Ken Salazar

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that after I speak for up to 15 minutes, Senator Hatch be recognized for up to 15 minutes, and then following Senator Hatch, Senator Durbin for 15 minutes, and then Senator Reed of Rhode Island for the remainder of the Democratic time; if there is a Republican to speak between Senator Durbin and Senator Reed, that Republican Senator be recognized.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor once again to urge my colleagues to begin serious work that is needed to address the housing crisis. The news keeps getting worse. Home prices continue to decline steeply. Home sales are reaching record lows, and the resulting shock to our broader financial system keeps getting worse. In the 2 weeks since we adjourned, we saw the Federal Reserve act to bail out a major investment bank by facilitating the purchase of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan. This marked the first time in history the Fed had acted to rescue a financial institution of this kind. It did so because of the impact a Bear Stearns collapse would have had on the entire economy. Last week, it was reported home prices in the 20 largest metropolitan statistical areas suffered their largest drop in history, over 10 percent in 1 year. In some cities, such as Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, the drop is as high as 18 or 19 percent. Yet because of the Republican filibuster in this Chamber 2 weeks ago, the Senate has failed to act to deliver meaningful solutions to this crisis which is at the center of the economic storm pummeling the middle class. When we look at the headlines, they keep coming: From USA Today, ``Battered Home Prices Keep Toppling;'' from the New York Times, ``Slump Moves from Wall Street to Main Street;'' from the Wall Street Journal, ``Housing, Bank Troubles Deepen;'' from the Washington Post, ``Mortgage Foreclosures Reach All-Time High.'' We voted on the Foreclosure Prevention Act several weeks ago. The bad news since then has, in fact, gotten worse. This is a scene all too familiar across the States. All across America families are feeling the pain of the housing crunch. Price-reduced homes are on sale because they have been foreclosed upon. It is not just families who are being foreclosed upon; it is their neighbors whose home values have declined steeply as a result of foreclosures in the neighborhood. Again, it was reported last week that home prices in the 20 major metropolitan areas declined over 10 percent between January of 2007 and January of 2008. Price reduced, price reduced, price reduced--that is not a sign any homeowner wants to see on their lawn or on their neighbor's lawn or on their street. These are not just families who found themselves in financial situations they could not afford to climb out of; these are families who bought houses between 2002 and 2006, stayed current on their payments, and hoped to see the value of their homes continue to appreciate. But through no fault of their own, these families have seen their homes, their single most valuable asset, decline precipitously in value. The next chart demonstrates how widespread the problem has become in my own State of Colorado. These are figures from the Center for Responsible Lending which has projected that we can expect to see troubles ahead in terms of the continuing tide of foreclosures over the next several years and how these foreclosures will affect not only owners of the foreclosed homes but entire neighborhoods and, in fact, most homeowners across the State of Colorado. The Center for Responsible Lending projects that in Colorado we will experience nearly 50,000 additional foreclosed homes in 2008 and 2009, as the adjustable rate mortgages reset and as home values continue to plummet. As stated on this chart, which is a map of my wonderful State of Colorado, we see expected foreclosures are going to be right at about 50,000. The spillover impact for surrounding homes that will suffer decline during that same period is almost 750,000 homes. That is more than a third of the homes of the State of Colorado are going to see this declining spiral. We are going to see a decline in home values in the aggregate of $3.2 billion in my State in the loss of home ownership value. The situation is clearly getting worse. Many middle-class families whose budgets are already stretched thin cannot afford such a steep decline in the value of their most important asset. Congress has a responsibility to act aggressively to help families stay in their homes and to stem the tide of foreclosures that continues to serve as a serious drag on our overall economy. That is why we are here again today, working to move on the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, legislation introduced by Senator Reid, in consultation with the chairs of the committees of jurisdiction. That legislation would take several steps to provide meaningful and immediate assistance to families and communities affected by foreclosures and to prevent other families and communities from finding themselves in the same situation in the future. The legislation does three simple things. First, it seeks to help families facing foreclosure to stay in their homes by expanding State authority to issue tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds, increasing funding for credit counseling, and allowing bankruptcy judges to restructure mortgages. Second, it provides critical help to communities across the country that have been affected by foreclosure by increasing funding under the Community Development Block Grant program. Third, it takes steps to help families and communities avoid foreclosures in the future by requiring simplicity and transparency on mortgage documents. I am especially glad these provisions are included in the legislation. The two tax-related provisions reported out of the Finance Committee on a bipartisan basis as part of the bipartisan economic stimulus proposal represent important steps that provide low-interest loans to homeowners seeking to refinance their mortgages and to allow ailing businesses, including those in the home construction industry, to carry back their losses a longer period of time to average out their good and bad years. I also support funding increases for credit counseling, which will go a long way toward helping families understand the financial burdens associated with taking out a long-term home loan and to avoid foreclosure. In my State of Colorado, we have already seen how beneficial these kinds of services can be. Last fall, a consortium of government, private sector, and nonprofit organizations launched the Colorado foreclosure hotline which connects borrowers with nonprofit housing counselors who can provide information on a borrower's options when facing foreclosure. Counselors can facilitate communications between lenders and borrowers. The hotline itself has already received over 10,000 calls in the last 6 months. This is a sign from the foreclosure hotline in Colorado. Since it was first formed, this consortium between the government, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations, more than 29,000 people in Colorado have called this hotline. This legislation will go a long way toward helping us implement this kind of program all the way across the country. The American dream of home ownership is today a dream which is becoming nebulous for the people of our country because of the huge foreclosure crisis we have seen across the country which has caused such a decline in home values all across America. I believe it is our responsibility in the Senate to move forward to provide relief to these middle-class families who are in danger of losing value in their homes and in danger of losing their homes. This is an economic stimulus program which I think is timely for us to act upon. I hope our colleagues will join us in voting aye on the motion to proceed to the housing legislation. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life of SSG Michael Elledge of Fort Carson, CO. On March 17, a bomb exploded near the humvee Sergeant Elledge was driving, killing him and SPC Christopher C. Simpson, of Hampton, VA. Sergeant Elledge was assigned to C Company, 1st Battalion, 68th Armored Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, out of Fort Carson, CO. He was 41 years old. Those who knew Mike Elledge describe him as a man committed to his family, faith, and duty to his country. He first donned a uniform after graduating from high school in Michigan in 1985. He served 4 years with the Marines. After discharging, he became a licensed aircraft mechanic and moved to Indiana, where he took a job with United Airlines. For 14 years he worked for United, lived in Brownsburg, and raised three children--Christopher, Caleb, and Cassidy--with his wife Carleen. But Mike's life changed after the attacks of September 11, 2001. We cannot forget that the tragedies of that day were not confined to New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. The ripples quickly spread to all corners of the country as people learned of friends and family members who were hurt or killed and as the economic impacts hit home with job losses and dislocations. Mike was among the tens of thousands of Americans who lost their job in the wake of the September 11 attacks. United Airlines, struggling to recover after the disaster, closed the doors on its Brownsburg facility, leaving Mike without a job. We each have our own way of confronting adversity in our lives. For Michael Elledge, the terror and tragedy of September 11 was a call to service--a call to reenlist. So, at age 38, Sergeant Elledge joined the Army. In 2005, he deployed to Iraq for a 1-year rotation. Last December, he and the Third Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Carson deployed again, this time for a projected 15-month tour. Sergeant Elledge carried his deeply rooted faith into battle with him. His friends say he was passionately committed to helping Iraqis build a country where they could enjoy freedom and security. For this, Sergeant Elledge embodied the best of a soldier--he was devoted to his duty with the knowledge that his service could make others' lives better. This is the type of citizen that Americans have celebrated for generations. President Theodore Roosevelt, in a speech at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1910, praised the values that Sergeant Elledge embodied and claimed that it is the ``man in the arena'' who makes history. ``It is not the critic who counts,'' said President Roosevelt, ``not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.'' Mr. President, Sergeant Elledge knew what a difference he could make and was not afraid to make it. He was the ``man in the arena'' for whom President Roosevelt had such high praise. No words or ceremony, of course, can properly honor the life and loss of a soldier like Sergeant Elledge, but we wish to console his friends and family and remember his contributions. That is why scores of firefighters lined the overpasses of Sacramento, CA, to honor his return; that is why flags are flying in his hometown of Placerville, MI; and that is why the bugles will sound at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. To Sergeant Elledge's wife, Carleen, his sons, Christopher and Caleb, his daughter, Cassidy, his parents, Marion and Christopher, and to all his friends and family, our thoughts and prayers are with you. No words can lessen the pain and grief that you feel, but I hope that in time your sorrow will be salved by the knowledge that Mike served his country with honor and that we are all grateful for his courage, his sacrifice, and his heroism. He will never be forgotten. Staff Sergeant David D. Julian

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I respond to my friend from Arizona, at the end of the day, if we are going to be fiscally responsible in the Senate, we have to pay for those items that are creating this mountain of debt. We are either serious about paying down the debt in this country and getting a handle on the fiscal responsibility of the last 8 years or we are not. Senator Conrad has been right in terms of pay-go. I ask my colleagues to vote no.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in support of amendment No. 4196. This is about estate tax reform and providing the Finance Committee, Chairman Baucus, the opportunity to craft a package that makes sense. This will help make sure that our farmers and ranchers are able to stay on the ranch, that family businesses will be able to keep their family businesses together, and that we can provide certainty for the future in terms of those who will be hit with the estate tax. There is an alternative amendment that will be coming up by our friend from Arizona, Senator Kyl. The problem with that amendment is it is not paid for. We will then continue to build upon this mountain of debt, which has already reached $10 trillion in the last 7 years. This amendment is paid for and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote against the amendment of my friend from Arizona because at the end of the day, it does not hold up to the principle of fiscal responsibility. All that the amendment of my friend will do is continue to make the mountain of debt bigger and bigger. It is a mountain of debt that is already at $10 trillion and going beyond. The pay-go rules we have in this Chamber are important for us to maintain if we are going to be fiscally responsible stewards of America's financial treasure. I urge my colleagues to vote no on the Kyl amendment.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment because it deals with the State of Colorado and the oil shale reserves there. We have a thoughtful way to move forward with that program. This is putting the horse ahead of the cart. This is the wrong way to go. I urge a ``no'' note.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise in strong support of the budget resolution that is before the Senate today. I want to thank Chairman Conrad for his leadership--he and the Budget Committee have put together a smart, fiscally disciplined budget that will help put our economy back on track while bringing our budget into balance by 2012. This is the time of year when middle-class families across the country are sitting down at their kitchen tables with stacks of bills, tax forms, and a calculator. They are adding up expenses and incomes-- and the numbers are not good. The cost of health insurance is up. Mortgage payments are up. Gas prices are up. Food prices are up. Heating bills are up. Inflation is up. Unemployment is up. Families' expenses are on the rise, but, for the last 7 years, wages have not kept pace. In times like these, it is hard to balance a budget, but American families don't have a choice. They either balance their budget or face debts and bankruptcy. The Federal Government should take a lesson from American families: when pennies are tight, we need to be making smart, disciplined decisions that bring budgets into balance. That is no easy task when you consider the fiscal mess this Congress inherited. In 2000, we were running $236 billion in budget surpluses. In 2006, the Federal budget deficit was $248 billion. The national debt will have gone from $5.8 trillion in 2001 to over $10 trillion by the end of this year. Think of that for one second: in just 8 years, this administration will have almost doubled the entire national debt. It is staggering. And it is the reason that Americans have lost trust in the fiscal policies of this administration. But the budget resolution we passed last year and the budget resolution we are considering today rein in this recklessness. This budget, thanks to the work of Chairman Conrad and the Budget Committee, is the blueprint for how we fund our most important Federal programs, provide new tax relief, and bring the budget into balance within 4 years--without raising taxes. And this budget puts the Federal Government back on a pay-as-you-go basis, meaning that if someone wants to pass a new Federal program or cut taxes--they have to find a way to pay for it. This is known as ``pay-go,'' and it is simple common sense. It is not easy to enforce the type of fiscal restraint embodied by pay-go while addressing the most pressing challenges our country is facing, but this budget succeeds in doing just that. I want to spend a few moments talking about the tax portions of the budget resolution because they are of direct interest to those middle class families who are feeling the squeeze of stagnant wages, rising costs, and declining home values. The underlying budget resolution offers AMT relief and measures to close the tax gap, and the amendment that Senator Baucus has offered would provide further relief. The Baucus amendment would permanently extend a series of critical middle-class tax cuts and create new tax relief for two important groups: (1) middle-class homeowners burdened by high property taxes and (2) veterans and servicemembers that are giving so much. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, I believe that Congress should use the budget resolution to demonstrate its strong support for the tax policies that provide relief for middle-class families. The Baucus amendment makes permanent the 10-percent tax bracket, the child tax credit, the adoption credit, the dependent care credit, and marriage penalty relief. It helps address the housing crisis by allowing middle-income taxpayers an ``above-the-line'' deduction for property taxes. This would allow homeowners to deduct their property taxes whether or not they itemize their deductions, providing relief to a segment of the population that has been hard-hit by recent economic troubles. In addition, the Baucus amendment includes a series of targeted provisions designed to provide tax relief to veterans and servicemembers, including a provision to allow servicemembers to count combat pay as income for purposes of the earned income tax credit. Finally, this amendment will pave the way for meaningful estate tax reform by preventing any increase in the estate tax above the 2009 rate and exemption levels. The Finance Committee is working toward the goal of enacting permanent and comprehensive reform, and this amendment is an important step in the right direction. These are not the only tax priorities that we intend to pursue this year, but they are at the top of the list for urgency and priority. In addition to these tax cuts for middle class families, the budget establishes and funds priorities and programs that have been neglected for far too long. For our Armed Forces, the budget provides full funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan but also helps rebuild a military that has been under intense strain for five years. The Army Chief of Staff, General Casey, has been very clear that the current operational tempo and repeated deployments is putting the Army ``out of balance,'' and less able to respond to contingencies. The National Guard has also been hit hard by the administration's policies--units have been short equipment for training, disaster response, and other missions. This budget, though, provides over $49.1 billion to recruit, train, equip, and sustain National Guard and Reserve units--these funds are desperately needed to reset the force. The budget also provides a 3.4-percent pay raise for military personnel, and rejects the administration's proposals for new TRlCARE enrollment fees and higher deductibles for military retirees. For our veterans, the budget provides $48.2 billion for discretionary programs, including medical care. This is $3.2 billion more than the President's proposed funding level and brings funding for the VA in line with the recommendations in the independent budget, which veterans' service organizations compile each year to guide funding for the VA. I am particularly proud that the committee was able to fulfill my request to restore funding for major construction projects in the VA, including the Fitzsimons Hospital in Denver. The administration has been dragging its feet on the construction of major medical facilities that have been planned for years. The foot-dragging has only caused costs to rise and veterans to have to wait longer for modern medical facilities. This is unacceptable. I appreciate Chairman Conrad's willingness to work with me to include funding and report language that will help get the VA back on track on these projects. In addition to the good things that this budget does to rebuild our military, honor our veterans, and cut taxes for middle class families, it also provides adequate funding for domestic programs that are fundamental to Americans' economic security. As a Senator from a State where 57 of our 64 counties rely on payment in lieu of taxes, PILT, to offset tax revenue that can not be collected from the federally owned lands in their county, I know how damaging the President's cuts to PILT are. For a county like Mineral County, CO, which has over half a million acres of Federal land, cuts to PILT are devastating to its budget. That is why I am proud that the Budget Resolution rejects the President's cuts to PILT and creates a deficit neutral reserve fund to accommodate legislation that will fully fund the program for five years. I am also cosponsoring an amendment that Senator Enzi is offering that will help stop the Federal Government from raiding the States' share of mineral leasing revenues. Those revenues from oil and gas leases in Colorado, Wyoming, and across the West should be divided 50- 50 between the state and the Federal Government. The administration succeeded in changing this formula in 2008, but the reserve fund that Senator Enzi's amendment creates would help ensure that this does not happen again. But these aren't the only steps we can take in this budget to help rural economies. The budget resolution also makes a dramatic new investment in renewable energy development and research. It puts $2 billion into the Department of Energy EERE account, which funds research and development at labs like the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, CO. This is a $738 million increase over the President's budget. It will help accelerate the renewable energy revolution that is sweeping across the country, giving new life to rural economies. On health care, the budget once again lays the groundwork for expanding health care coverage for children. On two separate occasions last year, the President vetoed bills that would have expanded the Children's Health Insurance Program. If not for those vetoes, 3.8 million more children would have health insurance today. We are not going to give up that fight, so the budget provides up to $50 billion for CHIP so that we can expand coverage to 6 mi1lion more children. And on law enforcement, the budget resolution rejects the President's proposal to eliminate the COPS program. This was the sixth straight year that the President has proposed massive cuts to a program that has put over 100,000 police officers on the streets. As a former attorney general, I can tell you just how misguided these cuts would be, if we allowed them to go through. As American families sort through their finances, stack up their bills, and calculate their 2007 taxes in this period, they know they have to set priorities in their own budgets. They expect the Federal Government to do the same: they expect Congress to assemble and pass a budget that is fiscally disciplined, that provides tax relief, and that funds those programs that are fundamental to our security and our economy. I believe that this budget meets those objectives by putting us on track to balance the budget by 2012, despite the fiscal recklessness that will be the legacy of this administration. I again want to thank Chairman Conrad and the Budget Committee for all their work on this budget. I am proud to stand behind it.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, I was going to speak in connection with the estate tax amendment the Senator offered.

Mr. SALAZAR. Fifteen minutes.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak on amendment No. 4196, as modified, which Senator Conrad offered for me earlier today.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, my amendment is a very simple amendment. It deals with the estate tax. What it does is set aside a deficit reserve fund that will protect family businesses and family farms and ranches from the estate tax. It is a straightforward amendment that will address the complexity of the changing estate tax law that we currently face. Let me say at the outset that when one looks at what we are facing with respect to the estate tax in the years ahead, I think it is clear we must act to provide certainty to people with respect to their estates and to deal with issues that have been raised by Senators on the Democratic side of the aisle as well as Senators on the Republican side of the aisle. It is clear, when you look at what is happening now with respect to current law--in 2007 and 2008, you have an effective exemption of $2 million and a top tax rate of 45 percent. When you look at the year 2009, under current law, we are looking at an effective exemption of $3.5 million and a 45-percent top tax rate. Then, in 2010, for that year, it is completely repealed, so there is no estate tax. Then, in 2011 and thereafter, you are looking at a framework of law that will effectively provide a $1 million exemption, and then we will have what is a 55-percent taxable rate, plus a potential 5-percent surtax, with respect to estates. The reality of it is, no one knows when they are going to die. We do not know whether it is a 2008 event--2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 or 2013. So this is an area of the law which we must fix. I am proud of the fact that our chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Baucus, has started to hold hearings on the estate tax. We had one this morning in which we heard different concepts of how estates are taxed in places such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and different approaches to dealing with this issue. So I am hopeful as we move forward in the year ahead, we can find a bipartisan solution to deal with the estate tax issue that faces us. For me, as one Senator, there are three principles that I will keep in mind, and I hope we all will keep in mind. First is fiscal responsibility. We have, in fact, as the chairman of the Budget Committee has so often stated over the last 7 years, created this huge mountain of debt. I think it is important for us to abide by the pay-go principles which we have adopted in this Chamber so that as we are creating new programs or as we are creating new tax cuts and we are finding ways of paying for those deficits or for those programs that we are creating, this will all become part of, hopefully, what will be a new wind that will blow upon Washington--that has started to blow upon Washington--as we need to be responsible with the fiscal resources of the Government. The second imperative for me as we move forward with the estate tax is that we deal with those estates that don't have liquidity, as happens in the case of farmers and ranchers who sometimes have to split up their estates because of the fact that they can't find the money to be able to pay off their estate tax. That does, in fact, happen. It happens from time to time in my own State of Colorado. So I am hopeful we will be able to create a law that will allow farmers and ranchers to stay on their land. Thirdly, as I said at the beginning, there is no way anybody can predict when they are going to die. It is important for those looking ahead at their own estates that there be some certainty with respect to the law that will apply to their assets and to their estate. Our amendment addresses all of those issues. The estate tax is a complicated and intimidating law. It does need, in my view, serious reform. The Finance Committee will hold a number of hearings on this issue. The first amendment which Senator Baucus offered on a variety of middle-class tax cuts for Americans provides some relief and some certainty to American families and small businesses by ensuring that there will be no increase in the estate tax through a permanent extension of the 2009 estate tax law. I am a proud cosponsor of that amendment. I believe the manner in which we address the estate tax in that amendment is a minimal level of reform that the Congress can accomplish. That is why I have introduced the amendment before us, which has created a deficit-neutral reserve fund for the purposes of providing additional estate tax relief. The reserve fund will provide sufficient funds to accommodate a proposal to raise the estate tax exemption to $5 million, indexed for inflation, and to lower the tax rate to 35 percent. But my amendment will not lock in the structure of the estate tax reform. It may be that we will need to provide additional relief and tailor the legislation in the Finance Committee in a manner that effectively addresses the needs of family farmers and ranchers and family businesses. We also learned this morning in a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee there are many options for us to consider as we move forward with fixing the estate tax law. There are many options to estate tax reform, and we should continue to work our way through the process to identify the most appropriate way to move forward on a bipartisan basis. This morning's hearing was the second estate tax hearing we have held in the Finance Committee, and we will hold a third hearing on this matter in early April. We are working through the process. We are examining the challenges posed by the current estate tax system, and we are considering a wide range of proposals to provide comprehensive, permanent, and fiscally responsible reform. I remain committed to working with Chairman Baucus, Senator Conrad, and other colleagues on the Finance Committee and in the Senate for achieving meaningful reform in the near term. My amendment and the amendment by Senator Baucus will help pave the way for that reform, and I urge my colleagues to support it. I also wish to spend a few minutes speaking to the Baucus amendment, of which I am an original cosponsor. That amendment by Senator Baucus will take surplus funds in the budget resolution to make sure that we are taking care of the middle class of America as we move forward. What that amendment does again is, it makes the permanent extension of the 10-percent income tax bracket permanent. It addresses the extension of the increased refundable child tax credit with additional eligibility for lower income Americans and makes that permanent. It addresses the marriage penalty tax relief provisions and makes that tax relief provision permanent. It addresses the extension of the tax credit for childcare expenses, and it makes that credit a permanent credit. It addresses the increased adoption tax credit and makes that permanent, and it also addresses the estate tax issues, as I mentioned earlier. I am hopeful that my colleagues will support both the Baucus amendment as well as the Salazar amendment. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. SALAZAR. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. SALAZAR. The Senator from Arizona is correct that this is a problem we have to deal with, and there are very significant similarities between our two amendments. In fact, the $45 billion fund we have created will allow for indexing and for a stepped-up basis. The key difference between the Senator's amendment and mine is that his is not paid for. The reality is we in this Congress and in the Senate and in the White House need to understand we need to be fiscally responsible. That is a debate we have had here with respect to pay-go. It is my view, given the fact we already have a $10 trillion national debt that continues to grow, we have a war that now is projected to cost over $2 trillion that we have not funded, but we have allowed that credit card debt to basically be passed on to our children, we need to be fiscally responsible. So while we both recognize--the Senator from Arizona and I--that we need to have certainty with respect to estate tax reform--and I think we both recognize the Senator from Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee, is doing his best to get ideas from around the country and the world on how to deal with this issue and move forward in a good- faith effort--the distinction here is whether you pay for this change. My question to my good friend from Arizona, with whom I enjoy working on the Finance Committee, is: How would he propose that we pay for this $10 trillion mountain of debt, built up largely over the last 7 years?

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I respect the Senator from Arizona and his raising the issue of the estate tax and its need to be reformed, as well as the fiscal crisis we face. Obviously, it will be a debate that will consume a tremendous amount of time on the part of the Senate and the Congress and, hopefully, an administration that helps us get back on a line of fiscal integrity and honesty for the people of America. Mr. President, I note that my friend from Massachusetts is on the floor. He has a very tight schedule. I will yield the floor. I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Massachusetts be recognized.

Mr. SALAZAR

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

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor of the Senate today to call again upon our colleagues in this chamber to move forward with a package that addresses housing challenges we face here in America today. The dream of American home ownership is very much at risk today. We are seeing a housing crisis and a financial crisis here in America that is unparalleled in recent times. In fact, when you speak to the home mortgage industry as well as the homebuilders, as well as the homeowners, they will all tell you we have not seen anything like this in America since the Great Depression. The statistics and the facts are there to demonstrate this, as well as the reality of people who are losing their homes, and more than even those who are losing their homes, who have to go through the pain and heartache of losing their homes because they cannot afford to pay the adjusted rate mortgages which are putting them in a position where they cannot afford to stay in their homes. It is also a pain that spreads across to all homeowners of America because when you have the kind of foreclosure situation in which we find ourselves in America today, that pain is one that is felt by all of those who are homeowners. This chart is a chart that was prepared by Moody's, a group of economists that came up essentially to give us the facts and the statistics that demonstrate, without equivocation, that this is an unprecedented housing downturn we are seeing. This is a worse downturn than anything we saw in the 1990s and the 1980s, and, in fact, their conclusion is that we have never seen such a downturn since the Great Depression. I wish to point out two things on this chart. The first is that the housing prices are projected to decline overall across the Nation by nearly 16 percent. We know that most Americans, most middle-class Americans in this country who are in a home have most of their equity, their value in life, tied up in their home. So when you have a decline in their home values by 16 percent, you are impacting the American homeowners in a very significant way. That is why, when we talk about the foreclosure crisis which is facing America, it is not about those who are on the verge of losing their homes; it is about all American homeowners because of the kind of price decline we are seeing in values in homes all across America. A 16-percent decline in home values, I would suspect, is something that is of grave concern to most Americans. I would think this Chamber, as well as our colleagues in the House of Representatives, as well as the White House, should be saying that as part of an economic stimulus package, we ought to pivot over to the housing issues that face America and do something to restore confidence in the housing markets of America. Another indicator from Moody's, as you see in this chart, is with respect to housing starts. You look at the trough in housing starts in the 1980s, where housing starts declined to about 58 percent. Well, the economists are telling us now that given the high rates of foreclosure, what is happening is there is no end in sight. This red line has no end in sight, where you have a 60-percent decline in housing starts. We do not know how far that is going to go. When you have that kind of decline in housing starts, you are going to be affecting several hundred thousand Americans who are in the job market as part of the housing industry. So these statistics, which are national statistics out of Moody's, should be telling us all that we should be doing something about the housing crisis here in America. I am certain the Presiding Officer from Ohio can paint a similar picture about the housing problems in Ohio because there is a problem in the Presiding Officer's State as well as Florida and Nevada and California and many other States around the country. When I look at what the housing crisis means for the 5 million people in Colorado, it tells me we have a severe problem in my State as well. Today in Colorado, 1 out of every 376 homes is in foreclosure. That is the highest rate of foreclosure we have seen in the history of the State. It is unprecedented. We are not yet at the point where we have hit bottom. If you look at foreclosures that are expected to occur between 2008 and 2009 in Colorado, projections are that nearly 50,000 homes-- 49,923--will go into foreclosure. For a State with 5 million people, that is a significant number. What will that mean in terms of the impact on other homeowners around the State? About 748,000 homes are going to suffer a significant decline in value. That is about half of all the homes in the State of Colorado. When Majority Leader Reid, now more than a week ago, came to the Chamber and said what we ought to do is pivot off of the economic stimulus package, which we worked out with the President, and move forward to address some other ailments in the economy--and he said the first of those ailments is the housing crisis--he was right. This Chamber should have moved forward and started to address the housing crisis. Instead, we ended up in 1 of the now 73 filibusters we have had to address. I hope my colleagues, Republican and Democratic, come back and say: No, this is too serious an issue. It is something we have to address with the 2008 Foreclosure Prevention Act which Majority Leader Reid had filed at the desk and, with amendments, we can try to make sure we have an effective remedy for this ailment we are facing in America today. When you pick up the newspapers of today, they show this is a problem that continues to be at the highest level of attention for our people. USA Today, in its headline, talks about how home equity is below the 50-percent level. That is a figure that came out of the Federal Reserve Board yesterday. It is the lowest home equity level since 1945. To me that is another clarion call for this Congress to do something about the housing issue. Pick up the Wall Street Journal from today. It reads: ``Housing and Bank Troubles Deepen.'' The statistics are all there. We know we have a huge problem on our hands in terms of this pillar of the economy ailing. We also know this is causing pain to American homeowners, and the dream of American home ownership is in jeopardy today. I call on my colleagues in the Senate to move forward and address this issue in a robust way. I am hopeful in succeeding weeks we are able to put together a coalition of Democrats and Republicans who say that this housing crisis must be addressed now for the sake of the American people. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I come to the floor this afternoon to first speak to my support for the Consumer Product Safety Commission bill which is before us. I want to also honor my colleague from Arkansas, who has led these efforts on behalf of the Commerce Committee in the Senate. He understands from his background as the attorney general for the State of Arkansas that it is important to protect consumers. Attorneys general are known across the country for their role in serving as protectors of the people. This legislation is in fact a ``protector of the people'' because what it will do is it will allow us to deal with those unsafe products that are finding their way into the homes of Americans, into the hands of children, and into the hands of all Americans in a way sometimes today which is unsafe. There are many stories that have been untold about young people who have been victimized by a lack of oversight with respect to all these imports that are coming in at levels we have never seen before, from places such as China and other places around the world, which are causing significant damage to young people. Last year alone, 27,000 Americans died because of some illness that was related to an unsafe product. That is 27,000 Americans who lost their lives. Yet when we look at CPSC today, the Commission which is in charge of enforcing consumer protection standards and measures to protect Americans, there is one inspector on the job to get this all done on behalf of 300 million Americans. I think that is woefully inadequate. It is an inadequacy which this Senate and this Congress has a responsibility to address. In my own home State of Colorado, there was a young man by the name of Tegan Leisy. Tegan is only 4 years old. But because of a defective toy that was brought into his household, he ended up going to the doctor with a pain in his stomach. Three days later, it was discovered there were six magnets that had come off this toy which had got into his intestines and had created a problem, which required his intestines to be torn apart in order for the young man to undergo the operation. So we need to make sure we have the right consumer protection standards. We need to make sure we have the ability to enforce those standards. The CPSC legislation which is before us will allow us to do that. So I strongly urge my colleagues to vote in support of this legislation when, hopefully, we get to it in the next several minutes. It is important for us as Americans. It is imperative for us to make sure we are protecting the consumers of our country. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 10 minutes as in morning business.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I come to the floor today to address the issue of our economy and the need for us in Washington, DC, to understand the pain that Americans are feeling across the board, especially when it comes to the issue of housing. Last week, Majority Leader Reid brought to the Senate floor the 2008 Foreclosure Prevention Act, which was filibustered on this floor. It should not have been because the pain that people are feeling across America with respect to this housing crisis is a pain that goes across all of America. It is not a Democrat or a Republican or an Independent issue. The housing crisis is a problem which is creating pain for a lot of people in our country. I want to demonstrate how, in my view, this is an issue that ought to continue to be at the top of the totem poll for us to consider in the Senate and for the Congress to act upon and for the President and the executive branch to show leadership in addressing this problem. This is a chart I have in the Chamber which we have brought to the Senate floor on other occasions, which indicates what Moody's sees as the possible future outcome with respect to what is happening with this unprecedented housing downturn. This unprecedented housing downturn is the worst the United States of America has seen since the Great Depression. We look at the first graph on this chart, which shows that housing prices are expected to decline by almost 16 percent. That amount of decline is not just related to those homes that are going into foreclosure. They are related to homes in neighborhoods where we are seeing this foreclosure crisis spread across the country. It is kind of like a disease; it hits one home, and all of a sudden it creates a major downturn in terms of the value of homes throughout that neighborhood, throughout that block, and throughout those communities. Now, when we talk about this as being a foreclosure issue, it is an issue that creates pain for those families who are being forced out of their homes because they cannot afford to make mortgage payments, but it is a pain that spreads to all of American households, as we see this huge decline in American values. Another figure, another metric that demonstrates the extent of this problem: When you look at housing starts, housing starts are projected to go down, with a 60-percent decline in housing starts, with no end in sight. The economists cannot even predict how far down we will go in housing starts before we hit the trough of this problem. When you compare that to other housing crises which we have had in the past--in the 1980s and the 1990s and last year--we are looking at a problem which is much more extensive, much more prolonged, much deeper than we ever had. So that, from my point of view, at the national level, shows we ought to be doing a lot more to address this issue. Today, in some of the television and newspaper reports we are seeing around the country--we have one out of CNN where they are reporting that foreclosures have hit an all-time high. The report says over 900,000 households are now in foreclosure, which is up 71 percent from a year ago, according to this news article. There are 900,000 households in foreclosure, up 71 percent from a year ago. According to this, it also says that it represents over 2 percent of all mortgages. That is a higher rate of mortgages in foreclosure than at any time in the 36-year history of the reports provided by the Mortgage Bankers Association. There is no end in sight to the problem we are seeing. These problems we are seeing with respect to foreclosures hitting an all-time high are especially acute in States such as the States of Florida and California, Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, and Michigan. In addition to what is happening with these high levels of foreclosures is that we also know we have these declining home values, and we end up seeing a tremendous slip in the amount of home equity people have in their homes. According to the Federal Reserve, homeowners' debt on their houses exceeds their equity for the first time since 1945. For the first time since 1945, homeowners' debt on their houses exceeds their equity. Now, in my State of Colorado, when I try to bring this back home to the 5 million people whom I represent in the Senate every day, I see the same problem we are seeing all across the country. Between this time in 2008 and next year, 2009, there is a projection from the Center for Responsible Lending that we will see almost 50,000 homes in foreclosure. That is 49,923 homes in foreclosure in the State of Colorado. As I have said before, it is not just the pain that is felt by people who are losing their homes through foreclosure; it also is the spillover effect that occurs when you have massive foreclosures taking place in my State. The spillover effect means that surrounding home values will decline in 748,000 homes. Almost half the homes in the State of Colorado are going to see a significant decline in their value, because we are going to have about 50,000 homes that are going to go into foreclosure in the years 2007 and 2008. As my colleagues see, when you have that kind of decline in individual home values and you aggregate those home values, there is a huge decline in the aggregate equity people will have in their homes throughout my State of Colorado--some $3.2 billion. Those are the facts. Those are the facts. There ought to be a wake-up call, it seems to me, not only to the White House but also to the Congress, that we need to move forward with legislation that addresses this issue. Senator Reid came to the floor of the Senate a week, 10 days, ago and set forth the components of the Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Act, and it was based on the input he had from the chairs of many committees, including Senator Leahy and Senator Baucus and others who have jurisdiction over these issues. I think he put his finger on the right button. He put his finger on the button that is of great concern to the people of America, and that is what is happening with the housing crisis today. I am hopeful as we move forward to do our work in the Senate, as we are doing it so well today on consumer protection, we are then able soon to pivot back to addressing the housing crisis we face here in America today. Madam President, I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR

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

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on a very important issue that is intended to protect Americans and to protect our children. Before I make my comments, I wish to give a shout out to Senator Mark Pryor, who has been leading this effort on behalf of the Senate. I worked with Senator Pryor during his time as attorney general from Arkansas. If there is one thing that typifies the reality of attorneys general, they are protectors of the people. Mark Pryor, as attorney general of Arkansas, was a great example of a protector of the people of Arkansas, and he has continued that fine tradition in the Senate by moving forward in the Commerce Committee and being the lead person in putting together this legislation that will protect American consumers, in particular American children. I wish to begin today by sharing a story about a brave 4-year-old boy from Severance, CO, by the name of Tegan Leisy. Tegan and his family found out about toy hazards the very hardest of ways. Last year, when Tegan was only 3 years old, he suddenly and inexplicably became very sick. He was vomiting and in a lot of pain. Tegan's parents rushed him to the emergency room, and the doctor took a series of x rays. The x rays showed something in Tegan's stomach that looked like a metal object. The doctors said the object would pass in 72 hours and not to worry. Unfortunately, it did not pass. Tegan remained in severe pain, so Tegan's parents took him back to the hospital. This time they admitted Tegan, and they held him for observation. Over the next 2 days, the doctors x raying Tegan found there was an object inside his stomach that was not moving. On the third day, the surgeon decided to operate. What did they find in the 3-year-old young man's stomach? They found six magnets--six magnets--from toys that Tegan had swallowed. The magnets had stuck together, and it created 11 holes in Tegan's intestines. The doctors had to remove 6 inches of his intestines that day during surgery. Think of that, Mr. President. Think of that, all those who are watching this debate on the Senate floor today. A 3-year-old boy had to have portions of his intestines removed because he swallowed pieces that had come off his toys. Tegan is, in fact, one of the lucky ones. He is alive because of the good work of doctors who saved him and because his parents helped him catch the problem on time. Not all kids in America are that lucky today. Congress created the Consumer Product Safety Commission, now more than 30 years ago, to protect American consumers against death or injury from unsafe products. However, the agency is grossly underfunded and understaffed. The CPSC estimates that products it is authorized to regulate are related to 28,200 deaths and 33.6 million injuries each year. Over 28,000 deaths a year. Yet the agency only gets $63 million a year to carry out its mandates. As a result, stories such as Tegan's are commonplace across America. In the last few months, newspapers have run stories on hundreds of cases of unsafe chemicals in toothpaste, contaminated dog food, and toys tainted with toxic levels of lead. I support the CPSC Reform Act for several reasons. First, this bill would restore funding for the CPSC so that it can stop dangerous products and toys from even reaching the marketplace. If a dangerous product reaches the shelf, it is often too late. Second, the bill finally takes steps to ban lead in children's toys. Exposure to lead can cause serious neurological and developmental health problems in children. In the past year, millions of children's toys have been recalled for containing hazardous levels of lead. The toys have included metal jewelry, train sets, and Halloween costumes. I see no reason why Congress would pass a Federal law banning lead in paint, but not in children's toys. Third, the CPSC Reform Act would grant State attorneys general the ability to bring a civil action on behalf of its residents to obtain injunctive relief against entities that the Attorney General believes has violated a consumer product safety. I had the great privilege of serving as Colorado attorney general for 6 years. As an attorney general, you want to do everything in your power to protect the citizens of your State. The narrowly tailored watchdog power granted in this bill would have given me another tool to help protect the citizens of Colorado from unsafe and hazardous products. There are many other fine provisions in the CPSC Reform Act. I strongly urge my colleagues to support the bill and to help restore American confidence in the safety of the toys and other products that are sold in the marketplace. We must do what we can to prevent parents across the country from experiencing the nightmare that Tegan's parents experienced. This Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act will take major steps in moving forward the solution to an issue that is facing American consumers every day in our Nation. I conclude my statement by making this comment: There has been a lot of discussion here about a particular provision of this legislation that gives attorneys general the opportunity to come in and to enforce the law. It is appropriate whenever you have a situation such as this to throw more cops into the situation to try to make sure consumers are protected. This is an area of law where attorneys general from across the country--both Democrats and Republicans--have been waging the war on behalf of consumers for a very long time. They do not do it based on Republican or Democrat. They do it based on what is good to protect the American consumer. So for those colleagues on the other side who will argue against giving this power to the attorneys general of America--I would say they, frankly, are mistaken, that when you look at the history over the last 30 years of attorneys general taking the lead role in terms of enforcing the laws of our country to protect consumers, this is exactly the kind of situation that calls out for giving that power to the attorneys general of the United States of America. So I am hopeful we can come together as a Senate, as a Congress, and push legislation that gets to the President's desk and that he signs into law so we protect the kids of America, we can protect the consumers of America, and keep situations such as the one I described in Colorado from occurring again. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be listed as an original cosponsor of this legislation.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Will my friend yield for a unanimous consent request?