using all that energy has available to us all day long, never thinking much about it. now, we have a serious energy problem in this country in that a substantial amount of the energy that we use, particularly oil, comes from outside of our country. some of it from countries that don't like us very much. and so we are a

mr. dorgan: mr.president, let me ask consent to speak in morning business for 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. dorgan: mr. president, let me follow my colleague's remarks, my colleague from rhode island has discussed briefly at the end of his remarks the loss of o colleague and friend, senator ted kennedy. the desk that is now cloaked in black and adorned with flowers is a desk once occupied by senato john f. kennedy, than occupied by senator robert kennedy, and for many, many years occupied by senator ted kennedy. he was an extraordinaryriend to all of us, a remarkable legislative. this is not a case of the senate just losing one senator. he was such a much larger presence than that in the life -- public life of our country, and particularly in the workings of this congress. my thoughts and prayers have been with ted kennedy and his family over these many, many months as he has battled the brain cancer, and now since his death have all reflected on what he meant to us and to

mr. dorgan: mr.consent the quorum call be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dorgan: mr. president, my understanding is there's some time divided on the issue of # # -- of the travel promotion act. let me take such time which is available to u mr. president, senator kyl and i earlier today had a discussion on the floor about some statistics and numbers about tourism and travel,nd i don't want to try to win a debate that we're not having, because there ought not be a difference with respect to a set of facts, so let me just recite the facts. i said this morning that on this big old planet of ours, people are traveling more. that's a fac tens of millions of people are traveling around the world for international tourism purposes, and that is very beneficial to the areas where they arrive and doheir touring. on average, an overseas traveler that comes to the united states spends $4,500. it's a very, very lucrative market to try to attract tourists from overseas to come to

mr. dorgan: madam president? the presidini ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vacated. the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota, without objection. mr. dorgan: i have just checked with the manager of the bill, senator feinstein and asked if i could speak for five minutes in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. dorgan: madam president, i -- the other day when our colleagues were talking about our departed colleague, senator ted kennedy, i was not able to be on the floor, and i did want to say just a few words about ted kennedy. i had the american of serving here -- i had the pleasure of serving here in this chamber for 16 years. he sat in the row behind me and i had plenty of opportunities to spend time and swap stories and talk about public policy with him. i knew him before i came to the united states senate. as a very young man i worked in his brother robert kennedy's campaign for the presidency and met ted kennedy then, supported ted kennedy in his 1980 presidential campaign and met him then. when i came to the senate, i was abl

mr. dorgan: i ask consent that the quorum call be skated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. dorgan: we are on now spending bill. a spending bill that we must address during this congress. and we're in september -- first of all, i compliment senator feinstein and senator alexander for their work on this very important bill. i do want to comment on something that was in the news today and something that i had said yesterday about some spending issues. i'll do it very, very briefly. madam president, this deals with the issue of the economic recovery or the stimulus package. i voted for that. i didn't vote for the tarp fund, $700 billion for the financial bailout last fall. i did vote for the economic recovery, or the stimulus program, early this year because i felt it was necessary to give the economy a boost. and, frankly, i think this economy is showing signs of beginning to recover. and that's going to be good for all americans. and there are a lot of important investments made in this economic recovery program, investments in repairing roads and bridges and many other infras