Senate Proceeding on May 1st, 2008 :: 7:27:53 to 7:47:35
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7:17:33 to 7:27:53( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Debbie Stabenow

7:27:39 to 7:27:53( Edit History Discussion )

Debbie Stabenow: my colleagues from massachusetts and michigan for bringing to our attention the struggle that this economy presents to many families across the united states. you would almost find it hard hard to

7:27:53 to 7:28:04( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: imagine this senate could meet with such regulator and not address these issues directly. this administration and its economic is policy has not focused on working families. it has focused on tabs breaks

7:27:53 to 7:47:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Richard Durbin

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Richard Durbin: tax breaks for those with the highest income in america -- that is something they do without embarrassment. they suggest if the wealthiest people in america have extra money to spend, that it

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Richard Durbin: will be good for everyone else. that's a hard message to deliver and even harder to believe. elizabeth warren is a professor of law at harvard law school in cambridge, massachusetts, and has become

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Richard Durbin: a good friend and advisor to many of us. she recently made a presentation to a number of senators. she showed an analysis which she has done relating to the middle of the middle-class. professor warren took

7:28:49 to 7:29:02( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: a look at real middle-income families and basically asked the question, what's happened to them during the last seven years. her friendings are trouble -- her findings are troubling. from 2000 to 2007 the

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Richard Durbin: american family lost ground measured in real dollars while basic expenses skyrocketed. by the time today's family make as few basic purchases -- housing, health insurance, food, gasoline and phone

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Richard Durbin: -- it has about $35,7 $5,700 less than it has in 2000. so a decline of buying power of $5,700 over the last seven years causes major hardship. incomes are down by every measure for the same hypothetical

7:29:46 to 7:30:09( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: family for fully employed males, down for fully employed females median household income has declined across america by $1,175. prosperity has not arrived for the middle-class families, but just the opposite

7:30:09 to 7:30:23( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: has been true. of course, the biggest thing we face going home is the increase in the cost of gasoline. in the same period of time, the profits of the oil companies have more than quadrupled. it's

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Richard Durbin: no coincidence. they're making more money as families, rich and especially poor, as they reach deeper in their pockets to pay more for gasoline.| families have reduced driving. they have to spend

7:30:34 to 7:30:48( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: an average of $2,000 more a year for gasoline than they did back in the year 2000 when president bush was elected. our friends on the republican side of the aisle like to talk a lot about cutting

7:30:48 to 7:31:00( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: people's taxes, sending out rebate checks. well, of course, those are all well and good, but it turns out that the expense which had been passed along to working families just for the cost of gasoline

7:31:00 to 7:31:16( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: since president bush became president is more than $2,000 a year. now, there's a tax. it's a tax that families have to pay if they have to drive to work or if they want to take their family on vacation.

7:31:16 to 7:31:34( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: increases in mortgage costs took another big bite out of these middle-income families, almost $1,700 each year. health insurance, food, telephone, appliances another $50,000 a year. the increases mean that the average

7:31:34 to 7:31:48( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: family is spending $4,564 more for basic expenses now than they did in the year 2000. how about families with kids? child-care costs under this president have gone up by $1,321 a year, more than $100

7:31:48 to 7:32:00( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: a month. after-school care, $511 a year. all parents, regardless of the age of children, see the rising cost of college. under this presidency, the net cost of college, including scholarships and

7:32:00 to 7:32:15( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: grants, has increased by more than $1,000. is it any surprise that when members of the senate and the house go home over the weekends and run into these families, they want to talk about the latest

7:32:15 to 7:32:27( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: outrage which happens to be the price of gasoline? my understanding is exxonmobil made its report of the quarterly earnings public today. it was a little bit off for them. as i understand it, their earnings

7:32:27 to 7:32:38( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: only increased 17%, hardly keeping pace with the record-breaking percentage increases in the past. but trust me, there will be no tag days for those c.e.o.'s and members of the executive board and

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Richard Durbin: management at the biggest oil companies in america. they're doing quite well. the question is whether this congress can do well by the american families who pay the price for those profits. that's

7:32:52 to 7:33:06( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: a challenge we'll face. president bush is is going to send us a supplemental appropriations bill. it's because of the emergency in iraq. he's going to ask for $108 billion for iraq and afghanistan.

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Richard Durbin: he's not going to ask for the emergency in america. and there is one. he won't be asking for increasing unemployment compensation for families out of work, watching unemployment rates rise by the

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Richard Durbin: day. he won'ting sk-r for -- he won't be asking for tax breaks for those families, struggling families that i just described. he focused on the middle east. well, i'm from illinois, and i focus on the

7:33:30 to 7:33:44( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: midwest. i tryo look at the whole nation, but i start with my obligation at home. when i look out of the window in the morning, i see america. when this administration looks outside of the window in the morning,

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Richard Durbin: they see iraq. and so when it comes to emergency spending, drop everything. highest priorities. it's not about america. this administration focuses on the middle east. i think that's unfortunate. we need

7:33:56 to 7:34:08( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: to understand that a strong america begins at home. it begins th a strong economy, strong families, strong churches, strong temples, strong neighborhoods, strong cities, strong communities that build

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Richard Durbin: a great nation. and they're suffering at this moment. during the course of this week there's been precious little done on the floor of the senate, and senator after senator have come to talk about

7:34:21 to 7:34:33( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: their concerns about energy costs. that's good. we should raise awareness of this particular issue. but we need to do more than just give a speech. come up with a quick gimmick or a quick idea.

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Richard Durbin: we've got to focus on changing some fundamentals in this country, and it ought to start with the tax code and it ought to start with programs that help working families. mr. president, i'd like to

7:34:42 to 7:34:54( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: speak on a different topic and ask consent that it be shown separate in the in the "congressional record." the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: thank you very much. i have a friend there

7:34:54 to 7:35:15( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: i will know whose name -- i have a friend in illinois whose name is harold ramus. harold and i share a birth date and a lot of friends, and harold has done quite well for himself. he is a writer and a

7:35:15 to 7:35:28( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: producer of movies. harold got started writing "animal house," went on to write caddy shack and a few others. one of his most famous movies is a movie called "groundhog day." i bet every american has

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Richard Durbin: seen it. it is hard to believe it has been over 20 years since that film was released. in that movie, bill murray wakes up every morning in punxsutawney, pennsylvania, and looks over at the clock radio

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Richard Durbin: as sonny and cher are singing "i got you babe" and relives it until the end. what is the message of the movie? i'm not sure. i sure enjoy it and continue to watch it. i drive my wife crazy when she

7:35:59 to 7:36:10( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: says, "how many times have you seen that movie?" but i like it a lot. i'm reminded of that movie when i think of the united states senate. it's almost like groundhog day around here, because every

7:36:10 to 7:36:24( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: day that you get up in the senate and every week you come up in the senate, it's the same music playing. it's the same script that's playing. and the script that's playing is the strategy on the other

7:36:24 to 7:36:41( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: side of the aisle, on the republican side of the aisle. and their strategy is very simple. it involves the use of a filibuster. now, a filibuster is a uniquely senatorial institution that says historically

7:36:41 to 7:36:52( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: any senator can stand up on the floor at any time and stop anything. a nomination, a bill, anything. that gives us a lot of power. but, unfortunately, that power can be misused. "mr. smith goes to washington,"

7:36:52 to 7:37:01( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: jimmy stewart on that famous set, the brand-new senator who stood up and filibustered until he dropped right next to his desk. well, we all remember that image, and it doesn't quite happen that way

7:37:01 to 7:37:18( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: anymore. i've not seen anybody fall to the floor here in the middle of a filibuster, but it does eat up a lot of time and it slows things down. now in the history of the united states senate, there is a

7:37:18 to 7:37:30( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: record book, and the record book says that in the history of this great body, in a two-year period of time the maximum number of filibusters in our history of two years -- 57 filibusters. 57 times in two years

7:37:30 to 7:37:45( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: there was an effort to stop the debate, stop the nomination, and a filibuster was initiated. well, for those who follow the history of theenate, they are watching an historic session of the senate,

7:37:45 to 7:38:00( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: because in the last year and four months, the republicans in the senate have broken the record. they have gone beyond 57 filibusters. at this point they are now up to 68 republican filibusters, and

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Richard Durbin: still counting. on 68 different occasions they have initiated a filibuster to stop us from taking up legislation. and you say to yourself, well, maybe that had to be done. not until you look at

7:38:11 to 7:38:25( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: the legislation involved. two weeks ago we had something called a technical corrections bill. this is a bill that notices that there were spelling errors and grammar errs in a highway bill that passed

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several years ago. and they changed it with technical corrections. it usually is a bill that's passed with no debate, no comment, and not even a record vote. it just goes through. we've got to clean

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up some problems that we had in previous legislation. well, in this new era of republican filibusters, they decided to filibuster the technical corrections bill. if there was ever an embarrassing moment

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in the history of the senate, the notion that we would filibuster a bill that corrects grammatical and spelling errors, but they did it and held the senate in session for a full week while we waited

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to complete the technical corrections bill. and then came the veterans health benefits bill. veterans health benefits, is this an issue that anyone really contests stph , that we would -- contests, that

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we would not provide all the benefits promised and all we can afford to the men and women who served our country so valiantly and continue to? we brought this bill to the floor figuring that this was an

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easy one, a bipartisan bill, and it would pass. and it was the subject of a republican filibuster that held that bill on the floor for a full week. time and again we came to the floor and said to the

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republicans, let us call this bill. if you have an amendment, if there's something you want to change in it, then let's do it. no. day after weary day this "groundhog day" script played out. we got

7:39:56 to 7:40:08( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: up every morning. we didn't hear sonny and cher. we heard the republican minority leader singing the same song every morning, "we're going to try to get around to looking at this bill. " days passed. if

7:40:08 to 7:40:21( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: the senate were paid for piecework as opposed to a general annual salary, we'd be hurting at this moment. we don't do much around here, and that's unfortunate. by the end of the week after they

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Richard Durbin: burned another week off the calendar, a week where we didn't consider the problems with our nation's energy policy or we didn't do a thing about gasoline prices but were stuck in a republican filibuster,

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Richard Durbin: we had one vote on one amendment and passed the bill virtually unanimously, and it was all over. so there was really no controversy. the object on the republican side: slow everything down. stop it if you can.

7:40:52 to 7:41:04( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: so this week comes another bill. this bill here, 288 pages. this is the reauthorization of the federal aviation administration. and, un unfortunately, it is now subject to a republican filibuster.

7:41:04 to 7:41:18( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: the motion for cloture is about to be filed. this week in the senate -- for those who want to keep up with the ongoing and developing saga of our "groundhog day" script -- republicans are blocking safer,

7:41:18 to 7:41:32( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: more efficient air travel. we've spent the entire week here and had one vote. i know it's not a secret. it's in the "congressional record." but it's embarrassing. we tried time and again to get the

7:41:32 to 7:41:42( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: senate republicans to give us an amendment, call it for a vote. let's get moving on this bill. no, let's wait until next week. is there anything else we could have been doing and considering in

7:41:42 to 7:41:56( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: the senate this week? well, we should have passed this in a hurry. first, it's a bipartisan bill. is it necessary or important? well, for those of us who live on airplanes, you bet it is. 25 million

7:41:56 to 7:42:10( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: more passengers flew on u.s. commercial air carriers last year than the previous year. almost 800 million passengers flew on u.s. commercial carriers in 2007, double the number in 1985. and the f.a.a. predicts

7:42:10 to 7:42:26( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: the aviation system will transport more than one billion airline passengers annually by 2020. there's a problem, though. as modern as the airplanes may be, as new as some of the airports may be,

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Richard Durbin: we are running our air traffic system on radar that was established in this country during world war ii. this technology is not equipped to handle the volume increase of air travel that we anticipate.

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Richard Durbin: we're already seeing it in airports across the country. passengers are feeling it in my home state and the great airport at o'hare, where i spend a large portion of my waking hours. "u.s. news and

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Richard Durbin: world report" placed o'hare recently at the top of the airport misery index. in defense of that great state -- that great airport, we're in the process of modernizing it, and things will get better. but

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Richard Durbin: it's a fact. the magazine cited that almost 30% of flights in and out of o'hare are delayed. one of the main reasons is the incapacity of our air traffic control system to deal with this increase in

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Richard Durbin: volume. we need to move to a more modern modern, satellite-based air traffic control system. this technology known as nextgen will give pilots and air traffic controllers the ability to pinpoint

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Richard Durbin: air traffic in the sky, to avoid any problems, to monitor traffic, to move things more smoothly and more efficiently. the second reason for the increase in delays comes from the lack of capacity in our

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Richard Durbin: airports. at o'hare airport, it was designed back in the 1950's and built in that era. it just doesn't handle as it should most efficiently the aircraft of today. we have a big expansion underway,

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Richard Durbin: b ut the bill that's been held up all week in the united states senate, a bill that was brought to us on a bipartisan basis by senator jay rockefeller of west virginia, who has worked his heart out to

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Richard Durbin: pass this bill, and senator kay bailey hutchison of texas, who helped in crafting this bill, will provide funding for programs to give airports the money they need to expand and handle the growth in

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Richard Durbin: air traffic. lastly, the f.a.a. bill also provides important provisions giving passengers rights when they're stuck in airplanes on the tarmac. has it ever happened to you? stuck out there for an hour,

7:44:34 to 7:44:48( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: if you're lucky? it used to be a lot longer. there are some horror stories that have come out of this. i won't go into detail other than to tell you we try to provide in this bill basic protection

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Richard Durbin: for airline passengers.~ we never want an airline to hurry into a circumstance that might compromise safety. but we do believe they should inform their passengers about what's going on, be mindful

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Richard Durbin: of the need for basic human comforts that passengers need twher stuck on the -- when they're stuck on the runway for hour after weary hour. that's in the bill. you won't get a chance to hear any

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Richard Durbin: debate about it we didn't get to it. we were stuck in a filibuster. i think it's the 69th filibuster of this session. when i came here i thought it was the greatest body. we have precious amendments,

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Richard Durbin: very little debate and we lack the kind of legislative activity that has been the hallmark of the senate for as long as it has existed. we have ground to a halt because we are facing the slowdown strategy

7:45:47 to 7:46:00( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: from the other side of the aisle. when you think about how many important things we need to do for this country, for the families of this country, important decisions that we need to make, it is

7:46:00 to 7:46:15( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: sad that the senate rules allow this to continue. well, we'll return next tuesday after a long weekend, after one vote this week, we need a rest. i hope you understand. we'll come back tuesday in hopes

7:46:15 to 7:46:29( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: that we can start up this will bill again. maybe in the -- this bill again. maybe in the second week this bipartisan bill may draw a debate on the floor and just might get passed so we can move it

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Richard Durbin: on the next issue, which i believe will be energy policy. and i can just guarantee you, it is likely to fe another filibuster from the republican side of the aisle. the g.o. spmplet the, -- g.o.p.

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Richard Durbin: is, i guess the nickname for the republican party. stands for the grand old party. when you watch the progress or the strategy of the republicans in the senate, you come to believe that g.o.p. stands

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Richard Durbin: for graveyard of progress. that's what they see of the senate. that's unfortunate. there's a lot of work that we need to do. the american people sent us here to do it on a bipartisan basis. i hope that

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Richard Durbin: we can get it done. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: the custom is to alternate side. senator demint is here. after he

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Richard Durbin: has concluded his remarks, i would like to be recognized. the presiding offir: without objection. mr. demint: thank you, mr. president. i would like to address the misleading and distorted information

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Jim DeMint: that was just presented on the floor. actually i was amazed at what was just said. the commerce committee had come up with an aviation modernization bill with strong bipartisan support. but like many

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Speech By: Jim DeMint