[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 113 (Thursday, July 29, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6498-S6499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    FAA AIR TRANSPORTATION MODERNIZATION AND SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a 
message from the House with respect to H.R. 1586.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message 
from the House of Representatives:

       Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the 
     Senate to the title of the bill (H.R. 1586) entitled ``An Act 
     to impose an additional tax on bonuses received from certain 
     TARP recipients'' with the House amendment to the Senate 
     amendment.


                Motion to Concur with Amendment No. 4567

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment to 
the Senate amendment to H.R. 1586 with an amendment, which is at the 
desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Burris). The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid], for Mrs. Murray, for 
     herself, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Reid, and Mr. Schumer, proposes an 
     amendment numbered 4567.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of 
the amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of 
Amendments.'')
  Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.


                Amendment No. 4568 to Amendment No. 4567

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a second-degree amendment at the 
desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid] proposes an amendment 
     numbered 4568 to amendment No. 4567.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of 
the amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

       At the end of the amendment, insert the following.
       The provisions of this Act shall become effective 5 days 
     after enactment.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion on the motion to 
concur at the desk. I ask that it be stated.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 
     1586, an act to modernize the air traffic control system, 
     improve the safety, reliability, and availability of 
     transportation by air in the United States, provide for 
     modernization of the air traffic control system, reauthorize 
     the Federal Aviation Administration, and for other purposes, 
     with amendment No. 4567.
         Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Charles E. Schumer, Edward E. 
           Kaufman, Barbara Boxer, Roland W. Burris, Tom Udall, 
           Robert P. Casey, Jr., Mark Begich, Patrick J. Leahy, 
           Jack Reed, John F. Kerry, Richard J. Durbin, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, Tom Harkin, Al Franken, 
           Daniel K. Akaka, Maria Cantwell.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory 
quorum be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                Motion to Refer with Amendment No. 4569

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a motion to refer with instructions 
at the desk. I ask that it be stated.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid] moves to refer the House 
     message to the Senate Appropriations Committee with 
     instructions to report back forthwith, with an amendment 
     numbered 4569.

  The amendment is as follows:

       At the end insert the following:
       The Appropriations Committee is requested to study the 
     impact of any delay in providing funding to educators across 
     the country.

  Mr. REID. 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.


                           Amendment No. 4570

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have an amendment to the instructions at 
the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid] proposes an amendment 
     numbered 4570 to the instructions to the motion to refer.


[[Page S6499]]


  The amendment is as follows:

       At the end, insert the following:
       ``and include any data on the impact on local school 
     districts''

  Mr. REID. 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.


                Amendment No. 4571 to Amendment No. 4570

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a second-degree amendment at the 
desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid] proposes an amendment 
     numbered 4571 to amendment No. 4570.

  The amendment is as follows:

       At the end, insert the following:
       ``and the impact on the local community''

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I opposed the motion to invoke cloture on 
the small business lending bill for several reasons, with the foremost 
being that it had become a vehicle for petty partisanship rather than a 
serious effort to extend a much-needed helping hand to America's small 
businesses.
  The manner in which this bill has been deliberated in the Senate has 
been both frustrating and disappinting to say the very least. The 
majority leader has brought this bill up for consideration and then 
moved off of it to consider other matters no less than six times since 
June 24. Furthermore, he has offered at least three different 
substitute amendments--each time filling the amendment tree and filing 
cloture--effectively choking off debate and prohibiting my colleagues 
and me on this side of the aisle from offering amendments.
  This should not be a partisan bill. In fact, as originally 
introduced, this measure enjoyed broad bipartisan support. The original 
version of this bill included many positive provisions. For example, it 
included a number of tax provisions that had been championed by both 
Republican and Democrats which both sides believed would help small 
businesses create new jobs.
  The $30 billion fund contained in this bill was supposedly designed 
to provide capital to community banks and give them incentives to make 
loans to small business owners. While this is a nice notion, I have 
heard from some of the smaller, community banks in my home State of 
Arizona that the capital requirements were so stringent that they would 
not even qualify for the program and, there are serious concerns as to 
whether or not this would turn into another bank bailout program.
  One of the provisions of this bill that I strongly opposed was a 
carve-out of $1.5 billion for agriculture disaster assistance which was 
not requested by the administration. While I support ensuring that our 
farmers are protected from financial losses caused by natural 
disasters, Congress must first find a way to pay for this increased 
spending just like many of the other handouts included in this bill. 
That is why many of my colleagues had hoped to offer amendments, 
including an amendment to extend expiring tax breaks for small business 
owners, an amendment to eliminate the death tax, and an amendment to 
make permanent the tax credit for research and development--just to 
name a few. Unfortunately, the majority prevented us from offering 
those important amendments.
  I had planned to offer an amendment on border security that would 
have helped generate sales tax revenue for border towns. The amendment 
would have added an additional 6,000 new Custom and Border Protection 
agents and officers to secure the border and to ensure that those 
seeking to cross our borders legally at our ports of entry are able to 
do so without unnecessary wait times. There are frequent, often 
excessive wait times in the northbound lanes at the DeConcini/Port of 
Entry in Nogales. The economy of Nogales, AZ, is heavily dependent on 
cross border traffic, with the majority of the city's sales tax revenue 
generated by shoppers from Mexico. The long wait times to cross the 
border are having real, adverse effects on the economy of Nogales. 
Securing our borders should be the top priority of CBP and that the 
drug related violence that threatens our border communities must be 
combated with all available resources. With that said, businesses and 
law abiding citizens should be able to cross the border in an efficient 
manner.
  Our economic recovery and the creation of new jobs are the most 
important issues facing our nation today. We have an unemployment rate 
of 9.5 percent and we need to do all that we can to help our small 
businesses thrive. It is my sincere hope that we can end the partisan 
bickering and reach an agreement that will give our small businesses 
the tools necessary to create jobs.

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