mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i thank my colleague from louisiana for her remarks. would you be able to engage in just a question or two while you're down here? i think back to the period when our forefathers and foremothers came here and said we're going to set up a new set of colonies, a new set of rules, and one of the things at the very heart of that was the notion that we, the people, we, the settlers, we, the colonists, we're going to decide how things run rather than having kings and queens. or other very strong folks kind of handing down the laws from on high. that was a powerful, powerful concept that got integrated into the first three words of our constitution, we, the people. and do you have any sense whether really this flood of secret, this massive flood of secret money coming from powerful individuals, billionaires and companies does damage to this concept of we, the people? ms. landrieu: absolutely, and the senator is -- the senator is correct, the senator is correct. as i said, the rece

mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon is recognized. mr. merkley: thank you very much, mr. president. i ask -- are we under a quorum call? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. merkley: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. merkley: thank you. i come to the floor to address several issues. first, i want to talk a little bit about the disclose act. earlier this week we had two votes on whether to end debate on whether to debate the disclose act. the disclose act is a very simple concept, and it's that folks who make very large donations to the political system disclose who they are, so that the citizens of america can know where that money is coming from. is it coming from this particular sector or that particular sector? is it a group that is opposing as but skies for healthier america duel -- as blue skies for a healthier america actually working for something else? is it trying to weaken the pollution control standards and put more pollution in the streams in citizens

mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. udall: thank you, mr. president. let me, first of all, just thank senator whitehouse for heading up this campaign finance task force. i think this has been a real solid effort by a number of senators, and senator whitehouse, whether it's at netroots or here on the senate floor, has been participating this evening, and we really appreciate all of his help. the presiding officer, senator merkley, has also been a key member of the task force. senator bennet, who is going to be speaking after me, another member of the task force. and we so appreciate all of us getting together. and one of the things we need to be reminded of this evening is where we are. we just took a vote to try to get on to the disclose act bill. 51 democrats said let's get on to the bill, and 44 republicans, not a single republican voted to allow us to get on the bill. basically what we're in in the senate, as senator bennet and senator whitehouse and senator merkley know, we're in the mode of a full filibuster now. w

mr. merkley: perhaps the most important three words of our constitution are we the people. we the people, the whole notion is threatened by oceans of dark secret cash, oceans used as a threat on the front end and as election hammer on the back end. it simply is destructive to our democracy. and tonight is the night for some profiles in courage to stand up for the american system, for democracy and for the people. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, 1822, the founding father james madison wrote a popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. a vote for disclose is a vote to arm the people with the power that knowledge gives. to arm them with the popular information about elections, information necessary to prevent this great popular government of ours from becoming a spec

mr. merkley and the committee. i will try not to let it happen again. >> okay. we are going to let the second panel go and call up the third panel if he would come and thank you for your patience as we do this here, and we participate your participation. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> tomorrow, at the center for strategic and international studies examines the conflict in syria. it has taken the lives of an estimated 70,000 people. we will hear from amnesty international advisor and a foreign affairs analyst. live coverage begins at 1030 eastern on c-span. >> this weekend on book tv, growing up in the shadows and secrets of the rocky flats nuclear weaponry facility from full body burden, kristen iversen looks at the effect on the environment and the people saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. and sunday on afterwards, the light of jeane kirkpatrick. she meant she was a magnolia with a magnolia and accent. by 1979, she was in full-fledged opposition to what she saw as carter is him. particularl

mr. chairman. i have to go back to judiciary. >> thank you senator franken. senator merkley. >> thank you mr. chairman. i see a lot of young folks attending the hearing today. i just thought i would ask, will you raise your hand if you have college debt on our worried about how that affects your future? wow. this is a major stress, and i feel like i was very fortunate in college to have minimal loans coming out. my parents didn't want me to work the first year and school didn't mommy to make the first -- work the first year but i worked a lot the following three years. there are so many students who find that they have to drop out of college. i was interviewing somebody from my staff yesterday who was talking about a family member, a brother i believe it was, who had gone for a year and had to drop out and work her year to get the tuition to go back to kennedy college and in this work environment it's hard to make ends meet let alone save the money to return to college. then we end up with this pronged period and a lot of folks don't make it back to fill the opportunity and the vision they ha

merkley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, chairman. in your opening comments, you mentioned housing refinancing and families that are underwater. we have about eight million families whose mortgages are under water. some can refinance through harp but it's been a pretty small number, only about 200,000 so far. in part because the complexity with second mortgages. if families who are under water could refinance from those higher rates to lower rates, could that be a significant factor and substantial tool, if you will, in helping to move the construction economy forward and stabilizing those eight million families? >> if that were possible, it would be helpful, because it would both reduce the payments and reduce defaults and foreclosures and improve the income of the people who could refinance. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to switch to another comment. i believe you made in response to chairman johnson and i didn't catch the exact words but i believe you said you had emails about fixing interest rates to make the banks look more

merkley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, chairman. in your opening comments, you mentioned housing refinancing and families that are underwater. we have about eight million families whose mortgages are under water. some can refinance through harp but it's been a pretty small number, only about 200,000 so far. in part because the complexity with second mortgages. if families who are under water could refinance from those higher rates to lower rates, could that be a significant factor and substantial tool, if you will, in helping to move the construction economy forward and stabilizing those eight million families? >> if that were possible, it would be helpful, because it would both reduce the payments and reduce defaults and foirks and improve the -- foreclosures and improve the income of the people who could refinance. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to switch to another comment. i believe you made in response to chairman johnson and i didn't catch the exact words but i believe you said you had emails about fixing interest rates to

mr. chairman. i have to go back to judiciary. >> thank you, senator franken. senator merkley? >> thank you, mr. chair. i see a lot of young folks attending the hearing today. i thought i would ask for you to raise your hand if you have college debt and you are worried about the way that affects your future. wow. this is a major stress. i feel i was fortunate in college to have minimal loans coming out. my parents did not want me to work the first year to make the adjustment to college, but i worked a lot the following three years. so many students find they have to drop out of college. i was interviewing someone for my staff who was talking about a family matter -- family member, a brother i think was, who had to drop out and had to earn money to go back to a community college. in this work environment it is hard to save money to return to college, and a lot of people simply do not make it back to fulfill the opportunity, the vision and their potential dr. -- potential. dr. heller, you mentioned the pell grant program, and in 2006 he established a advisor a committee on effectiveness. it was su

stabenow, begich, whitehouse, levin, casey, harkin, carper, coons, mikulski, merkley, gillibrand, inouye, blumenthal, warner. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask consent that the mandatory quorum required under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

mr. chairman. i have to go back to judiciary. >> thank you, senator franken. senator merkley? >> thank you, mr. chair. i see a lot of young folks attending the hearing today. i thought i would ask for you to raise your hand if you have college debt and you are worried about the way that affects your future. wow. this is a major stress. i feel i was fortunate in college to have minimal loans coming out. my parents did not want me to work the first year to make the adjustment to college, but i worked a lot the following three years. so many students find they have to drop out of college. i was interviewing someone for my staff who was talking about a family matter -- family member, a brother i think was, who had to drop out and had to earn money to go back to a community college. in this work environment it is hard to save money to return to college, and a lot of people simply do not make it back to fulfill the opportunity, the vision and their potential dr. -- potential. dr. heller, you mentioned the pell grant program, and behind it is that you'll be able to afford college in utilize your high

mr. cardin: i would ask unanimous consent that the privileges of the floor be granted to elizabeth eckenberg during the pendency of today's session. this is senator merkley's. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i thank, first, my colleague from california. i agree completely with senator boxer. i happen to be on the floor to be able to listen to my republican colleagues as they were talking about the estate tax. i think we have got to clarify what the legislation we're going to be voting on in a few minutes is all about. it's an effort to fully protect about 98% of americans from the uncertainty as to whether their income tax will go up on january 1. that's what this bill is about. there is a lot of other problems that we have, the fiscal cliff that we have been talking about. and i understand the concerns we have with the estate tax. we have a problem with physician reimbursement under medicare, we have problems with the sequestration orders and the impact it would have on all of our agencies, whether it's national security, whether it's the domestic budget. we have concerns about extending tax provisions for the energy s

island, the leader of our task force, that led us to this point, senator merkley has been very active and involved, as have you, mr. president. senator shaheen, senator bennet. so many people on the task force did a very, very good job. senator udall as well. and so did so many of our colleagues. the fact that we have been on the floor now for close to five hours and there hasn't been a moment's pause says something. it says -- it talks about the broad support that this modest but powerful act has on our side of the aisle. the fact that no one unfortunately on the other side of the aisle has come to debate this issue says something as well. the only debate, in fact, we heard was the republican leader in a brief speech in an argument that was sort of almost 1984-ish, that the reason we shouldn't disclose that people who give would be harassed. well, by that, we should probably have everything be in secret, because of course in an open democracy when you do things in the political arena, you're subject to criticism. that is what freedom is about. and now to come up with this inside-out argument that we shouldn't dis

mr. sanders: i thank my friend, the senator from illinois. before i begin, i want to on behalf of senator merkley to ask unanimous consent for floor privileges for the balance of the day for mia arietta walden. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. sanders: i appreciate very much the remarks of the senator from illinois, and i wanted to amplify on them just a little bit. but before i do, i wanted to mention something that we don't talk about enough here on the floor of the senate. you know, madam president, in new england and i'm sure in minnesota we have a lot of sports fans. when you're interested in baseball, basketball or football, hockey, whatever, the key question that everyone always asks is who wins and who loses? who wins and who loses? well, i think it is appropriate that in terms of the economy as it currently stands, we should also ask that simple question, who's winning and who's losing? and let me discuss that for one moment before i get into deficit reduction. the simple reality is we don't talk about it almost at all here on the floor of the senate. the media d

, durbin, brown of ohio, blumeening that will, merkley, coons, casey, cardin, shaheen, gillibrand, schumer, reed of rhode island, mikulski, rockefeller. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum required under rule 22 be waived. fer if without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: once again, i'm disappointed, as i think most people in the country are, on an issue as timely as this, outsourcsourcing jobs, that we e again are being sometime mid into -- stymied into moving to that legislation. we're going to have a rule on this -- we can't have a vote on this until two days go by, so that's a vote on thursday. and if cloture is i voked on that, then we're only on the bill. and then to get off of it, take another series of days. i mean, get final action on this is going it take a week. that's so unfortunate. that's so unfortunate that we have to go through this, and we've gone through this so many times. and there's, i repeat, not an issue more timely than this, outsourcing jobs. whether it's the olympic uniforms or the many other jobs that have been lost around this country, the american people are tired of this. and i think it's unfortunate th