mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, are we presently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. mr. whitehouse: i ask the quorum call be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i ask the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 3998 which was introduced earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 3998, a bill to extend the child safety pilot program. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i further ask that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relate to go this measure be printed in the record at the appropriate place. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i now ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate

mr. whitehouse: thank you. and at the end of my remarks, i will propound a unanimous consent request that the minority party sae wear is coming -- is aware is coming. and i wanted to -- let me find the language of the request. i want to make sure i get that rhode island -- i get that right. thank you. i travel around, madam president, my state pretty often, and when i do i hear a lot in rhode island about the sacrifices that people have had to make during for our state, very difficult economic times. we're still over 11% unemployment. many of my constituents have adjusted to this difficult economic climate by cutting back on extras and finding savings in their personal lives wherever they can. but for our seniors -- and rhode island has a very big population of seniors -- who live on a limited budget, simply cutting back is a very, very harsh option for them. in 2008, rhode island seniors on social security received an average monthly payment of about $1,100. $1,100 a month is not a lot to live on, particularly

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i believe we have a sequence of speakers lined up and i guess i ask unanimous consent at the conclusion of my remarks, senator harkin be recognized again followed by senator carper, followed by senator brown. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i rise to make a few brief remarks in honor of congressman patrick joseph kennedy of rhode island. with patrick's departure from the house of representatives to seek new challenges and enjoy some well-earned time out of political spotlight, my home state of rhode island is losing a champion for working families and our country is losing a public servant who did as much as anyone else, to care for and lift up those in the shadows of life. as it moment to thank patrick for his many contributions to the lives of rhode islanders over his 16 years of service in the house. but also a moment to reflect on his unique place in the political history of our country. afterall, the 112th congress, t

mr. whitehouse: thank you. i just wanted to ask the chairman, if this oil rig that exploded and burned had been on land and these same 11 workers had been killed, they would be treated differently and far more generously, and their families would be treated differently and far more generously than in this actual case just because it happened to be out in the ocean as a deepwater drilling rig? mr. leahy: madam president, the senator from rhode island is absolutely correct. we held these hearings. he was an indispensable part of the hearings. it is an inexplicable anomaly of law that reflects a different era. had they been assembling, for example, this oil rig, had they had it on land, exploded, they would be able to recover as anybody could from such an explosion. if it was an onshore oil rig -- of course we had many, many in this country and throughout the world, but in this country. and if they had been working on that and there had been an explosion and they lost their lives, they would have remedies availabl

mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. i thank the distinguished chairman. madam president, as you know, our job market is still suffering from the fallout of the recession from the end of the bush years, and the unemployment rate nationally is near 10%. in my home state, it's well over 11%. chairman baucus' proposal would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into this faltering economy. helping struggling families make ends meet and creating jobs in the process. on behalf of the 65,000 rhode islanders who are out there currently looking for work, i want to express my support for chairman baucus' one-year extension of emergency unemployment benefits. without this extension, thousands of rhode islanders will soon be left with no source of income as they continue to search the want ads, no money for the mortgage or rent, no money for food, no money for medicine, no money even for holiday presents for their children. the one-year extension of this lifeline will quite literally mean for many rhode island families the difference between keeping a home or facing

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, in rhode island seniors get an average social security benefits of $13,500, which makes it tough sledding to live on in the cold northeast in the winter time. the cola adjustment is misfiring for seniors. their heating costs go up, their prescription costs go up, their pharmaceutical costs go up, and we missed the cola twice. we fixed it in 2008 with a one-time vote, we fixed in 2009 with a one-time vote. let's, please, do it again for 2010. support senator sanders amendment and let's not be scrooges to our seniors while we're so fabulously generous to our mega millionaires. the presiding officer: who yields time? the republican leader. all time is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 655, s. 3985, the emergency senior citiz

mr. whitehouse: thank you. and at the end of my rarks, i will propound a unanimous consent request that the minority party sae wear is coming -- is aware is coming. and i wanted to -- let me find the language of the request. i want to make sure i get that rhode island -- i get that right. thank you. i travel around, madam president, my state pretty often, and when i travel around-dade a lot and i see people are in very, very difficult economic times. many of my constituents have adjusted to this difficult economic climate by cutting back on extras and finding savings in their personal lives wherever they can, but for our seniors in rhode island -- we have a very big population of seniors who live on a limited budget. simply cutting back is a very, very harsh option for them. in 2008, rhode island seniors on social security received an average monthly payment of about $1,100. $1,100 per month is not a lot to live on. particularly in the northeast. i have heard from the seniors to worry about keeping the heat on

mr. whitehouse: may i associate myself with the remarks of my distinguished senior senator and reemphasize our pride in the comments that senator dodd, chrised to has with rhode island. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. a senator: mr. president, i just want to take a couple of minutes -- mr. lautenberg: to salute the service of one great united states senator. chris dodd. chris and i have served together more than 25 years and when i arrived here, and i was not one of the youngest people they get here at that time, but chris was someone i knew from other walks of life, and i turned to him and my dear friend who used to occupy this seat, ted kennedy, for advice and counsel. sometimes the counseling was better than the advice, but we were younger then and chris dodd has that incredible personality that gets things done that presents a leadership position on issues and has -- and showed incredible patience in the way that he dealt with financial reform, with health care and -- but never as i saw it did chris leave the people who d

mr. president, let me begin by adding senators whitehouse and begich as part of this amendment, 4809. mr. president, as i think many people know i have been extremely critical of the agreement struck between the president and the republican leadership. i have spoken out against it and i voted against cloture just yesterday. it is one thing to be critical of a proposal, it is another thing to come up with a better alternative. and i think i have done that today. i think the amendment that i'm offering is, i believe, a significant improvement over the agreement struck between the president and the republican leadership and i would hope very much that we can get strong bipartisan support for it. let me very briefly tell you what it does. first, as i think most americans appreciate, at a time of a record-breaking deficit, it makes very little sense to be providing huge tax breaks to the wealthiest people in our country, drives up the national debt, forces our kids to pay higher debt in the future to pay that debt off. what this does is end all of the bush tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% o

lieberman, rockefeller, dorgan, kerry, whitehouse, pryor, reed of rhode island, menendez, begich, cardin, conrad, nelson of florida, klobuchar, murray, mikulski, dodd and lugar. mr. reid: i ask the mandatory quorum be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimoui askunanimous consent y committee be discharged from the nominations of -- presidential nomination 235, darrell james bell, and presidential nomination 2348, edwin sloan, one to be united states marshall in -- martial in monday mob and the other to be united states marshal in the district of columbia. that the senate proceed en bloc to the nominations, they be confirmed en bloc, and the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, that any statements relating to the nominations appear in the record at the appropriate place as if read and the president of the united states be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, for the benefit of all senators, we just sent to the house again the food safety legislation, extremely important legislation. i jus

follows, lieberman, rockefeller, dorgan, whitehouse, reid, menendez, cardin, nelson of florida, bennett of colorado, murray, mikulski, dodd, durbin and kerry. mr. reid: i move to -- with an amendment which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid moves to concur on the house amendment to the senate amendment number three with an amendment number 4822. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there is. there is a sufficient second. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes amendment number 4823 to amendment 4822. mr. reid: i move to refer the house message to the senate judiciary committee with instructions to report back forthwith with the following amendment. i ask the clerk to state that motion. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada mr. reid refers to move to the senate judiciary committee with instructions to report back forthwith the following amendment number 4824. mr.

lieberman, rockefeller, dorgan, kerry, whitehouse, pryor, casey, durbin, warner, shaheen, nelson of nebraska, bayh, dodd, conrad, webb, nelson of florida and klobuchar. mr. reid: i move to send it to the finance committee with instruction to report back with the following amendment. mr. reid: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, moves to refer the house message to the senate committee on finance with instructions to report back forth with with an amendment numbered 4755. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have an amendment to my instructions that is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 4756 to the instructions to the motion to refer h.r. 4853. mr. reid: on that, mr. president, i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment to my instructions. the presiding officer: the clerk wil

mr. president, on march 17, 2010, the president pro tempore appointed, pursuant to senate resolution 458, senators mccaskill, hatch, klobuchar, whitehouse, udall of new mexico, shaheen, kaufman, barrasso, demint, johanns, risch and wicker to perform the duties provided for by rule xi of the senate's impeachment rules. under the leadership of its chairman, the senator from missour, mrs. mccaskill, and its vice chairman, the senator from utah, mr. hatch, the committee heard five days of testimony between september 13 and september 21. during that time the committee heard from 26 witnesses, 14 who were called by the house of representatives and 12 witnesses who were called by judge porteous. the committee also conducted pretrial depositions of four witnesses and admitted into evidence the testimony of a number of witnesses, including judge porteous, who had testified in prior proceedings, more than 300 factual stipulations, and hundreds of exhibits. mr. president, the senate is indebted to all of the members of this committee, who so conscientiously discharged their responsibility in this important constitutional matter. in addition to the

mr. whitehouse: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, may i first say how proud and privileged i feel to have been on the floor during the distinguished senior senator from iowa's speeches on behalf of his friends and colleagues, many of decades' duration. i have -- i'm still in my first term here, and i know i still have a lot to learn, but one thing that i have learned is that this place operates on friendships and that the friendships here are special ones, forged in cooperation, tempered in combat, and sustained in mutual respect. and your eloquent words about your colleagues are a great testament, senator harkin to that fine characteristic of this boavmentd so i felt very touched and pleased to be here. madam president, i'm here to draw attention to what i consider to be an urgent need that we include an extension of the treasury grant program for renewable energy projects in any upcoming tax legislation considered by the senate. these are called 1603 grants because they were created by section 1603 of th