Jim DeMint

Mr. DeMINT

Mr. DeMINT. Madam President, as we try to end the session today, I think I am looking for some silver lining in all we are doing here, with the panic I believe we here in Congress have created in our markets and credit industry and passing this conglomeration of bills without adequate debate. There is one silver lining for me that I think we need to mention to the American people. A number of families are suffering for a lot of reasons, but one of the greatest is the high cost of gasoline in this country--and now even shortages. But because of the anger of the American people, because of the e-mails that have come in, this continuing resolution we will be voting on today includes a huge victory for the American people because the moratorium on oil and gas leasing on most of the Outer Continental Shelf and on oil shale leasing on Federal lands will expire. Many thought this was a law that we couldn't change, but the fact is this was a year-to-year rider on spending bills that had to be included every year or it would expire. But because Americans got engaged in this whole idea of making October 1 Energy Freedom Day, our Democratic colleagues have backed down and have not included an extension of this moratorium in this year's bill. So at midnight on October 1, 2008, because it is a start of a new fiscal year, the current prohibitions on oil and gas leasing on most of the Outer Continental Shelf and on oil shale leasing on Federal lands will expire. That is something to celebrate here in America. Estimates from the Minerals Management Service and the Bureau of Land Management indicate there are upwards of 18 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil on the currently off-limit areas of the Outer Continental Shelf, as well as more than 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Estimates of American oil shale vary widely but range from the hundreds of billions of barrels to trillions of barrels of oil. Many believe we have more oil in oil shale than Saudi Arabia has. Taking advantage of America's resources will increase the worldwide supply of petroleum and bring down prices at the pump. The very access to these resources will send powerful price reduction signals to the futures market, providing immediate price relief, even if the actual leasing does not commence for months. Everyone is familiar with the crisis on Wall Street. The coverage dominates every media outlet. But we also have a crisis on Main Street, where people are paying outrageously high prices for gasoline and having to wait in long lines to fill up their cars. Here are only a few headlines we are starting to get from newspapers. The Associated Press headline: ``The Southeast Shortage Squeezes Small Retailers and One Gas Station Owner Says It's A Panic.'' CBS News reported in their headline in North Carolina: ``Gas Shortage Leaves People Panicked.'' Washington Post, ``Gas Shortage in the South Creates Panic and Long Lines.'' It goes on and on. This is very real. This is not something we are manufacturing and it is a direct result of bad policy here in Congress that has restricted the development of our own energy here in America. Unfortunately, we are still having to wait for a number of Members of Congress to allow this to proceed. It was announced earlier this week that the Democrats had given up on their efforts to block energy exploration, and America celebrated. But then not more than 24 hours later we learned the majority leader here was making plans to rob Americans of this victory by extending the ban on oil shale. Fortunately, that effort was defeated yesterday. Now media reports indicate that Democrats also have a plan to delay any offshore drilling using environmental lawsuits until after the November elections, when the Democrats can reinstate the ban on deep sea energy exploration. In fact, House Majority Leader Hoyer told cnnnews.com on Wednesday that restoring the ban on new offshore oil drilling leases will be a top priority for discussion next year. If the Democrats retain control of Congress, he said, I am sure it will be a top priority for discussion next year. This is outrageous. The American people will not tolerate it. That is why I have written a bill that is called the Drill Now Act, which will guarantee access to offshore and oil shale reserves. It will expedite the leasing and production of these energy supplies and provide States with a 50-50 share of the revenues with the Federal Government and prevent frivolous lawsuits from delaying the will of the American people. This is very simple and it is what Americans want. I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will set aside their desire to punish Americans for buying gas and side with the American people. Yesterday I asked unanimous consent that we bring this bill up and pass it, but it was objected to by the majority leader. We will continue this effort, to try to pass this bill that will expedite energy production in our country. I wish to mention a few things we will be voting on in an hour because this is, frankly, an embarrassment in a time we are running around here like Chicken Little saying `` the sky is falling.'' The credit markets are seizing up--this has been a self-fulfilling prophecy. We have created a crisis in our country. But while we are talking about a financial crisis and an economic crisis all around America and the world, it is business as usual here in the Senate. When the Democrats took control 2 years ago, they promised we would end this wasteful spending and cut earmarks dramatically, but the continuing resolution we are voting on today goes right back to where we were, and worse. This bill includes $16.1 billion in earmarks--that is billion. There are over 2,620 earmarks in this bill. For all the appropriations bills last year, there were less than that, and this only includes three. There is more porkbarrel spending today than we did all of last year, at a time when we are saying the country is running out of money. At this rate, for these three bills, the 2009 fiscal year budgets will see more earmarks than we have ever seen in history. Most Americans are beginning to understand how this wastes their money and corrupts the process. Let me mention a few of the earmarks that are in this bill. There is $44 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center in John Murtha's district, a project the Defense Department has said repeatedly it does not want or need. But every year it comes back because it is in a Congressman's district. There is $1.75 million for a heritage center that Speaker Nancy Pelosi put in for a museum that is negligible--it has no value to the men and women in uniform. There is $1.28 million for a Navy museum included by Congressman Dicks. The military doesn't need another museum, they need the tools to fight the war. If we had billions of extra money sitting around, maybe we could talk about these extravagances, but when we are going into more and more debt, hundreds of billions of dollars a year, it makes absolutely no sense to be including over 2,000 earmarks, wasteful spending, in a bill that includes serious military needs. Americans are angry. They are hearing we have to bail out Wall Street. They are angry at wasteful spending and they have every right to be. When the Democrats took control, the Congressional Budget Office projected an $800 billion surplus between 2008 and 2017. But after 2 years of Democratic control, that same budget office now projects a $2.6 trillion deficit over the same period. That is $3.4 trillion in deterioration of our budget situation. As I said, even worse; wasteful spending and secret earmarks are back in full force. Americans have seen, over the last couple of years, this Congress do things and attempt to do things that they know are bad for our country. They saw a massive amnesty bill for illegal immigrants come through, but we were able to stop it because of the anger of the American people. They have seen this Congress for years stop the development of our own resources, our own energy, and now prices are through the roof and shortages are occurring. But the anger of the American people is beginning to get the attention of Congress. We have stopped this moratorium, and we are making progress. Now we are talking about this massive bailout of Wall Street that was caused by bad policy here in Congress that we still refuse to change. While this bailout may be necessary for reasons we have caused here in Congress, we need to do it in a way that protects the taxpayer and includes some free market principles. We need to do some things that actually solve the problems that caused what we are dealing with today. We need to do some things that support some free market principles and guarantee that the Government is not going to be a permanent player in our financial markets. Americans are angry. I hope they will stay angry because the more they call and e-mail, the more we can get things done here that are right for American people. We stopped their amnesty bill, we have stopped the moratorium on drilling, and we have gotten their attention on this bailout. Now they are listening to some of the better solutions that have been brought up. So I thank the American people for being engaged. Because of their action, we have a chance now to make some major changes here in Congress. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Whitehouse.) The Senator from Alabama is recognized.

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

Mr. DeMINT

Mr. DeMINT. Reserving the right to object, I understand the majority leader has added into this so-called stimulus package an extension of the ban on oil shale development. I ask consent that his request be modified to include an amendment, which is at the desk, that would authorize and expedite offshore and oil shale exploration.

Mr. DeMINT

Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, my colleague has made a case for more Government intervention into the problems on Wall Street and in our economy, basically blaming the free markets for our failures. I would like to make it clear what I think most Americans already know, which is that many of the problems we are having today, particularly the problems with AIG, the failures on Wall Street, the mortgage industry, actually go back not to greed in the private market but political greed--the problems that were created when this Congress and this Government set up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as government- sponsored enterprises with the implied and now very explicit backing of the American people. It provided so much cheap credit to the market, securities that were bought and sold by many companies. AIG is in trouble because of these bad mortgages that basically originated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. My point is that the problems we are having are caused by the wrong kind of Government intervention. This is not a failure of free enterprise; this is a failure of Government solutions and the lack of Government oversight into enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that were started. Now, in a situation where we already have debt as a nation, we are borrowing excessively and our economy is slowing down. We are in a situation where we have to continue to spend money to bail out these companies because of bad Government decisions decades ago. A lot of money is being spent and a lot is being wasted by this Congress. We have had a debate over the last 2 years about wasteful spending and earmarks. There has been a lot of talk about creating more transparency and stopping this wasteful spending. We had an ethics bill that passed with a lot of fanfare where we talked about making these earmarks more transparent, putting them in the bills themselves so that the American people could see what we are spending, and that if we were going to have a ``bridge to nowhere,'' at least the American people knew we were spending that money. We have talked about this for the past 2 years, and even the President has recognized that so much of this earmarking has resulted in wasteful spending in transportation, and especially in the military, that he has issued an Executive order that has made it clear that when we produce a bill, such as the Defense authorization bill, and then, as an aside, we produce what we call report language, with oftentimes thousands of earmarks, politically directed spending all over the country--few that the military asked for, most they did not. A lot of these are meritorious projects. The fact is, if we want to look up the bill itself, the text, and search for different types of spending, it is not available because it is not in the bill itself. For many years in the Senate and the Congress as a whole we have produced spending and authorization bills and then did the report language on the side with hidden earmarks that people didn't know were there. The President said in his Executive order that when we send a bill over with report language on the side, he is going to direct his agencies not to honor these earmarks unless they are meritorious, unless they agree with the mission of the agency and the purpose of the legislation. It doesn't mean these are all taken out and lost, which is what has been presented on the Senate floor today. What it means is they have scrutiny; that the administration, if it sees wasteful projects, does not feel obligated to spend the money, which is a good thing. In this Defense authorization bill, some Senators, my Democratic colleagues, have decided they want to go around the Executive order. They want all of these earmarks to have the force of law, which means whether they are meritorious or not the administration has to honor them. The way they have done this, which sets us back years as far as earmark reform in the Senate, is they have put a little section in this bill that references all of these earmarks and in effect makes them law. What I have offered is an amendment. I asked to have one amendment on this bill. There is a tradition in the Senate that Senators are allowed to offer an amendment. I have been waiting a week to offer the amendment. It strikes that section that tries to secretly attach all of the earmarks to the actual law. It is a simple amendment of three words: ``Strike section 1002.'' It does not eliminate all of the earmarks, but it gives the administration the right they should have not to spend money on projects in this green book that are not needed by the military or to defend this country and that the military considers wasteful. We should not allow Members of the Senate to pretend to have reformed the earmark process, to pretend to have a more ethical process, when, in fact, what they have done is the most unethical thing we have ever done with earmarks: to try to make something secret actually have the force of law with a little section written here. My amendment would change that and put it back to the way it has been for years. I ask my colleagues not to go backwards as far as earmark reform, not to defy what the American people have told us increasingly about wasteful spending at a time of an economic downturn, a time of war, a time of heavy debt, when we have 5 billion dollars' worth of earmarks in this little green book that Americans won't see, and we can't bring it up, as we talked about in the ethics reform bill, in a searchable format where people can find all this wasteful spending. It is hidden, and it is not right. I encourage my colleagues to appeal to the majority leader to give me this amendment so that we can at least have a vote. I encourage all colleagues to vote for it. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DeMINT

Mr. DeMINT. I will not be here tomorrow. Since we had understood that Monday was a no-vote day, I made other plans. But I can assure my colleague I can deputize my staff to work out any agreement that would be workable for the chairman and Senator Warner. It is not our intent to hold up this bill. There is a managers' package that we will not agree to until we have a commitment for this one vote. I want to expedite this, as Senator Warner does, and the chairman. But if the Senator would like to work with us, I am sure we can work this out tomorrow or Monday without my being present.

Mr. DeMINT. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. DeMINT. Yes.

Mr. DeMINT. I appreciate having the opportunity to discuss our amendments. I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside and that I be permitted to call up amendment No. 5405.

Mr. DeMINT. If I may offer one clarification, this is not the same amendment that was offered in committee.

Mr. DeMINT. What my amendment does is restore basically the format of the Defense authorization bill to the same format it has always had. The way it is set up now, the language that references the report language and makes it, in effect, law is an unprecedented way to deal with report language. What we would do with this amendment is make it like every other Defense authorization bill that has ever been passed.

Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I don't think I am able to tonight. But for clarification, this amendment is two words and a number: Strike section 1002. I hope we haven't come to the point in the Senate when a Senator would not be allowed one amendment on such an important bill that is to strike a section. I can talk more about it later. I know we are being encouraged to bring up our amendments. This amendment has been filed for a few days. I think at least the staff is well aware of what it is. I will certainly not hold up the other Senator. I appreciate the chairman's commitment to giving me an opportunity for a vote on this amendment before it is all over. I yield the floor and thank the ranking member.

Mr. DeMINT. If the intent is to get around the Executive order, then obviously that is a matter for debate. It also gets around the many statements made on this floor about the transparency of earmarks and to disclose what we are doing. Again, this is a very simple amendment. All I am asking for is an up- or-down vote. I am not asking for passage.

Mr. DeMINT. I thank the chairman. We will not abuse the time. I have the floor, and I would like to yield for one question to Mr. Coburn. Then I will yield the floor.

Mr. DeMINT

Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I would like to address the issue of this highway bill and the charge that it has been held by me and a few others. The fact is, this $8 billion highway trust fund bailout has not been held up. The only request was that it come to the floor with some debate and the opportunity for amendment, which is the normal Senate process. The request was that this $8 billion be passed in secret essentially with no vote and no debate. Our only request as Senators was that we have a chance to bring to light why this happened. A few years from now--maybe even a few months--many of my colleagues are going to wake up and look at our Nation's finances and wonder how we got in this mess. We are running this country into the ground, and we are actually on the verge of an economic crisis because of incredible overspending and a huge growing debt. One bill after another comes up, and we pass it almost without thinking and spend more and more borrowed money. Today's votes are creating tomorrow's fiscal disaster. This $8 billion highway trust fund bailout is only one example among many I would like to mention over the next few minutes. During the previous year, the Democratic-controlled Congress has produced a parade of fiscally irresponsible bills that have mortgaged our Nation's future and could ultimately bankrupt the Nation and harm the future for our children and grandchildren. If we look at the 2008 appropriations bills, at the end of 2007 Congress passed a bloated budget bill. Supposedly, they were going to get things under control, but this exploded with over 10,000 earmarks. On top of that, there were a number of budget tricks and gimmicks that hid at least $14 billion of extra spending. Not too long after, we brought up the farm bill. This was reauthorizing an antiquated farm program that cost taxpayers billions and increased costs to consumers all across the country. This was a $600 billion bill over 10 years. It was all borrowed money. We don't have this money to spend. Yet we continue to spend it. It included numerous wasteful, unnecessary earmarks that had nothing to do with a solid farm bill. Just a few examples would be $257 million in tax earmarks for Plum Creek Timber Company. This is the Nation's largest private landowner, a multibillion-dollar company with over $7 billion in capitalization. Yet we believed we needed to give them $257 million. The language in the farm bill also requires the Forest Service to sell portions of a certain mountain to a ski resort and over $1 million to the national sheep and goat industry--all worthy causes, I am sure, but not worthy of more borrowed money and more debt on the future of Americans. The so-called stimulus package, over $100 billion was supposed to help solve our problems. Certainly, it didn't. We sent checks to all Americans but did little to fix the problem. Over $100 billion more in borrowed money that we didn't have, just sending checks to people to build up our political clout rather than do something for the country. We need to have a predictable Tax Code, lower our corporate tax rate, make the current tax rates permanent so businesses and investors know what their tax rate will be in the future. But we don't debate that. We just send out checks with borrowed money. Everyone knows more and more about the housing bill. The housing bill bailed out mortgage companies that had made bad loans and ultimately included a section that allowed the U.S. Government to essentially nationalize the mortgage industry. As part of that bill, we created a $4 billion deficit spending slush fund for community development block grants and millions that went to a very suspect group, the ACORN group. That seems to be more of a political group to get out the vote for some of our colleagues. Now, we know we have taken over these two large companies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now the taxpayers are on the hook for what could be hundreds of billions of dollars because of the lack of congressional oversight over the last several years. As part of that bill, I had asked for one amendment that would stop the lobbying and the contributions to Congress by these two corporations that we are now bailing out. But instead of giving me that amendment, the majority leader kept the Senate here until Saturday to avoid that one vote that would have done what all of us know needs to be done and stopped the political influence from these companies for which we are supposed to be providing oversight. Today we are talking about $8 billion that we are going to borrow and put in the highway trust fund. Supposedly back in the late 1990s, $8 billion was taken as part of an agreement to set up a separate trust fund. I will take them at their word for that. But we have had numerous opportunities this year to save more than that amount of money, if we knew we needed it. Frankly, the Department of Transportation says we probably only need about half of that right now. Yet we are going to take $8 billion from the general fund, borrow it, and put it in the trust fund. Highway infrastructure is one of the most important things we can do as a Nation. But much of this bill is not about roads and bridges. It is numerous, wasteful earmarks that I am afraid could end up as part of this $8 billion. The current bill includes $45 million for a magnetic levitation train project in Las Vegas; $2.5 million for landscaping enhancements along a freeway; $3.3 million for a bike trail in Laredo, TX. This list could go on page after page. These are not priority projects. They do not deserve us going into more debt as a nation to borrow this money. We have had numerous opportunities to cut these projects so that the highway trust fund would not go broke. Only a few months ago, we had a transportation technical corrections bill. We had almost a billion dollars of projects that were no longer needed or wanted by the States. Yet, instead of saving that $1 billion, we added back essentially the same amount of new projects. Now we are here at the trough again, and we have a crisis, and we will put a lot of people out of work if we do not produce this bill. That is why we have agreed to forgo the opportunity to offer amendments, even though we should not pass an $8 billion bill without the opportunity to debate it in more detail. I wish to remind my colleagues, we do not have this $8 billion. It is borrowed money, and we are going to move it from one account to another, and borrow it from who knows where--China or somewhere else-- because we do not have that money. But there are numerous problems with this, and we need to recognize that the earmarks, the wasteful earmarks, are taking priority national projects and putting them places they do not need to be. Our lack of an energy policy in this Nation that has run up the cost of gasoline has restricted the ability of Americans to travel, and that in itself has reduced the revenues to the trust fund. So we have caused this problem ourselves by congressional mismanagement, and now we want the taxpayers to bail us out again. Again, this is a bill I think we need as far as funding projects. But the way it is done, and the fact that it is done with no more accountability on earmarks and the things that have caused the problems, makes it very difficult to support the bill, even though I see long-term highway funding being one of the most important things we can do. I hope the chairman and ranking member of the committee will consider next year, as we go into reauthorizing a highway program, the fact that the Federal Government should no longer be involved in non-Federal projects around the country. We have an opportunity to devolve this program to the States, where the money would stay at home and be used for real priorities, not for things I decide or another colleague decides they want for somebody back home where the State does not necessarily want it to go. Obviously, we have talked a lot about the ``bridge to nowhere'' and other projects such as that across the country. But I hope I will get the support of my colleagues to move this back to the States, give them the ability to manage their own programs over the years, and stop this wasteful spending at the Federal level. Again, there are a number of amendments we would have liked to have had the opportunity to offer, and I wish to warn my colleagues, the pattern that is developing here is that we are passing bills by unanimous consent, with no debate, no amendments. This goes on bill after bill. We are passing very bad legislation with very little accountability to the American people. But I appreciate the passion of Senator Inhofe and others who know we need to push this through, and it is not fair to the States or to the workers to blindside them with shortfalls as we have. But the shortfalls are of our own doing, and it is because of our own waste and incompetence here in Congress that we have ended up with this problem and more debt on the American people. I hope next year we will go about doing it in a much better way than we have done in the past. With that, Mr. President, I yield back.

Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that time on the Republican side be allocated as follows: 15 minutes for Senator DeMint, 10 minutes for Senator Gregg, 10 minutes for Senator Coburn, 10 minutes for Senator Inhofe.

Mr. DeMINT

Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I rise today to invite my colleagues to join me in supporting American Energy Freedom Day on October 1, 2008. On this day, the current prohibitions on oil and gas exploration off the Outer Continental shelf and in the oil shale fields of the West will expire, giving Americans the freedom to access their own energy reserves and providing them with relief from sky-high prices at the pump. Estimates indicate there are upwards of 18 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil in the off-limit areas of the Outer Continental Shelf, as well as more than 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. In addition, estimates indicate that between 800 billion and 2 trillion barrels of oil can be drawn from American oil shale. Taking advantage of American resources will increase the worldwide supply of petroleum and bring down prices at the pump. The very access to these resources will send powerful price-reducing signals to the futures market, providing immediate relief for all Americans. For over 25 years, Democrats have denied Americans the freedom to access their own energy, making our Nation more and more dependent on foreign oil. Each year, they have continued the ban on American energy. Now it is time for them to get out of the way and open up American energy supplies. I strongly encourage my colleagues to support Energy Freedom Day and allow the prohibitions on American energy exploration to expire once and for all. We must actively oppose any attempt to extend these bans on American prosperity and security. Now is not the time to deny Americans access to their own energy. October 1 is going to be a great day for all Americans. I invite my colleagues to join me in supporting American Energy Freedom Day. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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

Mr. DeMINT

Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I ask for 30 more seconds to finish the question--15 more seconds. I wish to ask the Senator from Oklahoma, is it not true that all these bills were attempted to pass without any debate and without any vote and that the Senator from Oklahoma was asking questions and asking for some kind of openness on the floor? Instead of giving the Senator that, they balled them all up together?

Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Oklahoma. I wish to publicly thank him for taking the time to read so many bills and to look at spending and to see if we can do something to curb wasteful spending. I am disturbed that the Senator from Illinois thinks because we have to spend money in the battle against terror around the world that means we have to spend more at home without looking at real priorities, such as gas prices and dealing with those issues. I wish to ask the Senator from Oklahoma a question because he has already mentioned it. I saw today that under the Democratic leadership, even though in their last campaign they were going to be fiscally responsible, I saw in USA Today that we will have the largest deficit in our history next year, and that doesn't even include the $100 billion we are borrowing from Social Security. Yet in the middle of this energy debate and how to get gas prices down, I was amazed we were coming back today on bills that were just gathered together----

Mr. DeMINT

Mr. DeMINT. Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning. I have a parliamentary inquiry: Who in this Senate has the last word on when votes are scheduled?

Mr. DeMINT. But the majority leader has to agree. And further parliamentary inquiry: Is it not true that the majority leader scheduled two votes today by filing cloture earlier this week when these would ripen today?

Mr. DeMINT. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I advise the Senator from Illinois that I have been to the floor asking unanimous consent to offer this amendment, which has been available all week. It is in the cloakroom. The amendment is simple and available. I remind the Senator that when bills appear in the Congressional Record, it is after they have passed. As far as the hotlines that come through late at night, I get many calls at the airport from my staff, when we are leaving at the end of the week. That is when these bills go through, and they want to pass them by unanimous consent. Often a copy is only available in the cloakroom. Members have not read them. We are all used to doing business that way, and it is a problem when we start talking about major policies and billions of dollars of money that is spent-- certainly on a bill such as this. We may make it available for a few days, so it is not to say it wasn't available, but I know not one Member of the Senate has read it all and seen the special provisions that have been stuck in it. I ask unanimous consent--to clear up what the Senator from Illinois has said--that next week, when we come back, we have a free and open debate and that the Republicans and all Members be allowed to offer their amendments, without restriction from the Democratic side.

Mr. DeMINT. Well, I better move quickly here. Again, this is a bill they want to pass in secret with very little debate. I have asked for one amendment--one amendment to stop the lobbying. This is not a good chart, but hopefully I can make the point. This is the taxpayer at the top. This is Congress. This is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Years ago, Congress created Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as private sector organizations that were supposed to help the mortgage industry and help people buy homes. Certainly it did, but Congress was supposed to watch them because we gave them monopoly status. They received huge tax breaks so no one in the private sector could compete with them, so they grew and grew. The idea was that this Congress would pass the reforms and provide the oversight so that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not get out of control, because effectively when we formed them, we told the markets and the American people the taxpayer was going to guarantee they would not lose money. What happened is they stopped these reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and over the last 10 years they spent nearly $200 million in political contributions to Senators and Congressmen, spreading money all around Washington. A lot of think tanks that are supposed to be watchdogs are not watchdogs to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because they have spread so much money around. Now as we ask the American people to come in and put their money into the pot to hold up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the one gesture of good faith as a Congress we could ask is: Hey, that is a conflict of interest. We can't have the people who are supposed to watch over these organizations getting money from these organizations. At least if we are going to ask the American taxpayer to be on the hook for billions, possibly trillions of dollars, let's stop this. So I said that is all I want, one amendment, 15 minutes of debate, and then you can have your housing bill, even though it is a terrible bill. They said no. They said no. We are going to keep Members here Saturday to keep you from having your amendment. There are a lot of problems with this bill, but it doesn't matter. Here it is. It is almost 700 pages. Not one Senator has read it. There are lots of little goodies stuck in there. There is one we found, an earmark on page 616 that overturns an IRS ruling where low-income housing--which is supposed to be for the general public and not discriminate--that they can discriminate for social organizations such as art colonies. Then we find an organization, Artspace, that develops low-income housing and gives it to these artistic colonies, one of their board members happens to be the executive director of the Fannie Mae foundation. Folks, this bill needs to be aired out for weeks, if not months. They want to rush it through. We kept them here on Saturday so the American people could find out a little bit more about what is in it. But no matter what is wrong with it, most of the Members of this Senate are going to come in and vote for it and check the box and go home and say they did something about housing. I am afraid they may compromise the future of America as they do it. I am sure I am about to run out of time. I know this is a lost cause and I am not going to stop this bill, but I am disappointed, the American people are disappointed, and what we have done by keeping the Democrats and the Republicans here today is maybe give Americans a little more time to see what this Congress is doing to their future. With that, Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time and yield the floor.

Mr. DeMINT. That is what I thought. There is so much doublespeak here. They are saying one thing to the cameras and to America and another thing here. We are not allowed to offer our amendments.