mr. hoeven: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: i'm pleased to join my distinguished colleague from west virginia in this discussion of an energy source that's vital to our nation and that's coal. north dakota, like the great state of west virginia, is a major coal producing state and a major energy producing state. and i think that my distinguished colleague from west virginia hit the nail on the head when he said, we need a comprehensive energy plan in this country that is truly all of the above. we need to use all of our energy resources. and different states have different types of energy. and every of type of energy has different strengths and weaknesses. the kind of energy we produce in one part of the country is the source of producing that energy is different than in another part of the country. but the point is, if we take an all-of-the-above approach, we can be truly energy independent in this country, but also think of the jobs and the economic

mr. hoeven: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: i'd like to thank the senator from maine and also wish to express comments in regard to the motion to the -- n to recommit. t-hud is an important bill and includes funding for things that we consider absolutely priority, transportation, roads, bridges, for housing and for other purposes. so we very much want to fund a transportation, housing, and urban development bill. but the problem we've got here is that we haven't agreed as far as the appropriations bills as to an overall total in how much we will spend. and that's really the problem that we're confronting with this legislation. under the budget control act, the total for all the appropriations bills cannot exceed $967 billion. that's the law. that's the law. but the majority party is appropriating to $1 $1,058,000,000,000. so as appropriators, we want to go through, prioritize spending, make sure we're funding the things that should be funded, and them for things that are -- then for things that are lower priorities, not

mr. harkin: i understand senator hoeven wanted to take five minutes. mr. hoeven: madam president, i want to clarify for the esteemed senator from iowa that i do intend to speak in support of the student loan certainty act, which he may not be in favor of. so i want to be clear on that. i was going to ask unanimous consent to speak for up to five minutes while preserving the two minutes remaining for the distinguished senator from north carolina prior to the vote at noon. so i want to be clear so that the good senator from iowa understands as far as whether he will want to object or not. a senator: if the senator from iowa, if it influences him at all, i would allow my two minutes to go to him if the senator wouldn't object to him having an additional two minutes. mr. harkin: that would be fine. mr. hoeven: my understanding is we preserve the two minutes for the senator from north carolina. i rise to speak on the permanent solution being put forward on a bipartisan bays, that's the -- bipartisan basis. that is the student loan certainty act. this is a bipart

mr. hoeven: i rise today to speak again in support of a permanent solution to the student loan program and, like my colleague from the great state of north carolina, i think that's exactly what we have with the bipartisan student loan certainty act. and i want to acknowledge all those who have worked so hard to come together and support this legislation. it's actually not bipartisan. it's tripartisan. former governor king is an independent, so you've got republicans, democrats and independents in support of this legislation. and that's what it takes. it takes people coming together across the aisle doing good work, and that's what they've done here to put this legislation together. i'm pleased to be supporting it, and i come today to call on all of our colleagues to support it as well. the plan provides students with dependable low cost finance ongoing a long-term basis. that's the key. it is called the student loan act because it provides certainty for students and for families. let's take just a minute to review how the plan works. the plan would tie all student loan rates to the ten-yea

mr. president. some may question the amount of money. indeed, there was $6.5 billion in the official gang of eight compromise for border security but when it came with the corker-hoeven amendment, there was 46.3 -- $46.3 billion more of which over $44 billion was for border security. that's not what is the flaw. although you can argue it. the flaw is that the amendment that was offered by the senator from mississippi and me was not even allowed to be considered, which was to increase not some $50 billion-plus for border security, which was the land border, but to add a mere billion dollars for maritime security and that's the flaw. as a matter of fact of course, if you want border security, it is a fatal flaw. why? you put up an impenetrable wall, whether it be a fence, an electric fence, an electronic fence, whether it be u.a.v.'s, more border patrol. as a matter of fact, in the corker-hoeven amendment, $30 billion of that additional border security was just for border patrol agents, all of which are going to make it fairly effective in border security of not allow people to pass. but it's the land border. so what is going to happen? you go right around the land bor