[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 92 (Thursday, June 18, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S6796]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRAVEL PROMOTION ACT

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, the business of the Senate, now that we 
have had the final vote on the supplemental here in the Senate, will be 
the Travel Promotion Act. That is a piece of legislation that is widely 
bipartisan. We have passed it by unanimous consent through the Senate 
Commerce Committee and brought it to the floor of the Senate with very 
substantial Republican and Democratic support. I am an original author 
of the legislation called the Travel Promotion Act, but a good many 
Republicans are cosponsors and colleagues on the Democratic side are as 
well. It should not be controversial. Yet getting that bill to the 
floor of the Senate required the filing of a cloture motion, which 
means, just on the motion to proceed, we had to wait 2 days and then 
have a vote on whether we could actually proceed to the motion to 
proceed to the legislation itself. That passed, I believe, 90 to 6. 
Then we had 30 hours postcloture.
  We have been in a waiting position to try to determine can we get to 
this bill. Let me make the point that this is a piece of legislation 
that is almost unique, in the sense that, No. 1, it is very bipartisan 
and, No. 2, the Congressional Budget Office says it is going to reduce 
the Federal budget deficit.
  Let me say that again. The Congressional Budget Office says this 
legislation will actually reduce the Federal budget deficit by very 
close to $500 million over 10 years. There ought not be substantial 
controversy about this legislation.
  What we are working on and have been working on for some hours is to 
try to determine how we get, now, on the bill and agree on amendments. 
We have had lists back and forth of what amendments might or might not 
be offered. We have not been able at this point to agree on the list. 
We are not asking for a finite list, just a list on how to begin. There 
have been so many amendments that have been proposed that have nothing 
at all to do with the legislation, so we are working back and forth. It 
appears we are not going to be able to reach agreement on a list of how 
we begin with these amendments this evening, but my hope remains that 
perhaps tomorrow we will be able to have some kind of agreement on a 
list that would allow us to proceed to the Travel Promotion Act.
  Let me mention briefly that this legislation is not controversial. 
Travel promotion means that our country would begin to address a 
problem. What is that problem? The fact is, we have many fewer visitors 
from abroad to this country, in terms of international tourism, which 
is very job creating, strongly supportive of economic growth because 
international tourists spend a lot of money. On average I believe they 
spend somewhere around $4,500 per trip when they come to this country, 
for hotels and car rentals and airplanes and tourist attractions and so 
on. It is very job creating.
  The fact is, we have far fewer tourists coming to this country from 
abroad than we had in the year 2000. That is a very serious problem; we 
have fallen substantially behind other countries that are aggressively 
marketing their countries for destination by international travelers. 
Italy, France, Great Britain, Spain, Australia--the list goes on and on 
of countries that say come to our country, travel here, visit here, be 
part of the experience in our country. Our country is not involved in 
that. It is as if there is a competition and we are not competing.
  We put together a piece of legislation that would create and promote 
international destination travel to our country because it will surely 
create jobs and certainly be beneficial to our economy. As I said, it 
has wide support throughout the industry, throughout this Chamber, with 
Republicans and Democrats, and it actually reduces the Federal budget 
deficit. It is pretty hard to find a piece of legislation such as that.
  Despite all that broad support and the fact it passed out of the 
Commerce Committee unanimously, we are having trouble getting it to the 
floor in a way that has amendments offered and in the regular order we 
consider this legislation.
  As of tonight we are not able to reach an agreement on a list, but I 
remain hopeful. As we continue to exchange and have discussions about 
beginning this process and agreeing to amendments that can be debated, 
my hope remains that perhaps tomorrow we will be able to agree to such 
a list.
  I believe others will have additional comments tomorrow as these 
discussions continue. My hope is we will be successful.
  I have a number of unanimous consent requests I wish to offer.

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