Barbara Mikulski

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Abusive Credit Card Practices and Bankruptcy?'' on Tuesday, March 24, 2009, at 10 a.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 24, 2009 at 2:30 p.m.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 24, 2009, at 9:30 a.m., to hold a hearing entitled Alleviating Global Hunger: Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Leadership.''

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 24, 2009, at 2:30 p.m.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet, during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Addressing Insurance Market Reform in Health Care Reform'' on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. The hearing will commence at 10 a.m. in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety of the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. in room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building to hold a hearing entitled, ``Three Mile Island--Looking Back on Thirty Years of Lessons Learned.''

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 24, 2009 at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``Modernizing Bank Supervision and Regulation, Part II.''

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate to conduct a hearing on Tuesday, March 24, 2009, at 2:30 p.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Johanns amendment on the Special Olympics be temporarily laid aside.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, first of all, I rise to thank my colleague from Utah for his excellent statement. I think he outlines exactly where we are in terms of both the content of the bill and the way we have approached this bill. It is my belief, as is the belief of Senator Kennedy, that we govern best when we govern together. That is exactly what the Serve America Act exemplifies. The architects of this legislation are Senator Kennedy and Senator Hatch, bringing to bear their own passion on Americans being able to give back to our society. Yet, with 16 years of lessons learned on the running of the Corporation for National Service, we have learned a lot. So this bill, as originally introduced, had not only good ideas and good intentions, but came from lessons learned on how to better focus our efforts, get more of a dollar's worth out of our efforts, and, at the same time, be able to harvest this growing desire of people to serve. This year, there are far more people who are applying for national service opportunities than at any other time in our history. Senator Hatch has also outlined the very important parameters we have set in the bill: no money will be going to participants to engage in partisan activities, no money going to participants that cannot demonstrate they are providing viable services and meeting the very clear requirements of AmeriCorps. There are other issues both Senators Hatch and Enzi have worked so constructively on to bring to our attention--great yellow flashing lights around these issues--and we heard them. We not only heard their concerns, I want to thank them because they brought not only concerns to the table but very sound solutions. So I want to thank them for that. I think on our side of the aisle, we have looked at AmeriCorps, we have looked at what President Obama is calling for, along with Senator Kennedy, and the wonderful contributions of Senator Dodd, and want to expand this program. But we realize there is a limit. There is a limit to the money we can spend, and there is a limit to our organizational capacity on what we can undertake. So on our side there was an attempt to find that sensible center to be able to focus exactly on what we want to do in certain basic corps, and, at the same time, to merely make sure, increase the number of people volunteering. We have taken a look at the education voucher award. It has been frozen for 16 years. We made a modest increase, and our index will be to peg it to the Pell grants. This seems to be a sensible solution. There were those on my side of the aisle who wanted to double or even triple the education award. If we looked at inflation over 16 years, I would have been in that category. Well, in the spirit of compromise and consensus, we all sometimes have to not make the perfect the enemy of the really excellent. Therefore, in 2010, we will raise the education award to $5,350--a $500 increase. That would be less than $50 a year over the last 16 years. So we trimmed what the education award would be. We looked at how we wanted to triple the number of volunteers. We knew it couldn't be done in a day or a year, so instead, we phase it in over a 7-year period. Again, it was taking what we wanted to do, but organizing it at a pace we knew the taxpayers could afford, and so the corporation could develop the capacity to be able to expand the programs in a sound way. Then there comes the stewardship idea, which is, how do we make sure we build in certain reporting that really would ensure we were getting a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of taxes? Senator Enzi of Wyoming, the ranking member of the committee, once again brought his very sound accounting skills to the table, and we came up with a way to, again, ensure value for the taxpayer, value for the community, and do it in a way that does not create a lot of micro-processes. We have put a lot of work into this bill. We don't want to lose sight of the fact that this legislation is to intended to really tap into the idealism of our young people. Idealism doesn't know gender, it doesn't know religion, it doesn't come from a ZIP Code. I believe it is really in the hearts of people everywhere in the world. It is a unique American characteristic to want to help your neighbor. Some people call it the Golden Rule--``Do unto others as you would have them do unto you''--but this is more. This is really saying: I want to take my life my talent, and put it to work in the community and make the community a better place. That is the original purpose of this bill. Yesterday, I don't know how my colleagues felt, but, gosh, I was buoyed when Senator Kennedy came on the floor, when he walked in that door with his jaunty cane and his good humor. The cheer that he brought to this body--it was very edifying, very inspirational, very energizing. Senator Kennedy brings his own unique energy to this. I have been talking to him about this bill. He is so pleased that the Senate is taking it up. He has been working with us as we have talked back and forth about improvements and so on. I know how strongly he feels about it. If he were on the floor himself today, he would be encouraging us. He would be motivating us. He would be inspiring us to pass this legislation so that we can engage a new generation of young Americans in national service, while at the same time, welcoming the large-scale participation of all generations to address national needs because, again, the desire to serve isn't based on age. It is not only young people who feel it. We all do. Communities across our country face challenges too numerous to count. If Senator Kennedy were on the floor, he would be reminding us about rising unemployment, particularly among young people, rising poverty, and falling home prices. At the same time, all of us are aware of the fiscal challenges many States and schools and communities are facing, which means they have to cut back on services just when families and children need them the most. Some of my colleagues believe we can't afford this legislation at a time when our debt is growing and our economy is struggling, but I say we can't afford not to pass this legislation. This bill offers innovative solutions to those challenges by asking more Americans to give their time to serve their country and their community. It answers the economic challenges of communities and families and what they are facing today. It is a carefully developed and focused solution. We have learned a lot in the past 16 years since we passed the original legislation about what works and what doesn't work. Senator Hatch spoke eloquently about it a few minutes ago. This bill draws on those lessons and actually puts them to work. We have learned that service can make a big difference in addressing specific challenges and that service opportunities early in life can put young people on the path of lifetime service. We have seen that older Americans want to serve their communities with skills and experience and that social entrepreneurs in the private sector are coming up with very innovative ways to tackle the challenges we face in a way that is affordable. This bill focuses national service programs where service can do the most good. I will repeat that. AmeriCorps, and these new programs with focused approaches, will focus service programs on where service can do the most good. In other words, following a Marine Corps adage, we are saying to the AmeriCorps volunteers: Be best at what you are best at, and be best at what you are most needed for. Be best at what you are best at, and be best at what you are most needed for. That is why we are talking about an education corps. That is why we are talking about a health futures corps, a clean energy corps, a veterans corps, an opportunity corps focusing on poverty. This is why we are focusing our service efforts. Social entrepreneurs such as those who started City Year and Experience Corps are the ones who are teaching us many of these lessons. When City Year began, it was about giving a year of service by a young person to do good in the community. That was the aegis of AmeriCorps. Back then, City Year took on all kinds of programs, but as City Year has matured, they found it is better to focus. City Year focuses primarily on tackling one of our greatest national challenges--the dropout crisis in high schools. In Baltimore City, my hometown, only one in three students who starts high school actually graduates. This is a travesty mirrored in inner cities and rural areas throughout our country. City Year focuses on how to deal with that dropout rate. Let's talk about Experience Corps. Experience Corps takes older adults and uses them as AmeriCorps volunteers. What they found is Experience Corps works best by working in schools. They are taking adults with years of experience and putting their skills to work, and it is making a difference. I have seen Experience Corps work in my own hometown of Baltimore in a school called Barclay Elementary School that has had its ups and its downs and its sideways. It has had talented teachers, often a good principal, and yet they needed help. In that surrounding community, within the shadow of Johns Hopkins University, Experience Corps works, and in many ways it has helped and assisted with volunteers and others coming from Hopkins. With that blend of volunteers, Barclay Elementary School has improved. When I asked the CEO of Experience Corps--because the people in this age group can do a variety of things--why education, he told me that's what Experience Corps could do best, where it was most needed. We have learned from programs like this, which is why AmeriCorps will now focus on these very specific core programs. We also found that this bill will, of course, encourages service learning opportunities for students, because students want to give as well. Working with Senator Dodd, who has been such a leader on these issues, we now have Summer of Service opportunities for middle and high school students. These young people want to do it. College is where so much of our young people's character and experiences are shaped. This bill recognizes that, going the extra mile by allowing the designation of 25 campuses of service which will undertake activities to help students engage in service that will actually encourage people to go on to public service careers. This legislation also creates Encore Fellows to help adults transition to longer term public service with a nonprofit organization. These adults are volunteering by choice. They have knowledge and experience, and we just need to get them in the door. This is a way to bring in people who have retired and who have incredible skills, such as that retired accountant who can help a nonprofit get its books together and maybe find new grant opportunities. Finally, it is to help older Americans get more involved through Senior Corps, RSVP, Senior Companions, and Foster Grandparents. These are excellent programs. In this bill, we have taken innovation, creativity and lessons learned and come up with a new framework of service. Right now, our country faces an incredible economic challenge. We see it in homes, families, factories, farms, and communities all over America. But as you look out, you don't see faces of despair. People believe in this country, and children and grandparents know and even believe, also, in great possibilities. So while we are facing these great challenges, we have a great opportunity. This is not the ``me generation'' of a decade ago; it is the ``we generation.'' I think this bill will help us be ``we, the people'' who serve each other. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, we are only minutes away from voting on the cloture motion to proceed to the bill. I really urge all of my colleagues to vote yes on this motion so we can proceed to this excellent, dynamic, bipartisan bill called the Serve America Act. Madam President, in November, people voted for us to change the tone in this country and change the direction and to work on a bipartisan basis to find that sensible center that Colin Powell has so often talked about, to meet America's compelling needs and challenges. Now, we are not going to turn the economy around quickly, and we are not going to solve some of our great foreign policy challenges immediately. But we can embark upon a major initiative to be able to meet compelling human needs in our society. We have a bipartisan effort, crafted by Senators Kennedy and Hatch, to do exactly that. It is a bipartisan measure to strengthen service and volunteer opportunities. It expands opportunities for individuals of all ages to serve. Its passage is important now, when so many communities are struggling with so many pressing problems and so many people want to serve. This act invites many more Americans to give a year of service to solve specific challenges in the areas of education, healthy futures, clean energy, even helping our veterans. When they come back from overseas, they are going to have somebody to be with them to get connected to the services and to help those military families while they are serving abroad. We can do this by passing this legislation. It expands the number of national service corps participants to 250,000 a year. But we do that over a 7-year period. We will be able, through prudent pacing of both recruitment and funding, to do it over a 7-year period. It also increased the Eli Segal Education Award from $4,725 to $5,350, pegging it to Pell grants, helping those who want to serve be able to reduce their student debt or to get a voucher to be able to pursue higher education. It supports increased service opportunities for students, particularly very young people in the Learn and Serve Program, and middle and high school students through a summer of service and a semester of service. It also recruits retirees. Many retirees are ready, able, and willing to be involved through Senior Corps programs--RSVP, Senior Companions, and Foster Grandparents. We have a program called Encore Fellowships to help retirees participate in longer term public service. It also supports international service opportunities. Senator Hatch is too modest to talk about his own fine hand in this bill, but he has offered an excellent suggestion that has been incorporated. It strengthens the current Volunteers for Prosperity Program, which enables people who are retired, who have skills in business, public works, engineering, et cetera, to provide short-term international service opportunities in developing nations. This is what America is all about. De Tocqueville, when he studied our Nation, said: What is unique about this new country called America? Well, he called it the ``habits of the heart,'' where neighbor helps neighbor, whether it was the barn raising of another era, to also building Habitat for Humanity here. We need to harvest all of that goodwill and good intention to help turn our country around. I believe the Serve America Act does this. We will be debating this legislation further tomorrow. I encourage people to vote yes on the cloture motion to proceed. I encourage all who have amendments to come forward tonight and tomorrow morning so we can move it and get the job done. That is what the people want us to do. Madam President, I yield the floor.

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

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the time during the quorum call be charged equally, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the previously scheduled 6 p.m. cloture vote now occur at 5:45 p.m., and that 10 minutes immediately prior to 5:45 p.m. be divided as previously ordered, and that all other provisions of the previous order remain in effect.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I am proud today to bring the legislation to the floor entitled Serve America Act. This bill is the result of extensive bipartisan work by Senators Kennedy and Hatch who have worked more than a year on this legislation but who have devoted their lives to this bill. I know in a short time I will be joined by the distinguished Senator from Utah, Mr. Hatch, who was one of the prime sponsors of the bill. Senator Enzi of Wyoming, the ranking member of the Health, Education Committee, was also going to be here. He is in a snowstorm in Wyoming. Senator Enzi will bring his remarks to the floor tomorrow. Let me just say that I want to, first of all, salute Senators Kennedy and Hatch for designing this legislation because it expands the opportunity to serve this country. At the same time, Senator Enzi and Senator Dodd worked assiduously to strengthen the bill. Senator Enzi brought very key legislative analysis to the bill, and his background as an accountant gave us very much needed reforms in the area of greater accountability and stewardship. I want to, on behalf of our side of the aisle, thank him for his insight and know-how. We have adopted every single one of the Enzi stewardship recommendations. Our colleague, Senator Dodd of Connecticut, himself a former Peace Corps volunteer, has also brought additional thinking to the bill to make sure that volunteers are rewarded by making sure we could expand the summer of service and the semester of service. Madam President, I have been no stranger to this bill, and one of the things I have done was be the appropriator for appropriations from the time of its inception, from 1993 to 2004, when the VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Committee was dissolved by Mr. Delay of Texas in the House, and the Senate followed suit. That is a chatty way of saying that Senator Kit Bond, who chaired that subcommittee as my ranking member, was able to keep national service functioning and also very much needed reforms. In 2004, Senators Harkin and Specter got the appropriations portfolio for national service, and they have done an outstanding job. I say all this to say that when we bring up this bill, it is not a Democratic bill; it is a bipartisan bill and an American bill. Ever since the framework for the underlying legislation was created more than a decade ago, we have worked on both sides of the aisle, with Presidents of both parties, to give our young people an opportunity to serve. This has been an outstanding effort. Today, the legislation I bring to the Senate floor on their behalf is the result of considerable experience, lots of lessons learned, and also the recognition and knowledge that there is a new invigorated spirit in the United States of America. Some are calling it the ``Obama effect'' because there are so many people who want to give back to the United States of America, to use their own sweat equity to be involved in our communities to make them a better place to be, for our schools to be able to be more effective, for there to be structured afterschool activities for children, and volunteer efforts to add to more housing for Habitat for Humanity--item after item, we could go on. There is this fantastic spirit, and we want to be able to make use of that energy, that passion, those good intentions, and be able to help them truly to serve America. Senator Kennedy and I have worked on this legislation for some time. Way back in 1990, Senator Kennedy and I introduced the National Community Service Act with then-Senator Nunn, and also with the help of Senator McCain, to establish a corporation for national and community service, and also to create a demonstration project that would then become the AmeriCorps. When President Bill Clinton came in, we worked to create the National Community Service Act. In 1993, we passed the AmeriCorps legislation. Since then, it has been a profound success. We took that landmark legislation and, working with President Clinton, created a framework for today's national service programs. Let me be clear, Madam President. We were not in the business of creating another new social program. What we were in the business of was creating a new social invention. What do I mean by that? In our country, we are known for our technological prowess, the great technological inventions. From the rocket ship to the microchip, America has been in the forefront of technology and science. But also often overlooked, and sometimes undervalued, is our social inventions--those things that the genius of America invents to create an opportunity ladder for our country, to create empowerment opportunities for our constituents. Let me give a couple of examples, and you can see the American philosophy at work in AmeriCorps. In terms of our social inventions, what are some? Well, you know we are the country that invented night school. At the turn of the old century, with so many immigrants coming from Europe, with Lady Liberty raising her hand saying: Give me your tired, your poor, your yearning to be free--and they also wanted to learn to read English, write English, and learn citizenship. But they were working night and day to be able to do that. Out of the great settlement houses--primarily the great settlement houses out of New York and Chicago--they said: If you work during the day, we are going to give you an opportunity to learn at night. Out of that settlement house movement came a new social invention called night school. It was never done anywhere else in the world. Look how night school changed the face of America. Then, while our GIs went overseas and then came back home, we had another social invention that said: We want to thank you not only with words but with deeds. So another empowerment legislation was called the GI bill, which created one great, gigantic opportunity ladder for generations of men who would have never had the opportunity for either education or home ownership to be able to move ahead. Along the way, they knew they could not go off to 4 years of college. They were adults. They had seen war and they had liberated death camps. They could not come back and go ``bula bula''; they had to go to work. So we invented something else, too, called the junior college, or the community college, which in and of itself was a social invention. So you see, every generation comes up with a new idea to build and add to that important opportunity ladder where you can do something for yourself and your country. But government is on your side. What is it we wanted to do? A social invention for the nineties? What did we face? We saw two things: No. 1, students had incredible debt-- and they still do. Their first ``mortgage'' was not a home but what they owed in terms of their college debt. Also, we saw a new trend coming to America called the ``me'' generation. Articles and books were being written about it. There were those on both sides of the aisle who wanted to change the ``me'' generation to the ``we'' generation. We also wanted to say: How can we help with student debt? That is when we thought about national community service, where you could give back to your country, learn the habits of the heart that de Tocqueville talked about--neighbor helping neighbor, the signature of America, from barn raising to Habitat for Humanity, and habits of the heart and Habitat for Humanity. We created national service as a form. We didn't want it to be service only for idealistic, affluent kids who could afford to take 2 years off to find themselves. We wanted them to find opportunity to be of service and also to make an important contribution. That is how we created the original national service legislation. We wanted to strike a balance between precollege and postcollege to help pay for college, get ready for college or to learn a trade. We also wanted to provide the opportunity for retired people to be of service and also, while being of service, to earn a modest voucher to pay down student debt. We wanted to make sure we could do this in a way that was sensible, affordable, and also would involve the flexibility and creativity of the local community. We allow not only full-time volunteers but the opportunity for part- time volunteers. Actually, the part-time volunteer was my idea. Putting on my social work hat again, what I saw in our communities was not everybody can go away and not everybody wants to go away. It could be someone disabled, where their whole support system is in that community. And although they have a physical challenge, they can still give. How about that single mother who graduated from a community college and wants to reduce her debt as she is moving on with her career? This would give her a chance to do that. There were important lessons learned, and for more than a decade we worked on it. But not all was rosy, not all was smooth. What we then saw in 2003, when I was the ranking member on the appropriations subcommittee funding national service, is they created a debacle. God, did they get sloppy. One of their most colossal errors was that they enrolled over 20,000 volunteers and could not afford to pay for it. That is how sloppy they were in their accounting. I took to the floor and called them the ``Enron of nonprofits.'' I called for a new board, a new CEO, and new rules of engagement. President Bush responded, and he gave us the right people to right the ship of national service. I must say, in those 6 years since then, they have worked to do so. They have righted the ship, they have good financial accounting, and people continue to volunteer. But all that is history. What about the 21st century now? Wow, people want to volunteer like never before. Do you know that last year 35,000 college seniors applied for Teach America? There were only 4,000 slots. There were 35,000 young people who wanted to do it. The Peace Corps got 13,000 applicants last year for 4,000 slots. People want to serve. While we saw this new flourishment of desire and passion to serve, Senators Kennedy and Hatch put their abilities and key minds and passion for this issue together and have come up with the Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act. It is a great bill. Let me tell you about it. First of all, it improves the number of national volunteers. Over a 7-year period, it would take the volunteers from 75,000 slots to 250,000 slots. But this bill is more about creating opportunities and for people to serve. It is about meeting compelling human needs. We are going to also expand this bill with lessons learned on focusing some of our AmeriCorps activity into specialized corps. These are what we found: One, an education corps; another, a health futures corps; another, a veterans corps; and another called opportunity corps. These are not outside of AmeriCorps. They will be subsets because we find this is where compelling human need is and at the same time offers great opportunity for volunteers to do it. What does the education corps do? It improves student engagement. It works with young people in schools in supplemental services, such as tutoring, field trips, and particularly in these structured school activities. We have found that where they have focused on education, they have improved student academic achievement and graduation rates. Also, we have something called the clean energy service corps. This is going to work to weatherize more low-income households to be more energy efficient. We have a health futures corps that will work to increase access to health care among low-income and underserved populations but at the same time work on health promotion and wellness, primarily in schools, to teach our young people the kind of cool, new, edgy ways of doing those healthy habits that will change their lives for a lifetime. We also are working on a veterans corps to help create housing units for deployed soldiers and to help also with voluntarism to assist military families when a military family is deployed. I heard of a very innovative approach in Hawaii called Grannies for the Troops. That is grandmothers in the area who want to volunteer to help women whose husbands are deployed with some time off for themselves to go shopping, get other family business done, whatever. You need a volunteer coordinator to make that happen. That is the kind of innovation we are going to have. We also have in this program help for retirees. We keep all our senior programs and we provide something called an encore fellowship for an older generation to serve. We also provide the opportunity for professionals called volunteers for prosperity to serve overseas. Those two ideas from Senator Hatch were very helpful. This bill takes AmeriCorps and focuses it in a way that we think offers greater efficiency and provides some other new opportunities to serve, such as the summer of service and the semester of service. It also concentrates on improving the capacity of our nonprofit organizations in some other very innovative ways. This is just a brief summary of the history that brought us to today and the framework that will take us to tomorrow. In the last Congress, there was a lot of talk about bridges to nowhere. National Service is a bridge to somewhere. I wish to note in the health corps programs, we already have one that will continue to function under this health umbrella in AmeriCorps. Not only do we help people get connected to the services for which they are eligible, but 85 percent of the young people who work in the National Community Health Corps Program go on themselves to health care jobs. Some decide on a career in medicine. Some think: Wow, although I already have my degree, I think I will go into an accelerated program and go into nursing, where they have the accelerated program for people with degrees. Others are looking at careers in public health or in x-ray technology. They get turned on. For people who go into education, they say: You know, I was going to do this for a stint. I want it to be my life's work. They then will go into the field of education as teachers and getting extra degrees and doing a good job. They are the reformers of the next generation. What we do in national service serves the community immediately today, but the impact on the volunteers continues for the rest of their lives. I think this is a great social investment, and it is a public investment in our young people to help our communities that I think will pay dividends long beyond anything we can imagine. I hope this bill is adopted by late tomorrow. I hope we can keep amendments to a minimum. I do believe we have had excellent help on both sides of the aisle. We talk about changing direction in this country. I think people do want a new direction. They want to rekindle the habits of the heart. There are a lot of people out there, as we talked about bonuses, who might be talking about ``me,'' but there are a lot of young people who want to be part of the ``we'' generation. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I thank the Chair.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to join Senator Bunning to introduce the Equity and Access for Podiatric Physicians Under Medicaid Act. I am proud to introduce this legislation that will ensure Medicaid patients have access to care provided by podiatric physicians. This bill adds podiatric physicians to Medicaid's definition of physicians. Currently, podiatric physicians are defined as physicians under Medicare but not under Medicaid. Medicaid treats podiatric physicians as optional providers. This is a simple, commonsense bill that will treat podiatric physicians the same in Medicare and Medicaid. In this economic tsunami, with shrinking budgets and less to go around for Medicaid with more people in need, states are looking for ways to trim budgets and cut costs--one way to do that could be ending reimbursements to providers on Medicaid's ``optional list.'' That means diabetics who need foot and ankle care but cannot afford to pay out of pocket will not get preventive care from a podiatrist that literally can save life and limb. In fact, covering podiatric physicians may be a cost-effective measure. Ensuring Medicaid patients access to podiatric physicians will save Medicaid funds in the long term. Seventy-five percent of Americans will experience some type of foot health problem during their lives and foot disease is the most common complication of diabetes leading to hospitalization. Foot care programs with regular examinations could prevent up to 85 percent of these amputations. We must focus more on prevention on our health care system, and podiatrists are important providers of this preventive care. Podiatric physicians are the only health professionals specially trained to prevent wounds and amputations in the lower limbs in people with chronic conditions like diabetes. Conditions that can devastate feet and ankles. With obesity and diabetes reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S., the work of podiatrists is more important now than ever before. Over 23 million people in this country have diabetes, that is 8 percent of the U.S. populations. Approximately 82,000 people have diabetes-related Leg-,foot or toe amputations each year. Both the CDC and American Diabetes Association recommend that podiatric physicians are a part of the care plan for people with diabetes. Medicaid covers necessary foot and ankle services, so the program should allow podiatric physicians who provide these services to get reimbursed for them. I want Medicaid patients around the country, and the over 600,000 Medicaid patients in Maryland, to have access to these services. I know how important the care provided by podiatric physicians can be from my own personal experience. Dr. Vince Martorana, a podiatrist practicing in Baltimore did great things for my mother. He handled everything from health maintenance to unique challenges facing my mother, who lived for many years with adult onset diabetes. My severely diabetic mother could walk on her own two feet until she passed away because of Dr. Martorana. My Uncle Tony was also a podiatric physician who practiced in Baltimore for more than 40 years. He was there helping Rosie the Riveters stay on the job during World War II. These were hardworking people who had to stand on their own two feet to make a living and Uncle Tony was going to make sure it happened. Podiatric physicians need to be recognized for the important role they play in health care and be reimbursed for their services. This bill makes sure that happens and ensures Medicaid patients have access to essential medical and surgical foot and ankle care. The bill is strongly supported by the American Podiatric Medical Association and I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this important legislation.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to join Senator Bunning to introduce the Equity and Access for Podiatric Physicians Under Medicaid Act. I am proud to introduce this legislation that will ensure Medicaid patients have access to care provided by podiatric physicians. This bill adds podiatric physicians to Medicaid's definition of physicians. Currently, podiatric physicians are defined as physicians under Medicare but not under Medicaid. Medicaid treats podiatric physicians as optional providers. This is a simple, commonsense bill that will treat podiatric physicians the same in Medicare and Medicaid. In this economic tsunami, with shrinking budgets and less to go around for Medicaid with more people in need, states are looking for ways to trim budgets and cut costs--one way to do that could be ending reimbursements to providers on Medicaid's ``optional list.'' That means diabetics who need foot and ankle care but cannot afford to pay out of pocket will not get preventive care from a podiatrist that literally can save life and limb. In fact, covering podiatric physicians may be a cost-effective measure. Ensuring Medicaid patients access to podiatric physicians will save Medicaid funds in the long term. Seventy-five percent of Americans will experience some type of foot health problem during their lives and foot disease is the most common complication of diabetes leading to hospitalization. Foot care programs with regular examinations could prevent up to 85 percent of these amputations. We must focus more on prevention on our health care system, and podiatrists are important providers of this preventive care. Podiatric physicians are the only health professionals specially trained to prevent wounds and amputations in the lower limbs in people with chronic conditions like diabetes. Conditions that can devastate feet and ankles. With obesity and diabetes reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S., the work of podiatrists is more important now than ever before. Over 23 million people in this country have diabetes, that is 8 percent of the U.S. populations. Approximately 82,000 people have diabetes-related Leg-,foot or toe amputations each year. Both the CDC and American Diabetes Association recommend that podiatric physicians are a part of the care plan for people with diabetes. Medicaid covers necessary foot and ankle services, so the program should allow podiatric physicians who provide these services to get reimbursed for them. I want Medicaid patients around the country, and the over 600,000 Medicaid patients in Maryland, to have access to these services. I know how important the care provided by podiatric physicians can be from my own personal experience. Dr. Vince Martorana, a podiatrist practicing in Baltimore did great things for my mother. He handled everything from health maintenance to unique challenges facing my mother, who lived for many years with adult onset diabetes. My severely diabetic mother could walk on her own two feet until she passed away because of Dr. Martorana. My Uncle Tony was also a podiatric physician who practiced in Baltimore for more than 40 years. He was there helping Rosie the Riveters stay on the job during World War II. These were hardworking people who had to stand on their own two feet to make a living and Uncle Tony was going to make sure it happened. Podiatric physicians need to be recognized for the important role they play in health care and be reimbursed for their services. This bill makes sure that happens and ensures Medicaid patients have access to essential medical and surgical foot and ankle care. The bill is strongly supported by the American Podiatric Medical Association and I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this important legislation.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, AIG is in the news. If you want to know what I think AIG stands for, it is ``Ain't I Greedy.'' If there were ever a company that stands for ``ain't I greedy,'' it is certainly AIG. In the midst of one of the greatest economic turmoils to hit our country, we have a corporation that received $170 billion in taxpayer money to keep them afloat, and now they want to pay themselves $165 million in bonuses. Ain't I greedy? You better believe they are greedy. The very people who helped bring the financial services and structure of the world economy to the brink of disaster now want to give themselves bonuses. That is like saying to the crew on the Titanic, after they hit the iceberg: We are going to give you a bonus for navigation. What is this? I want people to know that I am mad as hell and, like the taxpayers, I don't want to take it anymore. We need to do something about this. Right now, we see that over at that corporation, and others that are doing these self-enrichment bonuses, they are the very people who brought us near financial bankruptcy, and they are now demonstrating moral bankruptcy. They nearly bankrupted their companies, but they come with bankrupt values and a bankrupt approach to trying to help America out of this situation. If we want bankruptcy modification, let's throw those bums out. Let's make them wear a scarlet B. I am ready to put them in a stockade in Rockefeller Center so all the people who are losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing their health care can come and take a look at them. You think I am frustrated? I am nowhere near frustrated compared to what my constituents are facing. They are very worried about their future. Senior citizens who saved all their lives and fought in great wars to protect America now have no one to protect their life savings as Wall Street sinks. People who played by the rules and are raising their families and trying to run a small business cannot have access to credit because these guys were busy being celebrity CEOs, celebrity chefs with celebrity wives, and now they want a celebrity bonus. You better believe they are celebrities. Everybody knows who they are. Also, what so infuriates the people of Maryland and, I believe, this country and we in Congress is there is no remorse about what they did. In a 12-step program, when you have been an addict--and they certainly were addicted to greed and they certainly were compulsive about failure--usually you say: I am sorry, I did wrong. I promise never to do it anymore, and I want to make amends by making it right. Not these guys. They want more money to do the same. What is it they say to us? My way or the highway. We need to pay bonuses to get people to stay. Why would we want them to stay? They got us into this mess. They show no remorse, and I don't see a lot of competency in getting us out of it. We need to use the power of our ownership. We own 80 percent of AIG. You know what I think an 80-percent owner ought to do? Goodbye to the people who either do not know how to work to get us out of this mess or are unwilling to help us get out of this mess unless they get a bonus. Second, I think for those who took these bonuses, we are saying: Don't take the money or, if you have, give it back. I signed a letter with other colleagues to Mr. Liddy, the CEO, saying: Don't give them the bonuses, and if they got any, to give it back. But if they will not do it, I am saying loudly and clearly that I will support the initiative to tax them at 90 percent of the money they got. My belief is: You can take it, but we are not going to let you keep it. You can take it, but we are not going to let you keep it. We are going to tax you at 90 percent. If we are 80 percent owners, then we are going to exercise our influence. I believe we need to show not only the taxpayers that we are serious about being stewards of their money, but we have to show corporate America they have to get serious about working with the Obama administration and us to get this economy back on track. Then we need to change not only the culture but help change the direction of our economy. I wish to see change in this country. That is what the voters voted for. Let's start right now, today, by ending this culture of corruption, greed, and self-enrichment. I yield the floor.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise today as an original cosponsor of a bipartisan bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots--the WASP. We are introducing this bill in March, which is Women's History Month. It is time to honor and recognize women who have made a difference in our Nation's history. It is a time to honor women who serve as role models. That is exactly what this legislation does. The WASP were women pilots from across the Nation who volunteered to serve in World War II. They flew America's military aircraft during the war, risking their lives in the service of their nation. They came from all walks of life, but they came together to serve our country as the first women trained to fly American military aircraft. They faced overwhelming cultural and gender bias, received unequal pay, did not have full military status, and were barred from becoming military officers, even though their male counterparts performing similar duties all received officer rank. In 1943, General Arnold combined two women flying organizations and formed the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Within months, these women paid their own way to Texas to enter training. Each woman was already a licensed pilot, a requirement not imposed on men to apply to flight school. The WASP were still required to learn to fly ``the Army way.'' The WASP were assured they would be militarized and become part of the Army. These promise were not kept. The WASP took the same oath of office, they marched, but as pilots, they received less pay than men. They did not receive benefits. No VA benefits, no GI bill, no burial rights for the 38 WASP who were killed in service to our Nation. Fellow WASP had to ``take the nickels out of the Coke machine'' to help send their bodies home. Over 25,000 women applied to be part of the war effort in the WASP. Many volunteers received a telegram asking for their service. Ultimately, 1102 women earned their wings as pilots. Thirteen of these brave women were from Maryland: women like Barbara Shoemaker, who joined from the Women's Auxiliary Flying Squadron; Elaine Harmon, who as a WASP trained male pilots in instrument flying; Iola Magruder, who flew the B-18 ``Bolo''; Jane Tedeschi, who stretched all night before joining the WASP so she could meet the minimum height requirement; and Florence Marston, who flew the B-26 ``Widowmaker,'' notorious for its number of early accidents. These brave women flew over 60 million miles in 2 years. They flew every type of aircraft and every type of mission as the men, except combat missions. They towed aerial targets while being shot at with live ammunition. They transported cargo. They tested repaired aircraft. They ferried aircraft from factories like Fairchild in Hagerstown, MD, to points across the country. They were stationed at 120 air bases throughout the country. The WASP were not established to be a replacement for the men; instead, they enabled men to fly the combat missions. They found and fulfilled the service they could. These women were committed and they believed they could do what our country needed at the time we needed it. The WASP were disbanded in December 1944, when they were told they were ``no longer needed.'' Just as they paid for transport to training, they paid their own way home. For 33 years their military records were classified. For 33 years, their contributions were hidden from historians and textbooks. For 33 years, these brave women were denied veterans benefits. These women were trailblazers. They displayed honor and courage and flew the most complex aircraft of the age. They are patriots. They are an inspiration to today's women in aviation. They opened the door for today's women to fly in the military in aircraft ranging from cargo and trainers, to fighters and bombers, and even the space shuttle. They inspire young girls to pursue technical fields and aviation. They are role models who deserve to be honored. We owe the WASP our ``thank you''--not in words, but in deeds. For their courage, service and dedication to our Nation, they deserve the most distinguished honor Congress can give: the Congressional Gold Medal.