ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. ms. klobuchar: thank you. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. a senator: i ask to speak for up to 30 minutes. the presiding officer: we're in quorum call. mr. kaufman: i ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaufman: mr. president, since the financial meltdown in 2008, american congress have remained stuck at a across roads. not since the great depression have we experienced a financial crisis of such magnitude that it forces us as a society and law-making body to reconsider the legal and institution underpinnnigs of our financial stpeupl. the history -- system. the history of our nation shows we have been at this crossroads before. at times we have made the right decision, but sadly at others we have made the wrong part. in the early part of the 20th century, the comp

ms. klobuchar: thank you very much. mr. president, i want to thank senator dorgan for his great leadership. for so long he has been working on this, and i have a feeling this is finally going to get done. it is traourbgs we invite the presiding officer -- it is true, we invite the presiding officer to visit north dakota and minnesota. i think he thinks his state of new mexico is pretty cool but he never visited teddy roosevelt park. our market campaigns are done by specific cities -- las vegas, new york. that is very important. when you look at this country, marketing our country as a whole is going to mean something. we're competing against countries the world over that do this all the time. that's why we've seen a 20% decrease in our international visitors. when i held a hearing on this issue along with then-senator martinez this part year, there was a story in "the washington post." it was in good humor about all the senators kind of hawking their own states and the deals you could get, whether senator begich's $99 cruis