ms. landrieu: thank you. i thank the senators again from minnesota and alaska for coming and making the point and underlying and scoring the point that this filibuster that the republican caucus is holding today, not allowing us to have a simple majority vote on the reid plan, is hurting business. as the senator said, this is a pattern, unfortunately, it seems like coming from the other side. we had to overcome their filibuster just last year to pass the small business bill that is now having a terrific effect throughout the country in some pockets. we still are not where we would like to be, of course, in job creation and the recovery is slow. i'm starting to think that maybe that's what they want for the recovery to be slow because then they filibustered the sbir bill which is the largest single research investment program for small business in america. we still can't get that passed. they are filibustered. then they filibustered the e.d.a. bill which is one of the most important programs to chambers of com