[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3511-S3512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              APPOINTMENT OF ACTING PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will please read a communication to 
the Senate from the President pro tempore (Mr. Inouye).
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                                                      U.S. Senate,


                                        President pro tempore,

                                     Washington, DC, June 7, 2011.
     To the Senate:
       Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, of the 
     Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby appoint the Honorable 
     Jeanne Shaheen, a Senator from the State of New Hampshire, to 
     perform the duties of the Chair.
                                                 Daniel K. Inouye,
                                            President pro tempore.

  Mrs. SHAHEEN thereupon assumed the chair as Acting President pro 
tempore.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday, I came to the floor to 
call on Democrats in Washington to wake up, to open their eyes to the 
signs we see all around us that the policies of the past 2 years are 
making our economy worse.
  Home values are still falling. Manufacturers are showing the weakest 
growth in nearly 2 years. Nearly 14 million Americans are looking for 
jobs and can't find them. For many, there is a nagging feeling that 
things will actually get worse before they get better. And who can 
blame them?
  Over the past 2 months, two ratings agencies have come out with dire 
warnings over the status of America's stellar credit ratings out of 
fear that we don't get our fiscal house in order.
  One has already put our rating under review and the other has 
threatened to do so if we don't do something in a matter of weeks--
weeks. Yet Democrats here in Washington are doing nothing.
  The President is patting himself on the back for an auto bailout that 
is expected to cost the taxpayers billions. And Democrats in Congress 
would rather talk about an election that is a year and a half away.
  For 2\1/2\ years, Democrats in Washington have paid lip service to 
the idea of job creation--even as they have relentlessly pursued an 
agenda that is radically opposed to it. And the results speak for 
themselves: an annual deficit three times bigger than the biggest 
deficit we ever ran during the last administration, a national debt 
that we now know will this year be greater than our Nation's entire 
economy, and chronic unemployment.
  But here is the other problem: Democrats don't want to admit that the 
government-driven policies of the past 2\1/2\ years are part of the 
problem. And until they do, nothing will change. Unless Democrats 
change their priorities and their policies, the threats of a downgrade 
will not go away. The debt will not get any smaller. Businesses will 
not create the kinds of jobs we need to build prosperity.
  We need to change course. And a good place to start is with trade.
  The President himself has explicitly acknowledged in front of the 
cameras that free trade agreements will create tens of thousands of 
jobs for American families who need them. Yet now, the President's 
advisers say that the White House plans to hold off on this bipartisan 
job-creating initiative unless it can spend more money on a government 
benefits program first.
  At a time when 14 million Americans are looking for work, they 
actually want to hold off on these known job-creating agreements in 
exchange for a green light to spend more money.
  It is astonishing. I mean, how do you explain to an American 
manufacturer or farmer that they have to lose business to France 
because some Members of Congress want a better benefits package for 
their allies in organized labor?
  You cannot. The White House is free to advocate on behalf of unions. 
That is its prerogative. But this time it has gone too far. When the 
White House is

[[Page S3512]]

actively depriving others of jobs because some union boss isn't getting 
his way, it has lost touch.
  So this morning I am calling on the administration once again to send 
us the three pending trade agreements that the President himself has 
said would create tens of thousands of American jobs--and to leave 
trade adjustment assistance out of it.
  There are 47 duplicative Federal retraining programs out there for 
unemployed workers. No one is denying or minimizing the hardships they 
face. But we will not allow the White House to deny one group of people 
the chance to get a job in order to have a bargaining chip in 
negotiating benefits for others.
  It is not fair, and it is not right. We need to separate these 
issues, deal with them independently, and move ahead with these trade 
deals. And we should also be doing even more to create jobs by moving 
forward with something that has been a cornerstone of good trade policy 
in this country since 1974. I am talking about trade promotion 
authority.
  If the President is really serious about doubling U.S. exports and 
creating the jobs that would go along with it, he should call on 
Congress to approve trade promotion authority and Congress should do 
it.
  I would also suggest that any discussion of trade adjustment 
assistance be done only as part of the debate over extending trade 
promotion authority, the way it's been done for decades.
  Trade promotion authority would give the President the ability to 
negotiate job-creating trade deals--and allow them an expedited 
procedure to get an up-or-down vote in Congress so that opponents 
couldn't block the deals or amend them on behalf of parochial interests 
or as a shortsighted favor to their union allies.
  Without the protections afforded by trade promotion authority, 
Congress may never consider another trade deal again, and there will be 
no more trade agenda.
  American businesses want to expand and hire. Here is one way to help 
them do it that's right in front of us. There is no excuse for 
inaction.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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