Thomas Carper

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I rise today to reflect on the life and service of Army SGT Keith E. Fiscus. Keith epitomized the best of our country's brave men and women who fought to free Iraq and to secure a new democracy in the Middle East. He exhibited unwavering courage, dutiful service to his country, and above all else, honor. In the way he lived his life--and how we remember him--Keith reminds each of us just how good we can be. Keith was born to Pamela and Darrell Fiscus in Glendale, CA, in 1980. His family moved to Townsend, DE, in 1998. He was the second oldest of four children and is survived by an 18-year-old brother, Jordan, and two sisters, Korrie, 16, and Dena, 28. My heart goes out to each of them. Keith finished his senior year at Glasgow High School in Newark, DE, and graduated in 1998. After his graduation, Keith took a job in the produce department at Genuardi's supermarket in Glasgow, DE, and then worked as a customer service representative for a major credit card company. He enrolled in business classes at Delaware Technical & Community College but soon decided that his interests didn't include sitting behind a desk in an office or classroom. Inspired by his grandparents' service in the Armed Forces, Keith joined the Army in 2002. After graduating from boot camp, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division based out of Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. He was deployed to Iraq and served with distinction for the duration of his 14-month tour. While serving in Iraq, Keith decided to reenlist in the Army. After returning to the States, Keith received training on how to identify and disarm explosives. Keith volunteered to serve a second tour of duty in Iraq and was deployed again in August of 2006. He was scheduled to return home in February of 2007. On December 2, 2006, Keith was serving as a machine gunner for an explosive ordinance disposal team on their way to clear a suspected roadside bomb near the city of Taji. An improvised explosive device was triggered near the humvee he was riding in, and Sergeant Fiscus was killed instantly. Contrary to his tough-looking tattoos and love of heavy metal music, Keith was a fun-loving, caring, and sensitive young man. He was described by those that knew him as a hopeless romantic who loved the camaraderie of the Army and spending time with family and friends. He was also an avid golfer and fisherman. Sergeant Fiscus was also an excellent soldier. He was an expert rifleman who received numerous recognitions during his Army career: Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and Combat Infantryman Badge. The Purple Heart and the Bronze Star were awarded posthumously. I rise today to commemorate Keith, to celebrate his life, and to offer his family our support and our deepest sympathy on their tragic loss. Specialist Travis Vaughn

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, today I wish to acknowledge and commend the efforts of Dr. Shien Biau ``S.B.'' Woo. Dr. Woo was born in 1937 in Shanghai, China. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong and the Communist Party took control and established the People's Republic of China. After living under communist rule for nearly 6 years, S.B. Woo and his parents came to the United States in 1955 to begin a new life in America. S.B. Woo took full advantage of this opportunity and earned bachelor of science degrees in mathematics and physics from Georgetown College in Kentucky. In 1963, S.B. married his wife, Katy, a gifted and accomplished person in her own right. The Woos have been married for nearly 44 years and they have two children, Chi I. and Chi Lan. S.B. Woo continued his academic career by attaining his Ph.D. in physics from Washington University in St. Louis in 1964. Two years later, he joined the faculty at the University of Delaware, where he became a professor of physics and astronomy. Dr. Woo has authored numerous scholarly works in the cutting-edge field of physics, with such titles as ``Role of Core Size in the Photoelectron Spectrum of Ions with Multiple Detachment Orbitals'' and ``Zero Core Contribution Calculation of Photodetachment Cross Sections and Photoelectron Spectra of Transition Metal Anions.'' Now, I'm not exactly sure what these texts are about, but I am sure that S.B. could not only explain them, but that he could explain them in such a way that we would all understand. In 2002, Dr. Woo retired from teaching, capping a nearly 36-year career at the University of Delaware. He is still rightfully considered by many to be one of the leading experts in the field of physics in our Nation. While his academic prowess is to be admired, Dr. Woo's greatest contribution has been his steadfast commitment to advancing the cause of Asian Americans in Delaware and across America. Dr. Woo became the first Asian American to serve in statewide office in Delaware when he was elected lieutenant governor in 1984. With this victory, Dr. Woo became the highest ranking Chinese-American public office holder in the Nation. Dr. Woo's experience as an immigrant from China gave him a firsthand view of what it is like to come to a new land and begin to build a new life from scratch. While many people would have been satisfied with the success that Dr. Woo found in his chosen fields of physics and politics, he continues his work to improve the way of life for his fellow Asian Americans. He has worked tirelessly to bring people into the political fold, working to increase voter turnout by reaching out to Asian Americans across the country and encouraging them to become active in the political process. Today, he also serves as a trustee of the University of Delaware; an Institute Fellow at the Institute of Politics, the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and as the National President of the Organization of Chinese Americans. I honor and commend my good friend Dr. S.B. Woo for his continued service to the State of Delaware and to Asian Americans across this great country. He is a remarkable yet humble man who has overcome many obstacles to reach the top of his chosen fields, and he continues to this day work to improve the lives of others. I consider it a privilege to know S.B. and Katy Woo and to be able to stand here today to speak on their behalf in the Senate.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I want to mention today the death of a Delawarean--our 15th Delawarean--whose life has been lost in Iraq. She was the first female whose life has been lost in Iraq and whose funeral I attended a week or two ago. I want to reflect on the life and service of Air Force SrA Elizabeth Loncki. She was the first female Delawarean to be killed in the line of duty in Iraq. As a bomb disposal technician, Elizabeth performed one of the most dangerous tasks assigned to Armed Forces personnel. She routinely put herself in harm's way with the hope and knowledge that her actions would save the lives of others. I daresay they have saved the lives of hundreds of other people. The steel nerve and extreme bravery required to locate and disarm explosive devices are not traits too many people possess, including us. Only the bravest of our soldiers and military personnel carry out this responsibility, and her ability to perform and carry out this difficult work speaks volumes about her character and sense of duty to her colleagues, comrades, our country, and to the Iraqi people. Elizabeth epitomized the best of our country's brave men and women who fought to free Iraq and to secure a new democracy in the Middle East. She exhibited unwavering courage, dutiful service to her country, and above all else, honor. In the way she lived her life--and how we remember her--Elizabeth reminds each of us just how good we can be. Elizabeth was only 23 years old but her competitive spirit and kind- hearted ways touched the lives of all that knew her. She was blessed with a wonderful family--younger sister, Olivia, loving parents, stepparents, grandparents, great-grandparents and many aunts, uncles, and cousins--and countless numbers of friends and comrades. She was also loved by SGT Jayson Johnson, who was stationed with Elizabeth at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. They had recently purchased a house together and Jayson had made plans to visit Elizabeth's father to seek his permission to ask for Elizabeth's hand in marriage. The sadness of his loss cannot be overstated. Elizabeth was a 2001 graduate of Padua Academy in Wilmington. She was a natural athlete with a competitive spirit and she excelled at volleyball, basketball and softball. She briefly attended the University of Arizona before enlisting in the Air Force in March of 2003. On February 24, 2004, she graduated from Eglin AFB-Naval Tech Explosive Ordinance Disposal School. She was proud of her training and gladly told inquiring strangers that the ``Bomb Squad'' sweatshirt she often wore was indeed the real thing. Elizabeth volunteered to go to Iraq before she was officially called and was deployed on September 27, 2006. Her grandfather recalled her saying, ``If I saved one life, it was worth it.'' An Air Force official told the Loncki family that each day her team went out, they probably saved scores of lives. She will always be remembered as a hero who put the safety of others before herself. On January 7, 2007, Elizabeth made the ultimate sacrifice near Al Mahmudiyah, Iraq, when a car bomb her team was working on exploded while they were trying to disarm it. TSgt Timothy Weiner of Tamarac, FL, and SrA Daniel B. Miller, Jr., of Galesburg, IL also gave their lives while trying to save others on that fateful day. All three were members of the 775th Civil Engineer Squadron at Hill Air Force Base. Elizabeth was one of the few women who dared to serve as a bomb disposal technician. Her family recently shared a story from a sergeant major who had helped train Elizabeth. I think this goes to the heart of the person she was and what she believed in. I'd like to share a bit of that. He said, ``Elizabeth was an ultimate troop. I am an old Special Forces guy and have been through a lot of action. I have served in three wars. I had the privilege of being in Elizabeth's company. She was involved in extreme combat training and the highest danger. She saved a lot--I repeat--a lot of lives. . . Bar none, she was one of the finest people I have ever trained. I have two boys in the military and have lost troops under my command in the Special Forces and I have never worked with a finer person.'' On January 13, 2007, I attended Senior Airman Loncki's funeral at St. Peter the Apostle Church in New Castle where Elizabeth had been an active member. Following the service, Elizabeth was laid to rest with full military honors in the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery. The outpouring of love and support from the many people who gathered for her burial serve as a testament to the positive impact that Elizabeth had on all of those who were blessed to know her. For her service, Airman Loncki received numerous recognitions during her Air Force career: Air Force Training Ribbon, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Air Force Good Conduct Medal, and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. The Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with Valor Device were awarded posthumously on January 9, 2007. As I listened to Elizabeth's friends and family speak about the type of person she was, I couldn't help but think about the heavy toll that this conflict has taken on our country. Elizabeth had originally planned for a career in the Air Force but she had begun to express doubts about our role in Iraq. She told her grandmother that the people of Iraq ``don't want us over there'' and had asked her father, ``if people don't want us to help, what do we do?'' If I could talk to Elizabeth, I would tell her that she epitomized what is best in this world. I would tell her that if the day ever comes when the Iraqi people decide to put aside their hatred and come together as a nation--and that day cannot come soon enough--it will be the heroic actions of people like her that made this possible. Next week in this Chamber I believe we are going to debate a resolution, and the resolution is about what course we should take in Iraq. I think the President and those who don't share his proposal for a surge of our troops share the same goal. The goal is this: How do we convince the Iraqi people to take charge of their lives? How do we convince them to assume responsibility for their country? How do we and others help to convince them to find a way to share power, share the wealth of their country, and to stop killing each other? The President believes the best way to do it is to send more troops to Baghdad and to other parts of the country. Those of us who disagree, including some of the President's own military leaders with whom I met in Iraq last year, think that maybe the best way to convince them to make the tough choices in Iraq is to make it clear that we are not there forever, that this is not an engagement without an end in sight, and that we have expectations for them to stand and deliver for their own country. I close simply by saying that sometimes we think these debates are just debates that we have in our Nation's Capitol, and there is a country on the other side of the world, with people we don't know, who are doing things we, frankly, don't understand. But it is also important for us to remember people such as Elizabeth Loncki who are willing to risk it all to try to help them, and our obligation is to do our dead level best to make sure they and we get to the right place. I yield the floor.

Mr. CARPER. Madam President, to follow up briefly on the last item my colleague from Missouri was discussing, health care, the President in his State of the Union addressed it and laid out one approach which was certainly different from anything I had heard before, a tax approach that would call for some people to have to pay some taxes on Cadillac plans that they enjoy today and to use the money generated to help folks who don't enjoy that kind of health coverage. Some people immediately rejected it out of hand. I have not done that. I think we need to study it more closely and understand the ramifications. In the end, whether we agree that is a good idea or not, most of us will agree that it is a good idea to figure out how to harness information technology in the delivery of health care in our own States and in the country, much as the VA has done for veterans who go there for service at their facilities. Delaware is endeavoring to become the first State to put in place a statewide Delaware Health Information Network which links our hospitals to our doctors' offices to our labs in a free-flowing electronic exchange of information. It will allow the exchange of electronic health records and lead the way, as a little State, to show what we can do for our country to save money and to save lives and improve outcomes and, frankly, to improve the quality of life for the providers as well and the satisfaction they derive from their work. Climate Change The second thing I wish to mention is this document which was released earlier this week. It is called ``A Call For Action.'' It was released on Monday by an interesting coalition of business leaders, manufacturers, utility companies, and environmental leaders. The folks who released it are called the United States Climate Action Partnership. I wish to briefly mention the charter members of the group who were here in the Capitol, just down the hall in the LBJ Room, on Monday morning. They include DuPont, a 200-year-old company headquartered in Delaware; Alcoa; BP--used to be called British Petroleum, now they are ``beyond petroleum''; Caterpillar; Duke Energy; the Environmental Defense folks; Florida Power & Light: GE; the NRDC, National Resources Defense Council; Pew Institute; PG&E Corporation, a big utility on the west coast; PNM, which is New Mexico power: and the World Resources Institute. What they have done is said: Climate change is real. Our Earth is becoming warmer. We have something to do with it. They call on us to do something about it--not just us in the Senate but as a nation to do something about it. They have laid out here a series of findings, of principles, and of recommendations. One of the things I am doing is sharing with each of my colleagues a copy of this document. If we can get the utilities, manufacturers, and a number of our leading environmental groups to agree on a path forward on the principles and the recommendations, that is an important step for our country. I shared this with the President on Wednesday. He was in Delaware to look at the work going on at the DuPont Company with respect to biofuels, biobutanol, making ethanol out of cellulosic ethanol, out of cornstalks, looking at work being done on fuel cells. I shared with him a copy of this document. The President had in his speech the other night about one sentence where he talked about global warming and acknowledged that it was real. Then he moved on. But I said to the President during a chance I had to chat with him that there is a parade that is beginning to form, a realization that something is happening to our planet, that we have something to do with creating this warming, and that we have an obligation to do something about it. I applaud the leaders from the environmental and business communities who have joined forces to say: This is an approach which makes sense. They take what we call a market approach and use in their approach the idea that while we are putting in place a cap-and-trade system to reduce CO2 emissions, why don't we do so in a way that incentivizes clean coal technology with carbon recapture, that incentivizes things such as wind power, maybe incentivizes the next generation of nuclear energy as well. I commend them. I understand from folks who are involved in this original partnership, they are getting a lot of calls from around the country, from other business leaders, and some from the environmental community who want to know more about it and, frankly, want to join. My message to the President on Wednesday was, a parade is forming. We can watch the parade. We can be a part of that parade or we can lead that parade. We need to lead the parade. President Bush is our President, and he needs to be leading that parade as well. I wanted to share that. The third thing I wish to do is comment on the legislation before us and to applaud the efforts of several of our colleagues, including Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley, as we have brought this minimum wage bill to the floor and coupled it with small business tax cuts. The President signalled early on that he would be willing to sign the minimum wage bill, after having not supported it for a number of years. It has been a long time. We have heard plenty of speeches in the last week about this issue. It has been a long time since we raised the minimum wage. As Governor of my State, we raised the minimum wage a time or two. I always contended that if we wanted people to get off welfare, to go to work and to be successful, work has to pay more than welfare. If you take a minimum wage job and you enhance that with an income tax credit and add to that Medicaid benefits, add to that food stamps and food supplement benefits, people aren't going to get rich--help them with assisted housing--but if we do it right, people can actually be better off working than they would be receiving the welfare. An increase in the minimum wage is part and parcel of that. I am pleased to support this increase, even if it is coupled with increases or changes and modifications to small business tax credits. We all know--in fact, everybody in the Senate has given speeches, I am sure, saying this--that small businesses are the engine of job creation in this country. I have, and I suspect the Presiding Officer has, as have the Senator from New Jersey and the Senator from North Carolina, we have all given speeches saying how important the small business community is. Small business generates new jobs. One of our important jobs in government--Federal, State, and local--is to create a nurturing environment for job creation and preservation. Some of the ways to do that are a well-trained workforce, reasonable tax burdens, reasonable regulations, safer communities, transportation, good infrastructure, and affordable health care. But taxes are important. What I commend Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley in doing is crafting a series of tax credits for small business that incentivizes them to hire people, some of whom are coming off of welfare and disability, and veterans coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq. They have done good work, and I look forward to supporting adoption of the legislation and working out a compromise with the House that includes both the increase in the minimum wage and the tax cuts and, in some cases, credits for small businesses, and then get the President to sign that compromise. Honoring Our Armed Forces Senior Airman Elizabeth A. Loncki

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Mayor William T. McLaughlin. Bill, as he is affectionately called by his friends--and Bill has a lot of friends--celebrated his 90th birthday on December 22, 2006. During the 90 years that the world has been blessed with Bill's presence, he and his late wife Mary have touched many lives and helped countless people. His contributions have ranged from serving his country during World War II, serving the city of Wilmington for two terms as the city's mayor and for 12 years on the city council before that, and offering continued service with numerous community projects both before and after his tenure in elected office. William T. McLaughlin was born on December 22, 1916, on Wilmington's east side. One of 12 children, Bill often joked that the Great Depression helped to raise his family's standard of living. When Bill was 16 years old, his father lost his job. Bill's devotion to his family led to his dropping out of high school in order to accept a job cleaning the Boy's Club in Wilmington's Browntown neighborhood. He then went to work at a linoleum plant where, after being turned down for a two-cent raise, he helped organize a union for the plant employees. This type of initiative would be a hallmark of Bill's life. At the age of 22, Bill signed up for the National Youth Administration, a Federal program he hoped would send him to California. Instead, he was assigned to a swamp drainage program in southern Delaware. After helping to reduce Delaware's mosquito population, Bill decided to seek more adventurous endeavors and joined the Army Air Force during World War II. He trained as an electrical technician and saw action as a radio operator and tail gunner. He was shot down over the skies of New Guinea but managed to survive and went on to complete 50 missions before returning home to Wilmington. Upon his return, Bill attended night school on the GI bill. During this time, Bill went to work for DuPont, where he would work for 30 years, mostly as a supervisor in the company's business machines section. It was during this time that Bill would meet the woman who would become the love of his life. Mary's enthusiasm and outgoing personality were a good counterpoint to Bill's soft-spoken manner and she would have a huge influence on both his future and the future of Wilmington. Together, they raised two sons, William and Donald. Unlike many elected officials, Bill did not enter politics until the later years of his life. In 1964, Mary encouraged him to run for Wilmington's 9th ward city council seat. Bill won the election and continued to serve on the city council for 12 years. During this time, he became the council's finance chairman. In 1976, he agreed to seek election as Wilmington's mayor after then-Mayor Tom Maloney decided to run for the U.S. Senate. Bill was elected as Wilmington's mayor and served two terms in that capacity, serving from 1977 until 1984. During this time, his openness and compassion helped him cultivate a renaissance for the city. He held weekly ``open door'' sessions where any citizen could come by his office and voice their concerns or simply chat about local issues. As mayor, he worked with Governor Pete DuPont and other State leaders to develop the Financial Center Development Act, which laid the foundation for Delaware's rebirth as a financial services center. He also helped lead the efforts to recruit dozens of out-of-State banks to set up shop in Delaware, creating more than 30,000 jobs for the First State. During his time in office, Mayor McLaughlin helped implement the desegregation of Delaware's public school system in northern Delaware. Bill never forgot the obstacles that he had to overcome during his lifetime and sought to level the playing field for all Delawareans, regardless of the color of their skin. He also increased housing opportunities for people with low incomes, and he worked tirelessly to create new jobs by recruiting potential employers to settle in Wilmington and the surrounding areas. Bill also played a pivotal role in promoting the Delaware arts community, helping to create the Delaware Theatre Company and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts. What stands out most to me--and for a generation of Delaware's political leaders--is Bill's willingness to mentor young people seeking elected office. When I first ran for State treasurer in 1976, Bill was among the first public officials I reached out to. His support and kindness were instrumental in my first campaign and continue to be a source of inspiration for many of Delaware's elected officials. After leaving office in 1984, Bill continued to play a vital role in the lives of countless Delawareans. He championed the disadvantaged through his involvement with numerous community service efforts. In 1996, he and Mary founded the William T. and Mary McLaughlin Education Fund, which continues to provide academic support for deserving students in Wilmington and New Castle County. After Mary's passing in 2002, Bill continued their work to help better the lives of their fellow Delawareans. Bill's hard work and devotion to service have led to countless community service awards. In 1985, on his last day as Wilmington's mayor, Bill was awarded the Josiah Marvel Cup for public service, the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce's most prestigious award. Many people would have seen that award as a capstone, but Bill seemed to view it as a foundation upon which he continues to build his legacy. Bill is a true friend of Delaware. His compassion, integrity, warm sense of humor and vitality of spirit are a true inspiration for us all. I rise today to commend his hard work, to applaud his devotion to community service and to wish him many more happy birthdays in the years to come.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. I thank my friend for her statement and for her help in moving this critical bill through the Senate tonight. I agree with her that the Appropriations Committee should not bear the burden of funding the Postal Regulatory Commission and the USPS inspector general. While it is important that the Commission and the inspector general enjoy the new independence from postal management that we seek to extend them in this bill, it is unfair to do so by taking scarce resources away from the critical programs overseen by the Appropriations subcommittee Senator Murray will soon lead. Our imprecision in drafting the section of our bill that Senator Murray refers to should not make her already difficult job even harder. In the coming weeks and months, I pledge to work closely with Senator Murray, her colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, and my colleagues on the Homeland Security Committee in seeking a permanent solution to the problematic language that Senator Murray has brought to our attention.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. I appreciate very much those words and the chance to be a friend of Senator Mike DeWine. Mr. President, I wish to talk about a couple of things, if I may. In about 15 or 20 minutes, the Senate will vote on the confirmation of a judge. The President has seen fit to nominate District Court Judge Kent Jordan, who serves in Delaware, to succeed Judge Jane Roth who has served for more than a dozen years as a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Roth announced early this year that she was going to take senior status, and she has done that. I will talk a little bit about her, and then I will talk about Judge Kent Jordan. Judge Roth, whom I have been privileged to know for almost as long as I have been in Delaware, whose husband served here in the Senate for some 30 years and was my predecessor, typifies everything a judge ought to be--smart, knows the law, adheres to the law, uncommonly fairminded, treats those who come before her, whether they are on either side of an argument, with respect, has a reputation for providing judicial temperament, a forum where justice can occur. She is somebody who works hard, somebody who has a wonderful sense of humor. Sometimes when people don those black robes, they turn in their sense of humor, but she has never lost hers. Along the way, in addition to being a district court judge and then a circuit court judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, she was a lawyer and partner in a major law firm in my State, Richards, Layton & Finger. She played a prominent role there for about 20 years. Prior to that, she served in the foreign service for our country. I believe she served in places such as Iran, and we could probably use her expertise and counsel these days. She served in Rhodesia and in the Republic of the Congo. She married Bill Roth along the way, raised two children, and somehow managed to do it all with grace and aplomb. She continues to serve us as the senior judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. We are lucky she does, and we are grateful to her for that service and to her family for sharing with all the people of the country, not just of Delaware, a remarkable human being. We are grateful for her service and think of her today as we consider the nomination of her successor Kent Jordan. I have known Kent Jordan not for as long as Judge Roth, but I have known him. He served on the district court in Delaware for some time. Delaware is a little State. You know almost everybody, if you want to. I have had a chance to get to know him and his family. I think he has earned very high marks as our district court judge, much as Judge Roth did when she was our district court judge. When I was privileged to be Governor of the State for some 8 years, I nominated a lot of people to serve on the bench. Among the qualities I looked for was people who knew the law, who had good judgment, who were able to make decisions. Sometimes people, frankly, find it hard to make a decision. As a judge, that is not a good thing. You want somebody who knows the law and somebody who has good judgment, who is able to make decisions and follows the golden rule in the way the people treat who come before them, who provides good judicial temperament and a forum, a courtroom, where justice will more likely than not be served. Judge Jordan in his service on the district court has always shown that those are the qualities he is all about. He, as Judge Roth, has been a parent, raised a family. I am not sure if I have the right number, but I think he and his wife have raised five or six, maybe seven children. So they have had a lot going on at home, with schools and all kinds of extracurricular activities. He served before that in a number of other challenging situations. We had a little debate today and there was a cloture vote on whether we were going to vote on Judge Jordan's nomination. Nobody should somehow interpret that vote and the fact that we had to vote on cloture as any question about his integrity, competence, ability, and willingness to serve. He will be a great addition to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. We will vote in about 15 minutes on Kent Jordan's nomination. I hope my colleagues will join me--and I know I speak for Senator Biden in urging our support--unanimous support for this nomination. He has not disappointed us in anything he has ever done, and I am sure he will not disappoint any of us in this regard either. He has received, by the way, from the American Bar Association--every now and then we talk about the ratings they hand out with respect to nominees. His unanimous rating was ``well qualified,'' which is the highest possible grade. It was a unanimous rating. I think that speaks for itself. In addition to having served as a district court judge for the last 4 years, he also clerked for a legend in our part of the country, District Court Judge James Latchum. Once he graduated from law school, he became an assistant U.S. attorney for the Delaware District. He has done great things with his life. He has a lot of integrity and great energy. I hope he will be rewarded for those things later today. We will be voting in a very short while. Independent Regulator For Government-Sponsored Enterprises As we come down the home stretch on our year's business, there are some things we are going to complete today, or maybe tomorrow-- hopefully, not Sunday--and there are some things we may not complete. I was looking in the local paper in our State, the News Journal, on Thursday when I was coming down on the train. I saw an article that was headlined ``Fannie Mae Restates Earnings, With $6.3 Billion in Profits Slashed.'' I think what the auditors and the Fannie Mae accountants have done is looked at earnings over a 4-year period of time, from 2001 through 2004, and they concluded that Fannie Mae--a huge enterprise, a large Government-sponsored enterprise, like Freddie Mac--overstated their profits by some $6.3 billion. The reason I bring that up is that I am disappointed that we are going to finish business this year and not provide for a strong, independent regulator for Government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. That has not been questioned--with respect to the way they operate, the accuracy of the financial reporting. Great questions have been raised over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and as we have seen in yesterday's newspaper, there was a huge restatement of earnings. I think it is unfortunate that we are not going to be able to conclude with a vote on legislation that some people have spent a lot of time working on in the last year or two. The House of Representatives has passed--not unanimously but by a wide margin-- legislation that would provide for a strong, independent regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Senate ended up breaking down along party lines in the Senate Banking Committee on similar kinds of legislation. We passed out a bill on party lines. It never came up on the floor. In the last month or two, there has been an encouraging discussion and negotiation between Congressmen Barney Frank and Mike Oxley, his staff, and the folks at the Treasury Department, under the direction of Secretary Hank Paulson, to try to narrow the differences between the bill reported out by our committee with only Republican support and the bill that passed with bipartisan support in the House. We have not been able to resolve all of our differences, but progress has been made in the last month. I want to say to both Congressman Frank and Congressman Oxley--who is leaving, as well, at the end of this year, so he will not have a chance to push this ball into the end zone next year but certainly Congressman Frank will be in a position to do that. He will chair the relevant committee in the House. I think great work has been done and good progress has been made. It is unfortunate that we are not going to complete the job this week. I think we teed the ball up for next month. I hope one of the first things we will do in the Senate Banking Committee is hold hearings and look at the negotiations that have taken place between the House and the Treasury Department and see if we cannot build on those and pass legislation--find common cause with the House of Representatives and the administration and pass the legislation. Until we do that, there are a couple things that are going to be occurring. One, we are going to have uncertainty for the enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and those who are thinking about selling their stock. There will be an impact on the housing market as well. We don't need that. The regulator for these entities will not have bank- regulator-like powers. This regulator needs that. These entities need a regulator that has bank-regulator-like powers. The regulator will not be independent, and we need legislation which would create a strong, independent regulator. Mission and new product authority will continue to be separate; they should not be. Capital requirements will not be flexible; they should be. Growth of these two enterprises will go largely unconstrained. None of those things are desirable. I hope we can address them all when we come back and resolve them satisfactorily in a very few months. Having said that, there is a lot of progress that has been made. If we go back a year or so, we had large differences where folks in the Senate were on a path forward with respect to a strong, independent regulator for Government-sponsored enterprises. We agree on combining the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with the Federal Finance Board, which regulates the Federal Home Loan Banks. We agree on that now. The question of the independent regulator from the appropriations process, we agree on that--that the regulator should be independent of the appropriations process. We also agree that the independent litigation authority for the regulator should be provided. Currently, they have to go through the Department of Justice, and I think we have all come to agree that is not the best course, and the regulator ought to have independent litigation authority. We decided the regulator has to have the power to put them into receivership if, God forbid, the worst should occur. We agree on that today. We have agreed on combined mission oversight and new product authority under one world class regulator, something that a month or a year or so ago we didn't have common cause on. We agree today that the regulator ought to have flexibility for setting capital standards-- the Congress setting standards for risk or minimum capital standards. We should invest in the regulator's authority. We agree that there ought to be restrictions on the size of the portfolios of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars, literally, portfolios that exceed a trillion dollars. That is a lot of money. Enterprises of this size, because of the effect they can have on financial markets here and around the world, deserve a world-class regulator. We want to make sure they get that. That should be an early item of business next January. Having said that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARPER. I ask unanimous consent to be granted an additional 5 minutes from the Democratic side.

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, before Senator DeWine leaves the floor, he was speaking of a loss that he and his family and others are mourning, I presume in Ohio, where I spent a number of years as an undergraduate at Ohio State University. I would associate myself with his remarks in extending our sympathies from Delaware. We received some devastating news of our own in Delaware a day or two ago with the news that Army SGT Keith Fiscus had been killed in action in Iraq at the age of 26. Our hearts go out to him. I will be talking more about him later. There is a loss that we mourn as well, not the loss of a life here in the Senate, but the loss of Senator DeWine who will be returning to Ohio and to other challenges in the days ahead. Senator DeWine and I were elected to the House of Representatives in 1982. We came here together with people such as John McCain, Tom Ridge, John Kasich, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Dick Durbin, and John Spratt, a remarkable freshman class in the House of Representatives. It was the year we elected a lot of Democrats and not nearly as many Republicans. Somehow, then, Congressman DeWine managed to swim against the tide and to be elected against those odds in Ohio. He served as a Congressman of distinction, later as the State's Lieutenant Governor where he trained George Voinovich, who served as Governor, and then to be elected to the Senate. It was my privilege to serve with him in the House of Representatives and it has been a privilege to serve with him in the Senate. On a personal level, I will miss him. I want to say how much it has been a privilege to serve with my friend from Ohio, who has a good mind and a good heart, wonderful family, and is deeply devoted to them and the people of Ohio, whom we both revere.

Mr. CARPER. I do.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I concur with many of the remarks the Senator from Maine has made. She has listed a host of people who played critical roles in the adoption of the legislation, hammering out a difficult compromise over the last 4 years. I salute her for her leadership and thank her for her leadership. I especially say thank you to Ann Fisher, who has served for Senator Collins and really for us, for the great work she has done in the course of this effort. I have been blessed with my own staff and a young man named John Kilvington from New Castle, DE, who came here with me 6 years ago and became an expert of his own with respect to postal reform, and has worked long and hard, even into this night, to bridge our differences and to get us over one last hurdle. There is a reason why we only do postal reform once every 36 years, and the reason is that it is tough to do. There are so many competing interests--mailers large and small in areas rural and urban, the labor unions involved trying to do their best to represent hundreds of thousands of postal employees; there are competitors, UPS and FedEx, that didn't exist a number of years ago. In fact, if you go back in time to 1970 when the current business model for the Postal Service was created by then junior Senator Ted Stevens, who today is our President pro tempore and one of the most senior Senators in the Senate, he provided the leadership in 1970 to create the U.S. Postal Service. At the time and for many years thereafter, it was the right business model for providing postal service to the people of this country. But a lot has changed since 1970. In 1970, I was a lieutenant JG on the other side of the world in Southeast Asia the year the Postal Service, as we know it, was born. One of the things different--I think of the current war that many of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are waging--in the Vietnam war, we didn't have any e-mails. We had mail call. It was one of the highlights of our day every day. We had no cell phones with which to communicate with our loved ones. We had no bank by phone. We had no electronic banking. Direct deposits were new. There was no such thing as a FedEx or UPS to provide the kind of competition the Postal Service faces today, and no threat of anthrax in the mail. The world has changed dramatically, and also the way that we exchange information, the way we communicate with one another has changed dramatically, too. The Postal Service needs to change as well. With the adoption of this legislation, it will. I extend my heartfelt thanks to our colleagues in the House of Representatives with whom we have served and worked on this challenge, particularly Congressman McHugh who led the fight for a decade or more, Congressman Davis who chairs the relevant committee in the House, and also Congressman Henry Waxman, with whom I served years ago in the House, entered the fray and helped, along with Congressman Davis and others, to get us to the finish line. I don't want to belabor what this bill does or does not do, but it acknowledges this is not 1970 anymore; this is 2006. We will still have universal delivery for the mail. We will still receive that mail 6 days a week. The Postal Service will still be expected, when somebody builds a new house or starts a new business, to deliver mail to those places. I am told during the course of the year at least a million new customers come online for the Postal Service, and the Postal Service will be there through rain, sleet, and snow to deliver the mail to all those customers. The Postal Service under the legislation we have is going to act more like a business. They will have an opportunity to price their products more competitively and overall can put together a whole slew of postal products. Overall, the price of those products cannot go up in a given year by more than the rate of inflation, but individual products can. Product A can go up more than product B and product C more than product D. Over the next 10 years, the overall increase in the cost of postal products can rise above the cost of living. That will provide a measure of stability to the huge industry that relies on the post office and a good postal service. For those who compete with the Postal Service--and there are very strong and good competitors; UPS and FedEx are among those--they will have the opportunity to continue to compete, but I think they will be on a playing field that is a bit more level where the first-class mail the Postal Service will continue to enjoy a monopoly on will not be able to underwrite the cost of their competitive products with companies such as UPS and FedEx. One of the things I am happiest about--and I give Senator Collins the credit on this for convincing the administration to agree on two points: One, folks who served in the military to come to work in the Postal Service and eventually earn a postal pension. The mailers, people who buy stamps, mailers large and small shouldn't have to pay for the military service that later accrues to those same individuals when they retire from the Postal Service. It is not fair to the mailers. It is not fair to the public. Those costs should be borne by the Treasury, and under this bill they will be. And secondly, for many years folks thought the Postal Service was underpaying its pension costs for its employees. A couple years ago the Office of Personnel Management did a study and found that rather than underpaying pension obligations, they are overpaying, and if they continue at the rate they are going, they will be making a big overpayment in the years to come. This legislation corrects that situation. It says that in the future, the Postal Service, 10 years out, will have access to a fair amount of money that would have gone into overpayments. In the meantime, a lot of money is going to be used to pay down the unamortized cost of health care. Tens of billions of costs will be paid off, and that will put the Postal Service in stronger financial shape going forward. Lastly, I want to mention the administration. I know Senator Collins has as well. In the negotiations that lasted for years on this legislation, the administration, particularly in the last weeks, especially played a constructive role. I single out among those Michael Bopp, who previously served on the staff for Senator Collins, and his help was critical, as was that of Rob Portman and a number of others in the administration. Our people said this is perfect legislation. I am not aware of any perfect legislation I have been associated with. This was a hard one to put together. My dad used to say that the hardest things to do are the things that are worth doing. If that is any indication, this is something worth doing. I am grateful to all who played a part. The hour is late, about 2:20 in the morning. I am ready to call it a day, and I know we will have other business to do. Again I thank my colleagues, those within the mailing public, the Postal Service, Jack Porter, our Postmaster General, and all who worked to get us to this point in time, and particularly to Patty Murray who worked with us tonight to get past a real tough spot. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to discuss with my friends, the Senators from Utah and Wisconsin, an important proposal that will enhance Delaware's economy by promoting agri-tourism and our agricultural heritage. As we all know, Senator Bennett, the chairman, and Senator Kohl, the ranking member, of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee have the difficult job of managing funding priorities for the Nation's agriculture spending and do a superb job in that role. I bring to my colleagues' attention an important proposal that merits serious consideration--the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village, which interprets and preserves the story of Delaware's past and promotes an understanding of the vital role agriculture plays in our daily lives. This is a vital cultural resource center that presents the history and function of American agriculture. It is very important that the American people, and especially our youth, understand the source of their food supply. This is especially so in view of such critical issues as childhood obesity, food safety, and the continuing loss of farmland to development. Each year the Delaware Agricultural Village hosts thousands of school children and tens of thousands of tourists. These visitors experience 19th century farming life and witness the evolution of American agriculture. The school children of Delmarva benefit from the summer camps, field trips, and educational programs provided by this facility. These activities help our children understand and appreciate the joys and struggles of farming life in the past as well as today. This institution is a great demonstration of the valuable role that farming ingenuity and technological innovation play in dairy, poultry farming, and rural life in Delaware and across the country. Every year 25,000 people visit this center, and between 6,000 and 9,000 school children participate annually in field trips, summer camps, and other activities. The village serves all of the Delmarva Peninsula and receives visitors from across the Nation. Last week, the center hosted a school from as far away as Texas. Specifically, the funds requested will be combined with additional funds from private individuals, businesses, and other government sources to ensure the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village will be able to better serve their agri-tourism and educational guests. Every year it seems the facility is asked to do more and more. These additional funds will help provide additional space and more accommodating facilities while avoiding construction of an entirely new building. I and the rest of the Delaware congressional delegation are very supportive of this program and seek the support of the bill managers in asking the Department of Agriculture to consider and assist this project with resources available in the Rural Development mission area. We also request that the managers help support this item in the conference committee on the Agriculture appropriations bill. So, with this background, I ask my friends from Utah and Wisconsin whether it is correct that the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village will be considered in the conference between the House and Senate on this bill?

Mr. CARPER. I thank my friends for taking a moment to discuss this matter with me. I urge my colleagues who will be negotiating these provisions with the House to carefully consider the benefits of this proposal. I thank them in advance for any assistance they may render. penicillin

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Let me close by saying a special thanks to my friend from Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln, and to our colleague, Norm Coleman from Minnesota, for talking with us for a few minutes today about their faith. One of my favorite verses of Scripture comes out of the little Book of James, near the end of the New Testament, where we read: Show me your faith by your words and I will show you my faith by my deeds. The most important thing is not how high we jump up in church but what we do when our feet hit the ground, and our feet hit the ground here every day of the week at about 9:30. As we go forward, none of us is perfect. All of us make mistakes--God knows I do. But I would just remind us all it is important not just to talk about our faith but that we try to show our faith by our deeds. Having said that, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Of course.

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, how much time do we have on our 20 minutes?

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, the elections are behind us now and we are looking forward to the next Congress which will be seated on January 4--the 110th Congress. We have in town a number of newly elected Senators and their spouses. A number of us--Senator Alexander, Senator Voinovich, Senator Pryor, and myself--have been involved, along with the Secretary of the Senate, in holding orientation for new Senators and their spouses. On Tuesday night we were over at the National Archives and we had the opportunity to have a reception there and a dinner. The reception turned out to be a tour of the National Archives and the opportunity to see firsthand original copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, handwritten letters from George Washington to all kinds of people, and from Abraham Lincoln to all kinds of people. We actually looked at the original Bill of Rights where we found that there were actually 12 amendments proposed to the Constitution, not 10. Two were not actually adopted. It was interesting to see and to go back over 200 years to the history and formation of our country, to focus on it and to think about it and reflect on it. When the Constitutional Convention was held, just up the Delaware River from where I live in Wilmington, DE, and up in Philadelphia, whenever the Founding Fathers were getting into a tough time trying to come to consensus or agreement on one issue or the other that they were grappling with, a lot of times they would take a break and pray about it. When the inauguration of President Washington occurred in New York City, when they finished the inauguration, they didn't go off and hold big parties and balls, but they actually went to a church and prayed together and had a worship service. In fact, I am told over in the House of Representatives, when our country was young, President Jefferson was participating in worship services held there. Even now, 207 years later, we still begin each day's session here in the Senate, as they do in the House, with a prayer. We have Bible study groups that meet on Thursday with the Senate Chaplain, Barry Black. We have done that for a number of years. Senator Coleman, who has been one of our leaders in a Wednesday morning prayer breakfast, and Mark Pryor from Arkansas have led that for a number of years. So faith, from the beginning of our foundation as a country, has been important to us, to guide us as a nation, and to guide us today in our own personal lives. When the Constitution was written and the Bill of Rights was written, the idea was not to establish an organized religion; the idea was to make sure people were free to practice whatever faith they wanted, and to be respectful of people of different faiths and the fact that people can worship as they see fit or choose not to worship at all. One of the strengths of our Nation is our faith, but another of the strengths of our Nation is the respect we have for people of different faiths. We have people in this body who are Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish. We worship the same God, just a bit differently. One of the things we try to do during the course of the week is to use our faith. Whether we happen to be Presbyterian, Mormon, or Jewish, how do we use that faith to help guide us in the policies we adopt for our country and for the people we represent? I feel fortunate to live in a country where we are free to worship God as we see fit. I think there is a real opportunity here for us in the Senate as we try to put our country back together and begin to work together after a rough-and- tumble election to find ways that we can use our faith to figure out our path, and to better ensure the people in this country have health care, that folks have decent jobs, that folks get a good education, and that we can bind the wounds we have opened over the last several months and to move forward as a nation. I say how pleased I am to have a chance to work with Senator Coleman from Minnesota and how much I appreciate the great leadership he has shown in bringing a bunch of us together on Wednesday mornings. I usually can't get here on Wednesday morning. I go back and forth on the train to Delaware almost every night, so I can't be there for many Wednesday mornings for that type of fellowship. But I oftentimes join my colleagues, including Senator Lincoln of Arkansas and others, on Thursday right down the hall here for a Bible study group that is a little bit like an adult Sunday school class with the Senate Chaplain, affording us the opportunity to read scripture together, reflect together, to pray for one another, and to be nourished spiritually. I am delighted to be here with Senator Coleman today, and I thank him for his leadership.

Mr. CARPER

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

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. How much time do we have?

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, the Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Coleman, and I would ask unanimous consent for each of us to sort of pool our 10 minutes apiece and take maybe the next 20 minutes to share--and some of our colleagues who are going to come by and talk as well--about the role our faith plays in the work we do here. If that might be acceptable, I would ask unanimous consent.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I thank my friend for yielding to me. While Senator Collins is still on the floor, I want to take a moment to say, Mr. President, if you go back 5 years ago and consider the tragedies that befell our Nation on September 11, it opened our eyes to the kind of threats we face with respect to the security of our air travel. It served to open our eyes, subsequently, with respect to the security of our ports, with the security of our chemical plants and the communities that are located around them. I think we have had our eyes opened to security threats that maybe face people who travel on our trains and our commuter rail systems. We have seen all too well how inadequately--ineptly, really--FEMA responded to the Katrina and the gulf coast part of our country. I think most of us agree today we are better equiped now to fend off threats to the security of our air travel. And I think with respect to the security of our ports, with this legislation Senator Collins and Senator Murray have shepherded, which the Presiding Officer has contributed greatly to, we have made real progress; some would say maybe not enough, but I think everybody would say measurable, palpable progress. I know there are folks who have been critical of the fact that we have not included the rail and transit provisions in this final conference report, which were included in our Senate-passed version. I wish they were there. We have a lot of people who travel on the rail and transit systems, with, I think, about 9 billion trips this year, and there is a threat to many of them--not all of them but to many of them. But there is good work that has been done with respect to chemical security. FEMA has been overhauled, and I think maybe not transformed but I think significantly improved. One of the constant threads within all of that has been Senator Collins, as the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. I just want to stand here tonight and say that this is yet another conference she has helped to direct and steer, as it comes to a conclusion. I commend her, and certainly Senator Murray, who has worked closely with her. I commend them and the Presiding Officer and others for the good work they have done. I acknowledge we have some more work to do with rail and transit security. My hope is we will do that when we return next January. Thank you very much. And I again thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. CARPER

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I thank you. I ask unanimous consent to speak for 5 minutes in morning business.

Mr. CARPER. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I want to take a moment to bring to the attention of our colleagues a full-page article which ran in the business section of the Washington Post recently headlined ``American Core Values, Equal Opportunity.'' I had some discussion in my caucus this week focusing on diversity and focusing on diversity of our own staff here on Capitol Hill and how well we are doing. This is an issue that is on my mind. Some of my colleagues may be familiar with something called the 80-20 Educational Foundation which seeks to promote equal opportunity for Asian Americans. The president of the foundation, as it turns out, is a colleague and friend of mine, a constituent. He is former Lieutenant Governor, recently retired physics professor at the University of Delaware, Dr. S.B. Woo. Here are some of the findings of 88-20's research as spelled out in the article in the paper. No. 1. When compared to Whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, and women, Asian-Americans have the lowest odds of rising to management level positions in private industry, universities, and even in the Federal Government. No. 2. This is interesting because 80-20's research also indicates that Asian-Americans are much more likely to obtain a college degree or higher than Whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, or women. The data indicates that Asian-Americans have half the chance of Whites of rising to management-level positions. If this is right, then this is wrong. From the charts, we can also see that African-Americans, Hispanics, and women are still lagging behind as well. They are also less likely to rise to management level positions. And, perhaps more troubling for the future, they are also much less likely to obtain advanced degrees. This country was founded on the premise that all men and all women are created equal and that we must always strive for equality and justice for all of us. We have made great strides over the years. We have taken steps to get closer to that goal of equality and justice for all. As I have often said, we can obviously make it better. But an important part of that fight--which I think is illustrated in the Washington Post--is keeping vigilant. We must continue to stay vigilant to promote equal opportunity for all Americans, not just Asian-Americans. Each of the groups in these charts faces different barriers, different challenges. And although we have made great progress in the opportunities for all Americans, we cannot become complacent and assume that there is no work left to be done. The fight for equal opportunity is a fight we must not allow to lag. I hope my colleagues will consider the important information that is presented here today and maybe take the opportunity to look at it. I ask unanimous consent to have the Washington Post item printed in the Record.