mr. isakson: i will close by saying amen. mr. sessions: thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i assume my friend from alabama has finished his comments? mr. president, i have 13 unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have been approved by the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, there has been a live debate on the floor of the senate concerning our budget, our 2011 budget. now we're starting to talk about the 2012 budget, and i just think it's important that we point out what i hope is the obvious, and that the budget of our nation represents our vision for our future. it's a policy document that speaks to what our priorities will be. it provides the financial tools for us to be able to meet those objectives. and i know that we're in very difficult fiscal times. this is not the first time in the histo

mr. isakson: mr. president, before the distinguished senator from new hampshire leaves the floor, i'd like to commend her on a number of things, but most importantly her hard with me and many others on the biannual budget bill we hope will come to the floor of the senate in the not too distant future. i want to make a comment because this potential shutdown which i hope does not happen and i will talk about that in a second. with this potential shutdown we have been asking the agencies to speculate on what that means. if you read yesterday's "washington post" you saw the only agency of the government that will work seamlessly through the shutdown without any shortcoming or any deficiency is veterans health care. that's because we appropriate for veterans health care. the one thing that will be open during this shutdown is the one thing we do in a two-year process rather than a hit and miss process like the current appropriations act. so the distinguished senator who was governor of a state who has a b

mr. sessions: thank you. i couldn't agree more. senator isakson, i have been a long supporter of the by -- biannual two-year budget. i think it has a lot of support in congress. i think it can help us, i really do. i guess i see senators blunt and barrasso here. i'm not sure who was first, but i believe senator blunt was. he has been involved in the leadership in the house of representatives for many years. he is already showing himself to be a very wise and valuable contributor to our debate and discussion in the senate. i guess first i would like to ask you, senator blunt, do you think that the american people have a right to be unhappy with their leadership when they wake up and find that we have had trillion dollar deficits for three years in a row and will virtually average a trillion dollar deficit for the next ten years? and there's no plan except -- in the senate except the president's budget that he submitted to us that has the deficits increasing in years seven, eight, nine, ten to to $1.2 trillion in the tenth year? is this an unsustain

mr. president, i do want to ask unanimous consent for cosponsors to be added to my bill. senator mark pryor, senator john boozman, senator michael bennet, senator max baucus, senator johnny isakson, senator mark kirk, and senator tim johnson. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. hutchison: that brings the total to 58. senator casey has been a wonderful supporter in this. he is the lead cosponsor. 58 united states senators have stepped up to the plate and sa said, this is not an option for us to equivocate for one minute. so, mr. president, i'm waiting to get two more cosponsors which will show that we have 60 and that we want to act as a united states senate, and i am hoping that senator casey and i could get the ability to bring our bill up and pass it. very simple, very clear. military pay and those who are serving our military in civilian capacities will not be delayed because they're going to report to work and they need to have the peace of mind to know that the mortgages that they have, maybe our direct lines to the mortgage companies, are going to be covered. that is the very least that we could do as we are arguing about whose fault it is going to be if we have