Joe Manchin

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. I thank my good friend, the Senator from Indiana, Mr. Coats, for his diligence in working on this issue. In the greatest Nation on Earth, not to have an energy policy is wrong. It is also wrong to be so insecure--or less secure, if you will--by depending on foreign oil as we have. We know the results we are faced with now. We are saying: Let us comply and make sure we are working in harmony with the environment and the economy. We can make that happen within a reasonable amount of time. That is all we have asked for. We are not asking to make the rules less stringent or to forget about them and throw caution to the wind. We know jobs and the economy are at stake. We know that, basically, the security of the Nation is at stake. But until we find a fuel of the future, we need to use what we have right here in America. Coal has supplied energy for a hundred years and will do so until we find a fuel that will replace it that is dependable, reliable, and affordable. So what we are asking for is something that is reasonable, and we are not blaming anything.

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Reid for Tester amendment No. 927 be modified with the changes at the desk.

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a very real problem, making sure that we do everything we can to protect jobs, safeguard our environment, and make sure utility companies can provide reliable and affordable electricity from our domestic resources. There are two EPA rules that are at the heart of this issue. One is the utility MACT rule, which would require a decrease in mercury emissions at powerplants, and the cross-State air pollution rule, which would require powerplants to lower emissions of pollutants that may reduce air quality in neighboring States. Some utilities have already complied with these rules. Many have not. You can put the blame for the past sins on anybody and everybody, and we seem to do it well here from time to time. This is not what we are here for today. My good colleague and my friend from Indiana will be speaking after me. This is truly a bipartisan effort trying to bring reasonability and common sense to this subject. But we have proven here in this body time and again that you truly cannot fix it if you blame people for it. What we intend to do with our legislation is truly fix the problem. Let me be clear. I believe both of these rules aim to accomplish important objectives. But as they are written, they are nearly impossible to realize. If we do not extend the deadline for utilities to responsibly comply, we are going to lose the jobs and the reliability of the electricity we depend upon, and that hike of rates to consumers will be unimaginable. So we need to find a balance with our economy and the environment. That is why I am proud to stand today with my friend Senator Coats, a Republican from Indiana, to offer a commonsense solution to this problem, and to move forward with responsible, reasonable legislation that would get plants in compliance. We are offering a bill today which is called the Fair Compliance Act of 2011, which has broad support from labor and industry and across the aisle. It is rare for so many groups with different points of view to come together behind a bill, but let me give you a list of some of our supporters: the Building and Construction Trades, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, United Mine Workers of America, AES, American Electric Power, Enerfab, the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, to name a few. I believe this bill provides a reasonable, responsible extension of the deadlines, while also protecting our most important priority, our environment and our responsibility to the environment, the reliability of our electric grid, the consumers who have to buy energy and can only afford to pay a reasonable price, using our own domestic resources so that we depend less on foreign energy and, most importantly, the thousands of jobs that are on the line. I yield the floor for my friend from Indiana.

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, let me say to the Senator that that question has been out there, and the naysayers are saying we should not delay it longer or extend it any more. This has gone through a real storied past, if you will. It had been repealed by previous administrations, it had gone through a court system and was overturned, and we are back where we are. They are going to say: Well, some of them have complied and some haven't. There is ample time. We can sit here--and we have talked and we have watched, in the last year, the blame game. That doesn't work. We haven't fixed a thing in this body this year by blaming the other side or blaming a previous administration or some other partisan group. We have a chance, with what the Senator and I have teamed up on, to fix this. The only thing I would say, which the Senator eloquently laid out, is that a 2-year extension on one to comply, not just to extend and forgive--we are not asking to reduce in any way possible or to amend the Clean Air Act. We want it in force, and we want to do it with the energy we have used for the last century--it is domestic, and it is a fossil fuel. We have cleaned up the air in West Virginia by putting scrubbers and SCRs on boilers to the tune of 89 percent within the last two decades. We can do a lot more. What we are allowing now is to bring plants into compliance without shocking the system. The shock is this: The cost, if I may quote this-- even by EPA's own estimate, they peg the cost--if this rule is not extended so that we can comply, it will cost $2.4 billion. Who do you think will pay that? It will be your consumers, your constituents, and, most importantly, people who cannot afford it. It is putting a burden on, it is challenging jobs that rely on reliable, dependable, and affordable energy so that they can compete globally. It is knocking us out of the market to compete. Why would we shoot ourselves in the foot economically? We can work within the Clean Air Act and comply with it, and it doesn't make any of these rules less stringent. We are not saying relax it. We are just saying: Let us comply. Don't blame what happened in the past. Let's fix what is before us right now. That is what I would say to my good friend. If I may, I will ask my good friend a question. What has he heard from the utilities in Indiana about the EPA's current timeline? What have they told the Senator?

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, we have had a lot of conversation today. We all agree we need infrastructure. On both sides of the aisle we have had a good conversation. I have said before, a road is not a Democratic or Republican road, a bridge is not a Democratic or Republican bridge, nor is a water line or a sewer line. So I rise to address the competing proposals to build infrastructure in this country and to start getting America back to work. Earlier this week, I attended a ribbon-cutting at the Bluestone Dam in beautiful Hinton, WV. When they started work on that dam, I was the Governor of our great State of West Virginia. I was sitting in my office and said to the Corps colonel: Explain to me what the problem could be. He said: Maybe the bedrock, and there might be some possibilities with unusual flooding where we could lose that dam, breach that dam. I asked: What does that mean? He said: Think of it this way, Governor. We are sitting in your office in the capitol, in Charleston, WV. We would be underwater right now. So it brought it to reality for me, the extent of the water we are dealing with and the billions and billions of dollars in downstream costs that would be incurred. So we decided we had to fix that. With the help of our Federal Government, we started working on that way back in 2002, and we are going into our third phase of that project. Roads and bridges are in terrible condition all over the country and in every part of everybody's State. Every Member of the House and every Member of the Senate has a road or a bridge--all 535 of us--Republicans and Democrats alike have a road or a bridge or a water line or a sewer line in our area that needs repair. As the Presiding Officer from Delaware had noted with the work he did for all the good people of Delaware, there was still an awful lot of repair that was needed. I believe in infrastructure. In West Virginia, we say: Our economy can't grow if people can't go. With that, you have to be able to be mobile. We also say in West Virginia: You have to drive to survive because we are one of the most rural States in the Nation. Our people drive as far, if not farther, than people in most other States do for their jobs. With that, we have to make sure they have the ability to get to those good jobs and be able to provide for their family. I have said before--and it has been heard on the floor over the last few hours--that infrastructure is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea. It is a commonsense idea. In 2007, we Governors at that time met in Philadelphia. Knowing the economy was slowing down, we asked: What can we do? We looked back in history and saw President Roosevelt, in the 1930s, basically invested in infrastructure. We had the WPA projects which we see today. A lot of us have used the projects and still are. Tremendous value was returned to this country and the infrastructure of this country through those hard-working people at that time who just needed a helping hand. President Eisenhower, in the 1950s--after the Korean war, the economy needed a jump-start, and we saw the Interstate Highway System being built for a very mobile society coming off the wars. We are still using that same infrastructure that was put in place then. This issue is bipartisan because building infrastructure is bipartisan. It solves two problems. It fixes our crumbling roads and bridges, and it creates much needed American jobs. Of all the people in my State applying for unemployment--and it might be true in most every State--construction workers are the biggest group of unemployed people today, with the most skill sets in America. Almost 20 percent of the unemployment is in the construction trades. That is unacceptable in this great country when we have repairs being needed everywhere. We are going to vote on two proposals today. I know one was just put on quick order, and there is another one we are going to be voting on. One is a Democratic measure, which is our Rebuild America Jobs Act, and the other one is a Republican measure that funds transportation, and it reins in the EPA, for which I have been trying to make sure there is a commonsense approach to how we balance the economy and the environment. In West Virginia, I think we can do it as well if not better than most because we are dealing with those types of challenges. I believe both these bills will help kick-start the economy and create American jobs--I do--and we all know we need that. I will vote for both of them. One is a Democratic proposal and one is a Republican proposal. But I do believe I was sent here as a West Virginian to help my State. It is not because they are bad ideas or wrong ideas that they are probably going to fail. They both have good merits to them. But as our good friend from Alabama just said, it is politics of the order. That is what we are dealing with, and we will find reasons, probably, why we can't give our support. On our jobs bill, there is $60 billion--$50 billion, which I think the Presiding Officer spoke so eloquently on earlier, and $10 billion for an infrastructure bank. I know what an infrastructure bank does in my State. In my State, we have $2 billion of need. We have a $300 million resolving account. It is the same as what we are talking about here. It has helped us tremendously. But everybody comes to the table. We are able to bridge some financing and put projects together that we never could have done, and it is tremendously needed. With that being said, it probably will not pass because our dear friends on the other side of the aisle, our Republican colleagues, and our friends over in the Republican Party, are going to say: It has a seven-tenths-of-1-percent tax on incomes over $1 million--seven-tenths of 1 percent. I can vote for that. I support that. But I also recognize that is a problem for them. So in recognizing that, I am willing to reach out and look for other ways to pay for this. I think that is the spirit we should be working in. Are there offsets or credits? I think 73 of us have voted in a bipartisan fashion for an ethanol credit. Isn't that something we could work on? How about the money we are spending in Afghanistan and Iraq and rebuilding those nations' infrastructures? I have said this before: If you help us build a new bridge in West Virginia, we will not blow it up. If you help us build a new school, I guarantee we will not burn it down. We are so proud to say the good people all over this country have helped us in West Virginia, and we like to help other people in other States. We will work together. That is what we should be doing, rebuilding America. That is what I have asked of everyone: Come together. Let's make sure the infrastructure need we have all over our great country is the first and foremost thing we are working on together because we do agree, as Democrats and Republicans and as Americans, we need it. That is something I think we can come together on. Let me turn now to the Republican bill, which a few hours ago I was notified will be coming up. This bill is not perfect either. A 2-year extension of transportation spending does not give States the certainty they need. We have usually had a 6-year authorization. I know when I was Governor of West Virginia we did 6 years. We did our 6-year planning of our roads in our State based on the Federal bill, the authorization of the Federal highway bill. With only 2 years, it is hard to get any project completed. Sometimes it is even hard to get it on the drawing board. That being said, I am a strong supporter of reining in the EPA, which this bill does. I believe we have to set our transportation priorities. Unfortunately, Washington and all of us here seem to have become so dysfunctional that politics--whether it is the party politics or the personal politics--is put before the good of the country. This has to stop. I heard one of our good Senators from Arizona this morning saying we are down to a 9-percent approval rating. If it was not for our staff and our family, we don't know if we would be within the margin of error. With that being said, we have to come together. We have had disagreements throughout the history of this great country, and we have come together many times on very difficult issues. This is one I think will challenge all of us to come together as Americans. The people of West Virginia did not send me to Washington to play the blame game. I have said many times, I have never fixed a problem by blaming somebody else for it. I fixed a problem by identifying that we had a problem and then trying to bring all sides together to fix it. That is what we need more of in Washington. I do not think any of us were sent to blame each other. I think we were sent to work together. Again, I am going to urge all my colleagues and friends on both sides of the aisle to focus on the next generation. We see them every week we come here, our young pages. They are our next generation. We need to be making votes for them, not our next election, which will be in 2012. That election is going to come and go. But if we do not give them the opportunity to have the building tools they need to build a foundation that they can be the greatest next generation this country has ever seen, then I do not know what we are going to say for the future of this country. I, for one, am not going to vote along those lines, to where it is going to be based on what is good for me, based on what is good for the party I belong to but strictly based on what is good for America and this next generation. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of my amendment be printed in the Record.

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I say to my friend that the way the system is set up and the bill, we are able to use this money where possible. An example of where money was used prior--we had two rounds of stimulus funding. This is our third. It was for a very worthy cause. For my State and your State, which didn't have the layoff of teachers or have the cutbacks in education, they would short that into their budget proposal, so when the Governor made his proposal, that money would backfill. That is how it was used. We only created 33 new jobs that first round, but that was $217 million. The bottom line is--that is why I said we need a loan program. If spending money will fix our problems in America, we have no problems. We have to do it wisely. The Senator's amendments are appreciated, and I hope to support them.

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Montana for speaking on behalf of the rural States. It is clear our Nation is facing two grave economic threats: a job crisis and a debt spiral. As much as some people may wish, we cannot ignore one threat over the other. For the sake of our Nation's economic future, we must work together, Democrats and Republicans, and try to find a commonsense solution that protects and creates jobs but does so without adding to our growing deficit and debt. In a more sensible legislative process, we would be able to sit down and work out compromises that make sense. It is what legislators throughout the Nation's history have done. Unfortunately, looking at where things stand now, it is clear the legislative process in Washington has gotten so dysfunctional that it doesn't make much sense at all. I came here to try to fix things, not to make excuses. I sure didn't come here to play the blame game. I have never fixed a thing by blaming someone else. As I have said many times before, it is time for all of us who have been given the great privilege to serve to focus on what is right for the next generation, not worry about the next election. It is why--as frustrating as this legislative process can be--I will not lose hope that we can make this legislation better. With respect to the current Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act, there is no doubt about the fact that our teachers and first responders have a critical role in our Nation. From the classroom where teachers educate our children to the streets where first responders put their lives on the line to keep our communities and Nation safe, these great Americans are so important to the future of this Nation. They and the American people deserve better than a temporary 1-year legislative proposal that does nothing to fix the long-term fiscal problems that led so many States to lay off thousands of teachers and first responders in the first place. What will we do next year when States come back again asking for more Federal money? Will we give out more money and go further in debt? Will we borrow more money? What will we do? As it stands, without any changes, this bill will not solve the fiscal problem that will come once the aid ends. But this bill is not hopeless. It can be made better. I know it. In my State of West Virginia, we didn't have major layoffs of teachers or first responders during this brutal recession. As difficult as it was, we balanced our budget based on our values and priorities. We made difficult decisions, but we kept our teachers in the classroom and our firefighters protecting our citizens. Make no mistake, we cut back our spending, but we did so responsibly. We spent where it was needed--on our priorities. That is the commonsense approach that works in West Virginia because that is how people run their lives. It is how they operate their small businesses, and it is how we should run this country. We make budget choices based on what is important in our State, to our family, to our business, and to our country. In West Virginia, this simple, commonsense approach paid off. Every year I was Governor, we ended the fiscal year with a surplus. Every year for the past 3 years, West Virginia has seen its credit rating upgraded. But now, because of the impact of this recession and the fact that other States did not make the difficult decisions years ago, the taxpayers of West Virginia are being expected to foot this bill for other States. I believe there is a better way. I believe there is a better way where we can balance the fiscal constraints that States face with the need to protect these vital jobs. I believe there is a better way we can balance the need to keep teachers and firefighters working, while not asking West Virginia taxpayers--or any taxpayer in any State--to pay for more than is necessary. That is why I am offering a commonsense amendment that would transform this $35 billion in funding to keep teachers and first responders working into a loan program instead of a grant. The loan program would allow any State to borrow at very low--or no-- interest the money they need to keep teachers and firefighters employed and pay it back over time, when this recession basically ends. I don't know of any State that wouldn't put their teachers and firefighters as one of the highest priorities and budget that first. So this loan program would ensure that States are making the decisions on how much money they actually need and not the Federal Government's willingness to put us further into debt by giving away more money. It would also ensure that States make smarter and more responsible decisions about what they can and cannot afford to do. Such a loan program would help protect these jobs and would protect the fiscal future of States when they get in trouble. In short, it just makes common sense. I encourage my Republican and Democratic colleagues to embrace this commonsense amendment. I encourage them to help me make it even better. I hope they will support this cloture motion, not because they support the bill as it stands but because they believe in what this legislation could be if we all put politics aside and work to make it better. If we can get past a filibuster, I hope the amendment process will be a testament to the great legislative moments this body has seen in the past. As I have been assured by my leadership, this bill, if it gets to the floor, will have an open amendment process that will give us all an opportunity to make this legislation better. It is the reason why I will vote for this motion to move on with debate. To my Republican and Democratic friends who may not support this bill as it stands, I respectfully ask them to seize this opportunity to work together to make this bill better. Trust me, I share many of their concerns. To be clear, if we cannot and do not adopt this commonsense approach that stops throwing money at the problems we have in this country, I will join them and vote against it. This country is looking to us to do what is right. It is not about this vote or this bill. It is about the fact that so many Americans have lost confidence in this great body. They have lost confidence in the process that they see as broken and incapable of working. They have lost confidence in a legislative process that has become so political it doesn't matter what we do, it just seems all we care about is scoring political points to be used in the next election. It is a fact that some folks in this town are so busy trying to make the other side look bad that they don't realize they are making us all look bad. I don't believe for one minute that anybody in this Chamber-- Democratic or Republican--is rooting for our economy to fail or jobs to be lost. We just all have different ideas. While we should question each other's ideas and policies, we should never question each other's convictions. Shame on us if the blame game is the best thing we can do. We are better than that. I came here to fix things, not to play politics. It is time for us to stop with the bickering and remember one thing: We may be members of different political parties, but we are all party to this great Nation. We are all Americans. As difficult as it may seem, America and the future of the American people are more important than politics or an election. I ask again, let's work together on commonsense, bipartisan ideas to get this country on a responsible financial path that will strengthen the economy and create jobs. Let's work together on making America's future brighter--not just for us but for the next generation. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN. Yes.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, only a few people in your lifetime stand out as people of the highest caliber, people who truly care about making the world a better place not only for the present generation but also for the next generation and many generations to come. My dear friend Mike Puskar was one of those rare people. My wife Gayle and I consider ourselves extremely lucky to have even known a man of his caliber, let alone be dear friends with him for many years. Mike passed away on Friday after a long battle against cancer. I first met Mike in the early 1980s before the start of a football game in the then-gravel parking lot at the WVU stadium, a place we both truly loved. The generator in his motor home was not working, and, luckily, the generator in my brother's RV that I was using did work. So Mike plugged into our RV that day, and we were plugged in thereafter. Mike was a man whose friendship was unconditional. It was not about whether you lined up exactly with his beliefs. He supported you as a person. Mike dedicated his life to helping others and to making a real lasting impact in West Virginia. He had a tremendous heart and a strong sense of giving. Mike truly epitomized the word ``friend'' at every level. We can see Mike's handprint everywhere--at West Virginia University, at Mylan Park, and in charitable organizations throughout West Virginia that serve those in need. Mike loved to build things--whether it was his company or the waterfront in Morgantown. He gave the largest gift in the history of West Virginia University because he truly believed in making our State, our schools, and our hospitals the best in the country. In fact, that gravel parking lot where we first met at the WVU stadium is now the site of the Mylan Tailgate Tent. But the thing Mike was most proud of was when he helped people build their own lives--and those people who knew Mike know exactly what I am talking about. Mike was a pioneer who started Mylan Pharmaceuticals to give people access to affordable quality medicine. Mylan is a homegrown West Virginia company that he started with his Army buddy Don Panoz in 1961. He led Mylan until 2002, and Mylan has continued to grow and has now become the third largest generic and specialty pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world. There are so few people like Mike, whose legacy will echo for generations to come. On Thursday, his friends and family will gather to pay tribute to his legacy when he is laid to rest in Morgantown, WV--a town he loved and gave so much to improve. Tomorrow and every day our thoughts and prayers will go out to the entire Puskar family, Mike's friends and colleagues, and everyone whose life he touched, as all of them mourn the loss of this great man. While every one of us is truly going to miss Mike, he truly will never leave us. We all have beautiful memories of Mike that will last a lifetime, and his legacy to West Virginia and its people will remain in our hearts forever.

Mr. MANCHIN

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

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I think we all appreciate so much the passion and compassion our colleague from Louisiana has for the people of America--not just the people of Louisiana but all over America. I thank her for taking this fight and making sure people understand what we are fighting for. Being one of the other centrists in this body--and I think we have a majority right now--three of us--I appreciate all of us being in attendance. I rise today to address the enormous frustration the American people must feel witnessing their government and their leaders engaging in another futile political exercise. Our government is being driven--and I agree with the Senator from Louisiana that we are not going to shut down over this, but it is unbelievable to get into the fuss we are in right now, to make people believe we could come to the brink of another when we just went through this bloody mess in August. There is not a State in this great Nation that has not suffered the terrible tragedy and cost of a natural disaster. While there are many government programs and issues we should vigorously debate, we surely cannot question the responsibility of government to help our communities in their darkest moments. In the America I believe in, we don't look the other way when a community is suffering from the pain of a natural disaster. We stand to offer a helping hand. It is this spirit of helping each other that has defined this Nation since its very beginning, and we cannot let politics destroy that spirit. Our belief in helping each other is a bedrock value for this country, and it runs much deeper than a belief in a political party. We are Americans, and for the sake of this great Nation I know we all love, these petty squabbles that define this place must end. That is why we must fund FEMA disaster relief and why I voted for a Senate bill that would fund FEMA through the end of the fiscal year. Yes, we all agree that funding for disaster relief should be paid for in these most difficult times and especially now that we are looking at these deficits we have accrued. Yes, we must save and set aside that money. My grandfather once told me, Mr. President--and I think you can appreciate this, being a small businessperson--you can't give someone the shirt off your back if you don't have a shirt to give them. We have to plan and work hard to make sure we can put ourselves in position to help others. Yes, we must return to the path of fiscal responsibility where we manage our budgets wisely and put away enough money for the eventual disasters we know will strike. In my great State of West Virginia, we have a contingency fund. We know we are going to have floods and challenges throughout our State, and we set aside, every budget year, X amount of dollars, and we accumulate that to use for a crisis. We can do the same right here in this great country of ours and in the Nation's Capital. It is absolutely wrong--no ifs, ands, or buts about it--to pay for disaster relief out of funds that are creating jobs, with the potential of creating more jobs. Are there problems with some of the programs? Absolutely. Can we fix those programs? Absolutely. Should we eliminate programs that cost too much and offer little return? Absolutely. But are we so desperate to score political points that we eliminate a program--the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program-- which is actually helping to bring jobs back to America? For the record, that program is credited with saving or creating 39,000 American jobs, most with the Ford Motor Company, an American manufacturer. It is something we need more of in this country. It is a program with support from both the chamber of commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. In fact, Ford actually moved a hybrid battery facility from Mexico to Michigan because of this loan program. I can think of a lot of loan programs we should fight over, but are we really going to defund a program that has helped bring jobs back to America? I don't think so. So where do we go from here? Well, of my Republican and Democratic leaders, I respectfully ask them to consider how simple a choice we face. We can rebuild America or we can afford to pay for it. We can choose to fund FEMA or afford to pay for it. We can do all of this if we face the fact that we cannot continue to go into debt and spend billions in Afghanistan while suggesting that in order to fund FEMA, we must cut a program that actually helps to create jobs in America. As I have said before, we must choose between rebuilding Afghanistan or rebuilding America. Today, we can make that choice. I, along with many of you, choose to rebuild America. At a time when our economy is strugglingly and our deficit is exploding, I cannot believe we in Washington would choose to rebuild another nation at the expense of our own. We can do better for this, and for the sake of our Nation's future, we must to better than this. We should not engage in a political theater that makes the false choice between funding disaster relief or eliminating a jobs program that actually helped create American jobs. It is time for us to set our priorities. It is time for us to rebuild America, not to rebuild Afghanistan or Iraq. Helping America to rebuild during times of natural disaster must be a priority that cannot be defined by partisanship. In West Virginia alone, several projects worth nearly $\1/2\ million have now been put on hold because of the bickering and squabbling that goes on. Those projects include funding to help individuals whose property was damaged in the severe snowstorms in 2009, flooding in 2010, as well as critical equipment that monitors waterflow in areas prone to flooding, equipment that is vital for forecasting river levels during our floods. This doesn't make any sense to me, and I know it doesn't make any sense to the people of West Virginia. I cannot believe that any American would choose to lose billions more in waste and corruption in Afghanistan while we ignore the needs of our neighbors here at home--our neighbors who just this year survived tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes, and who need shelter and food. I would like to offer the following amendment to offset the cost of funding FEMA by eliminating $1.6 billion from programs that will fund nation building in Afghanistan and instead direct that money to FEMA, to programs that rebuild America. I yield the floor. affordable care act

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the difficult fiscal choices we, as Members of Congress, must soon make and the deficit-cutting proposals that President Obama has recently made. As we discuss these fiscal choices, and as we face our exploding debts and deficits, it is clear our Nation is truly at a crossroads. A nation that was built on the strength of our people's optimism must struggle to overcome a loss of confidence--a loss of confidence that comes from an economy that has struggled for far too long, a loss of confidence that comes from watching debt and deficits explode, a loss of confidence that comes from watching Republicans and Democrats engage in a fruitless partisan fight. The American people worry about how to get their families out of debt and their financial house in order. They worry about finding or keeping a job. They worry about how they are going to pay the rent, how they are going to take care of their children, how they are going to keep clothes on their backs, and how, maybe, they can buy them a Christmas present. Once again, instead of all of us coming together to do what is right for the Nation and lighten their worries, congressional Republicans and Democrats alike, and the President, are again gearing up for a fight about politics, even as our Nation's fiscal and economic picture gets worse every minute. Today, we yet again find ourselves on the brink, and I cannot begin to explain why to the American people. This summer, they watched us go through this exercise--the Senate, the House, and the President--and then we agreed on spending cuts to keep the government working. Where I come from--the same as the Presiding Officer from the great State of Minnesota--your word is your bond, and an agreement is an agreement, and it is one that should be kept. It is one we negotiated. It should not be changed in midstream. I am committed to passing a clean CR to keep our government working until the supercommittee we all are supporting comes up with the recommendations to reduce the deficit. In the midst of yet another disagreement over whether to keep the government running, the people of West Virginia and the American people are demanding we put our partisan differences aside and work together in the best interests of this country. They are pleading for us to quit fighting and worrying about the next election and start worrying about the next generation. With our Nation facing a death spiral of debt, now is the time that each of us should be zeroing in on credible, commonsense solutions that have truly bipartisan support. After carefully reviewing the President's recommendations to the so- called supercommittee, I believe they fall short of what this country needs to put our fiscal house in order. President Obama's deficit recommendations not only fall short of his stated $4.4 trillion goal, but could, according to an analysis done by the Center for Responsible Federal Budget, have the perverse effect of adding as much as $1.9 trillion to our Nation's debt. I am also greatly concerned about rehashing unproductive recommendations such as raising tax rates on small businesses in a recession and budget gimmicks such as the notion that taxpayers will somehow ``save'' $1.1 trillion from not fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--and I believe we should not be there anyway. I have said this: On my best day, I cannot sell that to the people of West Virginia, nor should we try to sell it to the American people. That is not to say that the President's proposal is all bad. There is some good stuff in there. I have long said our tax system needs to be more fair and balanced and that billionaires such as Mr. Buffett should pay their fair share. I appreciate the concept of the Buffett rule and look forward to seeing more details. And I agree that one of the best investments we all could make is in the infrastructure of this great country. But as they stand right now, President Obama's proposals are too skewed to appeal to both sides of the aisle. So we see what we see happening again. If we are being serious about addressing our debt and deficits, neither Republicans nor Democrats can propose partisan proposals and then pretend they are credible. We cannot do that any longer. The American people deserve better, and I also know we can do a lot better. In my short time in Congress, I have seen only one plan that has earned support from Members of both parties. In fact, the President's own bipartisan deficit commission--the Bowles-Simpson group--is the best example of what can be accomplished if we put politics aside and do what is right for our Nation. While no one, including me, will agree with everything in the Bowles-Simpson approach, it at least offered a commonsense, bipartisan template that would cut spending, restore tax fairness, and would help restore fiscal sanity to our Nation. To date, it is the only plan that has offered a framework that has had bipartisan support from the beginning, and still has it now. But instead of this approach, there are many people on both sides of the aisle who have chosen a path that all but guarantees that Republicans and Democrats will continue to fight over how to solve our fiscal problems, instead of seeking common ground and commonsense solutions. For the sake of our Nation, for our families, we cannot let this happen. We must act, and we must act together. Looking ahead to the vigorous debates of the fall, my hope is the deficit supercommittee will seize the moment and seek common ground to develop a plan that puts our Nation on the right path to fiscal accountability. Common sense, to me, is that you would start with a plan that already has bipartisan support because it will take both sides of the aisle to fix this problem. I urge them and the President to look beyond partisan politics and do what is right for this country. I continue to urge the committee to look past their legal mandate of $1.5 trillion in savings and revenue and, instead, look for reforms that will create much broader fairness in our system that will lead to deficit reductions of at least $4 trillion. I, for one, will work with the Senate Democrats and Republicans who are committed to develop a commonsense debt fix that responsibly reduces spending; makes our tax system more fair, cuts waste, fraud, and abuse, and makes sure we protect critical programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, first of all, I say to my good friend from Florida, I thank him so much for the compassion he has. I appreciate very much him bringing this issue to our light and to the attention of all of us, and maybe we can help. I thank the Senator. To my good friend, the Senator from Louisiana, I think what she speaks about is us identifying who we are as Americans and the way we have taken care of each other. I do not know of any State that has not had to depend on FEMA for help--and not just the States she showed where ``hurricane alley'' is and where the tornadoes and hurricanes have hit, but basically all of us have had to depend on FEMA for assistance. So I think what she brings to light is the fairness we identify with as Americans and to do what we have always done: to take care of each other. I, for one, have said we need to rebuild America; we need to take care of Americans first.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Thank you. It is hard to add to the Senator's recognition of Agnes, and also my colleague, the Senator from Ohio. You can tell Agnes touched quite a few of us in so many different ways. Agnes was a friend of mine and also a friend of my family's. She was a dear mentor to my daughter Heather, who is in the industry. We are all going to mourn her passing. Heather introduced me to Agnes about 10 years ago, and from the first day I met Agnes, she was the type of person I always heard my grandmother would say: People don't know how much you care until they know how much care. The thing about Agnes was it was not how much you had here, but it was what you had in your heart. Agnes was that type of person who was truly remarkable. She lived an astonishing life, Mr. President, as you referred to. She represented the best in our country, and she truly lived the American dream. Agnes was a first-generation American and went to college at a time when few women attended college. She started at the very bottom rung of the chemical industry and worked her way up the ladder to the top. She was truly an entrepreneur. She and her husband Karl loved the arts, but they also took a risk. They took their life savings together of about $50,000 to start Agvar Chemicals. Agnes was a fortunate American. She used her wealth to support the causes she most believed in, especially the arts, women's issues, and caring for the workers in New York after September 11 and, as we heard from our colleague from Ohio, after Katrina. Agnes was always telling my daughter Heather that you can see a lot more from the edge than the middle, and it was the few who were willing to be on the edge who created the right middle. That deep and poetic statement is a piece of wisdom many in this country could benefit from hearing. Agnes had such a generous spirit, and over the years, my daughter Heather sought her ``agvice,'' as she called it, many times. Our entire family and all of my colleagues, I know, who knew Agnes well are definitely going to miss her. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family. I am glad we had a chance to honor Agnes on the floor of the Senate. I know she would be so proud. I thank my colleagues for recognizing her also. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I rise today to speak about the tough fiscal choices this body, this government, and our President now face. But before I say anything else, I wish to start off with a profound apology. I want to apologize to every West Virginian and all Americans for the terrible process they have been made to endure and witness. With 5 days before the August 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, this government faces yet another crisis of its own making. Yet it is not we who pay the price for our failures to govern, it is the American people. To the tens of millions of American families who work hard to take care of their families, I can only imagine the anger and disgust they have at witnessing a broken government and a President and Members of Congress who can't seem to even agree sometimes on what day it is, let alone on how to solve the Nation's debt crisis. The American people deserve better. Some will say Washington is broken and that is the best we can do, but I do not believe that for one moment. Washington may be broken, but it will not break me, and you should not let it break you either. I came to fix things, not to make things worse. I came to solve problems, not to ignore them, and I came to worry about the next generation, not my next election. I, for one, am willing to make the tough and painful decisions that will improve the lives of every West Virginian and all Americans for generations to come, regardless of what it means for my party or for the next election, and I know I am not alone. After our beloved Senator Byrd passed away, I chose to run for the Senate for one simple reason: I saw the great challenges our Nation faced: exploding debts and deficits, our Nation's energy dependence, costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a painful jobs and economic crisis, and I wanted to help make things better by bringing a little common sense to Washington. I knew we had to focus on rebuilding America and doing so meant making hard, politically difficult choices. Some of my colleagues often remind me that fixing problems as complex as our debt crisis isn't easy. But with all due respect, it seems we make it harder than it needs to be. My friends, it doesn't need to be this way. I did not come to Washington with the illusion that I could reinvent the wheel, but I did come to help balance the wheels and make the car run a little smoother. Months ago, when I said I would not vote to raise the debt ceiling without a long-term fix, I thought this Congress and our President would be able to tackle the issue head-on and have it done by now. As I made clear on that day, the choices we make to address our debt now will determine whether the vital programs we all deeply care about, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, our veterans programs, education for our children, Head Start, are there for those in need and for the decades to come. However, instead of coming together months ago to focus and deal with the gravity of our debt, we delayed, and we continue to delegate. While I will never question someone's motivations or their heart, we all have a right to question the strategies of our leaders and colleagues, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, because these strategies have once again led us to a crisis and the brink of a disaster. At a minimum, this entire process has, once again, fed a growing public cynicism that is corrosive to the very fabric of our government, and we all bear the responsibility for that. I truly believe we can do better. I know this to be true because we proved it in West Virginia. When I first became Governor of the great State of West Virginia, our State faced similar grave fiscal concerns. After facing dismal credit ratings for far too long and a dark fiscal future, some thought our State's best days were behind us. But after confronting our fiscal challenges head-on in West Virginia, even during the deepest recession in our lifetimes, we are one of the few States in the Nation that has had its credit rating upgraded the last 3 years in a row, and we had surpluses for 6 years in a row during the toughest times. We did this in West Virginia by cutting spending but not cutting the vital programs or services we hold so dear. We did this not by raising tax rates but by ensuring that everyone paid their fair share in our State. We did this by tackling waste, fraud, and abuse so as to ensure that we took care of those most in need, not those bent on greed. By doing this, we helped to restore confidence to the economy of our State, and that is a factor we can't overestimate. West Virginia may be a small State, but these are commonsense solutions I strongly believe can apply right here. I did not blame these fiscal challenges we had in our State on the mistakes made by past Governors or legislators, whether they were Democrats or Republicans. I reached out to all members of our legislature, whether they were on the front row or the so-called back row, and I met with them and anyone who had an idea on how we best could solve our fiscal problems. It required sacrifice, it required patience, and it required trust and respect. Can anyone honestly say that with all that has taken place here? In fact, if we turn on cable news right now, we will see exactly where this broken process stands. We as Democrats sometimes are rushing out to attack our colleagues, the Republicans, and the Republicans are rushing out to attack us, the Democrats. We are better than this, and for the sake of this Nation's future we must do better. I owe it to all West Virginians and we all owe it to this great Nation to do much better than we have. From time to time, we should remind ourselves we took an oath to do just that. As idealistic as it may sound, I implore this great body, each Member, the leaders of both bodies, the President, the two parties, and especially the political committees, to put away their political knives and swords and let us do something that has become rare in Washington: Put aside the political attacks for a few months and actually work together, openly, honestly, with respect for our profound differences, and build a trust that will fix the big problems we face as a nation. The stakes are too high to do anything else. Our Nation faces not only a threat of default but of a downgrade. The credit rating agencies, such as Standard & Poor's, have made it clear that the United States needs to cut nearly $4 trillion over the next decade or they will lose the confidence in our long-term ability to pay our bills. Yet in my estimation, neither of the two plans that are currently proposed by both Republican and Democratic leadership comes close to preventing our Nation from being downgraded or actually solving the debt crisis we face. Each falls far short, whether it is in time or dollars. The truth is, both of the plans being discussed and that the Senate may consider, one offered by the leader of the Republican Party, Speaker John Boehner, and the other offered by the leader of our Chamber and my party, Senator Reid, do not solve the Nation's long-term fiscal problems as presented. Make no mistake, I have the utmost respect for both of these fine public servants. Both find themselves in difficult positions, and I know they are trying their best to do what is right. I understand the desire to prevent our Nation's default. But what we have before us are effectively a short-term fix and a shorter term fix. Either one might prevent a default, which is a good thing, but neither may prevent a credit downgrade, which is a terrible thing. To me, it doesn't matter if it is a Republican proposal or a Democratic proposal, but including $1.2 trillion in savings from the wars we should not be fighting as savings doesn't make sense. Saying we will save money that we haven't even budgeted or spent is akin to saying that because your family bought a $20,000 car instead of a $50,000 car, you saved $30,000. It is even worse when we consider we couldn't afford to buy any car in the first place. Most of the American people understand that, and I know in West Virginia they do. As for Speaker Boehner's plan, his was supposed to save $1.2 trillion, but the Congressional Budget Office just took a look and determined it would save only $917 billion. So instead of fixing our problem, it kicks the can down the road to 2012, which will be an election year. If we think this process is ugly now, we ain't seen anything yet. As these two proposals currently stand, I could not, in good conscience, support either one of them unless they include a pathway for a long-term debt fix. While it is true our Nation will suffer if we only enact a short-term deal, we will suffer much more if we fail to fix our greater fiscal problems. We must solve our Nation's problems now, not in 2012 and certainly not in 2013. This is not just my opinion. As many rating agencies have warned and economists have predicted, every year that goes by, the options on how to fix our looming debt crisis will become worse and worse. If we are being honest, neither of these proposals, as they stand today, can prevent a credit rating agency's downgrade, an event that would be as catastrophic or maybe even worse than default because I, personally, know a government's climb back from a low credit rating is extremely long and painful. To be clear, a downgrade in our credit worthiness could lead to selloff of stocks, Treasury securities, and U.S. dollars. Gold prices could rise even higher, and interest rates could increase across the board, which would not only have a devastating impact on consumers, small businesses, and local governments but would make the price of financing our Nation's debt even more costly. At a minimum, the shock to our Nation's confidence from our first-ever downgrade could prove more costly than we could even fathom. We can't let this happen. For the sake of our Nation's future, we must come to a compromise that acknowledges that a long-term debt fix is needed and our spending is out of control and that raising tax rates, whether it is the rich, the middle class, and most especially even the poor, will not cure our spending problems. But we must also come to a compromise that acknowledges that tax reform is not the same as raising taxes and that there is something morally wrong when a large corporation, such as G.E., pays zero in Federal taxes while small businesses or a middle-class family pays more. We must also come to a compromise that finally acknowledges we simply can't fight three wars for years to come while we cut services here at home and we choose to keep taxes low. I have said this before, but it is so important. If I have to choose between rebuilding America and rebuilding Afghanistan, I choose America. So with the clock ticking toward default, what can we do? As part of any deal to raise the debt ceiling, I would respectfully encourage leaders in the Senate and the House and our President to find common ground by committing to a guaranteed vote on a long-term fix; otherwise, as I said months ago, I simply cannot support a short-term deal that is just a little better than the shorter term deal. With all due respect to my colleagues, I will not look West Virginians in the eye and say: Don't worry, all is good; I saved myself for the 2012 election, but you are on your own. A vote on such a long-term debt fix, I would hope, could come within the next 90 days or a reasonable period of time so as to prevent what I fear the most, a downgrade of our Nation's credit rating. I believe such a vote on a long-term fix is possible because many good people have already worked hard to put together the framework and pieces of what such a long-term fix could look like. Already we have seen two promising, commonsense proposals from bipartisan groups: the Bowles-Simpson debt commission, which presented its report nearly 9 months ago, and a similar framework that was presented last week by the bipartisan Gang of 6. In fact, the day the Gang of 6 announced their proposed framework was one of my better and prouder days as a Senator. For the first time since I have been in the Senate, I saw Democratic and Republican Senators, almost equally divided, come together to put politics aside and agree to the principles of a commonsense solution that recognizes the urgency of fixing our long-term problems. No plan is perfect; no plan will be. No plan will please all, and no plan can. But within these two plans I believe lies the path our Nation can take if we are to get our fiscal house in order. Of course, some will have other ideas, whether from the right or whether from the left, and we should listen to them all. But I would ask each of us and all the groups that undoubtedly will be mobilized to stop any fix, to think hard about what will happen to our great Nation if we fail and do nothing. What will happen to the programs we cherish, such as Social Security and Medicare, for all those people who depend on that for their only means of livelihood? What will happen to our Nation's defense and to our tax rates? What will happen to the people who are truly in need? What will happen to our seniors, our veterans, and our children if we choose to do little or nothing at all? Finally, as the negotiations for this long-term fix proceed, I would hope we could all remember that if we are to negotiate in good faith, we must have faith in each other. We cannot turn a fair compromise into the enemy, and we can't tear each other apart with attacks if we are to come together to solve our Nation's great problems. We can respectfully disagree as long as we never forget to respect each other. As difficult as the next few days and weeks and months will be, I believe we, the President and this esteemed Congress, have the opportunity to make this one of our finest hours. We have within our hands an opportunity where we can prove to the naysayers and the doubters that the government of the people is as great as the people which it serves. I, for one, am willing to do whatever I possibly can, whatever is asked of me; I will work hard every day, across the aisle, until we have a long-term solution to our debt crisis. I know no Senator or Member of Congress can do this alone. But together, putting politics aside, we can do this. For the sake of this great Nation, our children, the State I love, West Virginia, and this wonderful country of ours, the United States of America, I truly hope we do. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay honor to a life cut tragically short, to a young man whose service to this country went beyond the call of duty. West Point Cadet Jacob Bower, from my great State of West Virginia, and my hometown of Fairmont, died at the age of 18 last week and will be laid to rest Friday at a family cemetery with full military rights. Cadet Bower was the sort of young man who would make any--any--parent proud. He was a three-sport athlete at East Fairmont High School, where he graduated in 2011. He was in the National Honor Society and was valedictorian of his graduating class. He was a role model and led his peers by example. Cadet Bower had something that set him apart: He was a young man who felt the spark to attend West Point. I learned from his mother Ginger that as a young man--or a boy, really--he was very interested in history. He studied the paths that have formed our greatest leaders-- the men and women whose names are in the history books. He learned the best of the best have attended our military academies, and he told his mother that is what he wanted to do. I think he wanted to be in the history books. He wanted to be a part of that. He wanted to give something back. He told his mother: Mom, I have had everything given to me. It is time for me to give back now. Cadet Bower was 18 when he died during a land navigation exercise Thursday of what may be a heat-related cause, though we are not sure yet and it is too early to tell. We do know that Cadet Bower trained vigorously before the exercise and had successfully completed the first 3 weeks of his 6 weeks of basic training. Nothing can explain a death so tragic, a life cut so unfairly short. This is the one time, above all others, that you have to believe and trust in your faith. My wife Gayle and I send our prayers and thoughts to Cadet Bower's mother Ginger, his father Dean, his brother Ryan, and the entire Bower family and all their friends. We continue to pray every day for the safety of the brave women and men who put their lives on the line every day for all of us. Mere words cannot pay tribute to the magnitude of this tragedy and the depth of his sacrifice. In these challenging times, our entire country would do well to think of Cadet Jacob Bower as we work together to put this country first, as he did, before our own interests. Our thoughts and prayers are with this family. May God bless them through this difficult time, and may God continue to bless the United States of America. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak of one of my gravest concerns, which is our Nation's fiscal future. All of us--Democrats, Republicans, liberals, moderates, conservatives--face a choice about whether we will seize the moment before us and confront our great fiscal nightmare or whether we will let this moment pass us by. Clearly, we face tough and difficult decisions. The decision we make as Members of Congress must be the right and responsible ones or our beloved Nation and our hard-working families will needlessly suffer. In my State, when I became Governor, we faced challenging times-- growing debts and tough budget choices. When I was first elected in November of 2004, the first thing I did afterwards was go to New York and talk to the rating agencies--the people who knew our State best--to find out what our gravest challenges were. I went back home and we started making changes. I did not blame anyone--any past administration, Republican or Democrat or any other body. I was elected to fix things, not to put blame on people. As West Virginians, not as Democrats or Republicans, we set about fixing the problems of our State. We didn't raise tax rates. People came to me and said we needed to do that, but I couldn't look people in the eye and do that without trying to run our State more efficiently. The difference between what we did back home and what is happening here in Washington is that we faced these choices together. We worked across party lines in a responsible way to address our fiscal challenges. In doing so, we set our State on the right fiscal path and--let me stress again without sacrificing our moral responsibility or obligations to our seniors, our veterans, and the people most challenged in our society. We did that without raising their tax rates. Right now, because we made the right choices, our State is doing well. Even in these most difficult, challenging financial times, we have had record surpluses every year--6 years in a row. For the last 3 years, we have been one of the few States in the Nation that has an increase in our rating from Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch, the rating agencies. We did this by living within our means. It is the reason why I am such a strong supporter of a balanced budget amendment. It makes you put in place your priorities based on what your values are. I truly believe most Americans support a balanced budget. Every family I know in my State and in this Nation works off of some sort of a budget. Nearly all our State governments operate on a balanced budget. I have never seen another place, except here in our Nation's Capitol--our government in Washington--that puts a budget together based on what they want to spend, not on how much they have to spend. But how we balance our budget is critically important. We have a moral responsibility and an obligation to our seniors, our families, and those who are the most fragile in our challenged society. That is why I cannot support the cut, cap, and balance plan passed in the House, which we will be voting on shortly. As a moderate Democrat who is also a proud fiscal conservative, I agree with the bill's goal of a balanced budget. However, I cannot support the path it takes. The cut, cap, and balance plan does not reflect who we are or what we want to be as Americans. I believe we need to cut but not so deeply and without regard for our seniors and the most vulnerable. I believe we need a cap on our spending but not at a level that could destroy the most important and vital programs we have in our society. I strongly believe we need a balanced budget amendment but only one that takes a responsible and reasonable approach. Clearly, we can all agree it is time for us to make the difficult choice that will get our financial house in order, but we must do so with the right plan in a responsible manner--one that keeps our promises to our seniors, our veterans and, most importantly, our children. And like it or not, neither Democrats nor Republicans can tackle this enormous challenge on their own. This is not a political problem, this is an American problem, one we all face. We should put politics aside and truly put our country first. Earlier this week, I saw that spirit at its finest. On Tuesday of this past week, the Presiding Officer, along with 49 of our other colleagues, came together to listen to the Gang of 6, who worked so hard on ideas based on the President's fiscal debt commission. Democrats and Republicans rolled out the first bipartisan proposal to address the Nation's fiscal nightmare. At that meeting, 50 Senators from both parties--evenly split--came together to listen to the hard work of the Senators who spanned the ideological spectrum. At that moment, the Gang of 6 turned into what we affectionately called the ``Mob of 50.'' And for the first time in these negotiations about our fiscal future, we had a bipartisan plan with momentum that was putting our country first. We should not waste this moment. We must work together to cut spending and attack waste, fraud, and abuse in every sector of our country, every department, every program that needlessly costs our Nation hundreds of billions of dollars every year. We must work together to reform our Tax Code, not to raise tax rates but to make fairness a priority. It is simply unfair that hard-working middle-class families in West Virginia and all around this great country would pay more in taxes than a Fortune 500 company such as GE, which didn't pay a cent, or billionaires such as Warren Buffett who pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary. Democrats and Republicans must work together to remove unnecessary loopholes, subsidies, and tax credits we simply cannot afford in light of our ballooning debt. It is time to end the three wars we have that we are spending so much on and the resources we can't afford and the lives we can't spare. I say to all this is a time for us to come together as Americans, to put our politics aside, and do what is right for all of the future of this generation and for this country. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, first of all, I rise in total support of Mr. Leon Panetta as the new Secretary of Defense. He is an outstanding public servant who has served in many capacities and he has been a tremendous leader in every role he has held.

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

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I have the utmost respect for the Senator from Arizona and his commitment to this country and his service to this country. I can only report what I have seen. I was in Afghanistan twice--as a Governor in 2006, representing the National Guard of West Virginia, and I went back in 2010. While there, I saw deterioration. I did not see a country that had an infrastructure and an economy. I saw corrupt leadership and nothing good coming of it. With that, I know that the Senator has had much more experience. I can only speak from common sense and for the people of West Virginia about what they feel. We are a very hawkish State and a patriotic State. If 10 years is not enough, how long is enough--I think that is the question being asked--for the sacrifices being asked of them? When we cannot buy water lines and sewer lines or fix roads and repair bridges in West Virginia, yet they hear about the billions we are spending in a country that doesn't want us there, I think it is time to leave. Respectfully, that might be the disagreement we have. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the President of the Senate be authorized to appoint a committee on the part of the Senate to join with a like committee on the part of the House of Representatives to escort His Excellency Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, into the House Chamber for the joint meeting at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, May 24, 2011.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 24; 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; that following any leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1038, the PATRIOT Act extension, postcloture, and that any time during tonight's adjournment count postcloture on the motion to proceed to S. 1038.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, there will be a joint meeting of Congress tomorrow at 11 a.m. with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Senators should gather in the Senate Chamber at 10:30 a.m. to proceed as a body to the Hall of the House of Representatives at 10:40 a.m. Mr. President, we anticipate additional debate and adoption of the motion to proceed to S. 1038, the PATRIOT Act extension, during Tuesday's session.