. >> senator wyden, you should be ashamed of yourself. i'm ashamed of you -- >> the committee will be in order. >> actually, i overruled myself because i know senator stabenow came very early so next on the list here is senator stabenow. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. first let me say with the three trade agreements that we have, i will be supporting co-rhea but opposing colombia and panama and i'd just like to briefly say why. on co-rhea when the agreement with you first signed in 2007 i strongly opposed it because it didn't do enough in terms of american manufacturing, particularly automobiles with other manufacturers as well. and that machinery automobiles will be allowed open access into south korea. i appreciate the fact that you listened to the concerns of workers and the companies regarding that. with my chair of the agriculture committee hat on i would just simply say south korea is our fifth biggest market for agricultural exports as you know. nearly two-thirds of our exportless enter korea duty-free once the agreement is

and yet, when that came up as a proposal from senator ron wyden as a national exchange which would have directly interlinked, which was a bipartisan problem, it was money in our auction system, from the political process, health care money, that influenced that debate to at least make it appear, and you would know better than we would, because we're not in the room, but it certainly made it appear that the reason those reforms didn't happen was because of the money that was coming in from the health industry in that debate. >> well, let me pose one thing to you. >> quick, yeah? >> is the problem the money or is the problem the people who are in washington that are influenced by the money? and so what i would tell you is we need to change a lot of the people that are in washington. i don't think the money's the problem. i think the character and integrity of the people who are there and their vision for america in the long-term versus their vision for their own political career. >> and i guess that's where you and i will respectfully disagree, just because i believe with the 94% outcome

wyden: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr.wyden: madam president, before he leaves the floor, i want to commend senator bennet for the outstanding work he's doing on the budget issue and cite the fact that the cooperation of the senator from colorado and senator nebraska, senator johanns, are showing illustrates how important it is to try to find some common ground. that's what i'm going to be trying to do on the health care issue coming up. but i just want to commend the senator from colorado for his good work. mr. bennet: thank you. mr. wyden: madam president, as the senate focuses on the budget, and certainly the american people hear the discussion about health care and particularly what is going on in the supercommittee, i want to take a few minutes to talk about how there is an opportunity to come together in a bipartisan way, and particularly with older people to show that it's possible for them to get more of the care they want, particularly care at home for a price that is lower for companies, reduce costs for the tax-

when i look at senator wyden, senator coats and myself, we have supported a piece of legislation that's all about tax reform. and i believe in a holistic proposal, not just selective industries. so don't get me wrong. do i believe in tax reform, do i believe in trying to clear out loopholes and incentives that aren't working or may be used improperly? absolutely, and that's why again we supported a much broader perspective, but in the pay-fors or the tax proposals to pay for the jobs bill, this is not the right approach. another concern i have is on aviation. alaska has six times more pilots and 16 times more aircraft per capita than any state in the country. alaska has limited road infrastructure. 80% of our communities are accessed not by roads but by water or by air, so it's critical that we have the right kind of aviation system. general aviation is not a luxury in alaska. it is a necessity. it is our roads in the highway highway -- our highway in the sky. that's the utilization of our airlines and small planes. the general aviation component is critical for business, life safety, m

more especially senator wyden who got a little static from the audience undeservedly.the good news, the pending trade agreements add up to $13 billion in additional exports. they estimated 250,000 jobs, that's estimated by the american chamber of commerce. just a few big picture highlights right now. korea imposes an average -- a 54% tariff for agricultural products. within three years after implementation, 95% of these tariffs drop off with the most zeroing out after a decade for beef producers, and that's a big thing for kansas. that means the 40% tariff on beef products will be fazed out over 15 years. around 75% of the ag and non-ag exports entering colombia will be duty free upon implementation of the agreement duties on many other tariff lines will be fazed out over a five to ten-year period. panama while reducing import duties is important, expansion of the panama canal is not only an important project for u.s. bidders, it is a geographical key for international commerce, transportation and security, security for the region. but just from the agriculture perspec

senator wyden has said, i don't see that yucca mountain will reopen. i think that there will be an effort to look at new technology on site storage and a of approaches but i don't think that's going to happen. so senator wyden is accepting this. in hanford, a mile from the columbia river. senator merkley has been quiet as far as we could find from the google search pairing his name and any yucca mountain comments. lest people think i'm picking on the northwest, let me go to my home state of illinois. so, one facility, zion nuclear power plant, demissioned plancht, -- plant, but there's still 65 casks containing 1,135 metric tons of nuclear waste. the waste at scion is stored above the ground. the waste at yucca mountain would be 1,000 feet below the surface. the waste at zion is five feet above the water table. the waste at yucca mountain would be 1,000 feet. the waste at yucca mountain is 100 miles from the colorado river. the waste from zion is 1,300 feet from lake michigan. i mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that yucca mountain

under the leaderships of senators bingaman, murkowski, crapo, wyden and risch, we have a bill that could pass right now today. it would keep 4,000 teachers on the job at a cost of $3.5 billion over the next five years. that's small potatoes compared to the $35 billion in the bill that's before us today. it is a reasonable bill. but because it is so reasonable, no one wants to see it appear in the middle of such a partisan debate. once again, too many folks in washington are looking for ways to point fingers. quite frankly, mr. president, i don't have as many fingers as most folks around here, so i'd rather use mine to solve some problems. mr. president, only after this final bill is amended to guarantee job certainty will it be able to earn my vote. and in order to amend it, i'm going to vote for the motion to proceed. my vote is a vote for debate that we ought to have. it's an important one, one so we can truly create the jobs and focus on rebuilding our economy. i look forward to that debate, mr. president. with that, i would yield the floor to my friend from west virginia. mr. manchin

it's cosponsored by senators crapo, risch, snowe, ayotte, wyden, johanns, nelson of nebraska, mikulski and hoeven. mr. president, earlier this year the u.s. department of agriculture proposed a rule that would limit servings of a certain category of vegetables that includes white potatoes, corn, peas, and lima beans. it would limit them to a total of one cup per week in the national school lunch program. the proposed rule would also ban this category of vegetables altogether from the school breakfast program. our bipartisan amendment would prevent the department of agriculture from moving forward with this arbitrary limitation. i'm concerned that the proposed rule would impose significant costs on schools and would limit the flexibility that they need to serve nutritious, affordable meals to their students. now, for those who are less familiar with this issue, let me give my colleagues some background. current law already requires the school lunch and breakfast programs to follow the most recent dietary guidelines for americans. last year, the usda released the newest guidelines that c

seeking locations to updated tracking by representative chase in the house, a republican, and senator wyden in the senate, democrat. they both have bill still would require any location tracking by the government be done with a warrant. those are also important updates on the government side. >> another question. >> this is susan, consumer federation of america. this is a question you talked about the potential for price discrimination. we've already seen that with the msn experimenting awhile back and obviously can also -- information about people can also be used to present different options to them for other kinds of goods and services. are there any laws that presently prohibit that or protect people from being offered less advantageous prices or terms than others? >> i believe there are laws that prohibit discrimination based on race and gender, but just in terms of prohibiting retailers from showing a different price based on your shopping habits and background, no. >> okay. another question here. michelle. >> is it on? michelle from consumer action. beth, i was wondering, the consume

senator wyden and i, a democrat, and a republican, incorporated our provisions into the tax reform. it's gaining bipartisan support. it provides growth we have seen and has been tried and tested in the past. 1986, the last time we had comprehensive tax reform. it was a bipartisan effort. the parten bill bradley, ronald reagan, democrats and republicans working together following that 1.63 million new jobs through the private sector, not the public sector. whether this, repatriation, or the other items in here, line item veto, those gained democratic support in the past. this can be a bipartisan effort to create the growth that creates the jobs for the future. >> the president, and democrat tried to create jobs by government spending, and despite suffocating debt, they've resisted even nominal spending cuts and have insisted on higher taxes for more revenues. the republican plan, which should be called the american plan because it is based on free enterprise principles, is the way to create new tax revenues. if we look at any historical analysis, the more you raise taxes, over time,

senator wyden did not support it. and senator merkley is silent. they should not be silent. a couple weeks ago i then moved to my home state of illinois and the zion nuclear decommissioned power plant that still has high level nuclear waste on site. again the same statistics for yucca are there in the desert, away from a river, zion is on lake michigan. zion has 65 casks,, 1,135 metric tons of nuclear waste. waste stored above ground, five feet above the water table, 1,300 feet from lake michigan. what do the senators from the two states, and wisconsin has two nuclear power plants also on lake michigan. well, senator durbin is supportive of in. senator kirk is supportive of yucca mountain. senator cole is supportive of yucca mountain. senatoronson -- senator johnson is still silent on yucca mountain. i imagine we'll know soon. now we move to georgia and south carolina. look at this difference here. savannah river has 6,300 canisters of waste, nuclear waste on site. the waste is stored right belove the ground -- below the ground. it's 160 feet above the water table. it's righ

wyden: madam president, international trade has always been controversial. that has been true since the days of the smoot-hawley effort. hawley, by the way, was an oregon congressman. and it continues to be true today. but it is so important to our country and so important to my home state that i made a special priority when i was given the honor of serving on the senate finance committee to queue up to be able to chair the subcommittee on international trade and global competitiveness, because i think it is so important that we continue here in the united states senate to keep pushing -- and there's going to be a lot of work to do after these agreements have been voted on -- to get this right. but i want to describe today three aspects of this debate that are indisputable. in other words, we have lots of differences of opinion with respect to past agreements -- did they create jobs, they didn't create jobs, how did it affect various parts of the country. suffice it to say, reasonable people can differ with respect to these analyses. but i've been able, as t

obviously myself, senator murray senator wyden senator merkley, senator boxer and senator feinstein. and we thought it was very important that this amendment pass tonight because scientists are calling it a disease emergency. that is, that the pacific northwest wild salmon might be threatened by a virus that has already decimated fish farm salmon from around the world. so we want to see first of all important scientific questions answered about the impacts of this virus and the threat that they pose to pacific northwest salmon. second, we want to make sure that there is an aggressive management plan and an effective rapid response plan to deal with the threat of this virus. and, third, we want to make sure that we are protecting wild salmon and the important economy that goes with it. i know many people know the northwest is known for a healthy salmon population but this salmon population is also an economy for us. it's tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars as it relates to our economy. so being able to detect this virus and make sure that we are assessing the

wyden: madam president, international trade has always been controversial. that has been true since the days of the smoot-hawley effort. hawley, by the way, was an oregon congressman. and it continues to be true today. but it is so important to our country and so important to my home state that i made a special priority when i was given the honor of serving on the senate finance committee to queue up to be able to chair the subcommittee on international trade and global competitiveness, because i think it is so important that we continue here in the united states senate to keep pushing -- and there's going to be a lot of work to do after these agreements have been voted on -- to get this right. but i want to describe today three aspects of this debate that are indisputable. in other words, we have lots of differences of opinion with respect to past agreements -- did they create jobs, they didn't create jobs, how did it affect various parts of the country. suffice it to say, reasonable people can differ with respect to these analyses. but i've been able, as t