stabenow: thank you, madam president. first, i want to thank my colleague for raising issues of great importance to all of us, financial regulatory reform is critically important for our country moving forward. and senator crapo and i have talked earlier about his amendment. we have a number of areas in which we share concern, and i am committed to work with him on these shalls. first and foremost, i agree with my friend from idaho that we need to protect our manufacturers, our rural co-ops, energy providers, other companies that use financial products to manage their legitimate business risks. these end users didn't cause the financial crisis. and so when we pass wall street reform, we included protections for them. we've held several hearings in the agriculture committee to reinforce the regulators to reinforce to them that manufacturers and others need to be protected. we'll continue to do that oversight. we certainly agree as new priewls are written, we need to make sure they are open and there is a transparent proces

stabenow: thank you, mr. president. first, i want to thank my good friend and colleague from rhode island for his important words on the floor and for indicating that millions and millions of middle-class families and small businesses in this country expect us to figure out a way to make sure that the tax system is fair and that we have the opportunity for everyone to be able to be successful in this country and know that they've got a fair chance to make it and that the rules aren't rigged for just a few folks. and so i want to thank the distinguished senator for his comments and for his leadership in pointing out i think some very important things for a majority of americans and small businesses across the country. i rise today to speak about a very important issue that will be coming before us for a vote that directly relates to jobs. and, mr. president, as you know, that's a pretty big issue for me in michigan. we have over 11% unemployment. i am laser focused on creating jobs and growing the economy because i think

senator tester, senator stabenow joined the bill. we'll get bipartisan support for this. i think it is something that's now seen the light of day and we realize it is a problem and we'll make a difference on it. >> you talk about getting support. you saw the report. i think when you look at something like this you would think there would be resounding support because of the 975 federal entities only congress and the supreme court seem to be free of the rules. why only 19 cosponsors at this point? you would think everyone would want to jump on board with approval ratings for congress being what they are. >> good point. the more we make the case for this and why additional transparency and oversight and making sure this is in violation of the senate and hois rules, i think putting those pieces in place will make a difference and the more we talk with colleagues they will realize this is an important change to be made, especially, the american people don't have a lot of trust in congress. they look to congress and know it's broken. a measure like this can begin to restore tr

i ask unanimous consent to add senators akaka, chambliss, blawmle that, gillibrand, ben nelson, stabenow, and udall udall -- senator mark udall as cosponsors of amendment number 1032 which is the pending levin-mccain amendment on counterfeit parts. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. levin: secondly, mr. president, we are going to move now i believe to the conference report. but i do want to remind folks of -- our colleagues of what senator mccain said which is we will be here tomorrow morning and we are here to try to clear amendments. we want to be able to give our colleagues as much opportunity as possible to debate and to clear amendments. but we've got to move this bill. we're not going to be given a whole week after we come back to get this bill adopted, hopefully. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: the pending -- what's the pending business before the senate? the presiding officer: s. 1867 is still pending. mr. mccain: the amendment -- isn't the paul amendment the pending business? the presiding officer: the merkley amendment is pending. mr. mcc

right now -- i know many of my colleagues joined with me and senator brown, senator stabenow, senatorasey in saying china has got to play fair. we're all worried that china will get ahead of us economically. well, right now china is spending four times as much on infrastructure as the united states -- four times as much. that's not four times per capita as much. that's four times as much. and here's the real kicker: according to a recent survey of 1,400 business leaders in 142 countries, the u.s. ranks number 24 in overall infrastructure quality. is that a shame? we're behind countries like barbados and oman. we also rank number 20 in roads, behind the united arab emirates and libya. 29th in ports, behind malaysia, bahrain and panama. and 31st in air transportation infrastructure, behind chile, and malta. how can it be? these great united states which we dearly love, which always was at the top in creating roads and bridges and tunnels and great water systems. the third water tunnel in new york is being built right now. it is an engineering wonder. it started in the 1950's, the planni

right now -- i know many of my colleagues joined with me and senator brown, senator stabenow, senator casey in saying china has got to play fair. we're all worried that china will get ahead of us economically. well, right now china is spending four times as much on infrastructure as the united states -- four times as much. that's not four times per capita as much. that's four times as much. and here's the real kicker: according to a recent survey of 1,400 business leaders in 142 countries, the u.s. ranks number 24 in overall infrastructure quality. is that a shame? we're behind countries like barbados and oman. we also rank number 20 in roads, behind the united arab emirates and libya. 29th in ports, behind malaysia, bahrain and panama. and 31st in air transportation infrastructure, behind chile, and malta. how can it be? these great united states which we dearly love, which always was at the top in creating roads and bridges and tunnels and great water systems. the third water tunnel in new york is being built right now. it is an engineering wonder. it started in the 1950's, the plan

we are working for debbie stabenow and amy klobuchar.he super committee could not come to a deal does this affect our people polled levers next year? guest: sure, the public as a low view of congress now and their ability to get things done. any deal they would have come to would be a bad deal for the country considering where the republicans are going but politically a bad deal for democrats. it would have required cuts to medicare and social security which the public is against. one of the big advantages democrats have is the republican vote for the paul ryan plan which is a hugely unpopular vote for them and we will use that up and down the ballot against those candidates. even more important for the country and for democrats is that this keeps the issue of the bush tax cuts on the table. i was worried that there would have taken off the table. democrats did that in 2010 i think that was a mistake republic is on our side in terms of wanting the bush tax cuts to expire. this'll be the center of the 2012 campaign and as a democrat i wan

been endorsed by -- speak lib senators lieberman, schumer, kyl, feinstein, gillibrand, manchin, stabenow and heller under senator menendez and i's leadership. for us it gives time for the oil markets to adjust and unhook from irp. it gives flexibility to the administration. but most importantly it helps us deal in a diplomatic way with one of the greatest dangers to our society. we think about the future ahead and some people say this amendment could cause some disruption in oil markets and yes, we're asking countries to unhook from the terror regime in iran. but just think about the instability that would come if military conflict broke out between iran and israel, or, worse, if nuclear weapons were loose from iran in the middle east. if we do nothing, as soon as two years from now we could have a detonation of an iranian nuclear weapon in the middle east. if we show weakness and a lack of resolve, then countries in that region will decide they need nuclear weapons programs of their own. we will give birth to the saudi nuclear weapons program. the egyptian nuclear weapons program and ot

menendez, merkley, mikulski, moran, murray, ben nelson, pryor, risch, sanders, schumer, shaheen, snowe, stabenow, test tester, toomey, mark udall, vitter, warner, whitehouse, and wyden. and it's been called up. i ask consent to have it set aside so we can go on and continue with the pending matter. the presiding officer: without objection. without objection, the foregoing request from the senator from arizona is granted. mr. levin: well, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: and i don't object because that is the way we should proceed, going back and forth. i just -- usually we do that informally and i don't know whether or not if the senator -- whether there may be implications because i don't know who's -- mr. levin: i have no objection. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. mccain: i thank my friend from michigan. i do that for the convenience of my colleagues because i know that there are others who will also be coming to speak on -- on this important issue. i'd like to point out that the senator from south carolina, a