Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 2 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program.''

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Rules and Administration be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 10 a.m.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010. The Committee will meet in room 345 in the Cannon House Office Building beginning at 10 a.m.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 10 a.m., in room 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Tax and Fiscal Policy: Effects on the Military and Veterans Community.''

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 10 a.m.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 11 a.m.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 3 p.m.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Nine Years After 9/11: Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland.''

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 2 p.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Investigating and Prosecuting Financial Fraud after the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act.''

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 2:30 p.m., in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2010, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Oversight of the SEC Inspector General's Report on the `Investigation of the SEC's Response to Concerns Regarding Robert Allen Stanford's Alleged Ponzi Scheme.' ''

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 10 minutes as in morning business.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, yesterday on the floor of the Senate I told the story of something that happened in Lordstown, OH, a community not too far from Youngstown, in the Mahoning Valley in northeast Ohio 1 week ago today. This story was a celebration of the first car coming off the line in the Lordstown Chevrolet-GM plant, the car the Chevy Cruz. It is a high mileage car, I believe the highest mileage car GM ever produced. It is a relatively inexpensive car. They expect it to be a huge seller all over the United States. It is a good economy car with a lot to it that recommends itself. I am not here to endorse the car or even endorse the company. I am here to say that this celebration was a direct result of what the Presiding Officer and others in this body and the President of the United States did a year and a half ago. Turn the clock back to the beginning of the Presiding Officer's service in the Senate in early 2009. President Obama had just taken office. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. The banking industry almost collapsed. President Bush had begun the bailout of the banks to make sure they did not collapse. President Obama continued working on this issue. We know where the auto industry was at the same time. Sales were down 40 percent in the auto industry, 1 million jobs were at risk of being lost, on top of the 8 million jobs that had already been lost by the time President Obama raised his right hand to be sworn in on January 20, 2009. It was not just the Big Three--Chrysler, Ford, and GM--that were in trouble, two of which declared bankruptcy. It was also the tier 1 suppliers, those large companies that made products that go directly into the assembly of a car. It was also all the other component manufacturers--tier 2, tier 3 companies--that make everything from door handles to tires to bolts to hold the car together to windshields to side panels, the stamping plants, the component plants, the engine plants, and ultimately the automobile itself. I take special pride in the Chevy Cruz because it is such an Ohio car. The engine is made in Defiance, OH. The transmission is made in Toledo, OH. The bumpers are made in Northwood, OH. Most of the metal is stamped in Parma, OH. Some of the rest of the metal is stamped in Lordstown, and the assembly is done in Lordstown. The Cruz is really an Ohio car. The good news is that 1,100 jobs were added for a third shift on the Cruz. That is the Lordstown plant alone. That is just that plant. That is not counting all the job increases for the component manufacturers. Again, looking back a year and a half when there was so much trauma in this country, when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month--we had already lost 8 million jobs the last year of President Bush's term. The auto industry was about to go belly up. Conservative politicians, the naysayers, the doom-and-gloom crowd in this body and across the way and others were saying: Let the market work. If the auto industry fails, that is the market's decision. If the dealers go out of business-- dealers not just in Ohio but in Colorado and everywhere else--that is the market. If the suppliers go out of business, that is the market speaking. If the communities where these companies are lose jobs and lose revenue and they lay off teachers, firefighters, police officers, and mental health counselors, that is the free market working. If the auto dealer in Lima, OH, goes out of business, that means the Little League that car dealer used to sponsor will not have new uniforms. That is the market working. In spite of the naysayers, in spite of the conservative politicians in this country and in this body who said, Wash our hands, we didn't cause it, we are not going to do anything about it, we did not do that. We did not turn our back on that. Mr. President, 400,000 Ohio jobs are directly or indirectly dependent on the auto industry. Tens and hundreds of thousands of jobs in every State of this country depend on the auto industry, not to mention the retirees, many of whom get pensions because of their 25, 30, 40, sometimes 45, years of work in this industry. We did not turn our backs. We invested in the auto industry. That is why we had that celebration last Tuesday in Lordstown, OH, because the naysayers lost, the doom-and-gloom crowd was cast aside, and those of us who thought we should invest in the auto industry were successful. We were successful in that 1,100 people in Lordstown are back at work and hundreds of thousands of others did not lose their jobs because of that. And we are all in a much better position because of that. We need to learn from our history. If we had turned our back on this industry, we would have been in a depression. Almost any economist thinks that. Auto and housing are, I believe, the two biggest industries in our country. I want to go back a little further to the whole idea of letting the market work and the government never being involved. Let me take--and do it very fairly--January 20, 1993, to January 20, 2001, the 8 years of Bill Clinton's Presidency, then January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009, the 8 years of George Bush's Presidency. I am not shading this. I am just taking these 8 years. During the 8 years of President Clinton's Presidency, we increased taxes on the wealthy, balanced the budget, and had smart--not too much regulation--had smart regulation. During the 8 years of President Clinton, a net 22 million jobs were created in this country, more than a 22 million net increase of jobs during Bill Clinton's 8 years. During George Bush's 8 years, there was a net increase of 1.1 million: 22 million during President Clinton's 8 years; 1.1 million during President Bush's 8 years. During President Clinton's 8 years, incomes went up for the average person in this country. During President Bush's 8 years, income for the average person went down. At the end of President Clinton's 8 years--in other words, January 20, 2001--when he left the White House, we had the largest budget surplus in American history. When George Bush left the White House on January 20, 2009, we had the largest budget deficit in this Nation's history. Yet too many people in this body think that we should go back to the years of deregulation of Wall Street, cutting taxes on the rich, and passing trade agreements that send jobs to China, Mexico, and all over the world. I will take you back further. If you do not quite believe that-- although it is provably true--go back to the Reagan tax cuts. Ronald Reagan staked his whole reputation on them. When he was campaigning, he said: We are going to cut taxes. In 1981, the Reagan administration pushed through a tax cut. Congress voted for it. It was a major tax cut, overwhelmingly for corporations and the wealthiest wage earners of the country. For the next 16 months, we lost jobs in this country. For the next 16 months, we had a net decrease in employment--for 16 months. Only when President Reagan signed a tax increase to balance the budget did we begin to have job growth. The same thing happened with President Obama. President Obama came in and passed the stimulus package. We were losing a lot of jobs. We kept losing jobs because that is what was happening to the economy. When we passed the Recovery Act, we began to see the economy get better. It has not gotten better quickly enough. We have gotten no help from the other side of the aisle, which opposed everything because they wanted to go back to the Bush ideas and tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of Wall Street, and passing trade agreements that outsource jobs. We are not going to do that with President Obama. We are not going to do that with the Democrats in the majority in the House and the Senate. We are not going back to tax cuts for the rich, deregulation of Wall Street, and trade agreements that send jobs overseas. Instead, we are beginning the recovery. For the last several months, we have seen a net increase every month in private sector job creation. That increased not as fast as we wanted. Too many 22-year-olds come home from the Army and college and cannot get a job. I know that. There are too many people laid off who cannot get a job. There are too many people working but not working as many hours, not working 40 hours, even though they want to. We know this economy is not where it should be. If the voters this year elect people who subscribe to the George Bush philosophy of tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation of Wall Street and more trade agreements that outsource jobs to China and Mexico, we are making a terrible mistake. We do not want to look back. We want to look forward. We can learn from history, and the best way to learn from history is to see who has been President, what their governing philosophy has been and what works. Twenty-two million jobs during the Clinton years and one million jobs during the Bush years. When President Bush cut taxes-- at the beginning of his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts--you know what happened? Wealthy Americans saved their money. They didn't invest it or spend it on job creation; they saved it. Good for them. But why would we pass a tax cut instead of doing it right, the way we have done it, and put people to work on bridge projects and water and sewer projects and helping small businesses? We are passing legislation this week that Senator Landrieu has pushed so hard on. My colleague, Senator Voinovich, is one of only two Republicans to support it, even though the Chamber of Commerce is a strong supporter of it. It will make a difference in creating jobs because we know most jobs--two out of three--are created by small business. Facts are facts, Mr. President. We can learn from history. We shouldn't turn back the clock and do things the way we did in the first part of this decade. Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 603, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 597, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 620, submitted earlier today.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent it adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, the Senate will recess tomorrow in order to accommodate Senators attending the September 11 Congressional Remembrance Ceremony on the east front center steps of the Capitol. Tomorrow, we will continue to work on an agreement that will allow us to complete business on the small business jobs bill. Senators will be notified when any agreement is reached and votes are scheduled.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 15; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and that following any leader remarks there be a period of morning business for 1 hour, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 5297, the small business jobs bill, postcloture, and that time during any period of morning business, recess or adjournment count postcloture; and, finally, I ask the Senate recess from 2:45 until 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 607 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.