[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 5, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S623-S624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ECONOMIC STIMULUS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday and again this morning we heard 
some remarkable statements from our Republican colleagues that matters 
within the stimulus package are pet projects. Later, after that 
statement was made, we had another Senator come and say that they were 
Christmas tree ornaments. Then we had another Republican come this 
morning and say the stimulus package is certainly not needed. One of 
the Senators said unemployment benefits are totally unnecessary and 
that all it will do is increase unemployment. I am not making this up. 
This is what they said.
  Now, we heard the distinguished minority leader, Senator McConnell, 
come to the floor with a statement that is simply untrue. He said:

       If Americans are wondering why their checks aren't in the 
     mail, they can find it in last week's news clips.

  Everyone knows--if they don't, they should know--that no matter how 
the debate turns out, no one's check is going to be held up. Any 
stimulus plan--whether it is the House version standing alone as it now 
exists or the Senate Finance Committee version, which I favor strongly, 
or a combination of the two--would calculate rebate checks on the 2007 
income tax returns. That is basically the only way you can do it. Taxes 
are not due until April 15. That is the way it always is. That is more 
than 2 months from today. So everyone should know that the checks 
aren't in the mail tomorrow. The only way it can be done is based upon 
the 2007 return, except for some people, and that is a very small 
minority. So let's not confuse or concern the American people with 
claims that aren't based on facts. Perhaps the Republicans don't 
understand the timeframe of the stimulus package. If they do, it should 
be clarified.

  Now, what are some of the other things we have heard from our 
Republican colleagues? One suggested that we ought not to do anything 
to stimulate the economy. I talked about that. He said we shouldn't 
provide any help at all to the millions of Americans struggling to pay 
their bills and feed their families. Republican Senators have suggested 
that sending stimulus checks to 21.5 million seniors on fixed incomes 
is a pet project, a Christmas tree ornament; that providing assistance 
to help struggling Americans pay their heating bills through the Low 
Income Home Energy Assistance Program is a pet project or a Christmas 
tree ornament. I believe many Republicans--Republicans--could not 
disagree more strongly with those statements.
  The stimulus package sent to us by the House of Representatives last 
week, as we have said from the very beginning, is a good start. I was 
part of a program to suggest the House should go first. There was some 
talk that we should try to get the two bodies together and do that. The 
way the Senate works, it would have taken too much time. Their rules 
are different from ours. So I said to go ahead and do it, and when they 
completed it, I gave them all the applause I could. I thought it was an 
important thing that they did that. But our job is to take the bill 
from the House and make it stronger.
  The Republican leader and others have said this morning that working 
on bipartisan improvements is ``playing politics.'' I believe it is our 
constitutional obligation. It is how the Founding Fathers envisioned 
this country working. It is how they envisioned the legislative branch 
working.
  But soon, Senators will have a chance to vote on the Senate Finance 
Committee's bipartisan plan. It will either be tomorrow, or it will be 
Thursday. Based on the House plan, it makes several improvements, the 
Baucus-Grassley package.
  The Finance Committee package sends stimulus checks to roughly 21.5 
million senior citizens who would get nothing at all from the House 
bill. Give them the money, and they will spend it.
  The Finance Committee package sends checks to 250,000 disabled 
veterans who were left out of the House plan. Give them the money, and 
they will spend it.
  The Finance Committee package extends unemployment benefits for those 
who have lost their jobs in the economy. To suggest, as has been done 
here on the floor, that extending unemployment benefits will make 
unemployment worse? We have people who are no longer counted as being 
unemployed because they have been off the rolls so long. The House bill 
doesn't take care of unemployment benefits. Economists tell us that it 
is the single most effective way to stimulate the economy.
  The Finance Committee package is business-friendly. It gives small 
businesses greater ability to immediately write off purchases of 
machinery or equipment. It helps larger businesses with ``bonus'' 
depreciation or an extended carryback period for past losses to recoup 
cash for future investments. It gives them a tax break, and they will 
spend it.
  Realtors are in town. They come every year. Homebuilders don't come 
usually this time of year, but they are here now because this provision 
is so special to them.
  Without exaggeration, the States of California, Florida, Nevada, and 
Michigan are in big trouble. Other States are in trouble also because 
of their housing crisis. The Finance Committee package addresses the 
housing crisis in a number of ways, but one is including mortgage 
revenue bonds to be used by the States to refinance subprime mortgages. 
That is very important. That is why the homebuilders are here en masse 
today.
  The Finance Committee package includes an extension of energy 
efficiency and renewable energy incentives to create jobs, expand the 
clean energy industry, save consumers money on their energy bills, and 
help begin to stem the tide of global warming.
  I will also offer an amendment that we can and should all support. 
First, the House-passed bill's language on housing will be included in 
this package that we will vote on. I don't know who could object to 
that.
  This amendment will increase the conforming loan limits for Fannie 
Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the loan limits for FHA-backed 
mortgages, which will allow more homeowners to refinance and will 
reduce mortgage interest rates in virtually every part of the country.
  Second, there is money to help low-income Americans heat their homes, 
through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP. 
This is important because it allows people to not have to choose 
between food, medicine or heat. So let's--while we are talking about 
heat--leave the overheated rhetoric aside and work on passing this 
legislation. This is important. We should do this.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote on the motion to 
invoke cloture on the amendment to H.R. 5140, which I have described, 
which contains the Finance Committee language on LIHEAP funding, occur 
on Wednesday, February 6 at 3 p.m., with the hour prior to that time 
equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their 
designees.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey). Is there objection?
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, it has 
never been our desire to delay consideration

[[Page S624]]

of the House-passed stimulus package. The other side has made it clear 
they will have some package of changes. Those changes were discussed 
last week and, evidently, there was a decision to put a different 
package together. As I mentioned earlier this morning, we got that 
package last night. It was, apparently, a work in progress.
  What I am going to do is ask the leader to modify his request. I know 
the senior Senator from Illinois said earlier today--or suggested that 
maybe people on this side don't support seniors or disabled veterans. 
So I will offer a request of the majority leader to modify his request 
so we do not have further delay.
  Therefore, I ask unanimous consent that the majority leader's 
unanimous consent request be modified so that we proceed to the bill 
today--not tomorrow or Thursday but today--and that we have a cloture 
vote today on the amendment we received last night--the one to which 
the leader's request refers; further, if cloture is not invoked, that 
we proceed immediately to a vote on the Republican amendment that we 
will file at the desk; finally, that the Senate then proceed to a vote 
on passage of the House bill, as amended, if amended.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. I hope 
everyone within the sound of my voice understands how unfair and 
senseless the request is by my friend. We had discussions on the floor 
yesterday. The minority whip recognized that Senator McCain, Senator 
Obama, and Senator Clinton are not going to be here today. It has been 
very clear that I told them I needed an evening to get them here. If I 
tell them they have to be here tomorrow, they will be here tomorrow. 
Everybody knows this request by my friend is without foundation.
  The Republicans--all 49 of them--are going to have to vote on the 
Senate stimulus package. They have to vote on that. Therefore, I 
object.


                              Quorum Call

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll, and the following Senators 
entered the Chamber and answered to their names.

                          [Quorum No. 1 Leg.]

     Carper
     Casey
     Durbin
     Isakson
     Kyl
     McConnell
     Reid, Nevada
     Tester
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. A quorum is not present.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move that the Sergeant-at-Arms be 
instructed to request the attendance of absent Senators, and I ask for 
the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion of 
the majority leader. The yeas and nays have been ordered, and the clerk 
will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Bayh), the 
Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), the Senator from New York (Mrs. 
Clinton), the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye), the Senator from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Kerry), the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Lieberman), the Senator from 
Illinois (Mr. Obama), and the Senator from New York (Mr. Schumer) are 
necessarily absent.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Kansas (Mr. Brownback), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. 
Burr), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici), the Senator from 
South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), and 
the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 73, nays 12, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 6 Leg.]

                                YEAS--73

     Akaka
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Bunning
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corker
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Dodd
     Dole
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lincoln
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Sanders
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Tester
     Thune
     Vitter
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--12

     Alexander
     Allard
     Bennett
     Bond
     Coburn
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Ensign
     Grassley
     Inhofe
     Kyl
     Specter

                             NOT VOTING--15

     Bayh
     Biden
     Brownback
     Burr
     Clinton
     Domenici
     Graham
     Inouye
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Lieberman
     McCain
     Obama
     Schumer
     Wicker
  The motion was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. A quorum is present.
  The majority leader is recognized.

                          ____________________