mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. harass mr. president, i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: mr. president, over the past six months i have come to the floor several times to discuss the findings of an ongoing investigation by the health and human services into the for-profit education committees and the growing role they play in higher education. this investigation has been now ongoing for over a year. today i would like to focus my remarks on our men and women in uniform and how the for-profit schools are focusing on recruiting them to their schools. and what this means for the taxpayers of america. mr. president, the first g.i. bill made it possible for thousands of service members returning from world war ii to go to college. in the process, that ushered in a new era of american prosperity. that g.i. bill continued, of course, through korea, the cold war, and through vie

mr. harkin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: madam president, i just want to join with my good friend, the senator from ohio, senator brown, in commemorating the workers memorial day which actually was last week. but since we weren't in session, we wanted to take the time today to commemorate the workers memorial day. and i -- i'm always greatly appreciative of my friends wearing the k canery pin on his lapel. my father was a coal miner for over 20 years. a lot of people still don't know that we had coal mines in iowa. at one time iowa was the third largest coal producing state in the nation. my father worked over 20 years in the coal mines a long time before there were any safety laws or anything like that. most of the time he worked in those mines was even before i was born. but -- but i can remember later on him telling stories about the mines and how many people would get injured and killed and -- and it was just sort of an accepted thing that every day, every week, month people would just die and cave-ins would happe

mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: i have ten unanimous requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, recently the national labor relations board general counsel issued a complaint against the boeing company alleging that the company had violated the national labor relations act. well, this routine administrative procedure has set off what i call a melodramatic outcry from boeing, the business community, the editorial writers at the "wall street journal," the national chamber of commerce, and, of course, our friends on the republican side of the aisle. the headline in "the wall street journal's" editorial page called it -- quote -- "the death of right-to-work." end quote. so carolina governor nick can i haley declared that i

mr. harkin: madam president, i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: i ask unanimous consent that samantha wessels, kelly morgan and kevin trager of my staff be granted floor privileges for the duration of today's proceedings. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: madam president, everyone in this body agrees that we must take aggressive action to reduce the deficit, but we have to do it right. frankly, the best way to bring down the deficit is to help 15 million unemployed americans get good middle-class jobs again. those hardworking americans would be delighted to be on the tax rolls and to be taxpayers once again. but, regrettably, the tea party party budget passed by the house republicans last month takes us in the opposite direction. it would weaken our economy and destroy jobs. i have spoken previously on the senate floor about the grave flaws in the republican budget. but beyond the misguided priorities in this budget, i object to its premise. the premise of the tea party repu