joining me now, senator ron wyden. senator, how are you going to vote tomorrow?rry, first of all, yesterday was the premier business event in our home state, the oregon business summit. i was one of the founders. so that was why i wasn't able to get back. i was still in the air. i will tell you with respect to tomorrow, while it's not an easy decision, i intend to vote no. this legislation tomorrow clearly has short-term stimulative benefits. i support protecting the middle class and small business, i support the unemployment extension, i support the earned income tax break, but as you know from working in the senate, so often the senate takes steps in the short term that become the enemy of the long term. and my concern is with this legislation, we will be having exactly the same debate in the lame duck session of 2012. i'm looking at my watch, larry. it's 10:30. it's the night of december 14th. at some point in the united states senate, you have got to break the culture of procrastination. i think that time is now. >> all right. i'm booking you right now for th

president, i yield the floor to senator wyden. mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from or our -- from oregon. mr. wyden: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank senator chambliss for his important work. tomorrow it will be even more important give than this agreement will pass tonight. mr. president, there is always another election around the corner, a big array of special interest groups that need to be satisfied, and a constant stream of public opinion polling that politicians live and die for. why take action that could offend a group today if you can put it off for a while? the agreement that will pass tonight, in my view, is a victory for the politics of procrastination. at a time when americans are swimming in debt, more water will be put into the pool. instead of taking steps to fix the market distorting, job-killing tax code, last overhauled a quarter century of ago when china and india were blimps in the global economy, this tonight will prop up our broken tax code. millions of americans are out of work, small busine

collins, schumer, boxer, brown, gillibrand, inouye, nelson of florida, bennet of colorado, sanders and wyden. mr. president, the bill addresses a problem that everybody in the chamber agrees needs to be addressed, and that's the trouble that small businesses are having accessing capital so they can grow and create jobs. we just saw our unemployment rate inch up to 9.8% in november. that's indicative of the fact that our economy is having trouble gaining traction. but we all know that if small businesses expand and grow, our economy will be getting back on track. so if i might, let me just tell you how this bill would help small businesses. under current law, credit unions are doing what they can to help business interests and meet the demands of particularly family businesses, but they are constrained by an arbitrary cap on the size of the amount of loans they can actually issue. in every state, their credit unions would like to lend more. responsibly, i should add, but they would like to lend more, but the federal government gets in the way. what this legislation would do is get the federal

wyden: thank you, mr. president. senators, let me thank all of you for your many kindnesses over the last 48 hours. when news about your prostate is ricocheting around the flog sphere, all the -- around the blogosphere, all the calls and notes and even offers to object on my behalf have meant a lot. and i only want to say that i just hope this encourages everybody to go out and get those physicals. because what this is all about is prevention, and we can sure agree -- disagree about health care around here but we all ought to focus on prevention. let me just say briefly, mr. president, why it was so important for me to be here today. don't ask, don't tell is wrong. i don't care who you love, if you love this country enough to risk your life for it, you shouldn't have to hide who you are. you ought to be able to serve. the history of our wonderful nation is spotted with wrongs, but this institution is at its best when it corrects them. that's the opportunity we will have today. don't ask, don't tell has resulted in th

now, like senator wyden, i'm going to vote "no" tonight. i think this is a misguided effort and we will add $900 billion to our debt load. but i respect my colleagues who see it otherwise. but i'm going to vote "no." i'm going to come right back here to work tomorrow, with all of us here in this chamber, we're going to meet this challenge head-o. the stakes are too high if i don't. madam president, i yield the floor to the senator from tennessee, senator alexander mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i'm here tonight in the spirit of my late friend, the author of roots "roots," alex haley, who lived and died by these words, "find the good and praise it." i'm here to commend senator warner, senator chambliss, and the bipartisan group of senators who have focused their attention on this urgent crisis that our country faces, the national debt. this is the way our nation is supposed to work, to see an urgent need, to develop a bipartisan consensus to go to work on it, come up with a str

ron wyden is expected back to work. he should be recovered as early refuge at his friend's estate in london. he's planning his legal defense in sweden where he's accused of sex crimes. he addressed those allegations this morning on the "today" show. >> this has been a very successful smear campaign so far. but i think it's -- its days are numbered and people are starting to wonder is what is claimed really true and, if it is true, where is the evidence, why has no evidence been provided, even to me and my defense attorneys. >> u.s. investigators are also trying to determine whether assange or someone else at wikileaks provided army private bradley manning with the software he allegedly used to obtain classified data. nbc's jenny is joining me live now from london with more on that. where do we stand in the legal proceedings against assange? >> well, at the moment we're waiting for the extradition hearing to begin. that's not set until at least february, i believe. and between now and then there's no reason to imagine he

senator gregg, senator biden, senator wyden. so today, in many ways, you can look at it as almost 70 boats. and i would say to you that in today's washington -- at a senate commerce 70 doses yesterday's 95. i feel pretty good about that, where we've gotten to. we're continuing obviously to have a robust debate and looking forward to the senate doing what it does best, which is a really important, thoughtful debate about our national security concerns. senator lugar. >> i congratulate the chairman again on his leadership and i would emphasize the point that this was a bipartisan vote today in a bipartisan consideration. i am hopeful that republicans will contribute more votes on final passage, but i am indebted to all who voted aye today because it was a very strong momentum factor. i would also emphasize that the chairman is mentioned about the very strong letter of tedout, s, jenna bill cartwight and others who are saying to those who would suggest that we might in fact have another year of hearings marked a with ultimate consi

as everyone knows, senator wyden is sick. he's going to surgery at 10:00 in the morning because of a situation that's been in the press. he has prostate cancer. we wish him, his wonderful wife, and his twins the very, very best. he's very confident. he's getting the best care in the world, and i -- i am also certain that he's going to be just fine. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate complete its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. on mop, december 20. that following the prayer and the pledge, journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, that following any leader remarks, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the new start treaty. that at 1:30 p.m., the senate recess until 2:00 p.m. and then meet in closed session in the old senate chamber. following closed session, the senate return to the senate chamber and reconvene in open session. the presiding officer:

wyden a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i rise to contrast the democrat plan, plan a, and the republican plan, plan b, and what they mean for the working citizens of the united states of america. let me start by talking about the democratic plan, plan a. it's plan a because it's america's plan. now, why is it america's plan? first, it benefits every single taxpayer in america. that's the first reason. now, some of my colleagues across the aisle have liked to talk about how the democratic plan only helps those who earn under $250,000. but that's because they're not paying attention or they're deliberately distorting the tracts. because the democratic -- facts. because the democratic plan provides a tax break on the first $250,000 no matter what you make. so it helps every single american. the second is reason it's focused on citizens earning less than $250,000 is because it's the working citizens of the united states of america that have been getting the short end of the stick. the amount of money -- the average i

president, i yield the floor to senator wyden. mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from or our -- from oregon. mr. wyden: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank senator chambliss for his important work. tomorrow it will be even more important give than this agreement will pass tonight. mr. president, there is always another election around the corner, a big array of special interest groups that need to be satisfied, and a constant stream of public opinion polling that politicians live and die for. why take action that could offend a group today if you can put it off for a while? the agreement that will pass tonight, in my view, is a victory for the politics of procrastination. at a time when americans are swimming in debt, more water will be put into the pool. instead of taking steps to fix the market distorting, job-killing tax code, last overhauled a quarter century of ago when china and india were blimps in the global economy, this tonight will prop up our broken tax code. millions of americans are out of work, small busine

senator ron wyden has prostate cancer. we mention this specifically because he will miss late session votes at could include approval of the arms treaty with russia and repeal of the don't ask, don't tell law. he said on thursday that cancer is in its early stage. he had surgery preparations scheduled for friday, but would be available for votes on the weekend, according to a spokesperson. fort wayne, indiana, good morning to michelle, a democrat. caller: good morning. me and husband had been sitting here looking at the tv, glued to it because our unemployment benefits are really helping us. we are upset because 3% of this population are really strong on keeping their money and we are really just out here and struggling and broke. i am just sick of it all. even listening to the comments of people and i was just wondering when they were sitting here watching this, whether they supported it or not, did they really get the impression that these republicans are listening to the issues of the democrats and the things they were

that's a good idea, and i applaud my colleague from oregon had a who is raised that idea, senator wyden, who has done a lot of work on how we can create fiscal responsibility tied to a package going through now. and we'll say something to the international finance -- financiers. it may serve other things, such as keeping the interest rate low so that fewer dollars go out in interest. these amendments deserve debate on this major decision facing this body over the next few days. so, mr. president, i'll just close by saying, i'm deeply concerned, deeply concerned about the deficit and the debt, deeply concerned about the bush breaks that have done so much damage being extended into the next decade, deeply concerned about the poor design of the stimulus, deeply concerned about social security being made dependent upon borrowing from china, deeply concerned that this package is being put together and may not have the opportunity to have the debate over elements that should be debated, because if they don't stand up on the floor of the senate in debate, they don't belong in this package. so,

reauthorization act signed by 16 senators as follows, lieberman, boxer, wyden, bennet of colorado, casey, lautenberg, stabenow, merkley, card inn, klobuchar, dodd, carper and frank inn. mr. reid: i move to concur on the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 2965 with an amendment which sat the desk. the presiding officer: . the clerk will report. the clerk: the clerk: the senator from nevada mr. reid moves to concur on the house amendment to the senate amendment with amendment 2965. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be a second. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk: . the clerk will report. the senator from nevada mr. reid proposes amendment 4828 to amendment 4827. mr. reid: i have a motion to refer the house message with instructions to report back forthwith with the following amendment and i ask the clerk to state that moaghts. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada mr. reid moves to -- the armed services comm

wyden: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. wyden: mr. leader, ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call. i ask unanimous consent the commerce committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 5591 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report and we will recognize the senator from oregon. the clerk: h.r. 5591, an act to designate the airport traffic control tower located at spokane international airport in spokane, washington, as the ray daves airport traffic control tower. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. wyden: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without