Max Baucus

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Again, Mr. President, I am teasing. I ask my friend, somewhat in jest, if he were to fully support passage of the extenders bill if this provision he mentioned were in the bill? The fact is, we are having a hard time passing the extenders bill. Anything we add to the extenders bill is one more additional weight. I do not think that would further the passage of the bill at this time. Rather, I think the appropriate place for coal-to-liquids technology will be in the Energy bill and there will be an Energy bill, of that I am positive. There is a question of what will be contained in that energy bill, but there will be one, I am sure, brought up on the floor of this body to help make this country more secure in its national energy position so we are less reliant on foreign countries to produce energy.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. I also rise to call attention to a pair of disasters that recently struck Montana and pledge my support for the recovery effort. Last week the Big Sandy Creek spilled over its banks and flooded into the Lower Box Elder Road and the surrounding area. The flooding displaced 30 families at the Rocky Point Boy's Indian Reservation in north central Montana. As is the tradition in our States, folks with the Chippewa Creek Tribe are pulling together to help one another. The Vo-Tech Center in Box Elder has been converted to a makeshift home for those left homeless by the flooding. The American Red Cross of Montana is providing beds and other services at that center. The area is still under a stage two flood advisory. I just talked to the chairman of the Rocky Boy's about half an hour ago, who told me there have been about 7 inches of rain there and he had an extremely difficult time with the water problems and sewage problems. Homes have been displaced. He has never seen anything like it. Initial estimates exceed $1 million at this point. I will work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service to see that Rocky Boy's receives the assistance they need. I might add I will work with any agency that is relevant to make sure the people at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation receive the assistance they need. Just as folks at Rocky Boy's began assessing damage yesterday afternoon, another disaster beset Montana. A tornado with wind speeds between 111 and 135 miles an hour crashed into our State's largest city--Billings. Folks in Yellowstone County have not seen such a destructive twister since 1958. The tornado hurled hail the size of golf balls, ripped the roof off our sports arena, the Metrapark--that is the largest facility, I might add, in Billings, MT. After striking it, it tore through a number of nearby small businesses. The tornado left a path of destruction in its wake--power outages, flooding in some places up to 2 feet of water. The winds damaged at least 10 businesses in Billings: the Main Street Casino, a laundromat, a dance studio, Reiter's Marina. The tornado also ripped the roof from Fast-Break Auto Glass. The roof was later found in a nearby creek. Witnesses saw big pieces of metal hanging from power lines near the arena. Insulation and metal debris was thrown far across town. One look at these photos gives one a sense of the size of the destruction. I might add, if you look at the photo to my right, that is what is left of the Metra arena, Billings' largest facility. You can see the Metra almost entirely destroyed, roof completely gone, walls collapsing. I talked to two county commissioners and the mayor today and they explained the deep problems they have with reconstructing this facility, to say nothing about all the bookings that have been made about 2 years in advance that have to be dealt with because of this destruction. The Metra sports arena is part of the fabric of life in Billings. Montanans gathered at the Metra to cheer on the Billings Outlaws, for example, an indoor football team. Fans say their home field advantage is recognized around the league. The arena also houses the Chase Hawks Memorial Rough Stock Rodeo. Lots of events take place in this arena. I was there a couple of months ago for a high school graduation. Event after event occurs, it seems, around the clock at this arena. It is totally destroyed by the tornado. The Metra was also visited by American Presidents--President Kennedy, President Reagan, President Clinton, and President Bush. It is part of our State's history. In Montana we work together to solve problems and we will work together through this disaster as well. Yesterday, utility crews worked to shut off a gas leak at a commercial strip mall near Main Street. Crews were also working to repair downed power lines. Yellowstone County requested a state of emergency, requested that declaration from our Governor last night. They were given an oral declaration and clearly will receive a written declaration today. The Montana National Guard has deployed to the area to help keep security around the crumbling arena. I am committed to working with local officials, the Governor, as well as Senator Tester and Congressman Rehberg to coordinate any and all possible Federal assistance, coordinating with all Federal agencies to make sure all resources are available when requested. I have sent my staff to work with local and State officials on the ground to assess the extent of the damage and I will be there every step of the way during the recovery and rebuilding process. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Billings, particularly those injured during the storm and those whose property and homes were damaged by the winds. Today, business owners are returning to the rubble that once was their place of business, their livelihood. Many homeowners are drying out as floodwaters recede. They will work hard in the coming days and months to make sure every Federal resource is made available to help folks in Billings as well as the Rocky Boy's Reservation as they recover from these twin disasters. Our officials have done this before and nobody can handle this better than the great team we have in Montana. I yield the floor.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I very much appreciate this development. This is very important. Now doctors will be paid. More important, seniors will get the benefits they deserve. Payments under TRICARE will now go out. Military who participate in TRICARE, the retired military program, will get their benefits because that is all tied together. It is important because this provision expired June 1, this month, and it is about the last day for the payments to be paid; otherwise, there would be a 21-percent reduction in payments to physicians, and many providers would not provide the services to seniors, or even Medicaid, for that matter. So it is very important that we are taking this action this day; otherwise, there would be near chaos in the absence of medical care and procedures. I appreciate the cooperation on both sides of the aisle in working this out. This is all paid for. This is not deficit spending, which I think is critical to many. Third, it is a good omen. I hope we can take this cooperation and work out the rest of the so- called extenders bill together on both sides of the aisle. I am very pleased with this development. I thank the majority leader and the minority leader for working this out. Now we can put this issue aside and doctors will be paid, seniors will get the benefits they deserve, and we can go on to work cooperatively to finalize the rest of the bill. I thank my friend.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 4213 with an amendment be modified to provide for technical changes to my amendment which are at the desk.

Mr. BAUCUS. I renew the request and let the leader reserve the right to object again. The modification is to provide that the enterprise value, the good will of a partnership interest which is sold, would be valued at 50 percent cap gains, 50 percent ordinary income. That is the provision those in the industry who cared about carried interest agreed to. That was the intent in the underlying substitute amendment. Unfortunately, when the amendment was drafted, there was a glitch which did not fully provide for what I just described. It is my full intent for the substitute amendment to provide for what I just stated; namely, that the good will value, enterprise value of the sale of a partnership interest, be valued at 50 percent cap gain and 50 percent ordinary income. It is unfortunate that we are unable to make that change.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I object.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, once again, we are here today to try to help create jobs. That is what the underlying bill and substitute amendment are all about. But the Thune amendment would move in the wrong direction. Instead of helping to create jobs, the Thune amendment would probably cost jobs. The Thune amendment would reduce aggregate demand in the economy by more than $50 billion. Instead of continuing the good that the Recovery Act has done, the Thune amendment would stop it in its tracks. The Thune amendment would, among other things, cancel unspent and unallocated mandatory spending in the Recovery Act. The Recovery Act is working. This is what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in its most recent report: CBO estimates that in the first quarter of calendar year 2010, [the Recovery Act's] policies: Raised the level of real . . . gross domestic product . . . by between 1.7 percent and 4.2 percent; Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.5 percentage points; Increased the number of people employed by between 1.2 million and 2.8 million; and Increased the number of full-time-equivalent jobs by 1.8 million to 4.1 million compared with what those amounts would have been otherwise. And the Congressional Budget Office projects that the Recovery Act will continue to create jobs. CBO projects that the Recovery Act will create the most jobs in the third quarter of this year. And then it will begin to taper off. We should not cut that job creation off. In this fragile economy, the last thing that we should want to do is to cut back this proven job creator. We passed the Recovery Act to give a needed boost to our economy. We designed the bill to work over 2 years. If we were to withdraw these critical funds, we would risk causing further damage to a fragile economy. The Thune amendment would also cut other important spending programs. The Thune substitute amendment would cut discretionary spending by 5 percent across the board for all agencies, except for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense. This 5 percent cut would apply to the Department of Homeland Security. It would apply to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Apparently, it would apply to the intelligence agencies. The Thune substitute amendment would freeze the salaries of all Federal employees, except for members of the Armed Forces. It would freeze the salaries of civilian defense workers. It would freeze the salaries of law enforcement. It would freeze the salaries of border protection agents. Another provision would cap the total number of federal employees at current levels. If an agency needed to hire a new employee, it would first need to fire an existing employee. That is not how to create jobs. This would dramatically reduce the flexibility of agencies to make hiring decisions. I support finding ways to make our government more efficient. But these cuts are arbitrary. They are mindless meat-ax cuts. The Thune amendment would also make changes to the new health care law. These changes would leave more Americans without health insurance. The Thune amendment would do this by expanding the affordability exception to the responsibility for individuals to buy health insurance. This expansion would eliminate coverage for millions of Americans. And CBO tells us that this would raise health care premiums. The irony of this proposal is that it raises money for the government because the government would not provide as much in tax credits to Americans to help them buy insurance. But Congress has just enacted health care reform. Congress just expressed our Nation's commitment to helping all Americans to buy health insurance. We should let the new health care law take effect. The Thune amendment would also propose changes to our medical malpractice system that the Senate has rejected many times. The Thune amendment would cap damages and make other changes to State laws. This is the not the solution to medical malpractice. The Congressional Budget Office has said that these kinds of ideas would generate savings. But we need to ask: At what cost? What would be the cost to patients? What would be the cost to the States? CBO relied on outside studies in calculating its cost estimate. And those same studies point out that certain tort reform policies may also increase the number of risky procedures performed. And these policies may lead to more patient injuries and more patient deaths. One study upon which CBO relied said that these policies would lead to a 0.2-percent increase in mortality. These policies in the Thune amendment could lead to more patient deaths. That is an awfully high price to pay. Our Nation's civil liability system has always been forged at the State level. Nationalizing that system with damage caps would put patients at risk. The Thune amendment employs some of the offsets that it does because it drops the oil spill liability tax. And the Thune amendment employs some of the offsets that it does because it drops the tax loophole closers in the underlying substitute amendment. The Thune amendment thus would allow big oil companies to pay less into the oil spill liability trust fund, to pay for oil spills. The Thune amendment thus would allow investment managers to continue to pay lower capital gains tax rates on their service income than other Americans do on their wages. The Thune amendment thus would allow some professionals who organize as S corporations to avoid paying their fair share of Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. And the Thune amendment thus would allow multinational corporations to continue accounting dodges to avoid paying their fair share of taxes here in America. These decisions reflected in the Thune amendment are bad tax policy. These decisions preserve unfairness and inequity in the tax law. And so, the Thune amendment would put the recovery at risk by curtailing the Recovery Act. It would cut the number of Americans with health insurance and raise premiums. It would nationalize medical malpractice law, putting patients at risk. And it would protect big oil and multinational corporations that ship their jobs overseas. I urge my colleagues to oppose the Thune amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I might ask if the Senator from New Hampshire wishes to speak.

Mr. BAUCUS. Sure.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I yield 15 minutes to the Senator from Delaware.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield as much time as the Senator wishes to consume.

Mr. BAUCUS. Reserving the right to object, I may say to my friend from South Dakota that this sounds a lot like wage price controls, where the Congress is trying to decide the wages of all kinds of different sectors based on, I don't know what. A lot of trap lines have to be run before this request can be granted. So at this point, Madam President, I object.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that the time during the quorum be equally divided.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I might ask the Senator from South Dakota, through the Chair, whether he wishes to renew his request to modify his amendment because I might tell him, through the Chair, that the amendment has been cleared on this side.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that the time during the quorum be equally divided.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Arizona.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BAUCUS. How much time is remaining to each side?

Mr. BAUCUS. There is 20 minutes 40 seconds on our side; zero seconds on the other side?

Mr. BAUCUS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BAUCUS. Reserving the right to object, actually I think we are going to probably vote earlier than that. I just wonder how much time is remaining on the other side?

Mr. BAUCUS. No time remaining on the other side. There is no time on the side of those who wish to speak in favor of the amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. And no time remaining on the side of those who wish to speak in favor of the Thune amendment?

Mr. BAUCUS. There is about 15 minutes remaining on this side. I wonder if my friend from South Dakota, who wishes to speak in favor of the amendment, even though his time has expired, may want to speak favorably about the Baucus substitute, or, if he wishes to speak on his own amendment, he can point out some of the good points of the Baucus substitute at the same time; otherwise, I have no objection. But to be fair to my side, too, and given the time constraints that we might have, I can only give 2\1/2\ minutes.