[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 173 (Wednesday, December 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11024-S11026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 111TH CONGRESS

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, as we end this year, I wanted to look back 
at what we have been able to accomplish--and look ahead at some of the 
important priorities we must tackle next year.
  The 111th Congress has been one of the most productive in our 
Nation's history.
  Congressional scholar Norman Ornstein has said the legislative 
achievements of this session are ``at least on par with the 89th 
Congress'' of 1965-1966, under President Johnson, which produced 
landmark civil rights legislation as well as Medicaid and Medicare.
  We should take a moment to reflect on some of those accomplishments.
  After years of unsupervised gambling on Wall Street fueled an 
unsustainable housing bubble, we inherited the worst economic crisis 
since the Great Depression. We helped bring our economy back from the 
brink by taking bold action.
  We passed the Economic Recovery Act, which has created or saved more 
than 350,000 jobs in my home State of California alone.
  We approved the bipartisan HIRE Act--a jobs package that cut taxes 
for companies that hire unemployed workers and extended the highway 
trust fund. As chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works 
Committee, I was pleased to help advance this critical measure to 
protect more than 1 million jobs nationwide building our roads, bridges 
and transit systems.
  We helped small businesses--which are the true engines of our 
economic growth--by passing the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act. I 
was proud to join with Senator Jeff Merkley to create the new $30 
billion small business lending fund, which will help community banks 
give small businesses the credit they need to create hundreds of 
thousands of new jobs.
  We approved legislation to help save up to 16,500 teacher jobs in 
California--and nearly 160,000 teachers' jobs nationwide--and paid for 
it by closing tax loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas.
  We worked across the aisle to give much-needed tax relief to millions 
of middle-class families and extend unemployment insurance for 2 
million out-of-work Americans and 400,000 Californians who would 
otherwise have lost their benefits this month. And I was proud to work 
with Senator Feinstein and others to make sure this tax-relief package 
invests in clean energy, which will create tens of thousands of jobs in 
California and across the country.
  And to ensure that we never again face a similar financial crisis, we 
passed landmark legislation to crack down on the reckless gambling on 
Wall Street, enacting tough reforms that will curb abuses, shine a 
light on dark markets and put a new cop on the beat to protect 
consumers. I was proud to offer the first amendment, which will ensure 
that taxpayers are never again on the hook to bail out Wall Street.
  The 111th Congress was a landmark Congress for advancing civil rights 
for all Americans.
  We approved the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to help ensure equal 
pay for equal work--regardless of age, race, gender, religion or 
national origin. It was the first bill signed into law by President 
Obama last year.
  We passed the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes 
Prevention Act to strengthen the ability of law enforcement to 
investigate and prosecute hate crimes. The law adds gender, sexual 
orientation, disability and gender identity as protected categories 
under Federal hate crimes law.
  Last week, in a historic step, we repealed the discriminatory don't 
ask, don't tell policy that has banned gays and lesbians from serving 
openly in the U.S. military. Back in 1993, I offered an amendment on 
the Senate floor to keep this unjust policy from being codified into 
law. Now, 17 years later, I am so proud to witness this incredible 
victory for civil rights, equality and a stronger nation.
  I was also proud to join in confirming two new Supreme Court 
Justices--Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina to serve on the high court, 
and Elena Kagan. When Kagan was sworn in this fall, it marked the first 
time our country has had three women serving together on the Supreme 
Court.
  We also confirmed some highly qualified and historic judicial 
nominees from California this Congress--including Judge Lucy Koh for 
the Northern District of California, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen for the 
Central District of California, Judge Dolly Gee for the Central 
District of California, and Judge Kimberly Mueller for the Eastern 
District of California.
  The 111th Congress also took momentous steps forward in protecting 
consumers, children and all our families.
  We passed a landmark health care reform bill that will extend 
coverage to 7 million uninsured Californians, help seniors pay for 
prescription drugs, provide tax credits to help small business owners 
afford coverage, and ensure that insurance companies can no longer deny 
coverage because of preexisting conditions.
  We approved legislation to allow the Food and Drug Administration to 
regulate tobacco and crack down on cigarette marketing and sales to 
kids.
  We approved major reforms to the student loan system--ending 
subsidies to big banks, saving taxpayers money and providing Pell 
grants to 63,000 more students in California over the next decade.
  We passed credit card reform legislation to protect consumers from 
excessive fees and deceptive practices.
  And this month, we enacted a food safety bill that will help 
consumers and California's agriculture industry by protecting our 
Nation's food supply from outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.
  I am also pleased that the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights that I 
have championed with Senator Olympia Snowe is now being implemented by 
the Department of Transportation. As a result, we are already seeing 
fewer long tarmac delays for airline passengers.
  The 111th Congress has also taken great strides to protect public 
health and our environment.
  We passed legislation protecting more than 2 million acres of 
wilderness and creating a national system to conserve land held by the 
Bureau of Land Management. The legislation included three bills I 
sponsored designating 700,000 additional acres of wilderness in 
California, from the Eastern Sierra Nevada to the San Jacinto Mountains 
in Riverside County.

[[Page S11025]]

  I have been honored to serve as chairman of the Environment and 
Public Works Committee during a period of extraordinary 
accomplishments. In the 111th Congress, the EPW Committee held more 
than 80 hearings and approved more than 70 pieces of legislation. More 
than 20 EPW bills have gone to President Obama for his signature, 
including legislation to create jobs and accelerate economic recovery, 
to protect children and families from dangerous chemicals in the 
environment, and to address the dangers of unchecked climate change.
  The committee has played a critical oversight role. While the oil was 
still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, we held hearings to demand 
answers from oil company executives and Administration officials on the 
causes and impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon oilspill disaster. As a 
result, BP provided the committee with previously unavailable video 
records gathered since the incident. EPW then provided scientists, the 
public and the media with access to this important underwater video.
  One of our most basic responsibilities is to protect children and 
families from dangerous toxins in the air they breathe and the water 
they drink.
  Parents have a right to expect that their children are safe from 
environmental hazards when they are at school. But following reports 
that found toxic air pollution levels at schools across the country, 
our oversight efforts led to additional EPA monitoring of air pollution 
at schools in California and in other States.
  Emissions from ships' engines are a major cause of persistent air-
quality problems at California's ports, including the Ports of Long 
Beach and Los Angeles, and at other ports around the Nation. EPW 
oversight helped shine a light on the importance of setting strong 
safeguards to reduce air pollution from marine vessels, and earlier 
this year international authorities officially designated waters off 
North American coasts as subject to strong international emission 
standards for ships.
  I was also pleased when the Senate passed a bipartisan bill I 
sponsored with my ranking member, Senator James Inhofe, to protect 
people from toxic lead in drinking water pipes, pipe fittings and 
plumbing fixtures. The bill is now on its way to the President's desk.
  I was also pleased to work with Senators George Voinovich, Tom Carper 
and Inhofe to pass bipartisan legislation to strengthen efforts to 
reduce pollution from diesel engines. Diesel exhaust contributes to 
pollution that threatens the health of millions of people in California 
and contributes to asthma, heart disease, cancer and other illnesses.
  We also enacted legislation to study the impact of black carbon 
pollution, and bipartisan legislation to enforce more protective 
standards on cancer-causing formaldehyde in wood products.
  After the Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA, coal ash disaster 2 years 
ago released more than 1 billion gallons of toxic material, EPW held 
hearings into the incident and we initiated an investigation of the 
dangers of coal combustion waste. We succeeded in ensuring that the 
Obama administration publicly released the list of other high-hazard 
ash sites because families have a right to know about dangers to their 
communities.
  Making the transition to the clean energy economy is one of the best 
ways to create millions of jobs and protect our children from dangerous 
pollution, and it will help break our dangerous dependence on foreign 
oil, which costs us a billion dollars a day and threatens our national 
security.
  Thanks in large part to the groundwork laid by the EPW Committee's 
vigilant oversight during the 110th Congress, the EPA finally in 2009 
granted California's request for a waiver to tackle tailpipe emissions 
of global warming pollution and incorporated the waiver into a landmark 
agreement that will boost fuel efficiency, save consumers money, cut 
carbon pollution, and save billions of barrels of oil.
  As chairman, I am committed to continuing to work on legislation that 
reduces pollution, promotes energy efficiency and creates incentives to 
speed the transition to clean, renewable sources of energy.
  President Obama has already signed EPW legislation to train building 
operators and contractors to improve the energy efficiency of federal 
facilities, and our committee passed bills to make schools and other 
public buildings more energy efficient, and to provide incentives for 
clean energy development on abandoned or formerly contaminated sites. 
In the new Congress, I plan to continue to work to ensure that the U.S. 
Government facilities are models of clean-energy technology and energy 
efficiency
  This Congress has also taken action to protect our national security 
and support our troops and our veterans.
  We just came together in a bipartisan fashion to ratify the New START 
treaty, which will help protect the national security of the United 
States by ensuring there are mutual reductions in nuclear weapons and 
delivery systems, and ensuring that our nuclear inspectors are on the 
ground in Russia.
  We enacted tough new sanctions against Iran--another bipartisan vote 
that sends a clear and resounding message to Iran that it will pay a 
heavy price for its reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons.
  We also passed legislation to improve the way the VA is funded, 
helping veterans get timely access to services and care. And we passed 
important legislation to compensate the family caregivers of our 
severely wounded service men and women. No one should have to face 
financial hardship for choosing to care for a loved one who was wounded 
in war.
  As chair of the Senate Military Family Caucus, I was pleased to see 
the Senate approve my legislation to help reimburse military families 
for the cost of traveling off base to obtain needed specialty medical 
care.
  Senators Kit Bond, Joe Lieberman and I also worked to expand the use 
of veterans centers to active, Guard and Reserve U.S. military 
personnel.
  As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I was proud to 
help secure $30 million to help women-led nongovernmental organizations 
in Afghanistan provide direct services such as adult literacy programs, 
vocational training and health services.
  And I was proud to join Senator Bond to help secure funding for an 
additional eight C-17 aircraft, which are built in Long Beach and are 
critical to our national defense.
  While we have made significant progress, there is still more to be 
done to create jobs, get our economy back on track, protect consumers 
and the environment, and make life better for all Californians and all 
Americans.
  We must ensure that California and other states can continue to lead 
the way toward a clean energy future, which is already creating 
hundreds of thousands of jobs.
  We must continue to put Californians and Americans back to work by 
rebuilding our road, bridges and transit systems.
  As we look to the 112th Congress, the Environment and Public Works 
Committee will continue to focus on creating jobs and turning our 
economy around through the next surface transportation authorization 
and through a new Water Resources Development Act.
  And we will continue to shine a spotlight on the need to ensure the 
air our families breathe and the water our children drink is clean and 
safe. After the recent reports that found toxic chromium-6 
contamination in drinking water in California and across the Nation, we 
have planned hearings on chromium-6 for early 2012. Senator Feinstein 
and I sent a letter urging the EPA to act, and the agency has already 
begun to respond by offering assistance to affected communities.
  We will also work to ensure communities that suspect they have a 
cluster of environmentally caused illness have access to the federal 
experts and other resources that can help them get the answers they 
deserve.
  We must provide incentives for U.S.-based companies to bring home 
billions of dollars sitting offshore from foreign sales. Bringing those 
funds home could be major boost to our economic recovery from the 
private sector.
  While I was disappointed that our efforts to pass the DREAM Act were 
blocked, we must continue to work to pass comprehensive immigration 
reform. Our broken immigration system tears families apart and hurts 
our economic competitiveness, and we must

[[Page S11026]]

work together to fix it. I will keep fighting for these young people 
who are raised in America and I will continue to work to pass AgJobs.
  And we cannot rest until other important judicial nominees are 
confirmed, including professor Goodwin Liu for the Ninth Circuit Court 
of Appeals, Judge Edward Chen for the Northern District of California, 
Judge Edward Davila for the Northern District of California, and Judge 
Anthony Battaglia for the Southern District of California.
  While we passed legislation to help the 9/11 first responders, now we 
must finish the work of making sure our firefighters and public safety 
workers have fair working conditions.
  I will also keep working to pass important bills that we approved in 
committee this year to protect our public lands, waterways and ocean 
resources, including legislation to help restore the Chesapeake Bay, 
the Great Lakes, Lake Tahoe, and the San Francisco Bay.
  I am grateful to the people of the California for the opportunity to 
represent them in the United States Senate. I look forward to hearing 
their ideas as we continue our work in the 112th Congress next year.

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