Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I wish to recognize Vickie VanZandt and Steve Hickok for their exemplary record of public service to the Bonneville Power Administration, the people of Washington State, and the Pacific Northwest. Vickie VanZandt retired on March 28, 2009 after 35 years with the Bonneville Power Administration. She most recently served as Bonneville's transmission business line senior vice president. As the senior executive, Vickie assured the transmission grid operated safely and reliably in order to provide power to over 12 million customers. Her work involved coordinating and setting policy for transmissions system planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance-- clearly, no small feat. Vickie graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington's School of Engineering, is a registered engineer, and is a member of Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. She has been a board member of the Western Regional Transmission Association, past president of the Northwest Regional Transmission Association, and has chaired the arbitration committees of both of these organizations. At the request of the Department of Energy, she also chaired the Operations Team investigating the East Coast Blackout of August 13, 2003. Steve Hickok, Bonneville Power Administration's deputy administrator, retired on April 4, 2009, after 27 years of faithful service. Previous to his time with Bonneville, Steve served on the staff of my former colleague, Senator Mark Hatfield, as well as with the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Appropriations. His experience here in the Senate served him well, and at Bonneville, Steve has served as the assistant administrator for conservation and renewable resources development, the chief operating officer, and the group vice president for sales and customer service. He was appointed as the deputy administrator, the organization's second highest-ranking position, in 2001. Steve graduated with honors from Pomona College in Claremont, CA, and is also a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program. He has received many awards during his time at Bonneville, including the Secretary of Energy's Meritorious Service Award and the prestigious Presidential Rank Award, which he earned in both 1992 and 2000. Steve has served on the boards of directors of the Electric Power Research Institute, the Western Energy Institute, the American Leadership Forum of Oregon, the Portland Business Alliance, and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Again, I express my thanks to both Vickie VanZandt and Steve Hickok for their years of invaluable service to the Bonneville Power Administration, and to the entire Pacific Northwest region. The people of Washington State and the region have certainly benefited from their dedicated public service and experience. I wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this amendment would put in place a regulation that would mean health care providers--not just doctors but anybody in a health care clinic or hospital--could refuse millions of women health care for critical services. It jeopardizes Federal family planning services, Medicaid, and title X, and it undermines State laws that guarantee women access to contraceptive services. Health and Human Services has proposed to rescind this rule which the Bush administration published when their clock was running out. This amendment puts ideology ahead of science and ahead of women's health care. Federal law already permits medical professionals to decline to assist in abortions based on their religious beliefs. But stopping this regulation will not change that. This amendment goes way too far and ignores the needs of patients and denies women reproductive health care services. I encourage my colleagues to vote no.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 772, as Modified

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, let me start this morning by commending Chairman Kent Conrad for his leadership of our Budget Committee and especially for the hundreds of hours he and his staff have dedicated to getting this budget done and accommodating both the priorities and concerns of so many of us in this body. Putting together a budget is never an easy process, but I believe our chairman has achieved a good balance that will set us on a course to both reducing our deficit and investing in the areas that we know will make us stronger in the future--energy, health care, and education. I know that in addition to his work on this budget, this is a particularly difficult time for the State of North Dakota and the families and businesses there. I want to say to Chairman Kent Conrad, who will be on the floor shortly, that all of our hearts go out to him and his State as they struggle with these horrific storms that are going through his area. A budget is a statement of priorities. Ours is very clear: We put the middle class first, and we get our country back on track by investing in our future. To be clear, we have inherited some very great challenges. We now face the worst economic crisis in generations. Since December 2007, we have lost 4.4 million jobs, including 2.6 million of those in the past 4 months. So before we consider where we are going, it is important to talk a little bit about where we have been. For weeks now, my friends on the other side of the aisle have been bemoaning deficits and debt with not a moment of consideration for their own record on those issues. Back in 2001, Republicans controlled the full power of our Government. Under the leadership of President Bush and Republicans in Congress, record surpluses created under President Clinton became record deficits. These Republican deficits grew and grew and now today add up to trillions of dollars in new debt that is going to be shouldered by future generations of Americans. With this perspective, I hope our Republican friends will start acknowledging and owning up to the fact that we now have two choices. Choice 1 is to continue down the Republican deficit path, no investments in our future, a widening gap between the rich and the middle class, and more massive deficits. Choice 2 is represented in the budget before us today: improve the economy by investing in energy, education, and health reform so that we as a country are stronger in the future; cut taxes for our middle class and address the deficit so that our children do not bear the burden of bad decisions today. After 8 years of the Bush administration's shortsighted budgets and misplaced priorities, we are now working with President Obama to invest in our needs and to chart a new course for America. We are choosing a new path. The American people deserve an economic plan that works for everyone in this country. Our budget makes responsible choices that will help get this country's economy rolling again. I came to the floor today to talk about a few of those priorities and choices we have made. We face pressing transportation needs across our country, and maintaining and creating new infrastructure is key to this country's economic strength. Just a couple of months ago, the American Society of Civil Engineers issued its annual report card on the condition of America's infrastructure, and the results were very dismal. The leading experts on the state of our Nation's infrastructure have reduced the grade point average of our entire system of roads and bridges and mass transit to a D--that is ``D'' as in dog. Our Nation's roads also got a D-minus since a third of our major roads are considered to be in poor and mediocre condition, and more than a third of our urban highways are congested. American families today spend about 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, and that is costing our economy almost $80 billion in lost productivity each and every year. These roads are in every one of our States. It is time to fix them. As we are all aware, the available funding balance in the highway trust fund is falling rapidly. Thankfully, in our budget the transportation reserve fund will provide the mechanism that will allow us to reform our transportation financing system and provide the kinds of spending levels in the upcoming Transportation authorization bill that are going to be necessary to maintain our highways and our transit systems. Fixing our transportation is about getting our economy strong, but it is about safety as well. I think all of us remember when that Minnesota bridge went down. We do not want to see that again. It is time to fix our roads and our transportation. This budget takes a major step forward. Second, education. We all know and we all say that education is the key to our future strength. In this new global economy we exist in, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity; it is a requirement for success. We will not recover and be strong in the long term unless we both create jobs and make sure America's workers have the education and skills to fill those jobs we create. So this budget invests strongly in education and in ensuring that American students do not fall behind as they make their way into this global marketplace. This budget helps retrain America's workers for careers in high- growth and emerging industries such as health care or renewable energy or energy-efficient construction so that those workers can stay in the middle class. We increase Pell grants and make tax credits for tuition permanent. We want all students to achieve a postsecondary education, whether it is through a registered apprenticeship or through a community college or university, and this budget helps take us in that direction. As a nation, we have to change the way we think about preparing young people for careers today, starting with making education work better. This current economic crisis has cost us dearly. Every weekend I go home to Washington State, I hear about another business closing, another family who has lost their job, another senior citizen who does not know how they are going to make it. So we all know that if we make changes and we make smart investments, that is how we are going to move our country forward again and give confidence back to the American people that we are a strong country. Investing in education is one of those smart investments. We do that in this budget. Our health care system--something we all talk about--is broken. We know it needs real reform. Today, we have a historic opportunity to finally tackle that challenge. These investments we make in health care are not luxuries; they are essential to our future strength. That is why we need to prioritize the health profession's workforce and access to quality health care in our rural areas, and we have to ensure that preventive measures are given priorities so that American families are not left with giant bills for expensive care down the road. Some critics of this budget argue that now is not the time to tackle health care reform. I believe that is very shortsighted reasoning. There is a direct connection between our Nation's long-term prosperity and developing health care policies that stem the chronic bleeding in business and in our State and national budgets across the country. Mr. President, there was a recent editorial in the Everett Herald, a hometown newspaper in my State, that made this point, and I want to read it to you. It says: Yes, the economy is the most urgent challenge. But our broken health care system and addiction to oil threaten to become our long-term undoing. They're all intertwined. Failing to find solutions to our long-term problems will likely stunt future economic expansions, creating longer and deeper downturns. That is not something any one of us wants to see, which brings me to our next investment. As we are all aware, energy issues are some of the most pressing facing our Nation today. Our dependence on foreign oil has left us beholden to other nations as middle-class families have paid the price at the pump. By making renewable energy a priority in this budget, we can reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy in the future and help create green jobs here at home and leave a cleaner environment for future generations. These are smart investments in this budget. In an issue near and dear to my heart, I commend both the committee and President Obama for finally making our veterans a priority in this budget process. Our men and women in uniform and their families have served and sacrificed for our Nation. After years of being underfunded and overshadowed, this budget finally does right by them. I again commend Senator Conrad, the budget chairman, and President Obama for putting this issue forward. This budget is finally honest with the American people about the cost of war, not just by paying for veterans care but by paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on budget, for the first time since they started--over 6 years ago. I also wish to note that this budget meets our commitment to nuclear waste cleanup in my State and across the country. Workers at Hanford Nuclear Reservation and residents of that community sacrificed many years ago to help our Nation win World War II. Hanford and those other sites are now home to millions of gallons of waste. Our Government needs to live up to its promise to clean them up, and this budget rightfully does that. Let me talk a minute about agriculture because agricultural production is the largest industry for many States across the country, as it is in my State, with farming and ranching. Protecting our agricultural sector is critical to our economy, to our environment, and to our quality of life. We need to work to keep our rural communities strong and to ensure a bright future for all our farm families. Production agriculture--such as Washington State's wheat farming--is a very volatile business and a workable safety net, such as in the farm bill, is vital to the security of our family farms. I have long supported the Market Access Program, which provides funds for our producers to promote their products overseas and expanding international markets. These are critical for our agricultural communities today as they try to compete in a global economy. Especially in these difficult economic times, when our foreign competitors are trying to limit our market access with high tariffs, the last thing we should be doing is cutting programs such as the Market Access Program, which will help our growers in a competitive global marketplace. As we work to get our country back on track, I am going to continue to find ways to support one of the staples of our economy and that is our agricultural community. America has paid dearly for the Bush administration's failure over the last 8 years to invest in our country and to invest in our people. We don't have to tell that to the American people today. They are waking up every single day and seeing rising health care costs, pink slips, a crumbling infrastructure and bills and mortgages they can't afford to pay. We tried it the other way for the last 8 years. Now it is time to invest in America again. It is time to give our middle class a break and it is time for honesty and it is time for bold decisions. This budget that Senator Conrad and the Budget Committee have brought to all of us to consider today isn't perfect, of course--no budget is-- but what it does do is extremely important. It invests in our future-- our future, America's future--and puts this country back on track. I wish to thank Senator Conrad, again, and his committee for working so hard to bring this budget forward to us, and I look forward to supporting it when we pass it later this week. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 705

Mrs. MURRAY

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

Mrs. MURRAY

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

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that the amendment to the resolution at the desk be agreed to; that the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; that an amendment to the preamble, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; further, that an amendment to the title be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 37, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to the measure be printed in the Record.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Con. Res. 12, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 83, which was submitted earlier today.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I join my colleague from Washington State, Senator Cantwell, this evening to congratulate Gary Locke on his confirmation now as our next Secretary of Commerce. This confirmation comes at an important time in our Nation's history as we all work very hard to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. We need a Commerce Secretary with the dedication and expertise to carry out policies that are going to strengthen our economy far into the future. Gary Locke is uniquely qualified for that task because he does have a lifetime of experience built on hard work, a wealth of knowledge, and a unique appreciation of the American dream. Governor Locke understands the importance of the American dream because he lived it. His grandfather emigrated from China, and he worked as a servant about a mile from the Governor's mansion in Olympia that one day his grandson would call home. There are a lot of reasons why Governor Locke is an ideal Commerce Secretary, but I wish to tell a personal story this evening that I think illustrates his commitment to public service and to making sure we make the best decision for our taxpayers. I first met Governor Locke when he was in the Washington State legislature and he was chair of the House Appropriations Committee and I was a new State Senator trying to get a piece of legislation passed that was critical to my constituents. As part of getting that bill passed, I had to go before then-Gov. Gary Locke as chair of that Appropriations Committee, and it was one of the toughest political experiences of my lifetime. He knew the budget inside and out. He ran me through the paces. He grilled me about what my bill would do and how much it would cost and what kind of impact it would have on the taxpayers. He was very tough. But ultimately, because he asked those hard questions and made me defend my legislation, we improved the focus of that legislation and we got it passed. Governor Locke has brought that level of expertise and dedication to the taxpayers in every single position he has held, and it makes him an ideal person now to lead the Commerce Department. So let me say a few words about the experience Governor Locke brings to this position. One of the most critical jobs the Commerce Secretary performs is finding markets for American products and technologies. He understands how important this is, and he knows how to do it successfully. As the two-term Governor of the Nation's most trade- dependent State, he spent 8 years breaking down trade barriers and promoting our American products, from airplanes to apples to operating systems. He has led numerous successful delegations to our Asian trading partners to help build those relationships. He also understands that the health of the environment has a direct impact on our quality of life and on our economy. All of Governor Locke's experience means he is going to hit the ground running as our Commerce Secretary as we confront global climate change and other environmental concerns, including the management of our fisheries. So I was very pleased to help support the confirmation of Gary Locke. He won unanimous approval from our Commerce Committee, and today he won unanimous approval from the Senate. He has served the people of Washington State well, and he will bring that same level of commitment and intelligence to this administration. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 25; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and there then be a period for the transaction of morning business for up to 1 hour, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the second half; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 1388, the national service legislation; finally, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2 p.m. to allow for the Democratic caucus luncheon.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, under a previous order, the Senate will vote at 12 noon on confirmation of the nomination of David Kris to be an Assistant Attorney General. That will be the first vote of the day. Additional votes in relation to amendments are expected to occur throughout the afternoon. For the information of all Senators, there will be no rollcall votes on Monday, March 30.

Mrs. MURRAY

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

Mrs. MURRAY

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

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the article discusses the legislation I am introducing today. It also talks about the financial path that the next generation is currently on. The article pointed out that, right now, one-third of our college students have four credit cards when they graduate. More than half of our graduates have piled up $5,000 each in high interest debt. The number of 18 to 24-year-olds who have declared bankruptcy has almost doubled in 10 years. That article also points out that many of our young people are financially illiterate. They understand very little about concepts such as interest or minimum payments or credit reports and the financial reality of having to pay off their student loans for years to come. Today, with many of our schools struggling to pay teachers and maintain their current programs, a lot of our State and local governments cannot afford to ramp up financial literacy education right now. That is exactly where I believe the Federal Government needs to step up. We cannot afford for our young people to not understand their own finances. Our bill will authorize $125 million annually to go to State and local education agencies and their partnerships with organizations experienced in providing high-quality financial literacy and economic instruction. This funding we will provide will help make financial and economic literacy a part of core academic classes, develop financial literacy standards and testing benchmarks, and provide critical teacher training. This bill will also help schools weave financial concepts into basic classes, such as math and social studies. Importantly, this training will not end in high school. Our bill makes the same $125 million investment in teaching financial literacy in our 2- and 4-year colleges. That is critical. My constituents often write or tell me about the financial trouble they are struggling with. A lot of them are very desperate for help. They got into situations they didn't understand, and they don't have the resources to fix. For example, one woman from Olympia, who put off credit card bills to pay her mortgage, wrote to me and said: I am educated, but was unaware that by being late on a payment or by skipping a payment and trying to make it up, my interest rate could skyrocket to over 26 percent, and late fees could be exponential. Whether it is skyrocketing interest rates or credit cards or an adjustable rate mortgage that somebody can no longer afford or a retirement plan that they don't understand, I often hear the same thing from people: I wish someone had taught this to me in high school. This bill we are introducing ensures that we are teaching it in our schools, and it will help people learn the basic skills that will give them a leg up when they are dealing with their bankers. This crisis we are in cost us dearly. Every weekend when I go home I hear about another business that is closing or another family who cannot pay their bills. But we know if we make changes and smart investments, we can move our country forward. I believe this is one of those smart investments. In January, after President Obama took office, he called for an era of personal responsibility. I believe our bill helps Americans to usher in that era. I encourage my colleagues to take a look at the bill and cosponsor it and help us move it forward so we can make sure that we have a financially literate country.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, there are a number of factors that caused the economic recession we are faced with today. All of us know that. We can blame executives on Wall Street, who made reckless choices and ignored long-term consequences to make a quick profit. We can blame the financial industry regulators, whose lax oversight failed to see the potential risks posed by the new, complex financial products that Wall Street was selling, and we can point a finger at those in the mortgage industry, who ignored that all bubbles eventually burst and that--in the case of housing bubble--the American taxpayers would be left to clean up the mess. But we also need to look a little closer to home as well. The reality is that one of the contributing causes of this recession is the fact that too many Americans made poor and very often uninformed financial choices when they bought homes in the last several years. Too many overestimated their own resources, didn't read the fine print, and didn't grasp the terms of their mortgages before signing on the dotted line. In fact, we need to recognize that too many Americans, from college students to senior citizens, are financially illiterate. The problem is not limited to mortgage holders. Too many Americans don't know how to budget their household expenses, manage their credit card debt, or even pay their bills on time. We need to ensure that we don't get into this situation again, by giving all Americans the skills to make sound financial decisions. We used to say the 3 R's of school are reading, writing, and arithmetic. Well, I think we need to add a fourth R--resource management. That is why today I am introducing legislation that will help ensure that all Americans get the skills they need to make financial decisions that will protect them and their families. The Financial and Economic Literacy Improvement Act of 2009 will require the Federal Government to step to the plate and become a real partner in helping Americans manage their finances and make good decisions about housing, employment, and education. This bipartisan bill, which is cosponsored by Senator Cochran, is aimed at helping people of all ages. Our goal is to ensure that high school and college students know the pitfalls of signing up for credit cards and can make informed decisions about student loans. All young people understand the importance of saving and making smart decisions to ensure a comfortable and dignified retirement and, most important, that we are taking steps to ensure we do not repeat the misguided and uninformed decisions that have contributed to the recession that we find ourselves in today. Under our bill, the Federal Government will become a strong supporter of making financial literacy education a core part of K-12 education. I believe that focusing this effort on young people is critical for two reasons: One, if we are going to avoid another crisis such as this one, we must begin by teaching the next generation to make smart financial decisions; two, because all signs point to another generation that is coming of age already saddled with debt, and we need to help them before it is too late. This past Sunday, this article ran on the front page of the Olympian newspaper from my State of Washington. I ask unanimous consent to have this article printed in the Record.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, there are a number of factors that caused the economic recession we are faced with today. All of us know that. We can blame executives on Wall Street, who made reckless choices and ignored long-term consequences to make a quick profit. We can blame the financial industry regulators, whose lax oversight failed to see the potential risks posed by the new, complex financial products that Wall Street was selling, and we can point a finger at those in the mortgage industry, who ignored that all bubbles eventually burst and that--in the case of housing bubble--the American taxpayers would be left to clean up the mess. But we also need to look a little closer to home as well. The reality is that one of the contributing causes of this recession is the fact that too many Americans made poor and very often uninformed financial choices when they bought homes in the last several years. Too many overestimated their own resources, didn't read the fine print, and didn't grasp the terms of their mortgages before signing on the dotted line. In fact, we need to recognize that too many Americans, from college students to senior citizens, are financially illiterate. The problem is not limited to mortgage holders. Too many Americans don't know how to budget their household expenses, manage their credit card debt, or even pay their bills on time. We need to ensure that we don't get into this situation again, by giving all Americans the skills to make sound financial decisions. We used to say the 3 R's of school are reading, writing, and arithmetic. Well, I think we need to add a fourth R--resource management. That is why today I am introducing legislation that will help ensure that all Americans get the skills they need to make financial decisions that will protect them and their families. The Financial and Economic Literacy Improvement Act of 2009 will require the Federal Government to step to the plate and become a real partner in helping Americans manage their finances and make good decisions about housing, employment, and education. This bipartisan bill, which is cosponsored by Senator Cochran, is aimed at helping people of all ages. Our goal is to ensure that high school and college students know the pitfalls of signing up for credit cards and can make informed decisions about student loans. All young people understand the importance of saving and making smart decisions to ensure a comfortable and dignified retirement and, most important, that we are taking steps to ensure we do not repeat the misguided and uninformed decisions that have contributed to the recession that we find ourselves in today. Under our bill, the Federal Government will become a strong supporter of making financial literacy education a core part of K-12 education. I believe that focusing this effort on young people is critical for two reasons: One, if we are going to avoid another crisis such as this one, we must begin by teaching the next generation to make smart financial decisions; two, because all signs point to another generation that is coming of age already saddled with debt, and we need to help them before it is too late. This past Sunday, this article ran on the front page of the Olympian newspaper from my State of Washington. I ask unanimous consent to have this article printed in the Record.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I yield the floor, and I reserve the remainder of the time on our side.