mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: first let me thank my colleague from florida. he knew that i was waiting and i know he cut short his remarks, and i appreciate it. but more importantly than that, i areciate his insight, his articulateness and his desire to help the people of florida. nobody works harder for the people of florida than the senator from florida. and they know disaster jus about better than anybody else given their geographic situation. and so his fight for fema llars is a fight for every citizen of that great state of florida, where i must say many of my former constituents n reside. so i care especially about florida as well. so thank him for both his courtesy and his insightfulness. now, mr. president, fema runs out of money very soon. and already recovery projects in more than 40 states have been halted so fema can focus their last dollars on responding to the latest disasters. to have fema not working in joplin, missoi, where we all saw the pictures because of the dangers that hurricanes ire

mr. schumer: would my colleague yield for a question? mr. bennet: sure. mr. schumer: i want to compliment him on this outstanding speech. i hope he'll send -- many of our colleagues are on the way home. the hour is late. i hope he'll send it to them. it's been a joy for me to stay and listen. we talked about this last night when we had dinner. here is another interesting fact amidst so many my colleague has brought up. it's such a great speech. if you look at that chart, from 1999 to 2007, before the recession hit, median income didn't go up. and that is a question we're going to have to pworpbd, and we -- ponder, and we need great minds like his to figure out the answer. if you just blame the recession and think it will come back up, it won't. the kind of structural changes my colleague talks about are so, so needed if we're not going to have a continually declining middle class, even in a period of growth. am i right about that? mr. bennet: i thank the senator from new york. you are right about that. and what you will see on another -- not tonight, but anoth

mr. schumer: okay. a patent holder who has his patent -- whose patent is solid has nothing to fear from a section 18 review. indeed, a good patent will come out of such a review strengthened and validated. the only people who have any cause to be concerned about section 18 are those who have patents that shouldn't have been influenced in the -- shouldn't be influenced in the first place and who are hoping to make a lot of money suing legitimate businesses with these not-legitimate patents. and to them i say the scam should stop. in fact, 56% of business patent lawsuits come in one court, in the eastern district of texas. why do they all go to one court? not because of just coincidence. why do people far and wide seek this? because they know that court will give them favorable proceedings and many of the businesses who are sued illegitimately say instead of millions of dollars of discover and everything else in a court that i believe i can't get a fair trial in, i'll settle. that shouldn't happen, and th

mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. well, mr. president, we're now approaching the tenth anniversary of 9/11. as with countless others who experienced all that happened that day, recounting 9/11, assessing its implications on our nation is both a profound and deeply personal undertaking. i'll never forget the moments when i was -- when i learned what happened. i was in the house gym. i was a senator then but still went to the house gym. and there's a limb tv on top -- a little tv on top of the lockers. somebody pointed out, one of our colleagues who was in the house with me from the other side of the aisle pointed out. he said look on the tv. it looks like a plane crashed into the world trade center. we all gathered around, watched the tv and came to the conclusion it was probably a little turbo plane that had lost its way. we kept our eye on the tv and then of course we saw the second plane hit the second tower, and we knew that it was not just an accident. i quickly dressed, showered, rushed to get into my car. and as i was dri

mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. there has been a promising new tone in congress since our return from the cornel recess. this has taken some by surprise. but even more striking than the new tone is that it has brought with it a few modest signs of a new spirit of cooperation. the house has since the a highway extension and aviation extension harass clean. during august there were clamors from some corners in the other party to mount a fight over the gas tax or insist on harmful cuts to road and bridge repair, even if these demands risked a shutdown of road construction projects. as recently as last friday, republicans were planning to insist on a 5% cut to the f.a.a. budget, a move that could well have threatened another shutdown of that agency like we saw in awsmght but both fears fortunately have receded. barring a setback in the senate, we should be able to extend both the f.a.a. and highway measures on time and without controversy. this is a very positive sign. there was a sour taste left in everyone's mouth at

mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: first i would like to talk a little bit about the upcoming fema bill. as i understand it, the house intends to send us a c.r. with fema funding only at the level of $3.65 billion, which is a level that is completely inadequate to meet fema's needs. they intend to put a billion dollars in for 2011, which is more than is actually needed in 2011 but then they ask it be paid for with $1.5 billion, which is not the way mathematics is supposed to work. but the real problem is the total amount of 3.65 is inadequate given the terrible tragedies that we have had over the last several months and several years. we're still rebuilding from katrina, the joplin tornado was devastating, and of course the storms that hit the northeast, including my beloved state of new york are just awful. it's estimated that just in new york state alone cleanup could now cost -- all the costs would be closer to $2 billion. you can imagine $3.65 billion is not ev

mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. er: first let me thank my colleague from florida. he knew that i was waiting and i know he cut short his remarks, and i appreciate it. but more importantly than that, i appreciate his insight, his articulateness and his desire to help the people of florida. nobody works harder for the people of florida than the senator from florida. and they know disaster just about better than anybody else given their geographic situation. and so his fight for fema dollars is a fight for every citizen of that great state of florida, where i must say many of my former constituents now reside. so i care especially about florida as well. so thank him for both his courtesy and his insightfulness. now, mr. president, fema runs out of money very soon. and already recovery projects in more than 40 states have been halted so fema can focus their last dollars on responding to the latest disasters. to have fema not working in joplin, missouri, where we all saw the pictures because of the dangers that hurricanes

mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. just want to thank my colleague from california for her. -- poignant, eloquent and appropriate words and i want to thank the chair of our homeland security subcommittee which handles fema disasters for the great work she has done. now, mr. president, i spent several days both this week and last week visiting the places in upstate new york that were so badly damaged. upstate new york is a large community. if we were a state, we woulding without the new york city and the suburbs, that would still be about the eighth or ninth largest state. and the eastern half of upstate new york has been unexpectedly devastated -- not once, but twice. first by irene and then by lee. it comes on top of an awful season, because we've had so much rain that the ground has been so wet that when these torrential rains occur -- wh one a hurricane, one a tropical storm -- no groundwater could be absorbed and it made things worse. let me tell you a few of the things i have seen just to share with my colleagues.

schumer. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you, mr. cordre. i was one of the original sponsors after ten years of trying to get very simple legislation, credit card disclosure legislation or get the fed actually to require that there be disclosure of what credit card interest rates are, and i joust got basic that they are busy with other things. kind of thing. that's why i feel this agency is necessary. none of the other agencies put the consumer at the top of the list. it's not their mission. the fed's the safety and soundness. an independent agency had a great deal of appeal to me, and that's why i was a strong advocate of it. it's an agency designed to finally put consumers first. it's under attack even before it's fully on its feet. i don't want to go back to the old days by going to the fed or another agency saying the consumer needs reasonable protection which i was asking with credit cards, we've gone beyond that. the simple adam smith disclosure. no one knew the interest rates when they signed up for celt cards and the fed interest was

we should point out this is a seat that was hld by geraldine ferraro, it was held by chuck schumer and now mrturner but there's also a big win for a republican out in nevada. >> forget about the fact that some people might have an opinion about the jewish vote and how it relates to president obama. inside israel, he has 9% approval. currently, among america, jewish voters right now only 22% approve of the job he's doing. how do you run from those numbers? the obama administration has a counter offensive. of course, debbie wasserman schultz is running the dnc. she said it's a messaging problem, not a policy problem. they've hired a jewish outreach director. they know there's an issue. there's no room for political games. they've lost turkey as an ally. they've lost egypt as an ally. they are surround by terrorist organizations, this is the last thing our chief ally in the middle east needs is questioning our loyalty. >> let's go out to nevada, then, as steve mentioned there was a special election there where a republican won in a big way by 57.9% to 39% opponent, kate marshall. now there will

mr. president, listen to us. >> reporter: some of new york's biggest named democrats held the seat over the years. including chuck schumer, geraldine ferraro, and most recently anthony weiner, who resigned in disgrace in june, of sending inappropriate photos of himself to women on twitter. and republicans prevailed in the only other special election last ght. scoring a victory in nevada by a 22-point landslide. george? >> democrats say that was a district held by republicans in the last election. but this new york seat, jon, this is troublesome. it could spell trouble for the president, you say beyond new york, especially because it shows some weakness among jewish voters. >> reporter: absolutely. jewish voters are key in florida, as well. this a district that the president had won by double-digits in 2008. one point on that nevada race, republicans were expected to win. but nobody predicted it would be a 22-point blowout. and that's a state that's critical to the president's re-election, as well. >> it's hard to win a congressional seat by 22 points. you're right. jon karl, thank you very much. >>> let's turn to the cam

to commend senator reid and senator durbin and senator schumer for their leadership and urge our republican colleagues on both the house side, mr. boehner and mr. kantor to reach common ground, this is common ground, let's do it so that our people can have the confidence that their government is there and they are confronted with a disaster that puts them at risk and i thank the senate for allowing us to join in this very important statement. >> as well as speaker pelosi and senator durbin. today we have a bipartisan vote to defeat the house bill 5936 wasn't close to earth. to work towards a reasonable and fair solution to fund disaster relief and of late an unnecessary and destructive government shut down. the majority leader has said he is willing to meet with house and senate leadership this weekend. we hope speaker boehner and senator mcconnell will take him up on the offer to negotiate a solution. our position is let's talk over the weekend. their position is you take-it-or-leave-it. their approach failed on the senate floor this morning, and it's time for them to change their strategy. we have a failed measure that will r

want to commend senator reid, senator byrd and, as senator schumer for their leadership and urge our republican colleagues on the house side, mr. banner -- mr. boehner, mr. cantor, yes, you said you wanted to reach common ground, this is common ground, let's do it so that the people are confident the government is there when a disaster puts them at risk. i thank the senate for allowing us to join them in this important statement. senator schumer? >> thank you, senators reid and hoyer and speaker pelosi and senator durbin. 59-6 wasn't close. now is the time to work on a reasonable and fair solution find it disaster relief and avoid an unnecessary and destructive government shutdown. the majority leader has said he is willing to meet with house and senate leadership this weekend. we hope that speaker boehner and senator mcconnell will take him on the offer to negotiate a solution. our position is let's talk over the weekend. their position is, take it or leave it. their approach failed on the senate floor this morning, and it is time for them to change their strategy. we have a fail safe measure that will receive a vote on the s