mr. whitehouse: thank you very much. mr.is is a peculiar condition of washington. if you go out into our, say, military and intelligence communities, they understand and are planning for the effects of our carbon pollution on climate change. they see it as a national security risk. if you go out into our at least nonpolluting business and financial community, they see this as a real and important problem. and of course it goes without saying that our scientific community is all over this concern. but, like i said, washington is a peculiar place, and here it is getting very little traction. here where the dark hand of the polluters can tap so many shoulders and where there is power and money behind that dark hand, and, therefore, a lot of attention paid to that little tap on the shoulder. what we overlook is that nature, god's earth, is also tapping us all on the shoulder with messages that we ignore at our peril. we ignore the messages of nature, of god's earth, and we ignore the laws of nature, of god's earth, at our very g

mr. whitehouse: thank you mr. president. i rise today to speak in support of the ciewrnz exchange rate oversight reform act of 2011, and by note the presence on the floor of one of its principal sponsors senator sherrod brown of ohio, who i've been very pleased to work with on this legislation. i'm proud to be one of the original cosponsors of this bill an important piece of bipartisan legislation that will help protect american workers from the trade distorting effects of currency manipulation. in particular, this legislation will allow to us fight back against policies that china has used to gain an unfair advantage over american manufacturers. our american trade deficit with china rose from $83 billion in 2001, the year that china joined the world trade organization to $273 billion in 2010. that trend is discouraging enough on its own but it is more troubling to consider that the growing trade deficit ultimately represents goods that are no longer made in the united states of america by u.s. workers. in fact, the economic

mr. chairman? >> senator whitehouse. >> mr. chairman, i'd like to thank senator alexander for the enemy and he has made. i was one of the senators who requested that the subject of turnaround elements that pertain to the first six turnaround methods also be retained for the seventh. and i also thank you for clarifying the voucher issue. i agree that this language not support a voucher program. and i think it's important we make that legislative record clearly and now. and i think the center has just done so that i hope i have hammered it home yet and with the in the senate has proposed i'm pleased to support his amendment. >> thank you. i want to follow this up. i am concerned about the voucher issue, that we had a preliminary, i will say preliminary, probably crs, saying that this could allow for vouchers. i see nothing in there that prohibits it. what if a local state cayman, you know, you don't know the government is or the situation is in the state and say well, as turnaround model for this school is, close the school and p

mr. chairman? >> senator whitehouse. >> i would like to thank senator alexander for the amendment he has made. i was one of the senators who requested that the substantive turnaround elements that pertain to the first six turnaround methods also be retained for the seventh and i think him for clarifying the voucher issue. i agree that this language would not support a voucher program and it is important we make that legislative record clear here and now and the senator has just done so and i hope i have hammered it home with the amendment the senator proposed, i am pleased to support his amendment. >> i want to follow this up. i am concerned about the voucher program. we had a preliminary -- i will say it is preliminary -- from the crs saying that this could allow vouchers. i see nothing that prohibits it. what if a local state came in, you don't know who the governor is for the situation, let's turn around -- close the school and provide vouchers. we close the school and provide vouchers. i don't see any prohibition on that. if i am wrong on that i am glad to be enlightened on that. >> mr. ch

mr. brown: we're joined in this chamber by two of the sponsors of this bill. the presiding officer, senator whitehouse and senator casey from pennsylvania. you said something earlier about the super committee and deficit reduction. what you said is exactly right, that many in this institution and down the hall in the house of representatives don't seem to understand, and that is you can't only cut your way to prosperity. you've got to grow your way to a more balanced budget and prosperity. one of the things this china currency bill will do is it is estimated by the economic policy institute that over ten years it will cut the deficit $600 billion to $800 billion. why is that? because of job growth, because this bill provides, according to the economic policy institute study, creates more than 2 million jobs. that's 2 million people instead of receiving unemployment benefits, instead of being eligible for food stamps, instead of other kinds of things we do for people who are out of work, it will mean those 2 million people will actually be working, many of them in manufacturing. those are $12, $15, $20

whitehouse? >> no, by proxy. >> senator blumenthal? >> no. >> senator enzi? >> no. >> senator alexander? >> no. >> senator hatch? >> pass. >> senator mccain? >> no, by proxy someone >> senator roberts? >> no. >> senator kurt? >> [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> mr. chairman, i wish to be recorded as voting no. [inaudible conversations] >> senator burke? >> senator, i call up amendment two under title two. >> amendment number two. >> again, mr. chairman, i will try to be brief on this. today, we've heard a lot about equity, and the need for equity under the sea. at the same time, a lot of people around the table purport to support equity, and this reauthorization of elementary and secondary education, they've signed on to a bill that is often anything but equitable in the distribution of federal funds. one of these inequities is most evident in this bill's title two formula which continues to hold harmless provision funds on the basis of population numbers that are over a decade old. in the allocation of funds under title two, each state first receives an amount to the fy2001 grant under two programs. the eisenhower professional development program and the class size reduction program. only after each state is awarded what it received in fy2001,

appoint the honorable sheldon whitehouse, a senator from the state of rhode island, to perform the duties of the chai. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. rye reid mr. president? the presiding officer: the distinguished majority leader. mr. reid: thank you, mr. president. i have the rare opportunity today to introduce and say a few words about the gest chaplain. -- about the guest chaplain. reverend chaney has just delivered, as usual, an eloquent invocation. reverend chaney is originally from south carolina, but for the last two years has led his flock at the second baptist church in las vegas, one of the older, extremely well-established, large churches in las vegas, nevada. he's a man who's involved in the community, very, very deeply. he serves on the board of the urban league and the naacp, but in addition to his service in the spiritual line, he's also served as a patriot in our nation's armed services. he has served in the navy for four years, as has our chaplain, barry black, both naval officers, and recently retired as chaplain of the united states air force reserve at necessarily is air force base. i've met with reverend chaney under very