Johnny Isakson

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, may I inquire of the Chair how much of the proponents' time would that 3 minutes leave?

Mr. ISAKSON. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise for just a moment to do two things. First of all, I spent 33 years selling houses. I have dealt with honest brokers, and I have dealt with brokers who were hard to deal with and whom I would never categorize as honest. Senator Coburn from Oklahoma is the most honest broker I have ever dealt with in politics or in selling houses. I wish to acknowledge for just a second exactly what he said about the process, his support for the AGOA provisions but his concern about the pay-for, but the fact that he never tried to scuttle this piece of legislation, he only tried to get his day in court. I respect that, and I want him to know that. If we all acted a little bit more like that, we would have a lot more debate on the floor and a lot fewer problems in terms of running our country. As far as AGOA, I want to say this. As the chairman and ranking member, as Senator Coons and I are, of the African Affairs Subcommittee, we travel to that continent quite a bit. One of my trips was to the Sudan, to Darfur, and to the South Sudan, when the comprehensive peace agreement was being negotiated. As this body knows, the South Sudan had their revolution peacefully. South Sudan became the newest country on the face of this Earth, and South Sudan will become, if AGOA passes today, one of the parties to this agreement, which is critical to the developing economy of the South Sudan as an independent nation. Further, the other nations that are included are nations that depend on this legislation to raise a middle class in Africa that will become the customers of the United States of America and our businesses. I say often in my speeches about Africa that if it is true that Europe was the continent of the 20th century in the first 50 years and if it is true that Asia was the most important continent in the last 50 years of the 20th century, Africa is the continent of the 21st century. This is an agreement that is important to our relationship with Africa, it is important to our economy, it is important to American textiles, and it is important to jobs in Africa. I commend Senator Coons for his hard work, and I intend to support the AGOA bill and ask all of my fellow colleagues to do the same. I yield back.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, while the majority whip is on the floor, I want to pay him a compliment about some remarks I am going to make this morning. A group of 6 people in the Senate, three Republicans and three Democrats, about a year and half ago began getting together to deal with our fiscal problems in this country, both entitlements as well as our tax system as well as spending. I commend him for his work on that because I am going to talk exactly about what this Senate and this Congress has to do in the months ahead to deal with the fiscal cliff we are about to go over, but I want to acknowledge the fact that many of us, most importantly the distinguished majority whip, have been working on solutions that we are going to have to take if we are going to save the Republic and the economy. I wanted to pass that on to the distinguished majority whip. In my State of Georgia, the most recent report on unemployment posted our unemployment rate at 9 percent. In our State we advertise foreclosures every Friday and leading up to the first Tuesday. We set a record in the month of July on the number of foreclosures being advertised. Yesterday in my office I had a meeting with the President of Lockheed. They are headquartered in Fort Worth, but they have one of their largest manufacturing facilities in Marietta, GA. They are going to have to send out their notice of potential layoffs that will take place because of sequestration. We just got the second quarter GDP report that said we are still slowing down and going down to 1.5 percent from a previous quarter of 2 percent. All indicators are that we are heading to a second bump in our economy, and what has been a very protracted and weak recovery is beginning to fail, and we are looking at a fiscal problem that is going to affect this country for decades to come. I encourage my colleagues in the Senate to recognize the clock is running and time is running out. We can no longer postpone doing those things we must do as a Congress to save the Republic and save our economy and begin producing jobs in this country. The most important thing our people need is certainty. They need certainty in regulation, and they need certainty in tax policy. The American people need to know we are going to do what we have to do to save this Republic and to save this economy. For the few minutes I have this morning, I wish to talk about that. All the solutions are on the table. The problem is that none of us seems willing to take them off the table and put them on the floor and deal with it. Let's talk about spending. Our deficit has been announced for this particular fiscal year to be $1.2 trillion, $100 billion less than the total spending of the U.S. Government. We have to cut discretionary spending. We can't totally balance our books by cutting discretionary spending. We have entitlements. Our entitlements are growing because of what? Our economy. Why are food stamps up from $35 billion to $87 billion? Because a lot people are hungry and a lot of people are out of work. Why are AFDC and many other programs rising rapidly? It is due to the economy. If we can deal with the spending and if we can deal with entitlements, then we can begin to bring back certainty and our economy will come back and our jobs will come back and there will be less pressure on the entitlement programs. We are going to have to also recognize that ``entitlements'' is not the right word for programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Those are contracts with the American people. I pay 6.2 percent of my income--the President does as well--to the payroll tax for my Social Security. I paid 1.35 percent for my entire life to Medicare. That is a contract with my government. We have to fix those programs. Social Security is easy. Social Security is fixable by moving the eligibility date to the outyears. For my grandchildren, eight of whom are under 8 years old, that ought to be 69 or 70 years old before they become eligible. We don't need to cut their benefit or raise their tax, but we need to actuarially put out their eligibility. That is what Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did in 1983 to save Social Security until the current pressure it is under right now. Medicare is the tough animal to deal with. We are going to have to recognize that we have to get out of the fee-for-service business and then do a premium support business. That way, we can quantify premium support and know how much we are spending, and the American people have the choice of buying the insurance and the coverage for Medicare that they want. It ought to be means tested. We ought to make sure that those who can afford more insurance, like myself, have less support and those who are in need have more support. But it should be quantified in terms of support for premiums, not a fee-for-service reimbursement system. In terms of our revenues, everybody always wants to talk about taxes. Last week we had a debate that was meaningless and worthless over political positions of two political parties on tax systems. We need to look at Bowles-Simpson. We need to clean up our Tax Code. We need to use the tax expenditures that we get as income by reducing them and waiving them. We need to use that income to reduce the rates on corporate taxes and all the marginal rates of taxation so we can encourage people to spend their money, invest their money, and make our Tax Code simple. We don't need to raise taxes, we need to raise their attitude. We need to improve the plight the American taxpayers have today by giving them certainty and a tax code that is clean, a tax code that is fair, and a tax code that produces jobs, revenues, and growth. My message this morning is this: If we go up to probably Friday when we go home for the month of August and we come back in September for 60 days and wait until the election, we are putting off dealing with issues that affect our economy, affect our people, and affect our future. I, for one, stand ready the minute the leaders are ready to put these issues on the floor, and let's vote on them. Let's deal with the future of the American people, their taxes, their entitlements, and the guarantees we made to them on Social Security and Medicare. Let's deal with our responsibility. Let's not sequester spending, let's cut where we should cut and let's add money where we should add money. Let's run this country like a business and not like a political action committee. I yield to the Republican leader. Recognition of the Minority Leader

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, this morning I got some very sad news. The State of Georgia and the people of my State lost a giant in the health care industry. Tim Stack was my friend. He was the president of the hospital that 2 years ago treated me well, which is why I am here today. He was a giant in health care not just in Georgia but in America. On behalf of myself and all the citizens of my State and the countless thousands of patients whose lives have been made better or even saved by Tim Stack, I send my condolences to his wife Mary and his three sons: Ryan, Tim, and Matthew. Tim Stack grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, working in the steel mills. When the mills closed, he looked to find a job, and he worked in central supply at the Eye & Ear Hospital of Pittsburgh, PA. He was working and studying to be a teacher and a football coach. By working in the hospital, he became fascinated with the complexity of hospital administration and was challenged by the love of caring for people who were ill. Tim Stack changed his major to hospital administration and became a leader in the United States in the administration of hospitals. Let me read from a press release on his record in Atlanta, GA, alone: Under his leadership, Piedmont grew from two hospitals and eight physician practices to a $1.6 billion organization that includes five hospitals, more than 50 primary care and specialty physician practices and a 900-member clinically integrated network. He also helped develop the Piedmont Heart Institute, which treated me 2 years ago and is the reason I am standing here today, which is the leading heart institute not just in Atlanta and in Georgia but throughout the United States. Tim was one of a kind. His loss will be felt by countless thousands of Georgians. To his family, his friends, and all who knew him, I express my sympathy. I want to read a quote from him that was written in 2006 when he was interviewed by Atlanta Hospital News for a profile. Tim wrote the following: The attributes of a good leader are universal. You need to love what you do, be open and inquisitive and persistent, not afraid to make waves if you have to. You should also be personally productive and work well with others. Be innovative and allow others to innovate. Finally, be a certifiable member of the human race. Cultivate a light touch, be passionate about your career, but be sure to balance it with the rest of your life. That expresses better than I can what Tim was all about. I shall miss him greatly, as will all of my State. Again, I send my sympathy to his wife Mary and his three sons: Tim, Ryan, and Matthew. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate as in morning business.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I wish to acknowledge Kennesaw State University's annual Homelessness Awareness Week during the week of October 8-13, 2012, in my home State of Georgia. I appreciate that Kennesaw State University coordinates activities throughout the month of October to raise awareness about homeless individuals in our society with events such as Homelessness Awareness Week. The designation of Homelessness Awareness Week will help to increase our knowledge and understanding of those living without shelter and food. The activities during this week will also educate Georgians on how to address and combat this unfortunate problem in our State. Ending homelessness is critical to upholding the vitality of families and sense of community in the State of Georgia. Groups, organizations, and institutions such as Kennesaw State University work to address this growing problem. I support and applaud their efforts and urge all citizens to become more knowledgeable about this problem and seek out ways to help alleviate this problem and its effects in our communities.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise for a moment to express my sympathy and condolences to the people of Ghana and to the family of its President, John Adam Mills. President Mills died in a military hospital today in Accra, Ghana, of throat cancer. Four hours after his death, the Vice President was sworn in as the new President of Ghana, a testimony to the democratization of that country and its leadership on the continent of Africa. Ghana has been one of the shining beacons of light in Africa for its transition to business, trade, prosperity, and economic development. John Adam Mills deserves the credit for taking Ghana to the height it has gone to today. Senator Coons from Delaware and I traveled to Ghana last year to meet with President Mills. We saw firsthand how he has developed a large- scale oil-producing country in Ghana, making that wealth come back to be reinvested in the people of that country. We visited the Millennium Challenge Compact that Ghana made with the United States of America to help her pineapple plantation producers be able to extend the life of their pineapple and export them into Europe for increased trade and agriculture in Ghana. We visited hospitals, where money from the oil and petroleum the country has discovered is now being reinvested in that country and in her people. Today, with his tragic death, we also saw the light of democracy as the government made its transition, the Vice President ascended to the Presidency, and elections will be held later in the year for the next President of Ghana. But it is important to pause as a tribute to President Bush and Condoleezza Rice, to President Obama and Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, who have worked tirelessly during the past decade and a half to work with the countries of Africa to develop. Americans have invested in PEPFAR, and we have reduced the growth of AIDS. We have invested in malaria prevention, and we have reduced the growth of malaria. Nigeria is the last place on Earth where polio exists, and it is about to be eradicated because of the investment of the American people. I have said oftentimes as the ranking member of the African Subcommittee that Africa is the continent of the 21st century for our country, and I think it is. I think the investment our taxpayers have made and the investment our last President and our current President and both Secretaries of State have made are paying great dividends. But it is important for us to pay tribute to those bold, brave African leaders who ran for office to promote democracy, who served and reinvested the profits they made in their country's wealth and their people and shine as beacons of light for hope on what has been known in the past as the Dark Continent. In this sad moment for the people of Africa, and particularly the people of Ghana, it is time for us also to rejoice on what democracy has made in that country, and what John Adam Mills did to produce that democracy and to make it work. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. I thank Senator Alexander for the recognition and for joining with Senator Blunt in this colloquy. As I was listening to you talk, I thought back to what happened in my family Sunday night. I want to start my remarks with that. My wife Dianne and I went to my son Kevin and his wife Katherine's house to cook out hamburgers on Sunday night. Three of my nine grandchildren were there: Elizabeth, Sarah Katherine, and William. Elizabeth had arrived late, by the way, because she had been at a birthday party, the theme of which was dressing their American Girl dolls. When Elizabeth finally got home, she sat down by me and she said: Grandpa, I want to talk to you. She calls me ``Pops.'' I want to talk to you about my American Girl doll and some accessories that I want to buy. So she went over with me how much money it would take to buy the accessories and how much money she made for her chores. We sat down and kind of budgeted how many chores it is going to take to make the amount of money she needs to buy the American Girl doll accessories. Riding home that night I commented to my wife: You know, I just spent more time talking about budgeting and appropriating with my granddaughter than I have spent the entire year in the Senate. This morning I was with Bud Peterson, the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and you can identify with this as a former president of the University of Tennessee, and Senator Blunt, the former president of Southwest Baptist University. He was talking about how tuition has not gone up that much, but the amount of State support to subsidize tuition has gone down because the States are having to live within their means, having to have balanced budgets. They are having to cut. I thought to myself, here we are in Washington, the leaders of the country, the people who should be setting the example. Yet my State and my granddaughter are doing a better job than we are. That is an indictment of the system. I joined the Senator when he commended Senator Reid on saying he was going to bring appropriations bills to the floor. I will come to the floor and cheer him again if he will bring them to the floor. We are running out of time, but we are also running out of the patience of the American people. Senator Alexander's remarks about jobs--appropriations are all about jobs. Right now we are operating for the third year in a row under what is known as continuing resolutions. Do you know what that means? That means we are continuing to do things just as badly as we did the year before, because we are not facing the music. We are not prioritizing our expenditures. We are talking about the appropriations of the American people and their tax dollars. Senator Murray was talking about taxes as one part of the equation. It is only one part. Spending is the other part of the equation. You only address spending by taking up appropriations bills, by having debate and by moving forward. By way of example, my State is having a referendum in 2 weeks, a referendum on a $7.4 billion increase in sales tax dedicated for 10 years to roads and improvements in infrastructure. Our State needs it. The taxpayers are going to vote on it. President Obama announced a couple of weeks ago a prioritization of the Port of Savannah in Georgia in terms of finishing the deepening and the widening of that project so the Panamax ships can come in. But if we are not doing appropriations bills on WRDA, we are not doing appropriations bills on the Corps of Engineers, we are not doing appropriations bills on highways, those jobs are not going to come, or we are not going to have jobs and the velocity of investment we need to have. It is a real indictment of the greatest democracy on the face of this Earth, the leader of the entire free world, that in a time when we are in difficulties, we are in a time with increased debt, we are in a time of great challenges, we are talking more with our grandchildren about spending and saving than we are talking to each other about the money of the taxpayers of the United States of America. I commend the Senator from Tennessee and the Senator from Missouri on their dedication to this subject and the leadership they have shown on appropriations in subcommittee work, and Senator Cochran, all of the members of the Appropriations Committee. The bills are ready. All it takes is for someone to drop the flag and say: Bring them to the floor. I hope Senator Reid will reconsider not bringing them to the floor and instead bring them to the floor. Let us talk about the American people's money. Let us talk about jobs. Let's talk about investment in the greatest country on the face of this Earth. I yield back to the Senator from Tennessee.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Mississippi. I rise to talk about something I know something about, which sometimes in the Senate we do not do very often. I ran a small business for 22 years. I worked in a small business for 33 years. Quite frankly, I think I understand small business as well as anyone who has done it. I was astounded, disappointed, and perplexed with the President's statement last week that small business did not owe its success to itself, but it owed it to government, because it is the other way around. We would not exist as a Senate were it not for the taxpayers of the United States of America. They send us our cashflow, they send us the money we invest to build the roads and bridges and highways. So it is an affront to those who have risked capital, as Senator Wicker said, those who have taken chances, and those who have succeeded and those who have failed to build small businesses, to employ the American people, to make this great engine of America work. But I want to just go down a litany for a second of what small business does to make us exist as a Congress and as a government. Every January 15, April 15, June 15, and September 15 businesses pay their quarterly estimate on their taxes. So do independent contractors. Employees pay it every month in withholdings. The cashflow of the United States is not owed to the government; it is owed to the American people by the contributions they make. Social Security. Every beneficiary of Social Security for their entire life paid 6.2 percent of their income, and their employer matched it with another 6.2 percent, up to $102,500 in income. Medicare. With no cap whatsoever, 1.35 percent of your income from day one to the day you die goes to the Medicare trust fund. Talking about medicine for a second, many small businesses--19 percent of American jobs are in health care now. They now have device taxes. If a small business is building an implant for dental work or something for some kind of a heart treatment or something like that, they have an extra tax because of the affordable health care bill. For those who pay dividends or pay out investment income to their investors, they have a new surtax to help pay for the Affordable Care Act. Then we have our ordinary income tax that we all pay on April 15. For our highways, when we fill up our tanks with gas, we pay the motor fuel tax to build our highways. And for our airports, we pay the passenger facility charge that goes to the government to reinvest in our infrastructure. So it sounds to me as if it is us who owe small business, not small business that owes us. I think if we began acting like people who understood from whence comes our strength, America would begin to come back. As Senator Wicker said about Mr. Bernanke yesterday, his downward forecast is because business is not deploying capital. People are not making investments. As one who did that, there is one simple reason. We are a nation of uncertainty. Nobody knows what the boundaries are going to be or what the policy is going to be on January 1. Let me close with one example. On January 1, the estate tax goes back from a $5 million unified credit and exemption and 35-percent rate to a $1 million unified credit and a 55-percent rate. Do you know what that is going to do? That is going to close thousands of small businesses eventually around America because when a small business is owned by a family--a family farm in Mississippi or Georgia--when the owner of that farm dies, and they go to pass their assets on to their heirs, after that $1 million deduction, they owe a 55-percent tax on the rest. Most of their value is in real estate and land, which is depressed. They are forced to liquidate land at suppressed prices to pay an income tax within 9 months of death. That is wrong and that should not happen. But if--as Senator Murray said yesterday or the day before--we allow every tax treatment we have today to go back to the 2001 rates, small businesses in America will be hit again with a tax that will force them to close or to liquidate. It is time we understood from whence we get our strength. It is the American taxpayers. As we consider them and their investment in small business, we will make better decisions, we will act faster, and America will be better, and America will be stronger. I see the Senator from Utah is on the Senate floor. I would like to turn to him.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter from the Members of the House of Representatives--over 100 of them--to the President and Secretary of State Clinton regarding the U.N. arms agreement.

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I come today to share with the Senate a letter which I have written to Ambassador Susan Rice, the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations. It is a letter I have written over a grave concern I have over actions that have taken place recently in the United Nations but also reflects back on some things that have happened in the last year or so that are very troubling to me and, quite frankly, very troubling to my constituents. As I know the Presiding Officer is aware and as all the Senate is aware, the U.N. convened this month in New York a conventional arms trade treaty, where they are looking at an international treaty on limitations and governance over small arms shipment and trade between countries. I have expressed my concern about the threat to the United States second amendment, our constitutional right to bear arms, and my concern over the U.N. subordinating U.S. law to itself. But I have never ever been as concerned as I am today to find out that Iran has been named, without objection, as a member of the conference that will lead this debate. I want to talk about it for a few minutes, because a lot of U.N. politics and U.N. governance and U.N. practices are not understood by the American people. But when the U.N. has one of these conferences working toward a treaty, they will appoint a general conference or a general bureau or a board which is made up of members of the U.N. who will work out the details on the conference and then submit the entire convention to the United Nations. There is a process in the United Nations where anyone can object to the appointment or to any other motion that may be made on the floor, because the U.N. operates under what is known as consensus, which is the absence of an objection. If there is an objection to a motion that is made, then a vote takes place. Iran has been seeking a position on this U.N. conference on small arms and arms trade treaty agreement for some time. That has been known. This is the same Iran the U.N. has sanctioned four times in the last 3 years for its progress on its nuclear arms program and the enrichment of nuclear material. It is the same Iran that as recently as last week the U.N. sent its former chief head president to try to negotiate a settlement on the horrible things that happened in Syria. This is the same Iran that is accused of shipping arms to Syria and to the Asad regime, which has resulted in the killing of over 17,000 Syrians in the last year. How in anybody's right mind could they allow a country that is in the process of doing that and that has been sanctioned four times by the U.N. to ascend to a position to negotiate a conference on a treaty on small arms on behalf of the U.N? I have written this letter to Secretary Rice because I have great respect for Ambassador Rice, and I know she is doing a great job. But I cannot understand for the life of me why the United States would not use its right to object to the appointment of a country such as Iran on any treaty, much less one on arms and the Arms Trade Treaty. It reminds me of what happened a year ago when North Korea went on the disarmament committee in the United Nations. Today, Syria is seeking a position on the Human Rights Commission. These types of appointments to people who are often serial violators of the governance of the committee they are trying to seek is laughable and puts the United Nations and the United States in an embarrassing position. I have written Secretary Rice to find out the answer to this question: Did we have the opportunity to object to Iran being named to the conference? If we did, why didn't we object to that? How in the world can we be expected to have any confidence in what comes out of the conference if, in fact, one of the worst perpetrators in the world is being appointed to the conference? I hope the Secretary will inform me so that I can inform my constituents because, frankly, I cannot explain it. I have great concern that any U.N. treaty on small arms would, intentionally or unintentionally, affect the second amendment rights of the American people. I am a great supporter of the second amendment, and I have had a concern all along. I signed a letter with Senator Moran from Kansas last week to the Secretary registering my objections and concerns about the threat of that treaty itself, but to find out now that one of the 15 members writing the treaty and negotiating it this month in New York City is the nation of Iran concerns me greater. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record my letter to the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, of the United States and New York.

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

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

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, if the distinguished whip will remain on the floor for a second, as I was passing through listening to his speech, I wanted to add some meat on the bones of this business of passthrough income and the 940,000 American small businesses that will be affected dramatically by the President's announcement today. For 22 years, I ran a subchapter S corporation. A subchapter S corporation passes through its revenues to its investors who pay it at the ordinary income tax rate of an individual. Now, $250,000 is not an inordinate amount of a number for somebody to have passed through to them in the ownership of a subchapter S corporation. I passed the money through and paid them back based on the investment they made in the company I ran. When you raise the tax on the individual rate, then for a subchapter S corporation and limited liability corporation, for a limited partnership, you have two decisions to make as the runner of that operation: Do you reduce your retained earning investment in your company to maintain the return to your investors at the same level or do you continue to wind your company down because you cannot distribute at the rate you used to distribute? It is very important to understand that whichever decision you make has a direct negative impact on future hiring in that company. The Congressional Research Service estimates 940,000 businesses will be affected. But listen to this number. As the leader has said, 53 percent of all passthrough income becomes subjected to the higher tax rate--53 percent, over half. That is American small business. So I want to commend the leader, because he has hit the heart of the story. This is a tax on what we need the most; that is, reinvestment of earnings to hire more people to build more businesses in America. This has the exact opposite effect on the middle class that the President described. The second thing I will point out is that today America suffers economically from the uncertainty of what is going to happen postelection. With this proposal, the President has now made a recommendation that would extend that uncertainty for another year. The last thing American business needs is to have that uncertainty about when the next shoe is going to drop in terms of taxation on the middle class--or any class. I commend the assistant leader for coming to the floor and telling the story about American business. We are not here to try to shelter the rich. We are here to empower business, to have more employees in the United States, and to empower our economy. Again, I commend the whip on his remarks on the Senate floor. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I wish to honor in the Record the 50th anniversary of the Georgia Peanut Commission. In 1961, the Georgia Agricultural Commodity Commission for Peanuts was established under the Commodities Promotion Act. The Commission conducts programs in the areas of promotion, research and education, and it is funded by peanut producers. Today, the Commission represents over 3,500 peanut farmers in our great State of Georgia who produce nearly half of our nation's peanuts. The Georgia peanut industry contributes an estimated $2 billion to our State's economy and provides more than 50,000 jobs, making it a vital component to the citizens of our State. Georgia peanuts are simply delicious, and the Georgia Peanut Commission sends my Senate office and other Georgia congressional offices lots of its signature little red bags of Georgia peanuts to give out to our constituents. In fact, the Georgia Peanut Commission distributes an impressive 2 million bags of Georgia peanuts far and wide each year. I am proud to honor the Georgia peanut industry, which is critically important to our State and Nation, and I congratulate the Georgia Peanut Commission on its 50th anniversary.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, it is my honor to introduce to the Senate Rev. Ron McCrary, who just gave the prayer on the floor of the Senate. He is here with Chaplain Black. Reverend McCrary is a great individual from my home county, Cobb County, GA. He is the chaplain to the Cobb County Board of Commissioners, the fourth largest county in Georgia. He is chaplain of the Police Officers Standards and Training facility in Georgia, which covers 40,000 law enforcement offices. He is a great preacher, a great leader, and a great chaplain. He was recommended to me by Sheriff Neil Warren, the sheriff of Cobb County, who because of his graciousness allowed Ron to come and be with us today. Ron is a father, a minister, and a great witness. He witnessed as an athlete through the Campus Crusade for Christ and Athletes in Action. He witnessed as a pastor by ministering churches. He witnessed to the community by delivering great sermons--one of them about voting, in honor of Coretta Scott King, delivered in 2006 at the Turner Chapel in Marietta, where he empowered everyone to honor Coretta Scott King's life's work by making sure they participated in the political system. It is an honor and a privilege for me to welcome and host Rev. Ron McCrary of Cobb County, GA, and the Cobb County Sheriff's Department. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I wish to honor in the Record of the Senate an honorable American and a great Georgian, Mr. Imre Hir, on the occasion of his retirement after 40 years as general manager of Atlanta Country Club. Imre is a native of Hungary where, in 1956, he was part of a youth movement in that country that helped drive the Soviets out. When the Soviets later returned to Hungary, Imre was forced to leave his country and sought refuge in Austria. While in Austria, Imre was debriefed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, which later arranged to bring him to the United States. Shortly after arriving in the United States, Imre served in the U.S. Army. After completing his service in the military, Imre worked his way up from a dishwasher at the Red Coach Grill in Boston, MA, to becoming the general manager of Druid Hills Country Club in Atlanta in 1969. He then went on to serve as the general manager of the Atlanta Country Club, where he has held that position until this month, retiring after 40 great years. Imre is an example of an individual who has lived the American dream, and his story is one of many among immigrants who have come to the United States--the land of opportunity--and built successful lives through hard work and perseverance. I congratulate Imre Hir for a successful career and the contributions he has made to the United States. I wish him well in his retirement.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, how much time remains?

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I, too, wish to rise and talk some about the President's statement of last Friday but from maybe a different approach than one might imagine. The President said he thought the private sector was doing just fine. I was driving in the car when I heard the statement, and the statement took me back because I feared the President might not actually know how the private sector truly was doing. Twelve weeks ago, I spent a week on the road doing townhalls, knocking on doors, visiting with Georgians. I come to the floor to provide some information to the President that maybe the private sector isn't doing that well, and maybe there is something we can do about it--this administration and this Senate--because right now we are doing nothing and America is languishing because of problems, some of which are our making. The private sector, by definition, is everybody other than the government sector; at least that is my definition. Let me talk about everybody other than the government sector for a minute and why they are not doing very well. Let me talk about the homebuilder I met in Valdosta, GA, who talked to me about the fact that he had just sold a home he built. I said that is great; house sales are getting better. He said, the only problem is I could not get an appraisal for what it cost me to build the house, so I am selling it, but I am selling it at a loss. Part of that is because of the regulation and oppression that is on appraisers right now because of a fear of appraisal fraud. Or the tomato farmer I talked to from Bainbridge, GA. He talked about the indignation he had when the Labor Department promulgated a rule-- they did not end up passing it--that would have said you have to be 18 years or older to work on a farm, even if it was your family farm--an overreach of the Department of Labor that, fortunately, they pulled back, but the type of overreach that causes people to retrench, not build and expand and move their business forward. Or the 81-year-old community banker I talked to yesterday on the phone, from Calhoun, GA, who had a significant amount of his savings invested in stock in the community bank he had been a part of so much of his life, which is now under a cease-and-desist letter from the FDIC and is being managed under what is called a cease-and-desist order, which means the FDIC is basically running the bank, or limiting its parameters. The bank is slowly but surely dissipating its capital base until it gets to 2 percent and then the Feds will come in and close the bank and transfer its assets to a bigger bank and give them an 80- percent loss share guarantee, and the bigger bank will foreclose on the property and move forward. In fact, what was intended by Dodd-Frank to reduce too big to fail and empower banks has done the opposite; the bigger banks have gotten bigger, the smaller banks have become fewer, and American banking and capital investment is less. Or the hospital I visited in Thomasville, GA, which just finished its completion, the Archibald Center--a great center. They were talking about the difficulties they were having with employees and the fear they had that the NLRB mini-union ruling on Specialty Health Care was actually going to become the law of the land through regulation, where micro units within a facility could actually unionize, where just nurses in the emergency room, or in the ICU, could unionize, and everybody else would not. Can you imagine a hospital, department store, or a manufacturer with a union in the shoe department, a union in the nursing department, a union in the lumber department, a union on the loading dock, micro unions throughout the organization? You could not function; you couldn't cross-train, you couldn't manage. You would weight the playing field between management and labor in favor of labor and to the detriment of the investor who made the investment. I could go on and on. It is those visits that I have talked about, the people in those cities I have talked to in Georgia, people in the private sector--they are not doing well. And it is for fear of overregulation and of uncertainty. If we can do anything to empower our economy in the short run in America, we can call time out and say enough is enough. As I told a member of the administration 2 weeks ago, the administration, I think, wants to eliminate risk. Our job is not to eliminate; it is to mitigate risk. If you eliminate risk, you take the power of investments in the private sector, entrepreneurship, and capital risk, you take it out the window. You can't eliminate risk, but you can mitigate risk. So let's get back to mitigating risk, making sure we have a safe workplace, but where capital investment can be made. Let's make sure we mitigate risk in banking, but not so much that we choke out the small family banker. Let's make sure that agricultural workers are safe, but that the son of a farmer can work on his father's own farm. Let's make sure we are not overreaching so far that we are making the private sector's plight worse than it is today. My message to the Senate and to the President of the United States is that the private sector is not just fine. Though it may not all be of the government's making, part of it is. We are making it worse. We are trying to run a country based on the three-legged stool of legislative, judicial, and the executive branch, on a two-legged stool of regulation through the executive branch and judicial regulation through the judicial branch--cutting out the legislative branch. Do you know what happens to two-legged stools? They fall over. The private sector is falling over, and it is, in part or in whole, because of us. I hope the President understands that there is a private sector that pays the taxes and makes America work--a private sector that is hurting--and we can help the private sector. Let's put our nose and shoulder to the grindstone, and let's move forward in these months leading up to the election and change some of the overregulation and empower the private sector, not accept that we think it is doing just fine. I end with this, the front page of the USA Today. Average family wealth net worth in the United States has declined 39.4 percent, back to the level of 1992, which simply means the private sector has lost 20 years of accumulation, equity, and investment in the economy of the last 3 years. That is unacceptable. It is why we have the depression we have in this country. We need to get our shoulder to the grindstone, make it work, and let the private sector be just fine again because of an empowerment of the private sector, entrepreneurship, and capital investment. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Taylor Ibrahim, an intern in Senator Paul's office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the day.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today the Senate confirmed Executive Calendar No. 607, Andrew David Hurwitz, of Arizona, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit on a voice vote. I request that the Record reflect my opposition to the nominee and that I would have voted ``nay.'' Objection to Further Proceedings on the Nomination of Andrew Hurwitz

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I wish to commemorate the bicentennial of the beginning of the War of 1812, on June 18, 2012, in the Record. President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Great Britain on June 18, 1812. The sacrifices by those soldiers, citizens, and their families who fought in the War of 1812 further defended the liberties previously won in the American Revolution. These sacrifices include heroic efforts by Dolley Madison to save some of our national treasures from destruction during the burning of the White House by the British on August 24, 1814. The conflict and bravery shown during this conflict would inspire Francis Scott Key to write a poem describing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, and this would later become our country's national anthem, known as the ``Star Spangled Banner.'' The War of 1812 further solidified the independence of the United States from Great Britain, and the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814, to end the War of 1812. Many Georgia residents can trace their lineages back to these patriotic early settlers. Descendants of the veterans of the War of 1812 chartered the Georgia State Society within the General Society of the United States Daughters of 1812 on June 18, 1901, to promote a general awareness of the history of the War of 1812 among the citizens of Georgia and the Nation. As we observe the bicentennial of the War of 1812, I urge all citizens to become more knowledgeable of the role the War of 1812 played in the history of our great Nation and the State of Georgia.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, as a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, I rise for a brief speech. But I want to begin that speech by thanking Chairman Harkin, Ranking Member Enzi, and the entire staff of the HELP Committee, and my staff--Francie Pastor-- who have helped so much on this legislation which is so important to the American people. There is a chance where we have a bipartisan effort in the Senate to do something constructive and meaningful, and I commend both Senators on their work. There are component parts of this legislation I want to illuminate for a few seconds because I had a lot to do with them, and they are very important. One deals with third-party logistics providers. As the Chair is aware, and as the Senate is aware, we have a placeholder in the managers' amendment for a third-party provider and logistical providers with track and trace. Track and trace is the mechanism of tracking the drug from its origin and tracing it all through the system to the individual using the drug to ensure we have safety and security. But there are third-party logistics carriers who deliver an awful lot of content in the United States, such as FedEx and UPS, that operate in all 50 States, and we ought to have a 50-State seamless standard in terms of third-party delivery rather than 50 individual States all having regulatory authority. So my first message today is to the conferees, that when the conference committee is ultimately reporting, it should take this placeholder on these third-party logistics providers and make sure in the track-and-trace legislation we provide a seamless national policy for the delivery of pharmaceuticals. That is very important to our country and very important to the pharmaceutical industry, but mostly it is very important to those who consume those pharmaceuticals. Secondly, there is another provision called the Medical Gas Safety Act, which was included in this legislation, and I am very grateful the managers of the legislation agreed to put it in the bill because it is equally important for the people of this country. I want to make sure one thing is underlined. Medical gases are critically important to sustain life, gases such as oxygen. A gas such as nitrous oxide, which is sometimes called laughing gas by some, is sometimes used to sedate individuals. I want to make sure as we go through this process we have a system under which medical gases--that have stood the test of time-- remain available through medical use and that brandnew medical products that have never been through the testing of time go through an appropriate FDA review, which is what the original act--the Medical Gas Safety Act--included and which we want to be included in this legislation. Madam President, I also wish to further speak for a moment about an important section of this legislation--the Medical Gas Safety Act. I want to thank the Chairman and the Ranking Member, and Senator Blumenthal, for working with me to include this in the bill. The Medical Gas Safety Act has a number of important benefits for patients, health care providers, FDA and medical gas providers, it will ensure a continued supply of quality medical gases that patients can depend on, and it will provide regulatory certainty for FDA and providers. The intent of the Medical Gas Safety Act is to create a process for those medical gases and medical gas mixtures that have a history of safe and effective use to become approved drugs. This will ensure that medical gases that have a long history of use, like oxygen, become approved drugs. The legislation provides FDA with the authority to ensure that any mixture of medical gases be ``medically appropriate.'' Congress urges FDA to work with industry to develop a guidance over the next year to better define the term ``medically appropriate'' so that those mixtures that have been on the market for a long period of time can continue to be available to the patients that need them. I think we have a finished product that everyone can support--it is a matter of fine tuning at this point, which can be accomplished through FDA guidance. We need to have a system under which medical gases that have stood the test of time remain available for medical use; and brand new medical gas products that have never been tested go through an appropriate FDA review--which is what the original bill envisioned. I once again thank the chairman and ranking member for all of the hard work they have done to move this entire bill forward in such a bipartisan manner. The way the Committee has approached this important legislation has resulted in a good bill that deserves everyone's support. I also want to express my appreciation for the inclusion of the Medical Gas Safety Act in this bill. Senator Blumenthal deserves credit for the work he has done in this area. Madam President, I applaud my colleagues, Senators Bennet and Burr, for their efforts to enhance the safety of America's pharmaceutical supply chain. While we are fortunate in America not to have a widespread problem with counterfeit drugs, the potential that they could pose a serious health risk to consumers is significant. Supply chain compliance and safety is currently a patchwork of inconsistent State requirements and licensing which potentially jeopardizes the safety and welfare of millions of Americans. Unless a uniform Federal policy covering all pharmaceutical supply chain stakeholders is enacted, the United States will fail to provide the best tools needed for regulators and law enforcement to do a more effective job. Additionally, the U.S. would be missing an opportunity to leverage technology that will provide superior, cost effective consumer protection. Third Party Logistics Providers, or 3PLs, are playing a growing and important role in making sure medicines reach their destination safely and securely. The term ``third party logistics provider'' refers to an entity that provides or coordinates warehousing, distribution, or other services on behalf of a manufacturer, wholesaler, or dispenser, but does not buy, sell, or direct the sales of those products. Currently, Federal law does not recognize the role of a 3PL. Only one State even offers a license for 3PLs. Other States require a 3PL to apply for a wholesale distributor license, even though 3PLs do not buy or sell drugs. The varying patchwork of inconsistent State requirements makes law enforcement more difficult and there is added cost without a safety benefit. Failure to include and define 3PLs in Federal language is simply wrong. Recognizing the role of 3PLs is a strong first step towards the development of uniform Federal standards for a 3PL license. Ensuring that all entities are properly licensed within the pharmaceutical supply chain not only makes sense, but it is one of the most effective deterrents to dangerous counterfeit drugs entering the supply chain. I thank my colleagues Senators Bennet and Burr, and their staff, for their leadership to enhance supply chain safety by working with all industry stakeholders. I also express my gratitude to Ranking Member Enzi, Chairman Harkin and Senate leadership for their support. Through a constructive conference process, I am confident we can enhance supply chain safety in a reasonable and cost effective manner. By properly defining 3PLs, and ensuring that properly licensed entities handle our medicines, we can help to ensure they safely and securely reach patients in need. My constituents in Georgia expect nothing less. Once again, Madam President, I commend the chairman and ranking member on their service and their fine work on the FDA bill. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.