[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 176 (Thursday, November 17, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7678-S7684]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND 
  RELATED AGENCIES PROGRAMS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 
            2012, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES--CONFERENCE REPORT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to the consideration of conference report to accompany H.R. 
2112, which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the 
     two Houses on the amendments of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 
     2112), making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural 
     Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related 
     Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
     2012, and for other purposes, having met, have agreed and do 
     recommend to their respective Houses that the House recede 
     from its disagreement to the amendment of the Senate and 
     agree to the same with an amendment, and the Senate agree to 
     the same; that the House recede from its disagreement to the 
     amendment of the Senate to the title of the bill and agree to 
     the same.

  Ms. MIKULSKI. I ask unanimous consent that committee report be 
considered as read.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The report is considered read. Under the 
previous order, there will be 2 hours of debate, equally divided, 
between the two leaders or their designees.
  The Senator from Maryland.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise to speak on behalf of the 
conference committee. I rise as the chair of the Subcommittee on 
Commerce, Justice, and Science, one of the three subcommittees in the 
conference report. The other is agriculture. Senator Kohl will be 
coming to the floor to speak on behalf of his bill that is part of the 
conference, and others will speak.
  I wish to speak on the Commerce-Justice bill. I am pleased the Senate 
is considering the conference agreement on fiscal year 2012. As I said, 
I am CJS. Senator Kohl will speak on agriculture. Senator Patty Murray 
managed the bill on transportation and housing. She is the chair, and I 
am sure either she or her designee will speak about a subcommittee we 
affectionally call THUD.
  But let me talk about the CJS conference agreement. This is a great 
agreement. It is the product of bipartisan and bicameral compromise and 
cooperation. I wish to thank my ranking member, Senator Kay Bailey 
Hutchison and her excellent staff. We worked hand in hand on this bill.
  I wish to talk about our colleagues in the House. Much is made about 
the prickly situation sometimes between the House and the Senate. But I 
wish to thank Chairman Frank Wolf and ranking member Chaka Fattah for 
their bipartisan support. There was give and take; sometimes stormy 
exchanges. But at the end of the day, we worked cooperatively and 
collegially.
  So as we look at the process, what I wish to say is that the 
conference agreement itself is a good one. Our bill, the CJS bill, 
totals $52.7 billion in discretionary spending. We were frugal. It is 
$600 million below the 2011 level, and it is $5 billion below the 
President's request.
  The purpose of this bill is to help create American jobs, make our 
streets and our neighborhoods safe from violent crime and terrorism, 
and to support innovation and technology so America can continue to be 
an exceptional Nation.
  It also promotes trade. We do this through our Federal agencies: the 
Commerce Department, through its Economic Development Administration, 
Patent Office, International Trade Administration, and the Census 
Bureau. It also has important agencies related to innovation: the 
National Institutes of Standards and the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration.
  Our bill also has in it the Department of Justice, NASA, and the 
National Science Foundation.
  It has a lot of important things in it. It is also a bill that 
promotes justice, including the Commission on Civil Rights, the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Legal Services Corporation.
  Within shrinking funding levels, the CJS conference agreement 
prioritizes activities that focused on creating jobs, saving lives, 
protecting communities, and looking out for the future of our country.
  The subcommittee faced two very pressing problems that are critical 
to life and safety. One, our weather satellites. We had to come up with 
a substantial chunk of money to make sure we had those important new 
weather satellites that tell us about hurricanes, tornadoes, and other 
things that are coming. Also, we had a real challenge in providing 
adequate funding for America's prison population.
  These activities are not considered mandatory for budget purposes, 
but they are not truly discretionary. We had an obligation to fund 
them. We also had an obligation to provide security funding to the two 
conventions, to help them underwrite their security concerns.
  Together, the bare minimum needed for the new JPSS satellite and 
prison expenses is nearly $800 million--$350 million for prisons--and 
we were able to meet that obligation.
  We also looked out for our law enforcement, for our State and local 
police departments. This bill provides $2.2 billion to support our Blue 
Line to keep our police safe, to protect them with the equipment they 
need, such as bulletproof vests, so they can protect us with modern 
tools relating to crime scene analysis, forensic science, and enough 
cops on the beat.
  We funded Byrne grants at $370 million, a main Federal tool for State 
and local police operations.
  In terms of Federal law enforcement, we met obligations to the FBI 
and funded them at $8 billion; our Drug Enforcement Agency at $2 
billion; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and the Marshals 
Service, each at $1.2 billion. Our marshals no longer necessarily ride 
the planes, but what they are out there doing is serving the warrants 
that go after sexual predators and also make sure they fulfill their 
responsibility to protect our Federal judiciary at the courthouses. 
Those Federal law enforcement actions are at our borders, in our 
streets, in our communities, and in important task forces protecting 
our communities.
  In terms of science and innovation, I am proud of what we did with 
NASA--from the space shuttle legacy to our new vehicles for space 
exploration. We also funded the James Webb Space Telescope, which will 
be the successor to the Hubble. It is 100 times more powerful and will 
assure America's place as a leader in astronomy for the next 30 years.
  Our conference agreement was $17.8 billion. It is a balanced space 
program. It ensures the continuity or continuation of human space 
flight, does important work in space science, and also bold research in 
aeronautics, so we can be at the cutting edge.
  We also funded the National Science Foundation, which continues to do 
that groundbreaking innovative work that the private sector works off 
of. This year, three Americans shared the Nobel Prize for physics. One 
was Dr. Adam Riess at Johns-Hopkins. He used the Hubble space telescope 
to look out for dark energy, to look at decaying supernovas, and found 
out that the expansion of the universe was speeding up.
  The 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry winner, Dr. Dan Shechtman, was 
working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology--which 
this bill also funds--when he discovered new subatomic particles. Both 
discoveries were considered unexpected and even game changers. These 
Nobel Prize winners were those wonderful Americans who make use of 
whether it was the Hubble telescope or the kind of work that goes on in 
our chemistry labs. So we are out there winning the Nobel Prizes, but 
our bill lays the groundwork for winning the markets.
  On the floor is the chairman of the full committee, Senator Inouye, 
and also Senator Kohl, who managed the bill and will speak for 
Agriculture. There are many things I could say about what we did in the 
bill, but I think I have summarized the basic themes.
  I will be available to answer any questions from colleagues. I also 
want the chairman of the full committee to have an opportunity to speak 
and certainly Senator Kohl and Senator Blunt. I want to say to Senator 
Blunt, when Senator Kohl had to be temporarily off the floor, I thank 
him for working with me. We moved this bill and showed we knew how to 
govern and move legislation. If we work this way, we will get America 
moving again.

[[Page S7679]]

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, first I thank Chairman Barbara Mikulski 
for her valiant work in the conference.
  As we are all aware, the congressional budget process has faced 
unprecedented obstacles over the past year. We have struggled to find 
common ground on one of the most basic responsibilities of Congress--
funding the operations of the Federal Government.
  Earlier this year, we saw politically charged threats of government 
shutdowns, culminating with an irresponsible debt ceiling standoff that 
brought our economy to the brink of disaster. The American people are 
deeply frustrated that many in Congress put partisanship ahead of the 
national interest.
  Yet, despite these challenges, we now consider legislation that 
reflects the good-faith efforts and input of Members of both sides of 
the aisle in both the House and Senate. Given current fiscal and 
political realities, this is no small accomplishment.
  The conference report before us today includes three fiscal year 2012 
appropriations measures: Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and 
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. This legislation also 
includes a continuing resolution that funds government operations 
through December 16, giving Congress time to finish its work on the 
remaining funding bills.
  These bills are focused on a number of basic priorities: job 
creation, public safety, science, nutrition, housing, and 
transportation. Due to the stringent funding limits included in the 
Budget Control Act, which established a discretionary spending level 
that is $7 billion below last year's level, many items in these bills 
are not funded to the levels I would prefer.
  As we all await the outcome of the supercommittee, I again remind my 
colleagues that we cannot balance the Nation's books on the back of 
nondefense discretionary spending.
  Despite our reduced spending levels, I am pleased that we have been 
able to maintain investments in several critical areas.
  Public safety is a top priority of this bill. The conference report 
before us provides the resources necessary for the Food and Drug 
Administration to begin implementation of the Food Safety Modernization 
Act, which will better protect the American people from foodborne 
illnesses.
  The funding levels provided in the conference agreement for the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Drug Enforcement Agency; Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Marshals 
Service will prevent layoffs and furloughs of Federal agents, enabling 
the agencies to continue their critical missions with regard to public 
safety.
  The funds provided will also allow for increased law enforcement on 
the Southwest border. I note that the bill maintains funding for COPS 
hiring grants, which were eliminated in the original House bill.
  The conference report before us funds an additional 11,000 new 
housing vouchers for homeless veterans. It includes $500 million for 
competitive TIGER surface transportation grants, as well as nearly $2 
billion for new transit rail projects, and it maintains Federal support 
for Amtrak.
  This bill includes more than $12 billion for basic research at the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science 
Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and 
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
  This research will plant the seeds for new discoveries that not only 
win Nobel Prizes, but also earn profits and create American jobs in our 
highly competitive global economy.
  The conference report before us represents thousands of compromises 
on issues large and small. It represents, in no small measure, the way 
the Congress of the United States is meant to function.
  The credit for this accomplishment rests with the members of the 
subcommittees and their staffs. I thank the leadership of the three 
subcommittees, Senators Kohl, Mikulski, Murray, Blunt, Hutchison, and 
Collins for their exceptional efforts in completing these three bills.
  We all recognize that we would not have been able to accomplish this 
task without the countless hours put in by the staff of the 
subcommittee. I want to take a moment--I think it is important--to 
recognize them for their efforts.
  I want to publicly thank Galen Fountain, Jessica Arden Frederick, 
Dianne Nellor, Bob Ross, Molly Barackman-Eder, Gabrielle Batkin, 
Jessica Berry, Jeremy Weirich, Jean Toal-Eisen, Molly O'Rourke, Alex 
Keenan, Meaghan McCarthy, Rachel Milberg, Dabney Hegg, Stacy McBride, 
Rachel Jones, James Christoferson, Allen Cutler, Goodloe Sutton, 
Courtney Stevens, Heideh Shahmoradi, Brooke Hayes Stringer, Carl 
Barrick, and Mike Clarke. They are the ones who should be receiving the 
medal this evening.
  This conference report is the culmination of a process that includes 
countless hours of hearings, markups, debate, negotiations, and posting 
online--and I underline this--all of the hearing testimony and 
legislative text for any citizen to review. Finally, it represents the 
one essential ingredient to a functioning democracy that has been in 
short supply in recent months: compromise.
  I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this measure and send it to 
the President for his signature.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, this conference report contains 
agreements between the House and Senate on three appropriations bills.
  These bills support a wide range of important Federal Government 
activities. It also includes an extension of the continuing resolution 
that expires on Friday.
  The conference report is the product of negotiations that have taken 
place with the other body's conferees over the past several weeks.
  I commend the chairmen and ranking members of each of the 
subcommittees for the thoughtful manner in which they have undertaken 
their responsibilities. I also thank the staff members for their 
diligence and the many long hours they have spent in the performance of 
their duties and bringing us to this point.
  The practice of combining multiple appropriations bills into a single 
package is not ideal, nor should it be encouraged. I would prefer, and 
I know other Senators would as well, that we have the opportunity to 
consider, offer amendments, and vote on the bills individually.
  This summer, the months during which we normally debate 
appropriations bills, Congress and the President were wrangling over 
legislation to increase the debt ceiling and other matters. While the 
committee moved quickly to report bills in September, we are now more 
than a month into the new fiscal year and are only now approaching 
enactment of the first three appropriations bills. I don't know how or 
when we will be able to actually complete action on all these measures, 
but I want the Senate to know that the members of this committee, under 
the very able and distinguished leadership of Senator Inouye from 
Hawaii, have done everything within our power to try to get the Senate 
to move quickly but carefully to approve these bills.
  So, Mr. President, without prolonging the debate and knowing other 
Senators are here to speak, let me just say that we have the restraints 
of the Budget Control Act, which were respected by the Appropriations 
Committee. Caps were included that locked in recent cuts in 
discretionary spending, and that is holding future discretionary growth 
below the rate of inflation. The act we are passing will bring 
discretionary spending as a percentage of GDP to the lowest levels 
since the Eisenhower administration.
  I am confident the House and Senate will work together in the coming 
weeks to complete our negotiations on these and other appropriations 
bills that will fully comply with the guidance set out in the Budget 
Control Act. Today, we are making a good start with these three 
appropriations bills, and I urge support for the conference report.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, I support the conference report, which 
includes appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, and the 
Food and Drug

[[Page S7680]]

Administration. I am pleased that we followed the regular process to 
get to this point. It has not always been an easy process, but it has 
produced a good and well-balanced bill.
  Overall spending levels in this bill are closer to the Senate bill 
than the House-passed bill. The conference bill is consistent with our 
allocation and includes a nondisaster spending level of $19.565 
billion, compared to $19.78 billion in the Senate and $17.253 billion 
in the House. This funding level allowed us to protect important 
ongoing programs, while continuing to reduce spending from last year.
  Some of the highlights of the conference report funding levels are as 
follows:
  For the WIC Program, we were able to provide an additional $36 
million above the Senate, bringing total funding to $570 million above 
the House level.
  The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides assistance to 
food pantries, is funded at the fully authorized level of $140 million.
  The Food and Drug Administration is funded at the Senate level of 
$2.497 billion, including increased funding to begin implementation of 
the Food Safety and Modernization Act.
  The Food Safety and Inspection Service is funded at $1.004 billion, 
an increase of more than $32 million above the House level.
  The Public Law 480 Program, which provides international food 
assistance, is funded at $1.466 billion, an increase of $426 million 
above the House level.
  Agricultural research funded through the Agricultural Research 
Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture is funded at 
$2.297 billion, an increase of $282 million above the House level.
  Disaster relief funds for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, 
Emergency Conservation Program, and the Emergency Forest Restoration 
Program were provided based on the latest USDA estimates.
  Beyond these important funding items, we also rejected many of the 
controversial policy riders that were included in the House bill. Among 
them were a provision prohibiting any food aid for North Korea, which 
would tie the hands of U.S. negotiators; a provision blocking 
enforcement of the Energy Independence and Security Act; and a 
provision blocking participation in a global climate change task force, 
as well as others.
  Again, I think this is a well-balanced bill. We worked hard with our 
House counterparts to identify and maintain priorities that benefit the 
American people. I would like to again thank Senator Blunt for his help 
during this entire process. His insights were extremely valuable.
  Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this 
conference report.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Kohl in 
supporting the conference report, and I particularly want to talk about 
the agricultural programs in the report.
  This is my first year as the ranking member of the agriculture 
subcommittee, and I have certainly enjoyed working with the chairman. 
He has been generous and kind to me, including me in many of these 
discussions.
  In these days, it is no small feat for an appropriations bill to get 
through the Senate in what is pretty close to regular order, and so I 
am glad we were able to work closely together to get that done. I hope 
we can do the same thing next year and have hearings and floor time to 
pass the Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA bill again next year and 
maybe in a way that is even closer to the timing and the order we would 
like to see.
  The conference report we are considering today reminds us that we can 
and should return to the regular way of doing business on 
appropriations bills. Even though the conference report includes three 
separate bills, they were all vigorously debated on the floor, and more 
than two dozen amendments were accepted. The process has certainly 
yielded a better outcome than a large omnibus appropriations bill would 
have.
  The chairman has reviewed the details of the Agriculture bill, so I 
will touch on only a few of the highlights.
  Discretionary spending for agriculture programs is $350 million below 
the fiscal year 2011 level and significantly below the fiscal year 2010 
level. We are slowly but surely reining in discretionary spending.
  To reduce overall spending, we have made difficult decisions. Most 
programs in the bill that related to agriculture were reduced by 5 
percent. We have, however, prioritized those programs that protect the 
public health and help maintain the strength of our Nation's 
agricultural economy.
  I am particularly pleased we have been able to maintain funding for 
formula research and competitive agricultural research programs in this 
bill. Smart investments in American agriculture have been made by the 
Federal Government for well over a century now, and this bill continues 
that process of promoting competitiveness and is critical to helping 
our farmers increase production and produce a food supply that is safe, 
abundant, and affordable.
  With unemployment still hovering around 9 percent, now is not the 
time to place unnecessary restrictions on the competitive marketplace. 
Therefore, this plan prohibits the Department of Agriculture from 
moving forward with a costly and burdensome rule--GIPSA--that 
Agriculture released earlier this year. This rule would have negatively 
impacted poultry and livestock markets and damaged the overall strength 
of the farm economy.
  I am also glad the Agriculture bill includes funding to help farmers 
and communities recover from natural disasters. Missouri has seen 
unprecedented devastation from both tornadoes and flooding this year. 
Funding included in this bill for the Emergency Watershed Protection 
Program and the Emergency Conservation Program is necessary to help 
those areas recover. It is important that we support our farmers as 
they clear debris and as they regrade and rehabilitate their land for 
the next growing season.
  As the ranking member of the agriculture subcommittee, I have limited 
my comments to agricultural funding, but I would be remiss if I didn't 
point out the significant contributions of the Commerce, Justice, 
Science Subcommittee and the Transportation, and Housing and Urban 
Development Subcommittee in developing this conference report.
  This bill, although it may have been referred to as the agriculture 
minibus, doesn't do justice to the great efforts of my colleagues, 
Senators Mikulski, Murray, Hutchison, and Collins, and their staffs. 
They have all contributed a lot of time and effort to get this report 
this far. It is not exactly what any of us would have done, but none of 
us are exactly in charge of doing it all by ourselves.
  I hope my colleagues will join me and join Senator Kohl in supporting 
this bill.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I appreciate the distinguished Senator 
from Missouri for managing the bill for our side because there are 
three appropriations bills included in this package. I am also pleased 
that we are actually passing appropriations bills that have been 
amended and debated in the Senate the way it ought to be done.
  I am also very pleased to talk about the Commerce, Justice, Science, 
and Related Agencies bill, which is the subcommittee on which I am the 
ranking member. The chairman, Senator Mikulski, has already spoken 
earlier this evening on the bill and what is in it and how we put it 
all together.
  I can't thank Senator Mikulski enough for being the kind of chairman 
who could really bring people together, bring the House Members 
together, where we had some significant differences. I believe she and 
I were on the same page, that we have national priorities in this bill, 
and we ensured that those priorities were met because they are so 
important for our country. It wasn't easy. As has been said by everyone 
who has spoken, difficult choices had to be made. We had an allocation 
that was $583 million below the fiscal year 2011 continuing resolution 
level. It was $4.7 billion below the President's request.
  This bill is also in accordance with the Budget Control Act that 
passed on August 2, 2011. I just want to mention

[[Page S7681]]

on that point that all of the appropriations bills that have gone 
through the Appropriations Committee this year have met the Budget 
Control Act requirements. That is something I think we should have done 
and certainly something we were expected to do.
  There are some Members, however, who will be speaking against these 
bills. They wanted a different standard from the standard we set, which 
was below the fiscal year 2011 continuing resolution and below the 
President's request. But that is the standard we should have met, and 
we did.
  We struck a balance between the competing interests of law 
enforcement, terrorism, research, and competitiveness through investing 
in science. I think the chairman, Senator Mikulski, spoke about the 
specifics of that, but I want to highlight some of the programs of 
national interest that I was particularly insistent that we focus on.
  We have worked hard to ensure that law enforcement receives the 
priority funding needed to protect our Nation, our communities, our 
children, and the victims of crime. That was a particular point that 
Senator Mikulski made and with which I agree.
  We have also made sure the FBI has the resources it needs to continue 
its major role in the global mission of counterterrorism and 
counterintelligence. Director Robert Mueller has seen the largest 
transition of the agency certainly in modern times, but maybe ever--a 
transformation from a traditional crime-fighting organization into an 
intelligence-driven, threat-focused law enforcement organization and a 
full member of the U.S. intelligence community since 9/11.
  A lot of people are going to say: Well, gosh, why would you increase 
the FBI? Well, because they are a part of our national security today. 
They are no longer just a domestic crime-fighting agency--though very 
important but nevertheless a smaller function. They are part of our 
U.S. intelligence agencies that are helping us fight terrorism all over 
the world. So we funded them, and I am glad we did.
  We have also included language to encourage the Department of Justice 
to maintain its current fiscal year 2011 level of funding that focuses 
on the southwest border. This is so important, as we read about the 
atrocities happening in Mexico and on our border, some of which have 
begun to spread across the border, and drug cartels are becoming 
increasingly emboldened.
  I was talking to someone in the law enforcement community today who 
has had very high positions in our government, and he said those drug 
cartels are terrorists. I agree with him. Those drug cartels are 
terrorists. What they are doing to innocent people is atrocious. So we 
are encouraging and we have given the money to the Justice Department 
for the southwest border.
  The El Paso Intelligence Center is another important program that is 
one of our first safeguards along the border. It is a national tactical 
intelligence center that supports law enforcement in the United States, 
Mexico, and the whole Western Hemisphere. It is the Drug Enforcement 
Administration's most important intelligence-sharing entity focusing on 
all things related to our borders.
  Another important program in this bill is the State Criminal Alien 
Assistance Program which we funded to provide Federal assistance to the 
States and localities that are incurring the costs of incarcerating 
undocumented criminal aliens who have been accused or convicted of 
State and local offenses. We know there are counties throughout our 
country that do not have big budgets. Yet we have illegal alien 
criminals who are being put in county jails and city jails and it is 
important for the Federal Government and it is the Federal Government's 
responsibility to pay for housing those illegal alien criminals. We 
have done so in this bill.
  I was also pleased to work with Senator Mikulski and Jon Kyl, the 
Senator from Arizona, to include more money for the U.S. Marshals 
Service for its mission along the southwest border, including detention 
construction and security upgrades in southwest border Federal 
courthouses.
  The last thing I wish to mention is that we had a very moving 
ceremony yesterday honoring the significant astronauts--they are all 
significant, but some of those who took the first chance to go where no 
human being had ever been, and we honored them with the Congressional 
Gold Medal, which is the highest honor Congress can bestow on a 
civilian: John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, Neil 
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first and second men to walk on the 
Moon, the Americans who did that, and they were ferried there by 
Michael Collins, who landed Apollo 11.
  We talked, and the speeches were very uplifting, about the importance 
of space exploration and what it has done for our country. It has 
clearly been an economic boon to this country. It has created jobs, it 
has created better quality of life, and it has also inspired 
generations of scientists. With the significant support of Senator 
Mikulski, we were able to give NASA the funding it needs to assure that 
we have not only the vision that was established by Congress in the 
2010 authorization bill but the funding to achieve the vision going 
forward.
  Since our space shuttle program has been shut down, we are now on a 
mission to provide a commercial crew vehicle to take our astronauts to 
the space station, where we are doing scientific research, and we have 
fully funded the launch vehicle that is going to take our astronauts 
beyond Earth orbit and into the asteroid and, hopefully, Mars. That 
funding has started with this appropriations bill that is going through 
this year.
  So we will have our launch system and our Orion capsule that will be 
the next generation of space exploration for our country, and Senator 
Mikulski and I agreed on that priority, along with the Webb telescope, 
which is a very significant scientific priority, that we would assure 
that those priorities were met. We support the emerging commercial 
space companies to bring cargo and astronauts to the space station, and 
our investment for discovery on the space station as well as the 
science that is gotten from these wonderful, incredible telescopes that 
fly out there in space and gather information.
  NASA has now released its design for the heavy launch vehicle that 
will be able to carry our astronauts in the Orion crew vehicle to the 
Moon, the asteroid, and beyond. Now that that decision has been made, 
we can focus on the future and on moving human exploration forward. 
NASA has announced its commitment to the path that Congress authorized, 
and now we are providing the funds to accomplish the development of 
that rocket.
  Chairman Mikulski and I have strived to produce a bill that reflects 
not only the Senate's priorities but the needs of our Nation. Not only 
do I commend her and all the Senators who have a part in passing these 
bills and the House Members who also have a significant part, but our 
staffs did a lot of the work in making sure these priorities were met. 
Her staff, Gabrielle Batkin, Jessica Berry, Jean Toal Eisen, Jeremy 
Weirich, and Molly O'Rourke did wonderful work and were so close in 
concept and in close relationships and working relationships with my 
staff, James Christoferson, Goodloe Sutton, and Allen Cutler.
  I recommend our bill. I think we stayed within the budget resolution, 
the Budget Control Act we passed, but we set the priorities, and I am 
very pleased to offer it to the Senate tonight.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennet). The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask to be notified after 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will be notified.
  Mr. SESSIONS. I appreciate the work of the sponsors on this difficult 
piece of legislation.
  There is so much we would like to do. But every American knows that 
when they are in debt, they have to cut back on spending. But 
Washington remains in denial. This bill is a statement that Washington 
does not take seriously the extraordinary dangers imposed by our debt. 
It is bizarre that we passed on to a committee of 12 the job of 
achieving deficit reduction while at the same time working to increase 
the deficit with bills such as this one.
  After the first 2 years of the Obama administration in which 
nondefense discretionary spending surged 24 percent--not counting the 
stimulus--it

[[Page S7682]]

should not be difficult for us to find reductions that can be achieved 
in these three bills that have been cobbled together as a mini omnibus. 
But instead of doing the hard work and finding things we can reduce the 
spending for and bringing this bill in with a reduction--a real 
reduction--in spending, we now have a piece of legislation that is 
moving forward with increases. In fact, what this amounts to and what 
we are seeing in the committee of 12, the supercommittee, in their 
secret work is apparently a demand by our Democratic colleagues that 
taxes be substantially increased to fund the spending level we have 
been on.
  I recently also addressed some of the gimmicks I believe this bill 
uses to conceal more spending than is apparent. One of these gimmicks, 
creating the false appearance of cash savings in mandatory spending, 
was actually increased, in this current version of the bill, in 
conference. That is why I introduced the Honest Budget Act: to confront 
these continuing problems.
  Senator Olympia Snowe and I believe these kind of gimmicks, such as 
on mandatory spending and claims of reductions that are not real, need 
to be eliminated from our process as they help cause the great deficit 
we are in.
  I think it is particularly offensive that the bill is being 
represented as a spending cut, even though that was the most minute 
spending cut of $1 billion, when, in truth, it clearly increases 
spending. We need real cuts, not minuscule cuts and certainly not 
increases.
  With the President at the helm of the ship of State, Washington is 
continuing to steer toward financial disaster. We must get off this 
path. The American people know it. I believe they spoke clearly last 
November. We still have not gotten the message. We still remain in 
denial.
  Some say: Oh, the tea party. You shouldn't pay attention to them. 
They were angry people. I think they were deeply frustrated people and, 
yes, somewhat angry. Why should they not be when the people they have 
elected to Congress, they now discover, are spending billions and 
billions of dollars day after day, week after week, borrowing 40 cents 
of every dollar that is spent? How can we defend that? How can we 
defend to any American citizen our behavior that has allowed such a 
debt situation to occur? We have had three consecutive trillion-dollar 
deficits, and this fiscal year we are expecting to have another 
trillion-dollar deficit. It is an unacceptable course.
  I will oppose the legislation and urge my colleagues to do the same.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, as the ranking member of the 
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations 
Subcommittee, I rise in support of this conference report, and I 
encourage our colleagues to join me in voting for this measure.
  Let me first thank Chairman Patty Murray and her staff who worked 
collaboratively with me and with my talented staff throughout this 
entire process. I also wish to thank Chairman Kohl, Ranking Member 
Blunt, Chairman Mikulski, Ranking Member Hutchison, and of course the 
leaders of the full Appropriations Committee, Senator Inouye and 
Senator Cochran. All of us have worked closely together to usher this 
first group of appropriations bills to final passage.
  I am particularly pleased that we brought these appropriations bills 
to the floor through the regular order enabling members to examine, 
debate, and vote in a fair and transparent process. That is a big 
change from the approach that has, unfortunately, marred the process in 
previous years when all the appropriations bills--or nearly all of 
them--were bundled into one enormous omnibus bill that was considered 
at the last moment in a rushed manner and without the opportunity for 
full and fair debate and amendment. We didn't do it that way this time, 
and I think that represents progress.
  I am also pleased this conference report contains provisions that are 
important to the State of Maine.
  The Transportation-HUD bill recognizes the fiscal reality of what is 
now an unsustainable $15 trillion debt, while making critical 
infrastructure and economic development investments that will help to 
create jobs. In this bill, we are also meeting our responsibility to 
very vulnerable populations in our country. The bill strikes the right 
balance between thoughtful investment and fiscal restraint, thereby 
setting the stage for future economic growth. The proposed nonemergency 
funding levels for fiscal year 2012 in this bill are nearly $13 billion 
below fiscal year 2010, a reduction of nearly one-fifth in 2 years' 
time. These significant savings represent an unmistakable commitment 
and movement in the direction of fiscal responsibility.
  For those reasons, and for many more, I urge my colleagues to vote in 
favor of this conference report.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I want to spend a minute because I do not 
think the American public knows how badly they have been hoodwinked by 
Congress. The Budget Control Act told the American people that we cut 
$1 trillion. That is what the claims were. The fact is, under the 
Budget Control Act spending, discretionary spending will still rise by 
$850 billion over the next 10 years. That is the truth.
  We hear in the bills that are coming up the word ``emergency.'' One 
of the things the American people cannot quite understand is--when they 
have an emergency what they do is they end up having to make choices. 
They do not have a bank that will loan them money regardless of whether 
they are worthy of paying it back, and that is where we are. We are not 
worthy of paying the money back that we are borrowing now. That is 
going to become acutely obvious over the next 18 months in our country 
as we see our interest rates rise.
  We have a bill on the floor that meets the numbers and meets what the 
Budget Control Act said but totally denies what the American people are 
expecting. Let me talk about what I mean by that. There are five major 
problems with this bill.
  No. 1, it claims to cut spending when in fact it does not. When you 
take all spending, it does not cut spending. We are going to hear and 
we have heard already how it cuts spending but usually with the caveat 
``not counting emergency spending.'' So the first thing it does is not 
to address any of the problems our country has in terms of having to 
deal with real cuts in spending, not decreases in the rate of growth of 
spending. We have to have real cuts if we are going to create a future 
for our kids. If we are going to be able to borrow money in the future 
at an affordable interest rate, we are going to have to have real cuts. 
We have to quit playing the game to the American people and start 
talking to them as adults, not playing the game and actually being 
dishonest with them about what we are doing.
  This bill also continues to demonstrate that we are shirking our 
duties in terms of doing oversight. We have provided funding for things 
that obviously need to be corrected but we will not correct them. We do 
not eliminate the wasteful programs. There is nothing in here, not one 
duplicative program in any of these three segments of appropriations 
bills, that is eliminated. Yet we know there is over $200 billion a 
year in duplication costs to the Federal Government on programs that do 
exactly the same thing. Yet we did not do any of it. It is no wonder 
you can't cut spending if you don't get rid of programs that do the 
same thing, none of which or 80 percent of which never accomplish their 
goals or never have been measured as to whether they accomplish their 
goals. That is the third thing.
  The fourth thing this bill does is absolutely ignore FHA's condition. 
It was announced they are about to run out of money. What do we do? We 
raise the amount of money that people can borrow from the FHA at the 
time when FHA is running out of money. The only problem with that is 
FHA has a very friendly banker which the Congress has no control over 
because when FHA runs out of money, do you know what they do? They go 
and get it from the Treasury and we cannot stop it.
  What we have done is we have raised the loan limit for FHA homes to 
$729,000 in this bill. FHA is going to be out of money this year. They 
will have no capital to protect the $1.1 trillion worth of loans they 
are guaranteeing, and they will go get the money. Where is that money 
going to come from? That money is going to come from--we are going to 
borrow it from the Chinese. So we are going to compound the

[[Page S7683]]

very problem we have today. It is absolutely ignoring what the real 
situation is on the ground, ignoring the real complications of not 
acting, and consequently we actually make it worse for our kids and our 
country.
  Finally, it includes very few of the amendments that were passed by 
wide margins in the Senate. One of mine is there. I am very thankful 
for it. I think it is an appropriate amendment. But several others are 
not, that were good, commonsense amendments. Yet somebody in the 
Appropriations Committee decided even though they may have voted for 
it, they pulled it out. It was not the majority on the other side who 
insisted it come out because I checked.
  What we have done is we are up here and we are going to pass this 
bill. I have no doubt about it. But we are continuing down the road of, 
No. 1, being dishonest with the American people about what we are 
doing, how we are doing it; No. 2, we are shirking our responsibility 
to eliminate the wasteful portions of the Federal Government which at 
least are $350 billion a year, when you combine waste, fraud, and 
duplication. None of that was attacked in this bill, none of it. Then 
we are lying to them about whether we are actually increasing spending 
or not increasing spending.
  Our time is shortening. If you look at what happened in Europe in the 
last 2 weeks, to the bond yields for Italy, to the bond yields for 
Spain, we know what is coming. How bad does it have to get or how close 
does it have to get to us before we will act in the best interests of 
the country instead of the best interests of partisanship or the best 
interests of our careers?
  This is not a bad bill. It just doesn't do what the American people 
need us to do right now, which is start cutting out the waste, fraud, 
and duplication in the Federal Government so that their children will 
have an opportunity to live in a country of opportunity.
  This bill fails on that count. It should be defeated and a bill 
coming back here with $10 or $12 or $15 billion less is what ought to 
come back here. That is what ought to happen, if we were going to be 
truly honest. Either I am being dishonest about the situation facing 
our country or you are being dishonest in what you are bringing as the 
answer on the floor. One of us is not telling the truth and I guarantee 
the markets are going to prove me right. When we can no longer borrow, 
as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve said, we are going to eventually 
fix all this, regardless of the politicians. Do you know why we are 
going to fix it? Because they are going to quit loaning us money. And 
we have done nothing with this bill to solve the very real and 
immediate problems in front of this country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, we are going to move this bill this 
evening. I think we have other people who wish to speak and there is no 
reason they should not come and speak. I encourage them to come over 
here and say what needs to be said so we can get our work done. We have 
a few people who still have opportunities to make a plane. We are not 
going to be voting tomorrow. We plan to be voting here in the next 30 
minutes or so. I hope people come to the floor and speak on the bill. 
This bill has gone through a process with lots of amendments, lots of 
debate. It went through a conference committee. It is not perfect by 
anyone's standard of perfect, but legislation seldom is.
  It is under the level that was established in the debt ceiling 
agreement that also established how we deal with emergency spending. Of 
course, many of our colleagues did not vote for that. They did not 
agree with that at the time. It has only been a few weeks ago, but it 
is the standard that the House and Senate worked on. These numbers 
should be below that number. They are a little lower than the Senate 
number which was at that number but higher than the House number. I 
wish we could have been closer to the House number, but the House has a 
different majority than the Senate does.
  The real point is, if people want to come speak on this bill, the 
vote is scheduled here in about a half hour or so and I hope people 
will come on over and have their say on this bill, let the people know 
in addition to their vote where they stand. We are waiting for a couple 
of people to come. This would be a good time for them to do that.
  I yield, and we will be waiting.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. MURRAY. I rise to speak about the transportation-housing title 
of the bill before the Senate. It has broad bipartisan support because 
it addresses the very real housing and transportation needs of American 
families across the Nation.
  This is not a perfect bill, but there is a lot to be proud of in the 
conference report, and I am pleased with what we have been able to 
accomplish with my colleague Senator Collins, because she has worked so 
hard in a bipartisan way to get us to this point, and Chairman Latham 
and Congressman Olver on the House side and all of their staff.
  This bill makes needed investments in our transportation 
infrastructure and creates critical jobs, while also supporting housing 
and services for our Nation's most vulnerable.
  This bill touches the lives of all Americans in ways they can 
appreciate every day, whether it is a parent who commutes every day and 
needs safe roads or new public transportation options so they can spend 
more time with their family, a business that depends on a solid 
infrastructure to move goods and attract customers, young families 
searching for safe and affordable communities to raise their children 
or a repeatedly laid-off worker who needs help to keep his or her 
family in their home. This bill has a real impact on Americans who are 
struggling in these troubling economic times.
  Our bill takes a balanced approach that addresses the most critical 
needs we face in both transportation and housing, while remaining 
financially responsible and staying within the constraints of the 
budget.
  The bill contains improvement investments for our Nation, including 
$500 million for the competitive, multimodal TIGER Program to help 
improve our Nation's infrastructure, including rail transportation 
projects; $1.4 billion for Amtrak, including funding for State-
supported services; sufficient funding to preserve housing for our 
Nation's low-income families, elderly, disabled, and veterans who rely 
on HUD's housing and rental assistance programs; $39.8 billion to 
continue the Federal-Aid Highway Program at current levels; $45 million 
for housing counseling; and $75 million for 11,000 new vouchers for 
homeless veterans.
  The bill also addresses the needs of communities that have been hit 
by disasters this year, providing $1.7 billion in emergency relief 
highway funding and up to $400 million in CDBG funding for areas that 
have been most impacted by recent disasters.
  It is not a perfect bill, but it is a good bill. It represents a 
fair, bipartisan compromise that makes investments in our 
infrastructure and protects the most vulnerable, while living within 
our funding restraints. Our bill helps commuters, homeowners, and the 
most vulnerable in our society. Most importantly, it creates jobs and 
supports the continued recovery of the national economy.
  I look forward to having it reach the President's desk soon for his 
signature, and before I close I again thank my colleague Senator 
Collins and all of her staff for all of their very hard work on this 
bill. I also thank all of my staff members who worked beyond reasonable 
hours to get this bill to this point tonight to be able to send it to 
the President. They are Alex Keenan, Megan McCarthy, Dabney Hegg, 
Rachel Milberg, Molly O'Rourke, Travis Lumpkin, Evan Schatz, and Lauren 
Overman. I thank all of them for their hard work and all of Senator 
Collins' staff as well as our chairman, Senator Inouye, and look 
forward to the passage of this bill this evening.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I wanted to add to my earlier remarks in 
support of the FY 2012 conference report which includes language I co-
authored

[[Page S7684]]

along with Senator Leahy allowing the heaviest trucks to travel on the 
interstate highways in Maine and Vermont rather than forcing them onto 
secondary roads and downtown streets.
  Currently, the heaviest trucks in Maine are diverted onto secondary 
roadways that cut through our downtowns on narrow streets. This creates 
a major safety concern. It simply makes no sense to force heavier 
trucks off the highway and onto our smaller roads, jeopardizing the 
safety of both drivers and pedestrians.
  In 2009, I authored a pilot project that allowed trucks weighing up 
to 100,000 pounds to travel on Maine's Federal interstates for 1 year. 
According to the Maine Department of Transportation, the number of 
accidents involving trucks decreased. During the 1-year period covered 
by the pilot, the number of crashes involving trucks on Maine's local 
roads was reduced by 72 compared to a 5-year average. This information 
and other data gathered during the pilot provide proof that this 
language will increase safety.
  In a case study of a freight trip following this route from Hampden 
to Houlton, when these trucks were allowed to use I-95 rather than 
Route 2, the driver avoided 300 intersections, 4 hospitals, 30 traffic 
lights, 9 school crossings, 4 railroad crossings, and 86 crosswalks.
  Virtually every safety group in Maine supports this language. These 
groups include the Maine Association of Police, the Maine State Police, 
the State Troopers Association, the Maine Department of Public Safety, 
and the Maine Chiefs of Police. This language is also supported by 
education and child advocacy groups such as Maine Parent Teachers 
Association and the Maine School Superintendents Association.
  Let me make clear: my amendment does not increase the size or weight 
of Maine trucks. The only question is on which roads they are allowed 
to travel.
  This has been a long and hard-fought battle. But I am delighted that 
I was able to convince my colleagues in both the House and Senate to 
support my provision to allow the heaviest trucks to drive on Federal 
highways in Maine.
  I also want to voice my support for the Agriculture Appropriations 
title of this legislation. I am particularly appreciative of the 
efforts of the chairman and ranking member of the Agriculture 
Subcommittee, Senators Kohl and Blunt, and their staffs for their 
diligent work to move this legislation forward.
  I also want to thank my colleague, Senator Mark Udall, for joining me 
in co-authoring an amendment to ensure that schools continue to have 
the flexibility they need to serve children nutritious meals at an 
affordable cost. We worked with Members from both sides of the aisle 
and from across the country in crafting a bipartisan amendment that 
achieves this goal.
  Our efforts will go a long way in ensuring that schools can serve 
healthy meals that meet the nutritional needs of students in a way that 
fits their budgets. The language overturns arbitrary restrictions 
proposed by the USDA that would have so restricted the use of potatoes 
in the school lunch program that a school could not have served a baked 
potato and an ear of fresh corn in the same week--an absurd result.
  We heard from many school advocacy organizations and school and 
school food service professionals that the rule as proposed was too 
prescriptive, too limiting, and too expensive. USDA estimates that the 
opposed rule would have cost as much as $6.8 billion over 5 years. The 
lion's share of these costs would have been incurred by the state and 
local agencies.
  We were pleased to have the support of the American Association of 
School Administrators, National School Boards Association, Council of 
the Great City Schools, National Association of Elementary School 
Principals, Maine Parent Teacher Association, Maine School Management 
Association, Maine Principals Association, Maine Department of 
Education, and so many more.
  Mr. President, for these and many other reasons I am proud to support 
the FY 2012 conference report.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we would yield back whatever time is left on 
the Democratic side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. All time 
is yielded back on the Democratic side.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we are going to continue to work tomorrow on 
the DOD authorization bill. Everyone has been told by the two managers 
of this bill that if they have amendments, they should offer them.
  We are working on the Energy and Water bill. While we are making 
progress on that with Senators Feinstein and Lamar Alexander, we have 
some nominations we are working on.
  The next vote will be at 5:30 on November 28.
  We will be in session tomorrow.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I yield back the Republican time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.
  The question is on agreeing to the conference report to accompany 
H.R. 2112.
  Mr. BLUNT. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  The result was announced--yeas 70, nays 30, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 208 Leg.]

                                YEAS--70

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Bingaman
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown (MA)
     Brown (OH)
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cochran
     Collins
     Conrad
     Coons
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hoeven
     Hutchison
     Inouye
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (NE)
     Nelson (FL)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Snowe
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                                NAYS--30

     Ayotte
     Barrasso
     Burr
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Enzi
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heller
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson (WI)
     Kirk
     Lee
     Lugar
     McCain
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Rubio
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Thune
     Toomey
     Vitter
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote the yeas are 70, the nays are 30. 
Under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this 
conference report, the conference report is agreed to.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. I move to lay that motion upon the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

                          ____________________