mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the consideration of calendar number 229, senate resolution 296. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar 229, s. res. 296, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the combined federal campaign. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate and any related statements be printed in the record as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i now ask unanimous consent that the environment and public works committee be discharged from further consideration of senate resolution 251 and that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 251, expressing support for improvement in

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, may i request that the pending quorum call be lifted? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: and that i be allowed to speak for up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, we are going through one of the most difficult and painful periods in american history, and millions of americans are wondering what is happening to our country. behind the curtain of spin and propaganda and political attacks, here's what i believe is happening. the rules of the economic game in this country are increasingly being rigged to provide unfair advantage to the wealthy and well-connected and to take unfair advantage of regular folks and families. america has always promised a straight deal, and that straight deal for many americans is getting harder and harder to find. let me say that i am relentlessly proud to be an american. i grew up in the foreign service of this country, surrounded by families who put public s

mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. we have just passed through a very significant landmark in this country, which is that student debt, the burden of college loan debt that americans have to carry, broke through $1 trillion. $1 trillion in debt. and because of the laws that have been set up to favor the banks, in particular in this congress, the debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. so that is a $1 trillion burden on folks who required loans to get through college that they can never shake off, that is going to stay with them for their lives, for as long as it takes to pay it down, even when things don't work out for them. so it is a very, very significant milestone when it hits $1 trillion of this particular kind of very onerous debt. and one of the responses to it is the pell grant. the pell grant helps people who can't afford college have the chance to go to college.and it y through college, and it does so without leaving that burden of debt behind. it is named after senator claiborne pell of rhode island, a sena

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. itehouse: mr. president, i'm here this evening to express my unwavering support for the men and women who have answered the call of duty in our military services, our guard and reserve, and for their family members whose love and steady support for them have carried our service members through challenging times and difficult missions. in honor of veterans day coming up tomorrow and military family month, which we observe all month long this november, we need to reflect on the enormous contributions that military families have made on behalf of all of us. since september 11, the spouses, children and parents of our servicemen and women have been faced with huge demands. they have endured repeated deployments and spent many holidays and birthdays and anniversaries apart from each other. we shalwe should do everything n in our communities to help military families cope with the difficulties and stresses of these multiple deployments. i commend first lady michelle obama and dr. jill biden

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. 34r-7, imr. president, if we pae rebuild america jobs act, we will immediately invest $50 billion into our transportation infrastructure and generate hundreds of thousands of good jobs. and establish a national infrastructure bank, which will generate even more good jobs. we need these jobs during the current period of high unemployment and upgrading our crumbling infrastructure will spur long-term growth and job creation in addition to the immediate employment benefits. so, i strongly support this bill, and i hope that our colleagues can be brought around as well. the rebuild american jobs act is one piece of the larger american jobs act, which when leader reid brought it to the floor, all 47 senate republicans chose to filibuster. instead of allowing us to begin debating, and if they wished, improving the jobs legislation. that filibuster blocked president obama's plan to cut payroll taxes for every single american workers, and it blocked his plan to offer business owners generous tax breaks to

mr. whitehouse: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president, and i appreciate the courtesy of the senator from new hampshire. i will not speak long. i know she is here waiting to be heard, as we go back and forth across the aisle in sequence. i want to begin by thanking chairman levin and his ranking member, senator mccain, for the work they have done on this issue. they've done a lot of progress and i look forward to continuing work on the floor to try to conclude what i hope will be a successful agreement forren. but i'm here to speak about amendment 1092 of the national defense authorization act, which is the piece that has been put in that responds to the serious and ever-growing problem of counterfeit parts that appear in our military supply chain. our nation asks a lot of our troops. we send them far away. we send them into danger. we ask them to suffer prolonged separation from their families. we ask them to put their life and limb in peril. and in return we have a high obligation to give them the b

mr. whitehouse: madam president, i thank the distinguished senator from illinois for his remarks on topicsthat are very dear to us. i commend him for his advocacy and passion in these important areas. i was here last week in this chamber to discuss a variety of areas in which the american people aren't getting a straight deal compared to special interests and folks who have a lot of power for themselves and their industries here in washington. in that speech, i proposed a number of concrete steps that we could take to help restore the balance of power in our nation between ordinary american people, on the one hand, and the giant corporations and special interests that give themselves special deals and privileges that the american people don't share on the other hand. today i'm here to introduce legislation to take one of those steps. and that is to protect ordinary consumers from runaway interest rates on credit cards from wall street banks. this is something that has gone unchecked for far too long. in the last congress, we passed two pieces of banking legislation. we passed the credit ca

mr. chairman, is if the house would not do that, we should. >> thank you for the questions. senator cornyn and then we will go to senator whitehouse? >> mr. chairman, for what it does work, i agree with senator schumer that we need of information about the programs and the distinctions between wide receiver and fast and furious. attorney general walter, i know the fast and furious had a significant spillover effect in my state of texas, where 119 of the weapons of the 2000 weapons that were bought into the hands of the cartels, 119 of them have shown up at crime scenes in my state. investigations by senator grassley also revealed that the atf agents had ordered clerks at houston-based business to go through with sales of weapons to suspicious purchasers, some of which may have been working as agents of the cartels. on august 7 i sent you a letter asking you about the texas connections and i got a letter back last friday from your subordinates saying that you were not able to provide more information at this time. i am hopeful you will be able to provide more information because we know that weapons from fast and furious have shown up at 1

mr. chairman, is if the house would not do that, we should. >> thank you for the questions. senator cornyn and then we will go to senator whitehouse? >> mr. chairman, for what it does work, i agree with senator schumer that we need of -- all the information about the programs and the distinctions between wide receiver and fast and furious. attorney general walter, i know the fast and furious had a significant spillover effect in my state of texas, where 119 of the weapons of the 2000 weapons that were bought into the hands of the cartels, 119 of them have shown up at crime scenes in my state. investigations by senator grassley also revealed that the atf agents had ordered clerks at houston-based business to go through with sales of weapons to suspicious purchasers, some of which may have been working as agents of the cartels. on august 7 i sent you a letter asking you about the texas connections and i got a letter back last friday from your subordinates saying that you were not able to provide more information at this time. i am hopeful you will be able to provide more information because we know that weapons from fast and furious have sh

island, durbin, feinstein, levin, bingaman, murray, leahy, conrad, whitehouse, cardin, boxer, franken, baucus, menendez and lieberman. mr. reid: i ask consent that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now withdraw my motion to proceed. the presiding officer: the motion is withdrawn. mr. reid: madam president, sunday on one of the sunday shows, the assistant leader, the republican whip, my friend, the senior -- junior senator from arizona, indicated that republicans wouldn't support the withholding tax proposal we had made. monday that was what the senate leadership said here today. so i'm very happy there has been a conversion and now they agree to support it. but be careful. remember, they are very clever and unclear on how they want this paid for. one republican senator said he didn't want it paid for, and that, in fact, has been the standard mantra of the republicans. tax cuts should not have to be paid for. the bush tax cuts amounting to trillions of dollars were not paid for, and that's, of course, one reason, madam president, we have this huge, huge pr

whitehouse. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. elmendorf, welcome. if the debt of our country is so important, and i think is pretty widely believed around the and if that's is canno, debt that is so important can be reduced from two sides -- it can be reduced by spending less, and it can be reduced by revenue if that is the fact, the debt is so important and you can reduce it either with increased revenues or with spending reductions, in that environment, why is it so important that the highest income americans pay lower actual tax rates than regular working americans actually pay back and to illustrate the point that the highest in -- actually pay? and to illustrate the point that the highest income americans pay less in taxes than regular working americans pay, i look at the top 400 earners who turned over $250 million each and paid a little over 2.2% in tax rates. four rhode island, at least, that equates to where aggregator taxpayer -- where a regular taxpayer gets about $46,000, about what a truck driver would make. as your -- get about $40,000

mr. chairman. >> no, i think it was a, i think it was a valuable exchange. and we need it. the country need it. we've got to be -- it's important to have this debate. senator whitehouse. >> thank thank you, chairman. mr. elmendorf, welcome. >> senator. >> if the debt of our country is so important, and i think it's pretty widely believed around the senate that it is, um, and if that debt which is so important can be reduced from two sides -- it can be reduced by spending less, and it can be reduced by revenue increase -- if that is the fact that the debt is so important and you can reduce it either with increased revenues or with spending reductions, in that environment why is it so important that the highest income americans pay lower actual tack rates -- tax rates than regular working americans actually pay? and to illustrate the point that the highest income americans pay lower actual tax rates than regular working americans pay, i look at the irs data for the top 400 income earners who earned over a quarter of a billion dollars each and paid i want to say an 18.3% all-in federal tax rate. and for rhode island, at least, that equates to where a regular taxpayer hi

mr. chairman, 23 the house doesn't do that, we should. okay? >> i agree. i thank you for the question, and senator and then senator whitehouse. >> i agree with senator schumer we need all the information about the programs and the distinctions, if any, between wide receiver and fast and furious. general holder, i note that fast and furious had a significant spillover effect in my state of texas where 119 of the weapons of the 2,000 weapons walked into the hands of the cartels, 119 showed up in crime scenes in my state. investigations reveal they ordered clerks at houston based business called carter's country to go through with sales of weapons to use as agents of the cartels. i sent you a letter on august 7 asking about the texas connections, and i got a letter back last friday from your so -- so board nants saying they were unable to at this time. we know that the weapons from fast and furious have shown up at 11 different crime scenes in the united states, and is far from, as you stated earlier, law enforcement operation in terms of its impact. many of these weapons, of course, ended up in mexicoment one, we know at the d