mr. inhofe: would the senator from new hampshire yield forea unanimous consent request? mrs. shaheen: i will yield to my colleague. mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent that at the conclusion of the remarks of the senator from new hampshire, i be recognized for up to 20 minutes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. inhofe: thank you. mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i'm pleased to join my colleagues from connecticut and from new york and the others who have been here on the floor today to talk about the importance of addressing the -- of avoiding, i guess i should say, the potential for the student loan interest rates to rise at the end of june. the fact is that the united states workforce needs to have the skills to compete in the global economy, and that means making sure that colleges is affordable because so many of the new jobs that are being created require higher education. and the reality is that students today face ever-growing tuition rates and that student loans are a critical bridge for them to cover these costs. but unless we act, over 7 m

mr. inhofe: all right. madam president, today i want to expose a far-left environmental agenda that's being imposed upon the department of defense by president obama and a lot of his allies. it comes at the same time that the obama administration is focusing on dramatically reduced cuts in the military. as ranking member of the senate committee on environment and public works and senior member of the armed services committee, stopping the radical global warming agenda as well as president obama's devastating cuts to our military have been the top priorities. that's all i've been talking about for the last couple of months. i've had a growing concern about how president obama's global warming agenda is harming our military, but the remarks recently made by secretary panetta have led me to come here and kind of make a few statements. first of all, let me say this about secretary panetta. i served with him for five years over in the house. a number of years ago he and i became very close friends. tph-fbg, i re

mr. inhofe did not recognize me. you are right. it does work. it is hard to go up the hill. i compliment the chairman on this. unless you have your fingers involved in making the soup, not many people will drink it. this is very important. what we have done is try to pass a bill that no one has an interest in. transportation is a subject everyone should have an interest with, bipartisan, trying to improve our ability to transport and receive goods to be able to ship the mouth. we're neglecting our duty if we do not establish a good transportation bill. this is what i will be working on with the chairman and the senate side. i hope you listen to the interests we have. if this breaks down, we're all faced with a real problem. i yield back the balance of my time. >> senator? >> i am pleased to be part of the conference committee. thank you for your leadership. i look forward to working with you on this important endeavor. i believe this is a good bill. i strongly support it. i very much supported the house approach and would have preferred a five-year bill. i also very much lik

inhofe? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and also, thank you for our conversation with had on the floor a couple of days ago, where you did agree to hold a hearing with those who are in opposition to the ratification of the law of the sea treatmenty, which i am. and so i appreciate that very much. i remember back in 2004 when this committee passed out the ratification, i believe it was 16-0, unanimous mous, we looked it, at that time, still today, i'm a senior member of both the armed services committee and the environmental public works committee, so we had hearings. in these hearings, we had it witnesses that totally changed this around. i really believe that's important and i appreciate the fact that you are going to be doing that. now, in the limited time that we have, i'm going to real quickly go over two items then aisle have a question for secretary pan kneetta and for general dem. first of all, i know you've talked about in my absence before i came in because i was watching part of it, if the u.s. approves the law of

inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and also thank you for our conversation we had on the floor a couple days ago where you did agree to hold a hearing with those who are in opposition to the ratification of the law of the sea treaty, which i am. so i appreciate that very much, and i remember so well back

million job, and a million of those came out of a program, i worked with senator inhofe and chairman mica on as well as mr. rayhall. it's an expanded program which leverages values 30-1. an additional million jobs bp so i want you all to know from the house in particular, this is this bill, map-21 a real reform bill. it consolidates 90 programs, just in the highway part alone, into 30. it eliminates earmarks. it gives states flexible. it establishes performance measures. accelerates project delivery that i know is so important to you, and it sets up a new freight program. the country needs this to pass a surface transportation bill so we can fix our aging infrastructure, put people back to work, boost the economy. the health of our businesses and our workers depend on it and, again, why do we have the wind at our backs? because look at some of the groups that are supporting us. just look at this. this is really amazing. just a few of the 500 aaa, afl cio american association of state highway and transit official, the public transportation association, the transportation builder, the civil engineer, the tr

mr. president, senator inhofe and senator boxer, the chair and ranking member of that most important committee, environment and public works, this is national public works week and this is good because during this week we're doing our it most on a bipartisan basis to complete the conference with the house to get the highway bill passed, 2.8 million jobs. that would be a big celebration for national public works week if we could get that bill done. and i appreciate very much boxer and inhofe working so closely together on that committee. i ask unanimous consent we proceed to s. res. 461. the presiding officer: are can the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 461 recognizing the teachers of the united states for their contributions to the development and progress of our nation. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask consent this resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider, there be no intervening action or debate and any statements he relating to this matter appear in th

inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman.and also thank you for the conversation we had on the floor a couple days ago we did agree to hold a hearing with those who are in opposition to the ratification of the law of the sea treaty, which i had. so i appreciate that very much. i remember very well back in 2004, when this committee passed out to ratification. i believe was 16 to nothing, unanimous and we looked at it and it that time and still today i am a member -- a senior member of the armed services committee and the environment that we had these hearings and we had witnesses that totally change this around. so i really believe that it's important enough that you are going to be doing that. now, in a limited time that we have, i'm going to quickly go over too wide and then i'll have a question for secretary pineda and for general dempsey. .. >> i have read the work of the u.s. dinner agency continental shelf task force, that the resources they are maybe talking about how to quantify the amount of money that we would be los

million jobs, and one million of those came out of a program i worked with senator inhofe and chairman mica on, as well as mr. rahall. it's an expanded program which leverages dollars 30-1, so that's an additional million jobs. so i want you all to know from the house in particular, this is, this bill, a real reform bill. it consolidates 90 programs just in the highway part alone into 30. it eliminates earmarks. i have gives states flexibility. it establishes performance measures, accelerates project delivery that i know is so important to you, and it sets up a new freight program. the country needs us to pass a surface transportation bill so we can fix our aging infrastructure, put people back to work, boost the economy. the health of our businesses and our workers depend on it. and again, why do we have the wind at our back? look at some of the groups that are supporting us. just look at this. things really amazing. just a few of the 500 triple-a, afl-cio, the public transportation association, the transportation building, the civil engineers, the truckers, the general contractors, the equipment dealers, t

million jobs than a million of those came out of a program i worked for senator inhofe and chairman mica on as well as mr rahal. it is a program which leverages dollars 30 to one. that is an additional million jobs. so i wants you all to know from the house in particular, this is a bill reforms bill. it consolidates 90 programs just in the highway part alone. and eliminates air max and give states flexibility. it establishes performance measures, accelerates project delivery so important to you and sets up a knew for a program. the country needs us to pass the surface transportation bill so we can fix our agent infrastructure. the house of our business and workers depend on it. again, why do we have the wind at our back? look at some of the groups that are supporting us. just look at this. this is really amazing. just a few of the 500. aaa, afl-cio, and state highways and transit officials, public transportation association, civil engineers, general contract years, equipment dealers, distributors, u.s. chamber of commerce, and the u.s. conference of mayors. and again i say, if the afl-cio and the chamber