mrs. hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mrs. hutchison: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. hutchison: thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. will senators please take their conversations from the chamber. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, we have been here this week -- the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the senator from texas is recognized. mr. mccain: will the senator from texas yield for a question? mrs. hutchison: i will, mr. president. mr. mccain: the senator from texas, i'm just wondering the view that you might have that we've been terribly overworked this week. i understand that we canceled our 4th of july recess in order to get back here and get to work and do the people's business. is it correct that that was the second vote this we have take? one was the instruction of the sergeant at arms, and this one another highly controvers

mrs. hutchison: i will. mr. thune: thank you, madam president.the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: i am happy to be a cosponsor of the senator from texas's legislation. she's absolutely right. floss more deserving group of -- there is no more deserving group of people in this country our our military. we need to make sure under no circumstance they are no not pa. madam president, we are a week away now from the time in which we would have to request additional borrowing authority in order for our federal government to pay its bills. we've known it's coming for some time. and it strikes me at least that as most americans observe this debate the thing that they are probably most concerned about is how this is going to impact them and their economic circumstances. and frankly, i think all of us ought to be looking at this with an eye towards how does this impact the economy? there's been a lot of discussion about that. the president of course made yet another speech last night in which he tried to claim the high ground in

mrs. hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mrs. peak in favor of the plan that is before us, the cut, cap, and balance act. and, mr. president, i also think there are some very important achievements in the group of six proposal. it's a proposal -- it's not in legislative language. it has many things in it that are very good. it has tax cut, it has entitlement reform, it has spending cuts. it is a complicated outline and one needs to be flushed out to know exactly what is in it. and it has some areas with which i disagree. i certainly want to is asure that we keep the 15% cap gain and dividends rate. but we also have another proposal that i think has great merit, and i think the bill that has come over from the house, the cut, cap, and balance act, puts even more together to address the issues that we're all trying to address. what we need are spending cuts that are real, not proposed down the road or promised or we'll act on it later. and that's what the cut, cap, and balance act will do. we all know we have a $14.3 trillion debt c

mrs. hutchison: madam president?the presiding officer: the gentlelady from texas, and before she begins, i'd advise her, her side has 16 minutes and 50 seconds. mrs. hutchison: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise today to speak about the august 2 debt ceiling deadline and the proposal that will be before us very soon developed by the majority leader reid. here we are again debating legislation that demonstrates our fundamental differences in how we should run government. i want to quote from a recent article by charles krauthammer that appeared in "the "national review,"" and i think that it says something that i really have been saying several times in the last week, that this is more than just a debt ceiling debate. it is a debate about our views of government that are so different between the parties and our country. and here's what charles krauthammer said. "we're in the midst of a great four-year national debate on the size and reach of government, the future of our welfare state, indeed the natu

mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i first want to say what a good job, actually a wonderful job the military construction subcommittee appropriators have done. they have adopted a very strict budget line, the same as the house of representatives, and the chairman, senator johnson, and the ranking member, senator kirk, have put together a very good, solid proposal for military construction. and i appreciate working with them. i was the chairman and ranking member of that committee and loved working on it because i want to take care of our troops and make sure they have the construction they need for housing and for training headquarters, and i commend the great staff of that subcommittee and am very pleased that it is continuing in good hands since i have left that one to go to the commerce, justice and related agencies committee. i also want to say, mr. president, that there is so much going on in the capital right now. i think america is focused on the debt ceiling issue, the overwhelming debt that we have

mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i i ask unanimous consent to lift the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. much hutch mr. president, i rise today to speak about the looming august 2 deadline. this is when the department of the treasury estimates that the federal government will officially hit the $14.2 trillion debt ceiling. mrs. hutchison: we all know that we are at the point where we are because we have a fundamental difference in principle on how our government should be run. at the same time, most agree that our country cannot go into default. so, we are in a very tough situation with a very short time period. that's why i am concerned about the delay that has happened on this issue. delay means harm. harm to americans and harm to our economic recovery, especially as we grapple with 9.2% unemployment rate, which is the elephant in the room. we must address employment, if we are going to have an economy that is thriving and say that we are in a recovery period. a jobless recovery is not a recovery. the administration's reluctance to resolve this

mrs. hutchison: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, as of now, we are scheduled to vote on a motion to proceed to senate joint resolution 20 regarding libya. mr. president, we have been called in to session having made plans to spend this week in our states, meeting with constituents, as we try to do at least once a month, but we have been called back in because there is a budget crisis in this country, because we have a debt ceiling of over $14 trillion that is getting ready to be hit, and we need to focus on that and that alone during this week. we have been talking about it. we have been talking around it. and honestly, mr. president, we don't seem to be making much progress. if we're going to do anything this week, we should be talking about how we are going to address this issue. this is what is on the mind of the people of our country today. i have been home over the weekend, just got back, and ev

mrs. hutchison: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i was here to talk about the renomination of the f.b.i. director mueller, but i certainly heard my colleague from maryland and i agree that we must extend a clean extension of the f.a.a. we are losing the revenue and we are losing the capability for projects that are ongoing to continue. work has stopped at many of the airports that have building and repair projects going that are supported by the f.a.a., and honestly the house needs to send a clean extension. there is a clean extension pending in the senate. it has been objected to by one member, but this is not the way to go forward. i happen to agree with much of what the house wants to do, but not in this way. we have to put that in the context of the whole bill, which we certainly should be doing, and i hope that the house will send us a clean extension so there will not be another weekend of disruption and people can get on with the projects. i did come to talk about the f.b.i. director robert mueller. he has been f.b

mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i rise today to speak about the looming august 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling and mang reforms or budget cuts at least that would allow us to show that we are not going to have business as usual in washington but that we are going to raise the debt ceiling with the reforms that are necessary. despite the differences in this body, we are all here to share three conces. first, we do know at this point, because of the time that it has taken us to cobble together something that could be put through both of our houses and signed by the president, that we have fundamental differences in the principles of how we should run our government. i think it is very clear the republicans have stoodor no taxes, especially in this economic environment. we believe that piling taxes on top of the costs of the obama alth care system that is in the process of being implemented would keep our businesses from hiring people and getting this 9.1% unemployment rate down. i think we all agree

reed of rhode island, nelson of nebraska, pryor, tester, leahy, kirk, hutchison, mcconnell, murkowski, blunt, hoeven, coats, cochran. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: first of all, i want to express my appreciation to the chairman of the committee, the ranking member of the committee, subcommittee, for the work they did on this bill. it took a little longer than we wanted but we got it done and they have been excellent managers of this most important piece of legislation. it's our first appropriation bill. senator mcconnell and i want to do other appropriation bills. it would be a new day here to get these bills rather than having some big omnibus bill. so this is a step in the right direction. again, i express my appreciation to the two managers of this legislation. as indicated, there will be no roll call votes today. more roll call votes today. tomorrow i'm going to move to proceed to the bill that we call the cut, cap bill received from the house today. under the rules of the senate, a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the bill will occur on saturday. i expect a

mr. speaker, and others who have worked with us trying to bring this to a conclusion. kay bailey hutchison the ranking republican on the senate side worked in good faith to try to get this -- again this unexcusable delay in passing long-term re-authorization. that being said, again i find myself so frustrated. this is the 21st. we have a former chairman of the subcommittee, mr. costello, mr. petri, now chairs it. he's been active on this. i was chairman for six years of the subcommittee. all wanting to do the same thing and that's move forward with authorization. the irony of this is i chaired the subcommittee on aviation in 2003 when we wrote the last re-authorization and we did that in some six months, and there were controversial provisions. that four-year bill expired in 2007. we have not passed a re-authorization, even when the other side had humongous numbers in this chamber, and control of the other body, at one point i think 60 votes to get something done. nothing was done. 17 extensions under their watch, and quite frankly i'm embarrassed this is the fourth extension. but i'm tryi

mr. president, i just wanted to say for america's space team, a job well-done. a number of us, including senator hutchison and myself, had introduced and we passed last week the resolution commemorating the men and women of nasa and, indeed, their congratulations and commendations are certainly in order. -- on a job well-done. the space program lives -- the space program will go to greater heights. we will go to mars, and we will see americans venture out into the cosmos for even greater discoveries. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to precede to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. officer sph without objection. mr. durbin: we're face ago deadline tonight. at midnight the current reauthorization of the federal aviation administration expires. that expiration will mean that no funds can be collected or paid out of the airport and airways trust fund starting tomorrow, july 23. the trust fund provides the primary source of funding for the federal

mr. president, you're not going to blow up the economy in your own administration. jon: senator kay bailey hutchison, republican of texas. senator, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: let's go straight to the white house for the latest. wendell goler is joining us live with the dell events -- developments as they tick by moment by moment. >> reporter: democrats say the republican bill facing a couple of votes in the house can not pass the senate which is the same thing speaker boehner said about a bill raising taxes passing the house. 53 senators, all the democrats and two independents, sent speaker boehner a letter last night saying they would vote against his measure if it passes the house. it would require another vote raising debt ceiling by christmastime which the white house said would further slow the economy at the time that is the most important selling season for many businesses. now today transportation secretary ray lahood, who was republican when he was a member of congress, did the briefing with press secretary jay carney. lahood says the current unwillingness for compromise from republica

mr. chairman, i think it is critical to work with you, senator kay bailey hutchison, senator snowe, and others in order to bring more people to the table, and i look forward to doing that. i do want to point out that, at the moment, it is in the center of this debate and there are a couple of polls where we have major companies, intel, microsoft, ebay, hewlett- packard, as well as consumer advocates represented by the consumer union and others who are helping us to try and focus this in the right direction. finally, we have expert agencies represented here today, the ftc, the department of commerce, and have all been doing what they can to protect americans using the legal tools available to them. while using their ability to convene stakeholders and experts while educating themselves and consumers on the changing practices in this rapidly moving and ever evolving world we live in an -- that we live in. the fact is that they do not have all the tools necessary which is by this discussion is so important. i look forward to working with you, mr. chairman, and in making sure we have a complete pi

mr. burg. now we turn to ms. susan eppley from georgia who has had some experience that i think she would like to share with us about cramming. >> chairman rockefeller, ranking member hutchison and members of the committee thank you for having me here today. good morning. my name is susan eppley and i'm from decatur georgia. i'm here today to tell you about my personal experience with cramming. in early 2011 i worked for a successful franchisee of 32 quick service restaurants as the accounts payable representative. this company even in tough times times offers incentives to managers and crews including but not limited to bonuses paid to managers for hitting their numbers based on profit and loss statements. in october, i was entering the at&t invoices. i got curious about how different the bills were from store to store. upon investigation i noticed there were charges for services that were not from at&t our telephone company. i called at&t and spoke with a customer service representative who recognize the problem and she explained that at&t was billing on behalf of a third-party company. when i asked further she said that it was the customers responsibility to block phone b

mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i rise today to speak about the looming august 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling and making reforms or budget cuts at least that would allow us to show that we are not going to have business as usual in washington but that we are going to raise the debt ceiling with the reforms that are necessary. despite the differences in this body, we are all here to share three concerns. first, we do know at this point, because of the time that it has taken us to cobble together something that could be put through both of our houses and signed by the president, that we have fundamental differences in the principles of how we should run our government. i think it is very clear the republicans have stood for no taxes, especially in this economic environment. we believe that piling taxes on top of the costs of the obama health care system that is in the pro

mrs. hutchison, proposes amendments numbered 562 and 563. senior senator. the presiding officer: amendments 556 is modified 570, 562 and 563 are agreed to. amendment 553 is withdrawn. the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: madam president, i rise in support of the coburn amendment and ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with the senator from oklahoma. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: madam president, i think it's important for us to understand what this amendment is about. it does not affect the decisions regarding disability as a result of agent orange that have already been decided under the guidelines that were extended by the secretary of veterans affairs. this will be -- this is a prospective amendment, so any allegation that this is somehow, affects previous awarding of disability payments is not correct. it's a prospective amendment for cases that will be decided in the future. the issue of disability is always one that is very difficult, because we start on the basis that is concerns men and women who have served honora