mr. reid: mr. mr. reid: i ask that the senate proceed to a period of morning business. i asked that we proceed to s. 1466. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 14 66, a bill to establish the commission on freedom of information act processing delays. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a -- read three times, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, any statements relating to the matter appear in the record at the ppropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask that the senate proceed to s.2715. the presiding officer:. the clerk: an act to provide the consumer products safety commission with greater authority and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection you the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask that the bill be read a third time, pad, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, action any statements appear at th

mr. reid: i ask we proceed to s. res 255. mr. reid: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 255 designating october 8, 2011, as national chess day. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, there be no intervening action or debate, any statements related to this matter appear in the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations. calendar number 95, 230, 232, 254, 255, 256, 257, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 275, 277, 278, 279, 280, 282, 283, 284, 28 5, 286 and 288 and calendar numbers 291 through 323. and nominations placed on the secretary's desk in the air force, army, foreign service, marine corps and navy, that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no interveni

mr. reid: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader, the senator from nevada. mr. reid: the eyes of washington and the world have been watching washington this past week very closely. while they witnessed a lot of political wrangling they also saw congress make some historic, important decisions. and averted a default on our debt that has been so concerning to all of us for such a long period of time. our country was literally on the verge of a disaster. it was on the brink of a disaster. one day left, we were able to get together and avert that disaster. now, this compromise that we've reached is not perfect. and i feel it's important -- mr. president, can we have order, please. the presiding officer: the senate will please come to order. we welcome all our visitors and want to make it clear think disturbance or manifestation of approval or disapproval is prohibited under the senate rules. the majority leader may proceed. mr. reid: i appreciate the kind words that my counterpart mr. mcconnell has stated on the floor, i've gotten to know him and speaker boehner a lo

mr. obama, mr. reid, mr.i, if you really want to help the economy, allow the economy to grow the tax base. when you try to raise the tax base and cure it by raising the tax rate, you get less revenue, let productivity, you get more unemployment and that allows these democrats to claim they get to spend more money on people. people want to be self-reliant. they want to work. they don't want the washington to tell them they need their assistance to get thousand this period of time. that's what we need to do is reduce the weight of big government on people's backs. >> bret: so president mccotter, what do you do that could get through a divided congress to change the economy? >> i think there are two things you get through a divided congress. hopefully there would be coat tails where you would have a republican senate. i would say bipartisan support to do what the come -- we believe there are currency manipulations, cyber spying, dumping, the list goes on. i think you can build a bipartisan coalition to enforce e

mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, i'll make a motion to concur on the house message to accompany s. 365, the legislative vehicle for the debt limit compromise. the time until noon will be equally divided and controlled for debate. at noon the senate will conduct a roll call vote on the motion to concur on the house message with a 60-vote threshold. i ask unanimous consent that an intern in senator bingaman's office, trey debrian be granted floor privileges during today's session of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, i now ask the chair to lay before the senate the house message took company s. 365. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. the chair lays before the senate a message from the house. the clerk: resolved that the bill from the senate, s. 365, entitled an act to make a technical amendment to the education sciences reform act of 2002 do pass with an amendment. mr. reid: madam president, prior

mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: mr. leader. mr. reid: thank you investment following leader remarks the senate will resume consideration of the motion to concur on the house message to go accompany s. 627, which is the legislative vehicle for the debt limit increase. the senate will recess from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. when the senate reconvenes the time until 2:30:30 will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. i want to spend a few minutes with the united states senate today and the american people to talk to them about this great body that we serve in. i know that there are all kinds of pundits and commentators who talk about how the system is broken. they point to what's been going on in washington the last few months as saying it shows we need a complete change in the way we enact laws. it doesn't work anymore. it's terrible, awful; what's been going on. mr. president, i want to take just a few minutes and historically review what our country's all about. in the summer of 1787, the founding

mr. reid: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader, the senator from nevada. mr. reid: the eyes of washington and the world have been watching washington this past week very closely. while they witnessed a lot of political wrangling they also saw congress make some historic, important decisions. and averted a default on our debt that has been so concerning to all of us for such a long period of time. our country was literally on the verge of a disaster. it was on the brink of a disaster. one day left, we were able to get together and avert that disaster. now, this compromise that we've reached is not perfect. and i feel it's important -- mr. president, can we have order, please. the presiding officer: the senate will please come to order. we welcome all our visitors and want to make it clear think disturbance or manifestation of approval or disapproval is prohibited under the senate rules. the majority leader may proceed. mr. reid: i appreciate the kind words that my counterpart mr. mcconnell has stated on the floor, i've gotten to know him and speaker boehner a lo

mr. president, can we have order please? want to make it clear think disturbance or manifestation of approval or disapproval is prohibited under the senate rules. the majority leader may proceed. mr. reid: i appreciate the kind words that my counterpart mr. mcconnell has stated on the floor, i've gotten to know him and speaker boehner a lot better this past month or two. especially the speaker. even though i disagree vehemently with the direction the speaker's legislation took with no bipartisan support at all, it is not the product we have here. the product we have here is one of compromise. the winners, without trying to the winners, without trying to to the winners are especiallyroh one winner through all this is the americanties we sold for less than we wantedo so did my friend, the leader, the republican senator, but they that's the way legislation works and compromise works. but i can't let go without bo responding to my friend who boasted about the new senators and members of congress who came here. all i welcome, them all.n the result of the tea partys has direction of the congress the do last few months has been very disconcerting and very unfair to the american people. nc stopped us from theco conclusionlu much earlier and mt

mr. reid: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority lear, the senator from nevada. mr. reid: the eyes of washington and the world have been watching washington this past week very closely. while they witness a lot of political wrangling they also saw congress make some historic, important decisions. and averted a default on our debt that has been so concerning to all of us for such a long period of time. our country was literally on the verge of a disaster. it was on the brink of a disaster. one day left, we were able to get together and avert that disaster. now, this compromise that we've reached is not perfect. and i feel it's important -- mr. president, can we have order, please. the presiding officer: the senate will please come to order. we welcome all our visitors and want to make it clear think disturbance or manifestation of apoval or disapproval is prohibited under the senate rules. the majority leader may proceed. mr. reid: i appreciate the kind words that my counterpart mr. mcconnell has stated on the floor, i've gotten to know him and speaker boehner a lot be

mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. llowing l >>> live pictures of the senate floor. they are in session. they'll be doing a little bit of debating, a little bit of talking and then the vote itself will be at 12:00 noon. i'll anchor special coverage at 12:00 noon for that vote. >>> the story making headlines, the death to the is mounting in the latest bloody crackdown on protests in syria. italy is recalling its ambassador, one day after the eu expanded sanctions on president assad and his aides. more than 1600 people have reportedly been killed by syrian forces since this uprising began in march. >>> if it is tuesday, people are voting somewhere. today, that is in mississippi. the gubernatorial primary republican lieutenant phil bryant faces a primary challenge from businessman dave dennis. if victorious, bryant would be heavily favored in the general election to fill the seat, which will be left open by haley barbour, who is term limited. >>> the obama administration is considering rolling back anti-terror laws to make

mr. reid and mr.let entrepreneurs create more revenue by backing off your regulatory action that are unprecedented at the level this administration is pushing those through. so there is a simple solution. that's for washington to do less, not to do more as the president would have us believe. >> heather: let's take a look at this. in the s & p statement, another portion, they very clearly said that the reason for the downgrade was congressional dysfunction and here it goes further, we lowered our long-term rating on the u.s. because we believe the controversy over the debate indicate that further near term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements or reaching on agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed. how do we resolve this? how do we fix the congressional dysfunction? >> i am hopeful that when members of the congress, particularly the senate, go home for a few weeks, and actually listen to the american people, i conducted 64 town ha

mr. president, and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: before the distinguished senator from texas leaves the floor, i want to express my appreciation to her for her bipartisanship in working through this difficult issue. everyone understands the labor issue. it's something that is overhanging this important piece of legislation, but it shouldn't be hanging over an extension of the bill. tens of thousands of people are not working because of this. the actual airport of our airports are of concern to me. now, f.a.a. is doing everything they can to make sure they are safe and sound, but 4,000 people who work for the department of transportation are off work, in addition to the tens of thousands of people who have construction jobs. we have a new airport tower, control tower in las vegas that is being constructed. they have worked about two weeks and they are now all laid off. it's not fair. this extension should go forward and resolve this issue, as we should resolve all issues, in conference with the other body. it's so unfair that they a

reid is confronted with a terrible decision. my friends in organized labor are absolutely right on this issue. none of us, none of us and no republican, not mr. baber or mr. mccarthy would say to anybody, i want to be in an election in which everybody who does not come to the polls is adjudged a no. against. that's not how we run america but that's what mr. mica said to the senate. now senator reid, because he cares about those 90,000 jobs, as difficult as it may be, it's our understanding, is going ta say, we are not going to leave washington with those folks out on the street as our republican colleagues, led by mr. mica and mr. boehner would do. >> congresswoman giffords came to the floor and voted for the bill. it was an incredibly emotional moment for a lot of members. can you tell us when you heard about this, what the moment was like for you, actually for all you guys. >> it was a great moment for our country. we had a person who is so highly respected, i think the most respected person in america, certainly elected official in america whose name is synonymous with inspiration, with respect, with courage work patriotism and she really wanted to co

mr. cohen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cohen: i have voted twice to raise the debt ceiling. in may. i voted this past weekend for leader reid's program whh had cuts. but i can't vote for this program because the first series of cuts we know the second series of cuts we don't know. i fear it's a trojan horse. if you look inside that trojan horse it's the whirlpool and the shoals and that's an odyssey in journey this country should not traverse. this country has been taken by a group of ideologues that don't want to reduce it. want to hurt employment figures to hurt the president of the united states, mr. speaker, and i don't want to hurt him. one justice said the greatest danger is to by men of zeal. well-meaning but without understanding. juste brandaise is with us today. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to a distinguished member of the ways and means committee, the gentleman from texas, mr. brady. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. brady: mr. speaker, it's important we know as we try to change this government that we're actually making changes in the direction we're going. without the budget control act our government will be over 23% of the size of our economy by the end of this decade. the budget control act changes that. by thend of the decade it will be about 21.5% of the size of our economy. it is comparable, come close to the shrinkage of the economy under president reagan in his first -- in his eight years in the wh

mr. cohen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cohen: i have voted twice to raise the debt ceiling. in may. i voted this past weekend for leader reid's program which had cuts. but i can't vote for this program because the first series of cuts we know the second series of cuts we don't know. i fear it's a trojan horse. if you look inside that trojan horse it's the whirlpools and the shoals and that's an odyssey in journey this country should not traverse. this country has been taken by a group of ideologues that don't want to reduce it. want to hurt employment figures to hurt the president of the united states, mr. speaker, and i don't want to hurt him. one justice said the greatest danger is to by men of zeal. well-meaning but without understanding. justice brandaise is with us today. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to a distinguished member of the ways and means committee, the gentleman from texas, mr. brady. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. brady: mr. speaker, it's important we know as we try to change this government that we're actually making changes in the direction we're going. without the budget control act our government will be over 23% of the size of our economy by the end of this decade. the budget control act changes that. by the end of the decade it will be about 21.5% of the size of our economy. it is comparable, come close to the shrinkage of the economy under president reagan in his first -- in his eight years in th

mr. chairman. >> thank you, general. >> senator reid. >> thank you very much mr. chairman and thank you general dempsey for your service to the army and the nation. i have ever confidence you're going to be a superb chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. i want to recognize you and your family. i think i properly pointed out to your chairman although you were high school sweethearts you married after west point. i want to make sure of that because that's problematic otherwise. i also want to salute admiral mullen for his extraordinary service and join my colleagues in recognizing the extraordinary service of general john shalikashvili. general shalikashvili proudly said he was a citizen of only one country, the yoits of america despite where he was born and where he traveled. he was the consummate citizen soldier. to his family, my deepest sympathies. the issue that is before us and eluded to and talked about in your previous hearing as chief of staff now is the budget. and with the sake of risking over simplification there's three major categories that you have to deal with, force structure. including paying allowances in this context, the reserve forces and retired forces and the national guard, but particularly retirees. equipment, procurement, how much, it cost, what do you need, can you suspend acquisitions. and finally the issue of operations and trabing. where we're going to go in the operational sense and how we're going to train. with that as a very, very broad context, can you comment upon the approach you're going to take with respect to these issues and the budget you face? >> yes, senator. i think the important point to make in the question of how to absorb reductions or debt total obligating authority is really to re-enforce that it must touch each of the things you mentioned. we will not be able to change the size and the capability of the force and i'll speak for the army because i'm immersed in it now unless we do so by touching each of those areas you talked about. for example, if we try to artificially preserve manpower we will suffer the consequences in modernization and operations maintenance and training. conversely if we go after just manpower it won't make any sense to have the kind of resources and operations in maintenance and training. this really requires us to maintain balance as we make any changes that become necessary by virtue of budget support. i'll also say that includes pay, compensation, retirement, and health care because it's important that we place everything on the table, assess the impact and then request the time to do it in a deliberate fashion so we can maintain balance at whatever level we end up at. >> when you address the issue of compensation and health care, there are two factors. one is the relationship between funding those programs, do you propose to make that explicit. it's no longer the possibility of simply adding more money that there has to be trade offs between operations, training, troops in the field, their safety and some of the benefits for retirees? >> i think, yes. if i could just elaborate for a moment. >> yes, sir. >> i think it's very important that we maintain an open dialogue with all pars of this total force active guard reserve, families, retirees, to help them understand the challenge. the challenge is simply this, again, i'm speaking just for the army. right now our manpower costs consume approximately 42% of our budget. left unabated that is to say, left unaddressed that will rise to approximately 47% or 48% by 2017. that is not sustainable. so the question then comes back what should we do about it, and how can we do so in a way that maintains the trust we've established with our force overtime in contact. i'll say one other thing, what makes this budget discussion different, i'm a student of history as you know, i've studied the post vietnam period. i've studied the post desert storm, desert shield period. what makes this period different is we're doing all this wile we're still actively engaged in conflict and we have young men and women in harm's way. that adds a degree of complexity and a degree of uncertainty that i think we can't discount. >> final point with respect to this whole issue of how do you rebalance the personnel course, etsz. i presume your view would be to lead from the top, that senior officers and senior personnel would be the first ones to stand up and say if it's going to have to happen, it will happen with us, is that fair? >> did you have to ask me that question in front of my wife, senator? but the short answer is absolutely. i think it's leading from the top individually. i also think it's leading from the top and examining our structure which tends to be rather top heavy and in fact historically again if you look through conflicts headquarters grow in ways that have to be reconsidered and reformed after conflict. >> slightly change the subject, i think it relates to what we've been saying is that we are on our way out of afghanistan as we are in iraq. going forward, you have to be prepared to successfully hand over a significant activities. so your success in transition is a function of the resources they must receive. my perception being here is when a defense budget is reduced, the state department budget is decimated. doe you one have those concerns? and two, consciously if we are going to maintain a credible security force beyond one or two years, we're going to have to internationally provide resources in afghani national forces. is that going to be one of your priority? my only historic hook here is the last soviet era leader survived two plus years after the soviets withdrew, but when the resources and not just for military, but for everything dried up, his days were literally numbered. >> we certainly don't want to be guilty of refreezing the ep logue of charlie wilson's war. i take your point completely. my job will be given the strategic objectives in afghanistan to determine how best to meet them if and when u.s. force structure reduces what is it that compensates for that? is it afghan capacity, other agencies of government? as you know, the measure of national power is is aggregate of economic strength, diplomatic strength and military strength. all three of those have to participate in these outcomes and all three of these have to be considered as we look at these reductions to make sure we stay in balance in that way as well. >> thank you for your service and thank you for your family service. >> thank you. >> thank you very much, senator reed. senator sessions. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you, general dempsey for your leadership and your commitment. your willingness to serve in harm's way. i noticed just looking at your bio, i looked at it because i remember seeing you in iraq and coming back and you were still there. i noticed you were there the first tour 16 months. came home to germany and were deployed there for ten months and back for 21 months. that's the kind of deployment that a number of our military people have made serving their country in dangerous areas of the globe. i just want to personally thank you for your commitment, and i think it reflects the kind of commitment many other enlisted people, many of our leaders in the military have exhibited. miss dempsey, good to see you and thank you for being the good partner in those difficult years. i just want to follow up on senator mccain's comments about the budget. we've had a lot of people believe that the deficit is caused by the war in afghanistan and iraq. it certainly was not inexpensiv

mr. defazio: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. defazio: it's a little different than the reid bill we voted on saturday. it actually increases military spending $78 billion over the bill that we voted on on saturday. and it decreases domestic spending by $80 billion. and it doesn't end the wars unlike the reid bill we voted on saturday. it has one specified cut. student financial aid. that's the only cut specified. what kind of world do you people live in? and of course it doesn't ask a single thing of millionaires, billionaires, corporations that avoid taxes. doesn't close a single loophole. doesn't ask one millionaire or billionaire to go back to clinton era taxes. and it does does nothing about our most serious deficit in this country and that is a jobs deficit. unless you really believe that tax loopholes, tax cuts, and cutting investment in aviation and surface transportation creates jobs on your planet, this bill creates none here today. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan rise? mr. garrett: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> mr. speaker, we are in the midst of a crisis. it's not a crisis of telling ceiling. it's a crisis of debt, of washington spending too much not taxing or borrowing too little. the problem isn't the debt ceiling, it's the debt. mr. walberg: we can no longer continue our theft on our uncontrolled spending habits to our children and grandchildren. luckily the congress has made significant progress in the first six buckets bills in cutting real spending for this upcoming fiscal year. the house republicans have fundamentally changed the debate in washington. we are no longer talking about job-killing tax increases. we are talking about spending cuts. and long-term spending reform. our goals from day one. mr. speaker, it's time for president obama and the senate democrats to join us in our efforts to control spending before time runs out. we must solve this crisis to encourage job creation

mr. reid: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to h. connecticut rest res. 70, the motion to reconsider laid on table, and be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if given. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask we proceed to a period of morning business until 4:00 p.m., senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i have five unanimous consent requests for committees to meet, they have the approval of both senator mcconnell and me. i ask unanimous consent they be agreed to and printed in the record. 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: the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. a senator: the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: he would are in a quorum call. a senator: i ask unanimous consent the -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from arizona. mr. mccain: the