mrs. hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: i would just say i would urge my colleagues not to support the paul amendment on f.a.a. although i understand what he is trying to do to bring it down, this is a clean extension that has been passed by the house. the house has gone out for the weekend, and it, the f.a.a. authorization lapses tomorrow. so we have had a shutdown of the f.a.a. in the last six weeks. it disrupts the airport expansions. it disrupts the f.a.a. itself. we will work with senator paul to make sure that we are doing everything we can to cut the f.a.a. budget. but this is a clean 2011 extension with no additions, and i urge my colleagues to support the bill without the amendment. mrs. boxer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: can you tell me when i've finished with one and a half minutes, please? the presiding officer: yes. mr. inhofe: mr. president, point of inquiry. at some point -- figure out how i can do that, will you? mrs. boxer: i will reserve the rest

mrs. hutchison: thank you. madam president, are we in a time limit to discuss the cornyn amendment? the presiding officer: senator cornyn has 33 minutes remaining. mrs. hutchison: thank you. madam president, i want to speak on the cornyn amendment, and i ask unanimous consent that i be listed as cosponsor. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mrs. hutchison: madam president, the cornyn amendment is important because the president of the united states has refused to allow the sale of 66 f-16 c-d model aircraft to taiwan. taiwan is trying to modernize its air force, and it's not an issue of our not selling to taiwan. we have sold the a-b models. so they have 145 f-16's in the earlier models, the a-b, but they are now, of course, trying to get the next generation of f-16. this is a foreign policy issue. it's also a domestic issue because these are very important sales, the 66 for the line to be continued, the f-16 line that is hoping that this sale will go through is very important so that we can

mrs. hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: i rise in morning business to talk about a situation in texas, the wildfires, the drought. you know, really since we have been mostly home during the august recess, i have seen the floods on the midwest, missouri and mississippi rivers. i have seen the hurricane that hit new york and all along the east coast and at the same time with all the extra water in the east, we have had as much as 60 days in parts of texas with no rain whatsoever and the drought is killing livestock, it's killing land. it's just a sad situation. and what has happened, of course, is from that the wildfires have been able to go further than we've ever seen in texas before. just in the past seven days the texas forest service has responded to 176 fires destroying nearly 130,000 acres. this year alone over 2,000 fires have burned more than 2 million acres in texas. we have high winds and drought conditions which are a terrible combination in this instance. yesterday the texas forest service responded to

mrs. hutchison: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: madam president, i want to mark today, september september 14, 2011, as the day that nasa has announced our vision for the future. since the shuttle was retired earlier this year and we saw the last people go into space on an american flight, many of us have worried that there wasn't going to be another heavy launch vehicle that would take our astronauts to above the below earth orbit and beyond. today, after much study and a lot of going back and forthwith nasa, i was encouraged to see the design approved by both nasa and the o.m.b., and i think it is going -- well, it will be the heaviest, biggest, strongest, most robust vehicle that we've seen since we put men on the moon. and i -- i was very concerned because of the long time frame. congress asked that this design be delivered by january of this year, and we kept getting delays and delays and delays, and finally senator bill nelson and i just got frustrated about that time line, and we have had meetings, and as recently

mr. president, i am honored to have the following colleagues asregu co-sponsors of this one-year regulatory moratorium. senators alexander grosso boozman chambliss, coats coburn, cornyn copeland, hutchison, isakson, kyl, moran and then.lleahe mr. president, i urge all of our colleagues to support theegulor regulatory timeout act which is are a critical step towards easing the regulatory uncertainty andns costs that are keeping our job creators from getting americans back to work. thank you mr. president.eard >> mr. president, we all hope h heard thisis president's speech from the joint sessions of was congress last week about his proposal to bring forward a jobs bill that was released this an morning and the president indicated that he wanted to take his case to the people. and i'm glad he is doing so. i hope that as he travels abouthe the country, i think he will be hearing what many of us heard during the august recess when welked t were back at home. as they travel across the state of indiana and talk to people from all different categories of work engagement small to medium to large businesses, homeowners, other constituents one thing came through loud and clear, ando that was i nee