senator thune? >> admiral, general, thank you very much to your extraordinary service to our country in some interesting and dangerous times. general petraeus, the advanced weapons systems defined for antiaccess and aerial denial are being proliferated including in the centcom responsibility. iran, for example, is seeking to purchase the russian sd300. what's your views by the iranians to pursue some of these antiaccess and aerial denial strategies? >> and, in fact, with respect to the s300, i think you know that has not been delivered. and there's quite a bit of focus on that whether it will be delivered because it would represent a significant increase in the capability air and missile defense capability of the iranian forces. there's no question in a they are trying to increase their antiaccess capabilities against maritime as well as air threats. it's something that we watch and that regional partners and others in that area watch very closely as well. >> what's your view on the pursuit of these

i note on the other side of the aisle my good friend, senator thune, is here. he and i have worked hand in hand on this effort because we wanted to have something that would create jobs in our country that was nonpartisan -- the presiding officer: would the senate suspend. could we have order in the chamber, please. order in the chamber? mr. wyden: thank you, mr. president. the reason senator thune and i have worked on this effort in a bipartisan way is we wanted to have something that was common sense. we wanted to have a jobs-creation effort that responded to basic needs of our country. and we wanted to see it be part of an effort where the private sector takes the lead. i'm particularly appreciative the chairman of the senate finance committee is here, chairman baucus. i want to express my appreciation to him and the staff for their help in this effort. we saw in the senate finance committee -- and chairman baucus is here. he remembers our discussions. our projections for the build america bonds were pretty modest. the projections for build america bonds wer

thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, i have an amendment that i introduced yesterday filed at the desk. i have some modifications to that amendment at the desk. and i would ask unanimous consent that the amendment be so modified. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, the amendment is so modified. mr. thune: i would also like to ask unanimous consent, mr. president, that senators bennet and roberts be added as cosponsors. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, yesterday one of my colleagues criticized me for trying to retkreubgt unspent stimulus -- redirect unspent stimulus funding for tax relief to pay for small businesses. i, like many people, have my doubts about some of these estimates, but i can guarantee you this much: that none of these jobs have been created or saved by the unspent funds. there's a lot of money in the stimulus bill yet to be spent. according to recovery.or

thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the natofrom south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, i would like to call up amendment number 3338 and ask for its immediate consideration. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. is there objection? mr. baucus: mr. president, is the senator asking unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment? mr. thune: i'd like to ask to have this amendment be made pending, yes. mr. baucus: you wish to set aside the pending amendment? mr. thune: correct. mr. baucus: no objection. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from south dakota, mr. thiewrntion proposes an amendment numbered 3338 to amendment numbered 3336. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, as we all know, our economy is sufficing. we have unemployment rate that is currently at 9.7%. furthermore, we've got large portions of the population that ar

thune: 3639 and 3640. one dealing with student loans shall the other dealing with striking the class act from the underlying bill. mr. baucus: i thank the senator. thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: thank you, madam chairwoman. ild i would like to -- in speaking to both of these amendments today, i would like to make a couple of observations about the reconciliation bill that's before the senate and of course it does make amendments, modifications to the senate-passed health care bill that went through the house last week and the house adopted many of these changes. b but i think the thing that perhaps didn't get discussed as much as it should have throughout the course of the debate, madam president, is the impact this is going to have down the road on future generations. obviously, health care, we talked about. the other side, of course, talked about the coverage, the additional expansions of coverage that are in the bill. folks on our side talked about the impact

let me turn to my friend from south dakota, senator thune. now that we've been debating these issues for the better part of a year, what do the american people think of these liberal washington -- washingtonian, i guess, proposals? and how did we get where we are today? mr. thune: i would say to my friend from utah that he has made a -- over the course of the last year has made many compelling arguments about the substance of this legislation. and just to -- just now described, i think, summarized what some of those are. and i think the reason that the american people have rejected this legislation is they understand the substance of it. as the senator from utah pointed out, it's got tax increases, medicare cuts and premium increases for most americans. they figured that out a long time ago. that's why i think if you look at the public opinion surveys that have been done with regard to the bill itself and to the process by which it has -- we have gotten to where we are, the american people are rejecting it. the reconciliation process, which h

the thune amendment, the sessions amendment, the landrieu amendment. earlier we were able to reach agreement on senators and murray and sanders will offer the next two democratic amendments and senator bunning will enter the next two republican amendments. roll call votes are expected to occur throughout the day. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. amendment be considered as read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bunning: mr. president, in a minute i'm going to speak a minute i'm going to speak orie math mr. president, in a minute i'm going to speak about my amendment to pay for this bill. first i want to talk about how we got here. last week i objected to the majority leader's request for unanimous consent to pass 30 day extension of several inspiring programs that was not paid for. i offered to pass the exact same bill the was paid for her and unfortunately, he objected to my request. now, th

thune: is it possible, i would say to both of my colleagues, if this process that the house is using,eming the bill passed seems to be a very curious way to try to pass legislation of this consequence that literally impacts one-sixth of our economy and literally impacts every american in a very personal way, that somehow they want to divorce themselves from 8 account ability or -- from accountability for voting for this in the house, therefore they're going to use a deeming provision that would essentially pass the bill without having a recorded vote on it which is incredibly ironic for a legislative body that is supposed to be about debating and voting on legislation. let's suppose this happens, they pass the senate bill and attach a senate reconciliation vehicle which both of you have referred to and it it comes over here and these points of order that have been raised against the bill which the senator from texas, the senator from new hampshire, have both referred to, there is the byrd point of orders, the section g-10, if that point of order is raised and the chair sustains, i gue

thune. senator bill nelson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. gentlemen, thank you for your continued service to hour country. and i'm especially proud that most of you reside in my state, in the wonderful area of tampa. gentlemen, last week, i did a hearing for the chairman in our emerging threat subcommittee, on the increased radicalization of young men, and the extremists elements that are so bedeviling the civilized world. and the conclusion that came out of a lot of the testimony in this hearing was that we could continue to do everything that we are doing very well, of the military, is doing just exceptionally well, particularly in the responsibility that you give to these young officers, with of the such funds, that they can go in and help a village, a community, and it helps us ultimate my from hour military objective. and we talked about how all the other agencies of government, working with the military in a place like afghanistan, agriculture, health, digging wells, education, all of these things are so important, but that if you don'

general thune, i want to get your views on the battle of the air-sea concept. as you know the qdr direct for defeating adversaries with sophisticated antiaccess and capabilities. which in turn will help guide the development of the teacher capability needed for the effective power projection operations. my question is could you provide your views on the development of this concept sow for and where to the joint forces committed to the default and evaluation and implementation of the concept. >> senator, thank you. the concept grew out of identification of a military problem and the problem is how we work together jointly to maintain control of one of the common sea lanes. the situation is changing. it's always changing security wise and adapting to that problem has brought the services together. joint forces command is part of this effort. we are monitoring it right now but we are monitoring it to make sure what we've done in past experiments and concept development bonds this forward and also that we harvest from then the lessons they are learning as the come

many provisions in my bill are contained in the thune bill.ll contains a number of provisions that will leave more money in the hands of small businesses so that they can hire more, continue to pay the salaries of their current employees and make additional investments. this includes allowing flow-through small businesses partnerships, s-corporations, l.l.c. and sole partnerships to deduct 20% of their income, effectively reducing their taxes by 20%. my bill also includes tax relief for small-business owners from the unfair alternative minimum tax that takes general business credits such as the employer-provided child care credit out of the alternative minimum tax. this would allow mom and pop retail stores that provide child care for their employees to get the same relief that fortune 500 companies get when it provides child care for its employees. my bill would also allow more than nearly 2 million small "c" corporations to benefit from the lower tax rates for the small "c" corporations. there are so many small "c" corporations because they

. >> i guess senator thune is next. >> i support 3 f-35 program -- i support f-35 program. am concerned about these development delays and the potential reductions that have been planned for the program. i have been told from my constituents that there f-316's are not going to last forever. i want to get things f-35's as soon as possible. when do you see training jets and windier route 4 see this program reaching for reproduction? >> i do not want to speak for the services who will determine where, how, when they feel their aircraft from the programs. a fe point of view. the air force current intention based upon the revised schedule is to go to ioc in 16. and that is with the full capabilities pay always intended, which is now the capability embodied in the software. that capability and after completion of operational test and evaluation, that is out there defining ioc in the air force. >> there has been a lot said it will be it said and sometimes it is easier to forget in what it means to the navy and marine corps. the joint strike fighter represents the future and we kno

chairman. >> thank you very much, senator thune. senator begich, from alaska, i know you're used to being far away. this is taking it to a new extreme. >> i sometimes feel like a witness. [laughter] >> we can ask him question. >> actually, you're in the penalty box. [laughter] >> this is what happens when your new and to cause trouble. let me -- obvious, i'm going to leave my question for the nextel. i just want to for say that my interest are going to be how local aspects are dealt with, how in the sense of intellectual rights and so forth are dealt with. the nextel will really be my q&a. to be very great with you many people have asked the questions i was interested in. i have a few go through a process. it is a new organization. they are new. that's what i was banking on. i was ever for the history of what's happened. there's been some concerns over the past, but i have a feeling the new folks, you guys voted come are going to do the right thing over time and make sure consumers are heard. i've heard that over and over again so n

they tried it with the thune amendment yesterday. they've tried it with the bunning amendment yesterday. they tried it with the burr amendment yetd. each time the senate rejected their attempt to raid the recovery act. the nonpartisan congressional budget office said that the recovery act would create one million to three million -- between one million and three million full-time equivalent jobs. that's real job creation. now is not the time to scale back job creation. and i urge that we don't adopt this amendment. i raise a point of order against section 103d of the pending amendment pursuant to section 403 of s. con. res. 13, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2010. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. brown: i move to waive the applicable section to the budget act with respect to my amendment and ask for the call of the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: the presiding offi

as well senator thune added his amendment proposing business tax cuts, offsetting stimulus funds in the recovery act. this is essentially the same argument that the senator from kentucky, senator bunning, has been raising on the narrower short-term unemployment and cobra extension bill. the senator from south dakota and the senator from kentucky both seek to cut back the recovery act. i believe these efforts are mistaken and let me tell you why on issues relating to the budget and the economy, we turn to the nonpartisan congressional budget office for the straight story. they are the neutral referees. and the c.b.o. says that the recovery act is working. that's why it would be a mistake to cut back on the recovery act. last month the c.b.o. issued its report on the effects of the recovery act in the fourth quarter and in that report this is what c.b.o. said -- quote -- "c.b.o. estimates that in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009, the recovery act added between one million and 2.1 million to the number of workers it employed in the united states. it and -- and it increased the numb

. >> senator thune? >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i want to thank our panelists for being with us today. this is an important subject, and one that we obviously want answers on. and i know that you're limited in some of the things you can say today. but i wanted to ask you, in south dakota, we have a number of small rural telecom companies that provide high quality, multiprogram the do distribution to the extent that you can comment, i guess i would direct this to you, mr. genachowski, how might these entities be impacted by this merger? and how much -- >> we will leave that to go live to the state department daily press briefing. we're expecting to more about a travel warning for parts of mexico. this was issued following the murder center of two americans. >> live coverage now on c-span2. >> european high representative catherine ashton as well as quartet representative tony blair to discuss efforts to promote middle east peace. the secretary will also meet with senior russian official to discuss progress on the succe

introduced, the transportation effort, the build america bond program that was put together by senator thune and i has clearly been a huge success in terms of revolutionizing the system for funding transportation and infrastructure, senator cornyn and i working on a significant crime bill. so i am always going to come to this floor and try to be bipartisan, bring both sides together, and i want to suggest this question of helping folks who are so desperately hurting today in my state where we have a very high unemployment rate. i want to suggest a bipartisan path forward that i hope that we can look at in the days ahead. i see my friend from georgia here who also wants to work on these major economic issues in a bipartisan way. when you listen ted to colleagus last night and this morning, it seems to me you have agreement on two fundamental principles p. one is, it is absolutely essential to help folks who are hurting now. we've got millions of americans walking on an economic tightrope, balancing their food bill against their fuel bill, trying to pay for essentials and going to bed every ni

thune. mr. president, this amendment cloaks itself in the guise of fiscal responsibility, but nothing could be further from the truth. the amendment would rescind funding from the american recovery act, the so-called stimulus bill, to pay for the costs of program increases for small business. mr. president, we can all agree that we should do more to support small business, but it's nonsensical to rescind funding from the recovery act which is also creating jobs. i understand all too well that some on the other side of the aisle have argued that the stimulus bill was a mistake. but, mr. president, the facts are proven just the opposite. just last week, the congressional budget office, the c.b.o. released a report on the impact of those stimulus funds which have already been spent. the congressional budget office report notes the extremely beneficial impact from this act. the report states that the stimulus funds are responsible for an increase of somewhere between 1.5% and 3% in the gross domesti

earlier today the senate voted 61-38 against the thune act to cut back recovery act funds. just a few minutes ago the senate voted down the burr amendment. now we have pending the bunning amendment to cut back recovery funds, again to pay for the pending bill. c.b.o. does say that the recovery act has added jobs. between 1 million and 2.1 million jobs has been added to our economy because of the stimulus act. that was -- actually you might say that -- the presiding officer: will the senate be in order please. will the senate be in order and take your conversations out of the senate. will the senate be in order please. proceed, senator. mr. baucus: just repeat the c.b.o. said that the recovery act will add 1 million and 2 million to the number of americans employed in the fourth-quarter of last year and it replaces the full-time equivalent jobs between 1.4 million and three million jobs. the recovery act is creating jobs. so i think the last thing that we should do is scale back something that's working. if it's working, don't change it. if it's working let's continue with i