Debbie Stabenow

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. I will be happy to yield.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I wish to take a few moments to talk about what is currently happening in the Senate, in my judgement, representing a State with now the second highest unemployment rate in the country--Michigan. We are glad not to be No. 1, but we sure would like to be No. 50. We have an awful lot of people right now who are waiting for us to complete action on extending unemployment insurance benefits. I continue to be appalled at the lengths to which the Republican minority will go to stop people who are out of work from getting some help. We are in a situation where we finally, after eight different votes and weeks and weeks of trying, had enough votes to overcome a filibuster. As we all know, that takes 60 votes. I am very grateful to our Republican colleagues from Maine for joining with us to make that happen. We had a vote yesterday that was a supermajority vote. We know extending unemployment benefits is going to pass because we had 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and the vote on the actual bill only takes 51. We know we have the votes, but under the procedures of the Senate, technically, unless there is a bipartisan agreement, we have to wait 30 hours before we can actually vote. It used to be that once we secured the votes of a supermajority, then everyone would agree: OK, the votes are there, and they would agree to yield back time so we would not have to wait; we could go on to something else. That is not what is happening now. While people in Michigan and around the country are waiting, trying to figure out: OK, can I pay the rent tomorrow, can I get gas for my car to look for another job tomorrow, can I put food on the table tomorrow, what is going to happen on Monday, what is going to happen on Tuesday--while people are waiting, we have nothing happening on the floor of the Senate. We are just burning time, 30 hours of time. In my judgment, it is just mean, because when we look at what has to happen yet--we will pass the bill. We know we are going to pass the bill. It has to go back to the House and then to the President for signature. This, at least, is the difference between families getting some help on Friday so they can feed the kids for the weekend or whether they are going to have to wait until Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. For a lot of folks, for a lot of us--we have a salary, we have a job--that may not seem like much. For over 2.5 million people in this country who have lost their insurance benefits--and these are insurance benefits. You pay in when you are working to get some temporary help if you lose your job through no fault of your own. Mr. President, 2.5 million people think waiting from Friday to Monday is a big deal. They, in fact, think Thursday and Friday is a big deal. We have a situation that, frankly, I cannot characterize any other way than saying it is just plain mean.

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

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. I agree that the integrity of these exemptions is critical to the reforms enacted in this bill and to the safety of our financial system. That is why I support the strong anti-abuse provisions included in the bill. Would you please explain the safeguards included in this bill to prevent abuse?

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I would like to discuss the derivatives title of the Wall Street reform legislation with chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, Senator Lincoln. I would like to first commend the Senator and her staff's hard work on this critically important bill, which brings accountability, transparency, and oversight to the opaque derivatives market. For too long the over-the-counter derivatives market has been unregulated, transferring risk between firms and creating a web of fragility in a system where entities became too interconnected to fail. It is clear that unregulated derivative markets contributed to the financial crisis that crippled middle-class families. Small businesses and our manufacturers couldn't get the credit they needed to keep the lights on, and many had to close their doors permanently. People who had saved money and played by the rules lost $1.6 trillion from their retirement accounts. More than 6 million families lost their homes to foreclosure. And before the recession was over, more than 7 million Americans had lost their jobs. The status quo is clearly not an option. The conference between the Senate and the House produced a strong bill that will make sure these markets are accountable and fair and that the consumers are back in control. I particularly want to thank the Senator for her efforts to protect manufacturers that use derivatives to manage risks associated with their operations. Whether it is hedging the risks related to fluctuating oil prices or foreign currency revenues, the ability to provide financial certainty to companies' balance sheets is critical to their viability and global competitiveness. I am glad that the conference recognizes the distinction between entities that are using the derivatives market to engage in speculative trading and our manufacturers and businesses that are not speculating. Instead, they use this market responsibly to hedge legitimate business risk in order to reduce volatility and protect their plans to make investments and create jobs. Is it the Senator's understanding that manufacturers and companies that are using derivatives to hedge legitimate business risk and do not engage in speculative behavior will not be subjected to the capital or margin requirements in the bill?

Ms. STABENOW. Again, I appreciate the Senator's efforts to work with me on language that ensures manufacturers are not forced to unnecessarily divert working capital from core business activities, such as investing in new equipment and creating more jobs. As you know, large manufacturers of high-cost products often establish wholly owned captive finance affiliates to support the sales of its products by providing financing to customers and dealers. Captive finance affiliates of manufacturing companies play an integral role in keeping the parent company's plants running and new products moving. This role is even more important during downturns and in times of limited market liquidity. As an example, Ford's captive finance affiliate, Ford Credit, continued to consistently support over 3,000 of Ford's dealers and Ford Credit's portfolio of more than 3 million retail customers during the recent financial crisis--at a time when banks had almost completely withdrawn from auto lending. Many finance arms securitize their loans through wholly owned affiliate entities, thereby raising the funds they need to keep lending. Derivatives are integral to the securitization funding process and consequently facilitating the necessary financing for the purchase of the manufacturer's products. If captive finance affiliates of manufacturing companies are forced to post margin to a clearinghouse it will divert a significant amount of capital out of the U.S. manufacturing sector and could endanger the recovery of credit markets on which manufacturers and their captive finance affiliates depend. Is it the Senator's understanding that this legislation recognizes the unique role that captive finance companies play in supporting manufacturers by exempting transactions entered into by such companies and their affiliate entities from clearing and margin so long as they are engaged in financing that facilitates the purchase or lease of their commercial end user parents products and these swaps contracts are used for non-speculative hedging?

Ms. STABENOW. I thank the Chairman for this opportunity to clarify some of the provisions in this bill. I appreciate the Senator's help to ensure that this bill recognizes that manufacturers and commercial entities were victims of this financial crisis, not the cause, and that it does not unfairly penalize them for using these products as part of a risk-mitigation strategy. It is time we shine a light on derivatives trading and bring transparency and fairness to this market, not just for the families and businesses that were taken advantage of but also for the long-term health of our economy and particularly our manufacturers. Stable Value Funds

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I come to the floor, as I have on a number of occasions, to urge colleagues to extend unemployment benefits for now well over 1 million people who have lost their benefits because of the stalling, the filibustering, unfortunately, by colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I am very appreciative of the fact that we have two Republican colleagues joining with us to stop a filibuster, but as the Presiding Officer knows, that is not enough. We need one more Member to come forward to join us, not to get a majority to pass unemployment benefits--we have a majority--but we do not have a supermajority. That has now been required on every single issue that has come before the Senate in order to try to get things done for the American people. When I was home last week--of course I jump on a plane every Friday and come back on Monday; I view this as a long distance commute to work--I heard over and over concerns from families who have been employed all their life, had good middle-class lifestyles, have had the ability to take care of their families, have had not only the ability to have a home but maybe a cottage or a mobile home to be able to enjoy beautiful northern Michigan and the Great Lakes in the summertime, and folks who have felt confident they could send their kids to college, who literally had the rug pulled out from under them through no fault of their own. We can go through all that brought us to this point: a decade of policies under the previous administration that created huge deficits, policies that did not work, making sure that those doing very well in this country received tax cuts, but middle-class families were left out there on their own; not enforcing trade laws so that more and more of our jobs were being shipped overseas. That needs to change. And, in fact, it is changing. Despite what this President inherited, what we inherited 18 months ago when President Obama came into office, 750,000 jobs a month being lost, we have begun to turn that around. We are now gaining jobs every month rather than losing jobs. But we know there is so much more to do. While we are doing that, while we are focused on creating jobs, partnering with small businesses and manufacturers to create jobs, we have millions of people, over 15 million people, who have been caught in this economic tsunami, through no fault of their own. They are simply asking that something called unemployment insurance--and, by the way, it is insurance. You pay into it when you are working, you receive assistance when you are not, But they are asking that we do what every other Congress has done, Democratic President, Republican President. Anytime we have seen unemployment numbers such as we are seeing today, the Congress of the United States has understood and stepped up to extend unemployment benefits--except now. In the midst of every other initiative being stalled, the folks on the other side of the aisle who have been dubbed the party of no have, in fact, been saying no to everything, including no to families who are in situations now where it is literally about whether they will have a home, whether they can pay their bills and put food on the table, whether they can go to school-- as we have all said, we will go back to school and get retraining. People are doing that. But they are taking that small amount, that $250 or $300 a week, that is the difference between their being able to stay in school with a roof over their head or having to drop out and not be able to start a new career. I wish to share a few letters of thousands of letters I have received. I am sure the Presiding Officer receives them as well. But they represent people who are asking us to stop the politics for 5 minutes and understand what is happening to people in this country, and step up and do the right thing. Kim from Bellmont, MI, wrote me: Thank you for trying your best to extend unemployment benefits. My husband worked 24 years in a factory and then he was laid off. I have a hair salon I run from my home. We were a happy middle-class family. But now life has been turned upside down, to put it mildly. I now work three jobs. Two are very low paying. I never see my kids or my husband. So darn tired. But I knew with the help of unemployment and my husband applying for a job, and his going to back to school, we could sustain ourselves until something came along. Only 6 months have gone by. Now along with his job loss, we will lose our home, which means my business also. I do know you have tried. Please keep trying. I will. But what needs to happen is, we need to find at least one more Member who will join with us to get beyond this roadblock of a filibuster so that Kim doesn't have to lose her home. She can keep her business she runs out of her home, her hair salon, and keep things going while her husband goes back to school so he can get another job. Judith from Taylor wrote me: We did not do anything to have this horrible circumstance come our way. Both my husband and I appreciate the work you are doing but please don't give up on us. This week we received notice that our mortgage bank has started foreclosure proceedings on our home. The frustrating thing about this is, we have been trying to sell our house since February of 2009. We have had buyers who were interested [but the] bank stopped proceedings saying they wanted more money out of us. We have been waiting since April for the bank's decision on the present purchase agreement. And the only thing we have gotten from this bank is a letter of foreclosure proceedings this week. Not like we didn't have enough to contend with, our youngest son left from Ft. Campbell, KY to the war in Afghanistan on June 9th. This is a very scary and emotional time for our family. We are definitely on overload but we are just one family of millions who are experiencing how life has changed in this world. We have strong faith in the Lord and a strong belief that life will get better. I love this country but grow weary as to the direction the country is heading. Politics should not play games with the American people's lives. That is what is happening right now. I should mention that one of the leaders in the Republican caucus has indicated that when it comes to extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, we should not worry about the debt. We should not worry about paying for those. But when it comes to helping people who are out of work, then the rules ought to be different. When it comes to helping people out of work, then we should change the rules that have been in place calling it emergency spending and require something different. If 15 million people out of work isn't an emergency, I don't know. Dawn from Hudsonville writes: I listen daily to the radio and I have heard the lack of progress regarding unemployment. I am blessed to have a loving and generous family so my son and I won't be homeless but there will be significant upheaval. My son will graduate from high school next year (if I'm not forced to move) . . . I have done everything I can think of to continue living here; cut expenses to the bone, free lunches for my son, visits to the food pantry--so many things I never thought I would have to do. I realize the scarcity of jobs, my age (51) is a definite factor, but I honestly never imagined the depth of this recession. Melvin from Auburn Hills: I urge you to please encourage your peers to reconsider their vote. Personally, I am 41 years old, had a job since I was 16, and have never collected unemployment until 2009. During the past 16 months, I returned to school and I am about to take another course. I have taken any opportunity possible to work which has included three jobs that were low paying, part time, or short term, and I don't know what I will do if these extensions stop. I have already moved to Michigan to live with family because I couldn't afford rent in Illinois anymore. However, I will be forced to live under an overpass if I can't even contribute to household expenses during this difficult time in my life. It saddens me that a hardworking person like myself is lumped into a category of ``losers and mooches'' by the attitude of some elected officials, when my lifetime of hard work without ever receiving any unemployment (or any other government assistance) should clearly identify me as a victim of what is the worst economic time in my entire adult life. I want to work and return to a job, and that is why I am doing additional schooling to make myself stand out to potential employers. In the meantime, please help folks like me sustain our modest existence. Please encourage another vote in the Senate to extend unemployment insurance benefits. I thank Melvin for working hard and for hanging in there. That is what we do in Michigan, we work hard. If we are knocked down, we get back up, and we go back to work. The people whose letters I have shared this evening are people who are working one or two or three part-time jobs trying to hold it together. But mom and dad may have both lost their jobs. They are trying to hold it together for their families. As Melvin said: I don't like being lumped into a category of ``losers and mooches'' by the attitude of some elected officials. People in Michigan are not losers. They are not mooches. They are people who have been caught in the middle of an economic tsunami. They didn't cause it. They weren't the ones who were reckless on Wall Street who caused us to lose jobs and lose credit availability and home mortgages and pensions and 401(k)s. They were not the ones who made the decisions that got us to this point. It is critically important they not continue to pay the price. I see our distinguished leader on the Senate floor. I thank him for his passion and commitment for people who have lost their jobs and his commitment as soon as possible to bring this up for a vote one more time. But it is very sad that we have had to get to this point where over 1 million people have already been hurt losing their unemployment benefits and others are just holding their breath about what is going to happen. We are committed to continuing to do everything we can until we can get this done--extending unemployment benefits and remaining laser focused on jobs for the American people. We will continue to do that. But it would be very nice if somehow one more person from the other side of the aisle would step up tonight or tomorrow and we could end what has been a nightmare for millions of Americans wondering what is going to happen to themselves and their families.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, tomorrow evening, I think at about 5:30, we are going to have a vote that is going to immediately impact over 1 million people across the country, and millions more after that, if we do not extend unemployment benefits as we have done in every recession, Democratic or Republican President, throughout our history. Anytime we have seen the unemployment rate, I believe at about 7.5 percent, above 7.5 percent or so, we have extended unemployment insurance benefits--insurance benefits--because you pay in and then when you are not working, you receive benefits. We have done that throughout our history for two reasons: No. 1, because we acknowledge what happens to a family when someone in the family loses their job, when the breadwinner can't bring home any bread; and No. 2, because we know it stimulates the economy. Every economist, from the right to the left, has agreed that the best way to stimulate the economy is to provide dollars to people who are forced to spend it, because they don't have a job. So someone who receives that $250 or $300 a week--it is not enough to do much on, but it is enough to pay the rent, enough to buy some food, enough to pay the electric bill; maybe get the kids some clothes, maybe put some gas in the car so they can continue to look for work. So we know it not only stimulates the economy, but it is the right thing to do from the standpoint of ethics, morals, values. Tomorrow, we are going to have an opportunity to see whether there are 60 colleagues in the Senate who are willing to vote to stop a filibuster that has now gone on--I believe this is the ninth week-- actually, 8 weeks on a jobs bill that included unemployment benefits extension--and then this week, the ninth week on the bill that we are focusing on, including unemployment benefits. It will also do something important for people who have used the first-time home buyer tax credit that runs out at the end of this month, which has been a great stimulus, another part of the Recovery Act that has been very important to the economy. It runs out, and we want people who haven't yet closed on their homes not to lose the ability to have a credit, so the bill will also include extending the home buyers credit implementation until October. I understand there is a willingness and strong bipartisan support to help first-time home buyers but not to help the people who are out of work and probably are going to lose their houses, which I continue to not understand. I am grateful because I know we have at least one, maybe two Republican colleagues who will join with us to stop the filibuster. I am grateful for that. But we need at least three Republican colleagues to join with us in order to get this done tomorrow night. We hear a lot of debate, a lot of discussion, a lot of arguments from the people who say: We are happy to extend unemployment benefits; we just want to pay for it. That sounds great on the surface, unless you know the full history of how unemployment insurance works and the other kinds of decisions we make as a body. We have always funded unemployment benefit extensions through something called emergency spending. As I have said before, if 15 million people being out of work in America isn't an emergency, I don't know what is. That is more people than are affected by a hurricane or a flood or a tornado or an agricultural disaster. We have traditionally done this because it was the right thing to do as an emergency, but also because, again, we lose the economic stimulus, the economic benefit, if we don't do it that way. For two reasons we have always done it this way. It is interesting that folks who argue passionately that we should not worry about the deficit if we are expanding the estate tax cut for the top 200 or 300 families in America, then deficits don't matter--or the top tax bracket, with the tax cuts under President Bush. Deficits don't matter to them. But, boy, they matter if we are talking about people who are out of work. I talk to people every day in my State, people who have never been without a job in their lives. They are horrified they can't find a job. They are looking for a job every day. They want to work, but they are in an economy they didn't create, where right now there are five people looking for every one job. That is better than last year when it was six people looking for every one job. We know that because of what we have done with the Recovery Act, we are slowly coming out of the hole, but we have a long way to go yet. Certainly, this isn't the time to filibuster jobs bills, whether it be small business or the jobs bill that we have been trying to pass in the last 8 weeks. It certainly isn't the time to say we are just tired of hearing about those people who are out of work; it is tiresome. Some people say that. They are tired of hearing about the unemployed. Well, people in Michigan are tired of being unemployed. They want to work. They know how to work. They have worked their whole lives. It is not their fault that the crisis happened on Wall Street that dried up credit, that stopped manufacturers and small businesses from getting loans to be able to continue to do business. It is not their fault that they lost their savings or their 401(k)s or their pensions. It is not their fault we didn't enforce the trade laws in this country and lost 6 million manufacturing jobs under the previous administration because the focus was on cheap products rather than American jobs. That is not their fault. It was not their fault that we continue to have tax incentives that promote jobs going overseas, which we want to do away with in the jobs bill. It is not their fault. Mr. President, I want to read one e-mail out of the thousands I receive. I received it today. It is from Serena in Dearborn, MI. It says: Senator Stabenow, the argument by the Republicans seems to be that they don't want to strap ``our children and grandchildren'' with the debts of their parents; however, I believe they are talking about their children and not mine. I say this because my children will be homeless and hungry in the next week or so. A lot more damage is going to be done in the here and now than anyone realizes. If they are talking about the numbers of people being taken off unemployment insurance benefits, they are talking about families, not just adults. Families. I have two sons; where are we going to live, and how are we going to survive? I wonder how many of these ``intelligent'' people went to college and paid for it all as they went and did not incur any debt? I am attending college currently and I am incurring debt because I plan, in the future, to be able to pay back the money with my new, better paying job. That is how most people have to do it, invest in the future and know that you are doing something not just for yourself but also for the country, become a positive influence on the society. I don't know what I am going to do with my children, how I am going to pay my rent and utilities, have food to eat and gas to put into my car, so I can continue going to school and looking for work. I have never been without a job before. Mr. President, that is a story that is repeated hundreds of thousands, in fact, unfortunately, millions of times across this country right now. People who are doing what we have asked them to do; they are caring for their children, many going back to school and trying to do a different career or upgrade their skills to give them something that gives them an edge in the job market to be able to get a job. But they are using unemployment benefits to keep them between being on the street and having a roof over their heads. That is not some political rhetoric. That is what is happening to people. It doesn't have to happen to people. Serena, in Dearborn, MI, doesn't have to become homeless in a week or so. She doesn't have to, if we can come together and override this filibuster on unemployment benefits. We just need 60 people to support it in order to be able to get this done. I fear for Serena and for the tens of thousands of people in my State if we don't do this--and the millions who find themselves in a situation across the country. We will never get out of deficit with over 15 million people out of work. This idea that suddenly now nothing matters but deficits ignores how we are going to get out of deficit. Back in the 1990s, when we actually balanced the budget, I was proud to do so. I think it was in 1997, when I was in the House under President Clinton. Part of what we did was focus on work, jobs, and education, and 22 million people got new jobs--22 million new jobs were created, and we came out of deficit. That is what we believe. That is what our Democratic majority believes, that you focus on work, you focus on small businesses getting capital, and manufacturers getting back to hiring people, and you focus on jobs. Then you lift us up out of deficit because people are working and buying things and paying their taxes, and they are part of the economy. It can't just be about a few people in our country. We will not have a strong country if somehow the policies are only set for a privileged few. We have been different from other countries because we have had this strong middle class, which we are losing as a result of the policies, yes, in the last administration, and the deficits that were created, and we are losing it because we cannot get past filibusters now to move forward on a jobs agenda and help people who are out of work to be able to continue to live. The Recovery Act that was put in place last year has worked, but there is much more to do. It stopped us from going over the cliff and began to turn things around. But there is much more to do. Somehow, just saying that, well, Wall Street is doing better--despite the ups and downs on Wall Street--and things are kind of doing OK now for those folks, so we are done ignores what is going on for way too many people in this country. Mr. President, I think the latest poll I saw was that 47 percent of the people in my State have someone in their immediate family who has lost their job, and their family is impacted by that. That is astounding. We don't have the highest unemployment rate anymore; we have the second highest rate. I am sure that can be said of Nevada, Rhode Island, California, and around the country. I strongly urge my colleagues to set aside the election politics, set aside whatever it is that has been getting in the way of getting this done, and be willing to look at what is happening for real families right now and how we can make sure that Serena isn't homeless with her two children in a couple of weeks and how millions of other Americans can be able to continue to care for their families while they look for work. Then the most important thing we can do is partner with business, create the atmosphere and incentives to create that work. That is our job. I am laser-focused on that as well. I see my distinguished friend from New Jersey. I will yield the floor to him and thank him for his passionate support for the people in this country who just want a fair shake. I thank the Presiding Officer, as well, for his passion and commitment to jobs and making sure we move our country forward by paying attention to the great middle class of this country, who need us to fight for them. That is what we are doing in the Senate. I yield the floor.

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

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a great Senator and a friend and mentor of mine, Senator Robert C. Byrd. When I look at his desk, a place from which he spoke such powerful words so many times, it is hard to believe he will not be on the floor of the Senate speaking powerfully about what he believed in--the people of West Virginia and the great issues of our day. He will be sorely missed. He was orphaned as a child and grew up poor. He often told us about his foster father, who was a coal miner, who had to work hard to scrape together food and shelter for their family. He always spoke of working men and women and those who were working hard and having a hard time making ends meet. I know his heart was always with them. From a young age, Senator Byrd learned the importance of hard work, dedication, and perseverance--skills that would serve him well throughout his long and very distinguished life. After graduating from high school at the top of his class in 1934, he married his high school sweetheart Erma. Many of us knew her, and those who didn't knew of her because he would speak continually about the love of his life, his sweetheart Erma. After school, he went on to work at a number of odd jobs. He worked as a butcher during the Great Depression, earning less than $15 a week. He worked as a gas station attendant. During World War II, he was a welder in a shipyard in Baltimore. But he never forgot his childhood and where he came from. He knew how education had transformed his own life, and he never stopped trying to give every American that same opportunity. After high school he couldn't afford to go to college. But after he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1953, he put himself through law school--the only Member of Congress ever to do that while in office. He joked that Erma put three children through school, himself and their two daughters. His wife was the most important person in the world to him, and I know he was deeply saddened when Erma died in 2006, as were all of us who served in the Senate with him at that time. He was a great mentor, a great friend, a great advocate for working families of Michigan and of America. I was proud to join with him many times as we fought for American workers, whether they were mine workers in West Virginia or auto workers in Michigan. He loved West Virginia, the people and the landscape. One of his favorite Bible verses was from the Psalms: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. In my office I proudly display a painting that Senator Byrd gave to me, which he painted himself while working in Baltimore so he could remember those hills and mountains of his childhood. Today, when I see that painting, I remember that Senator who gave so much for the people of West Virginia and the people of America. I was proud to stand with him as one of the 23--as he reminded me frequently--the 23 who opposed the original war in Iraq and stood up for our men and women who have bravely served us around the world as well. Senator Robert C. Byrd--the Senate is a better place because of him and he will be sorely missed.

Ms. STABENOW

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

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, when I think of Senator Byrd and all of our great memories of him, it reminds me of how important it was to him to understand what people are going through in their lives--in this economy, certainly. I know if he were here, he would be on the floor, speaking about the importance of helping people who have lost their jobs--people who, through no fault of their own, have gotten caught in this economic tsunami, who find themselves maybe one step away from losing their house after they lost their job, probably lost their health insurance. Maybe they are in the midst of foreclosure right now because they lost their job and cannot pay their house payment. These are families who are counting on us to understand, as Senator Byrd always did, what it is like to be a middle-class family, a working family, where the breadwinner has lost their job or the breadwinner can no longer bring home the bread--the food, gas for the car, pay the electric bill--because they have lost a job. We know there are five people today looking for every one job that is available. That used to be worse. It used to be six people looking for every one job. We are beginning to see things turn. When President Obama took office, as we know, we were losing about 750,000 jobs every month. By focusing on the recovery, by investing in people, by investing in making things in this country, by focusing on job training as well as helping people without jobs, we have been able to turn that around. There were zero jobs lost at the end of the year and now we are gaining jobs. But even though it is turning around, we are still in a situation where we have five people, five Americans who are looking for every one available job. The e-mails and the phone calls I get truly are heartbreaking. They are from people who have worked all their lives. These are not people who, as some have said, are lazy. These are people who have worked hard all their lives and they have done nothing but play by the rules--take care of their families, followed the law, put a little bit aside to send their kids to college. They want to have a good American life, what they have worked hard for as their American dream. Unfortunately, because of a lot of factors in the global economy--too much, in the last decade, of folks paying attention to cheap prices and not American jobs and losing jobs overseas, not enforcing our trade laws or not focusing on making things here in this country--we have a situation where people have lost their jobs. Then, when you add to that what happened on Wall Street--where people lost savings, pensions, 401(k)s, and maybe their job; when credit dried up and small businesses could not get loans or manufacturers couldn't get the help they needed--people found themselves in a disastrous situation through no fault of their own. They did not create the Wall Street crisis. They were not the ones who decided whether to enforce our trade laws. They weren't the ones to decide whether we as a country were going to invest in American manufacturing. But they are taking the brunt of it. We have talked for 8 weeks now, 8 weeks to pass a bill that is a jobs bill, to invest in jobs in the economy and to continue help for people who are out of work through no fault of their own. Boy, they hope it is temporary. They surely hope it is temporary and we hope it is temporary. Despite 8 weeks and a tremendous amount of negotiation, we have not been able to get the votes to stop a filibuster. We have come up short every time. I am hopeful this week we will be able to get beyond that. The people in Michigan are desperately hopeful. They are also desperate. They are also angry that we have not been able to get beyond this partisan wrangling to be able to actually help them keep a roof over their head and keep food on the table for their families. We will have another opportunity, I hope this week, to change that. It is absolutely critical that we do. There are a lot of people who are not down in the weeds about what is going on legislatively; are not following closely what is happening here--but they know this: They know they need help. They want to know who is on their side and who is willing to understand and come forward and appreciate what families across this country are going through. I hope this week we are going to be able to say to them that finally this Senate gets what is happening to families and we are going to extend the temporary assistance that has been needed for so many families through unemployment insurance.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, this evening we had a vote that I find to be extremely concerning. Once again, after 8 weeks of trying to work out some kind of an agreement with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to overcome a Republican filibuster--changing our jobs bill over and over and over again, and every time there was a change, then there was something else and something else--we finally hit a brick wall tonight, when we didn't know what else to do. Once again, we did not have one Republican colleague willing to vote with us to overcome a filibuster. We have the votes on the floor to pass this jobs bill, which includes incredibly important benefits for people who are currently out of work, to extend unemployment benefits. People who have worked hard all of their lives, through no fault of their own, find themselves in this situation, and they are asking us to simply help them be able to keep a roof over their head and food on the table for their families and maybe a little bit of gas in the car so they can go look for work, while we can continue to focus on creating jobs in what has been a terrible economic crisis for our country. We have the votes. If we were doing a majority vote, we would have the votes. We have more than enough votes, but what we don't have is enough votes to overcome a filibuster. That takes at least one Republican colleague, and we don't have that. We don't have any at this point. So, therefore, it is estimated that by the end of this month, over 87,000 people in my great State of Michigan will lose their unemployment benefits, the little bit of help they get to be able to help them keep going. A lot of people are going back to school, but unemployment benefits are paying for the rent or food. People are trying desperately not to lose their houses on top of losing their jobs. This is a desperate situation for almost 1 million people across this country. All we get over and over again is, no. We are creating jobs in this bill, putting money and partnerships in with manufacturers to create capital for manufacturers, and all we hear is no; capital for small businesses to be able to invest and grow their businesses and hire people, and all we are getting is no; the ability for States and local governments to keep police officers and teachers and firefighters on the job, and all we hear is no. The resounding no has been to help anyone who currently finds themselves out of work because of no fault of their own and needs to count on the ability for us to have unemployment benefits. This is an outrageous situation. Before turning it over to my colleague from Ohio, who I know shares my deep concern about what has been happening, let me remind people that despite the fact that we are beginning to grow the economy, we have turned the corner. When President Obama came into office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. With the Recovery Act, we got that down to zero. We are turning the corner, but we still have five people out of work for every one job opening. What happens to them, while we are working as hard as possible to turn this economy around? What happens to them? Those are the people we are fighting for every single day. They are the people we care about here on the floor of the Senate, and we are going to keep coming back and fighting because they deserve to know there are people here who understand what they are going through. I will now turn it over to my colleague from Ohio for a few moments. Then I will make a few more comments.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Ohio. There are many things we share in common: a love of the Great Lakes, and we have a rivalry in football and baseball and our great universities, and so on. But we also share a tremendous passion for what is happening to our people. I thank Senator Brown for his fight on behalf of manufacturers and the people who, in fact, need a voice. I thank him very much for that. It is so hard to know what to say when you read these letters or e- mails or take phone calls. Most people cannot understand what in the world is going on around here. But what is going on? Don't we get it? What is going on here? Unfortunately, I think the Senator from Ohio, when he says that maybe it is that folks have never met someone who lost their job or had it happen in their families--it has happened in my family. About half of the families in Michigan have somebody who has lost their job. We certainly get it, and we understand what is going on now. We know people are lining up for work. Whenever there is an announcement for jobs, 50 jobs are hiring at a business or 100 jobs, literally I have seen people lined up around the block--hundreds and thousands of people--because people want to work. The people who are out of work now are people who have worked all their lives. They have played by the rules. They are now trying to figure out what happens and how they can turn it around for their families and keep going. The bill in front of us, like many things we have put forward in the Senate this year, has been all about jobs. That is where we are. It is not a slogan to say jobs, jobs, jobs. That is what we are focused on. Next week, we are going to focus on small business jobs. We will see what happens in the Senate. The jobs bill that we have been focused on for 8 weeks has major provisions to help manufacturers. I was pleased to include provisions that helped manufacturers be able to get some refunds on their taxes if they put it back into equipment and hiring people, and there are other provisions in the bill. It is about jobs. Frankly, we have two different views of the world, two different beliefs that I think are reflected in what has happened to our country. I look back only because we are debating the same values, the same choices that got us where we were and where we are today. Those are the same kinds of choices that our friends on the other side of the aisle are suggesting we make for the future. It is important to look at what has worked and what has not worked. Under the previous administration, they looked at the world very differently. They said: All right, we are going to stimulate the economy and keep things going by focusing on the wealthiest Americans. We are going to give them big tax cuts and it will trickle down and everyone will benefit and there will be jobs. Well, it didn't work. It didn't work. If it had worked, I would be celebrating because an awful lot of people in my State would be doing much better than they are today. What we saw was an economic policy that said we are going to focus on the privileged few, and then it will help everybody else; it is going to trickle down. What we saw was--these are job loss numbers--down, down, down under that policy. I will also say those job numbers come from the fact that the same people said: You know what. We believe corporations, corporate interests can police themselves. So we are going to back up. We are going to let Wall Street go to town. They are going to make a lot of money, and it is going to be good for the economy. They backed up. They let Wall Street police itself. They let mining firms police themselves and oil companies police themselves. We lost lives. We lost 8 million jobs because of what happened on Wall Street. People lost their savings, 401(k)s, their pensions because of a set of ideas, because of what they believed. They believed that by backing up, corporate America would police itself and everything would be OK: Let's give to those at the top. It will trickle down, and we will get jobs. Those two things combined to create the largest number of crises that I certainly have seen in my lifetime that have brought down the middle class of this country. We saw jobs go down, down, more and more job loss. When President Obama came into office, about 750,000 jobs a month were being lost. It was an economic tsunami. If that is not a crisis and an emergency, I don't know what is. If over 15 million people being out of work right now is not an emergency, I don't know what is. We went to work and we focused on a different set of ideas, a different approach. Where they were focusing on the privileged few, we said we are going to focus on middle-class Americans, on working people, on investing in manufacturing jobs. I am very pleased to say we are beginning to feel that in Michigan. Sixteen companies have benefited from the battery manufacturing money we put into the Recovery Act, the stimulus. I was at an opening on Monday in Midland, MI, a new manufacturing facility, that is going to put 1,000 people to work in construction and 800 people to work at the facility. That is a different approach. We said: We are going to invest in America, invest in the American people. We are going to invest in opportunity, and we are going to help the people who are out of work because we know we are not talking about people who are lazy. We are talking about people who lost their jobs, a lot of them because of either lack of accountability and oversight of what was going on on Wall Street or people not paying attention when our jobs were going overseas. Through no fault of their own, people were caught in this economy. We decided on a different approach. President Obama came in and the numbers began to change. I would prefer they were much faster, but they are moving in the right direction. We have gone to zero job loss into the positive column. We are gaining jobs every month. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are saying: Wait, stop, stop. I know if things are going to turn around, maybe in an election year people do not like that and they want to be sure things continue to be bad, that somehow it benefits them. That is a pretty cynical view. These folks who are gaining jobs, as well as the people who lost jobs, are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. This is not a partisan issue. We ought to be rooting for America and rooting for what is getting people back to work instead of fighting along partisan lines. The policies we put in place are beginning to do that. They are not done. They are beginning to do that. We are putting back the oversight and the accountability and commonsense regulation on Wall Street and on the oil companies and the miners. We are putting back in place middle-class tax cuts instead of just the privileged few. We are focusing on jobs, investing in private sector jobs, partnering with the private sector, with businesses to help create investment in innovation, and we are beginning to turn things around. The problem we have is, we still have too many people caught because the changes we have been able to make have not caught up to them, and there is much more to do. The bill that was on the Senate floor, the bill we are going to continue, we are going to put it aside. We are going to be ready if one or two Republican colleagues say: Yes, we want to stop a Republican filibuster. We can come back to it and get this done. But what we have seen is a continual effort for 8 weeks to block us from the next step in the recovery, from investing in jobs, from keeping people employed--police officers, firefighters, teachers--and from focusing on those who have lost their jobs, to be able to help them keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables until they can get that next job. I see my friend from Rhode Island on the Senate floor, and I will turn to him in a moment. He has been a real champion and fighter on this issue. We should also know that in this bill there are some important provisions that have been opposed by the other side of the aisle to make sure wealthy investors actually pay their fair share--not somebody who is middle class but wealthy investors pay their fair share. We also put in place provisions to take away incentives for shipping our jobs overseas. I could go on for an awful long time about why we have lost a lot of jobs in Michigan because of unfair trade practices and losing our jobs overseas. This bill takes away incentives to ship our jobs overseas. This bill also added a few more cents to an oilspill trust fund to make sure the oil companies are actually paying for the cleanup in the gulf. On one side we have jobs, investing in jobs and partnering with manufacturers and small businesses and helping people who are out of work to keep things going. That is our side. On the other side we have wealthy investors who do not like this, and oil companies that do not like another 41 cents on every barrel of oil to be put toward the cleanup. We have people who ship jobs overseas who do not want us to close those loopholes. That is on the other side. Which side did our Republican colleagues pick? They picked the wealthy investors, the oil companies, and the people who ship jobs overseas. The American people are counting on us to understand what is going on in their lives, to get it, to be willing, as in any other time in our history--Republican or Democratic President, any other time in our history when unemployment has been this high; this Congress has stepped forward to extend unemployment benefits for people who were temporarily out of work, Democratic or Republican Presidents. Now we have a situation where after 8 weeks, we cannot get even one of our colleagues from the other side of the aisle to come forward and help us break this filibuster. I don't know what to say beyond the fact that we are going to keep fighting. We are going to keep doing everything we can to get through this logjam. We are going to keep doing everything we can to keep this economy recovering and keep creating jobs. But there is something wrong with the system right now that has gotten so divided, so warped, so partisan that we cannot come together on behalf of almost 1 million people in this country who are counting on us right now because they may have no other option for themselves and their families. There is one job for every five people who are unemployed. Prior to the Recovery Act, that number was six people. It is a little bit better. There is a lot more to do, but we cannot just say to somebody: Why don't you get a job, when there are five people out there for every one job opening. I see my friends on the floor. I see my partner from Michigan on the floor. I will turn to him if he wishes to say a few words because he and I understand what we have been through in Michigan. We have been hit harder, longer, and deeper than anyplace else in this country. When we look at the fact that over 87,000 people in Michigan will lose their unemployment insurance benefits by the end of this month because of what has happened--inaction, the constant naysayers blocking, obstructing, saying no--it is more than I can tolerate. I yield to my friend from Michigan.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the majority leader be authorized to sign any duly enrolled bills and joint resolutions on today, June 24.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Louisiana again because she is focusing on jobs. That is what we are focusing on every day here, with every bill: jobs, putting people to work, supporting small businesses, supporting manufacturers, and getting this economy going. So I thank her for her leadership.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Friday, June 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 that following any leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 5297, the small business jobs bill. Finally, I ask that the quorum with respect to the cloture motion be waived.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate agree to the request that the Senate return to the House H.R. 5136, the Department of Defense Authorization Act.

Ms. STABENOW. I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to H.R. 5136.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. In closing, I wish to take a few more minutes to stress again how disappointing and, frankly, outrageous I find what happened tonight to be as it relates to the continual 8 weeks of blocking the jobs bill in front of us, for the ability for people who are out of work to be able to get some temporary help just to be able to keep things going for their family while they are looking for that next job. There are almost 1 million people who find themselves in a situation now where they have lost their jobs and have lost their insurance benefits, insurance benefits paid in when they were working to then be able to get help when they are not working, as any of us would want for ourselves and our families. We are in a situation where we cannot get beyond--we cannot get even beyond one, and we need two Republican colleagues--we cannot even get one to be able to join with us to overturn this filibuster. We have a bill, a jobs bill in front of us that would provide tax cuts to businesses, provide help to State and local and municipal governments to keep police officers, firefighters, and teachers on the job in our communities for our children, and the other side has said no. Time after time, no. We are putting much needed tax cuts, money back into the pockets of middle-class families. The other side has said no. We wanted to help small businesses be able to restore credit to create jobs. They said no. We want to help people who are going back to school to start a new career, people who have been looking for work, and they have said no. And we want to make sure we are investing in the kinds of jobs that are going to rebuild America--roads and bridges, other kinds of construction efforts, good-paying jobs for engineers, construction workers. Those provisions were in this bill, and they have said no. For people who are out of work, they have gotten a great big no, no way, time and time again from colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We know that for every $1 we put into unemployment insurance benefits, we get, according to Mark Zandi, an economist, and certainly many other economists, at least $1.40 back in investment. Why? Because somebody goes to the store and buys some food with that $200 or $300 a month in unemployment benefits. They go buy some shoes for the kids. They put gas in the car. They keep the lights on. They are able to pay their rent or the mortgage or do other things we all want to be able to do for our families, for our children. So when you give unemployment insurance benefits to someone who is out of work, they, unfortunately for themselves, have to turn right around and spend it. But from an economic standpoint, that is stimulus, which is why that is viewed as one of the best economic stimuli you can have, to be able to provide assistance for people who are going to turn around and spend it in the economy. We are struggling now. Even though we have the majority in the Senate, we do not have a supermajority, enough to stop filibusters. And we are struggling with a perversion of the Senate rules that has taken place. I think, frankly, our forefathers would be rolling over in their graves to see the perversion that has gone on here. Instead of using a majority vote like any of us would use if we were in an election--one more vote than the other guy wins the election--here one more vote than the other guy does not get us moving forward because of the efforts to block, obstruct, and filibuster that go on every single day and require 60 votes in order to overcome. So what are they saying no to? Why are they blocking and stopping? Why do we see this continual effort to go back to the way it was, to go back to the policies that got us where we are today? We are in a situation now where we want to go forward. We want to change things. We want to go forward. And all we get are efforts to take us back. Well, what was happening then? What was happening at the place they want to go? Well, in the last Presidency, when they were in charge, we saw us lose jobs, more and more jobs throughout the 8 years of this former President. And there were a number of reasons: wrong economic policies; wrong investments; investing in people who were very wealthy hoping that it would trickle down; not enforcing our trade laws; not stopping the incentives to ship our jobs overseas; not paying attention to manufacturing and making things in this country; and, frankly, not paying for things; two wars, not paid for; Medicare prescription drug benefit, not paid for--nothing was paid for. Everything was put on the credit card. And now the people who got us into this ditch, amazingly, are arguing for policies to take us back into the ditch. They dug the ditch, and now they want us to give them back the shovel and get more shovels to dig a bigger one. We have a very different view and, frankly, a different set of priorities on whom we are fighting for. We are losing the middle class of this country. We are losing the middle class of this country because of the policies that have focused not on jobs, not on things that matter to middle-class families, working-class families, but on what the privileged few care about. The philosophy that got us where we are, which this President inherited, President Obama, was a philosophy that said that a tax cut to the wealthy solves every problem and, by the way, step back and let corporate America regulate themselves, police themselves, and everything will be OK. Well, we saw what happened on Wall Street--millions of jobs lost, 401(k)s gone, pensions gone, savings gone. We have seen what happened in the gulf when the oil companies policed themselves. We saw what happened in West Virginia, where the miners lost their lives because the mines were policing themselves. And we saw what happened economically in terms of job loss. This really is a bigger fight than just the jobs bill in front of us. It is about whose side you are on. It is about what your values and priorities are. And I can tell you, just as a practical matter, I am going to support whatever works for the people I represent, whatever works for the people in Michigan. This did not work, this red ink getting longer and longer and longer. President Obama comes in; 750,000 jobs lost a month. We put in a jobs bill, a Recovery Act to focus on manufacturing and small businesses, job training, to help the people who lost their jobs. It has been slow because the hole was so deep, but we have begun to turn it around. By the end of the year, we got it to zero jobs lost, and now we are gaining jobs. Now we have to keep gaining jobs. We are returning accountability and commonsense regulation to Wall Street, to the oil industry, and to other areas where lives could be lost and there is a public interest. So we are in the middle of a major debate in this country. And what I find most disturbing is that too many on the other side of the aisle are rooting for failure. They want the President to fail. They want our majority to fail. But in the process of that, we all will fail. The country will fail if we do not have a set of economic policies and investments and partnerships that work, if we do not focus on the people who need temporary help and support right now while they hold their family together and look for a job. When I think about the men and women fighting overseas, fighting in two wars around the world for our great democracy, they want to know that they are coming home to a job; that their family has a house; that the kids are going to be able to go to college; that they are going to be able to breathe fresh air and drink clean water; and that somehow that they were fighting not for some craziness, some crazy political battlefield here, but for a sense of love and thought about our country and the people in our country. Patriotism really is, when it comes to our country, against other countries in the world, it is fighting for our side--not our side of the aisle but our country, not rooting for people to fail just so you can get a short-term political advantage. I hope that does not work. Obviously, you could say for personal reasons, we do not want it to work, but I hope it does not work for our country because we have to get beyond this and be able to work together because too many people are counting on us. In closing this evening, I want to express an apology to everyone who is caught in this economic tsunami. I am not going to stand here and apologize to BP, but I am going to apologize to the people who are out of work in this country for what has happened today because it is shameful. And over 87,000 people in my State are going to be directly affected by this by the end of next week. I apologize to them for what has happened because it is wrong. It is wrong. And we are going to do everything we can to turn this around because people are counting on us to do that.

Mr. STABENOW

Mr. STABENOW. Thank you, Madam President.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Thank you. Let me indicate again, there is a huge difference in view as to how to get us out of the deficit hole. One side, with a set of policies--I am sure they were sincere--a set of policies that said: We will give it to the wealthiest Americans--tax cuts--and then it will trickle down, coupled with 8 years of not paying for things--two wars and a whole series of other things--created red lines down, job loss, so that President Obama came in at losing about 750,000 jobs a month. We have tried a different view. We have said the only way to get out of deficit is to focus on jobs, putting money in the pocket of middle- class families, and growing our way out by focusing on the middle class, working people, the majority of people, small businesses, with manufacturers making things again in this country. We both care about deficits. We have different views about how we got to those deficits, and certainly different views about how to get out of deficit. What we will not support is taking money away from efforts that have begun to get us on a road to recovery. We have a long way to go, but it has begun to get us out of the ditch. We no longer are losing 750,000 jobs every month. We are now gaining jobs. It is not as even as we would like, but we are gaining jobs. The question is, do we allow this to continue, while helping people who are out of work right now, and grow our way out of this deficit by creating jobs, or do we go back to the old philosophy, the old beliefs that got us into the hole in the first place? That is the basic debate on the floor of the Senate. That is the debate. We have one view that worked in the 1990s, creating 22 million jobs over the course of 8 years in the Clinton Presidency, and one view that has lost us jobs. Now we are back again to that philosophy to create jobs, and that is what this is about.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I wish to thank my colleague from Colorado for that beautiful and meaningful tribute to Stewart Udall and the lessons he has given us through his life and through this wonderful tribute. We very much appreciate it this evening.