[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 12, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S935-S937]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PRESIDENT

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, as we leave Washington for about 10 days, 
I wish to leave some suggestions in President Obama's suggestion box.
  There has been a lot of commentary about income inequality, needing 
to raise the minimum wage, needing to create more jobs, and the 
President talked about doing these things with the stroke of a pen in 
his office because of an uncooperative legislative branch. I want to 
suggest four things the President himself could do to immediately 
initiate job creation, opportunity, and a more robust economy for the 
United States of America.
  First, trade promotion authority. The President said in his remarks 
in his State of the Union speech he was for trade promotion authority. 
We need him to get with the Democratic majority in the Senate to bring 
TPA to the floor of the Senate.
  A history lesson: In the 1990s, a Republican Congress gave Democratic 
President Bill Clinton trade promotion authority for fast track. 
America's exports and imports grew exponentially, jobs were created, 
and America became a robust trading partner around the world with 
countries all over the world. That has expired. We need to give it to 
President Obama.
  We have three pending opportunities: The Trans-Pacific Partnership, 
the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and the African 
Growth and Opportunity Act, all of which are pending negotiations 
between now and 2015, and all of which will generate jobs, trade, and 
opportunity for the United States of America.
  Please, Mr. President, demand from the Senate that you get TPA and 
you get it now.
  Secondly is Keystone. We have all heard a lot about Keystone, but I 
want to reiterate, now that the State Department has for the fifth time 
signed off on the Keystone Pipeline, why are we denying America the oil 
and petroleum it needs and instead acceding ourselves to the nation of 
China?
  America has the opportunity to become the most independent energy

[[Page S937]]

country in the world. It is critical the Keystone Pipeline be built to 
create jobs and to see that we continue to control the generation of 
petroleum and energy in our country and become a net seller rather than 
a gross importer, which we have been for many years in the past.
  The Keystone Pipeline makes sense for the unions, makes sense for 
business, makes sense to America, and America does a better job 
environmentally of treating petroleum and refining it than any country 
in the world, particularly China. It ought to come to America, and the 
President can do that with the stroke of a pen.
  Third, GSE reform. Our government-sponsored entities Freddie Mac and 
Fannie Mae continue to do business, but they languish from a lack of 
attention. We need to reform those two entities so we can have a robust 
housing market for a middle America.
  If you have enough money to pay cash for a house in America today, 
you can do that. If you are on the low end and want an FHA loan, you 
can get that. But if you are in middle America--if you are one of those 
Americans we all talk about wanting to help--there is not enough 
mortgage money available because there is no government-sponsored 
entity to guarantee the paper to guarantee the capital to flow into 
America.
  If you want to get the unemployment rate down from 6.4 to 5 percent, 
which all of us want, there is one way to do it; that is, bring back a 
robust housing market, which still does not exist in the United States 
today.
  Fourth, talk to Patty Murray and Tom Harkin. Tom Harkin is the 
chairman of our Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. 
Patty Murray is the chairman of the subcommittee I serve on in terms of 
labor, and let's get the Workforce Investment Act, which for 6 years 
has languished in terms of continuation and renewal, renewed and 
reauthorized. Let's get it done. The work is done. We are this close. 
We just need an impetus from the White House to tell the Congress to go 
ahead and get it done and send it.
  I appreciate what the President said he is going to do with Joe 
Biden. I think Joe Biden is a tremendous Vice President and he does a 
great job, but we don't need to recreate the wheel. Congress has done 
the work on WIA. It is time to pass it and it is time for the President 
to sign it.


                          Tribute to Bobby Cox

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I want to pay tribute to a great 
Georgian, a personal friend of mine, and a great baseball player in the 
history of our country: Bobby Cox, No. 6, former third baseman for the 
New York Yankees, third baseman for the Atlanta Braves, manager of 
Toronto's Blue Jays when they won a World Series, and for 14 
consecutive seasons he took the Atlanta Braves to a playoff. Five of 
those seasons he took them to the National League Championship and one 
of those seasons he took them to win the World Series against the 
Cleveland Indians.
  Bobby Cox was voted into Baseball's Hall of Fame and will be sworn in 
at Cooperstown, NY, on June 27 of this year. Bobby Cox is an icon in 
baseball and a greet human being. He set many records, such as the 
following: 2,085 victories with the Atlanta Braves, best in Braves 
history; overall record of 2,413 wins and 1,930 losses. The Braves won 
more games with Cox, 1,725 in a 19-season span, than any other team in 
baseball; 15 divisional crowns, 5 pennants, and he holds the record for 
the most ejections of any manager in the history of baseball.
  The reason that is a positive story is this: Bobby Cox fought for his 
players. He knew how to motivate a crowd, he knew how to get on an 
umpire's back, and he knew how to turn the team bench around. His 132nd 
ejection took place in November of 2007 during one of the playoff games 
when he went out and argued a third called strike against his star 
player Chipper Jones. Two innings later the Braves came back and 
rallied and won. In large measure, it was Bobby's fighting for his 
players that made the difference.
  But Bobby Cox also fights for Georgia. His work with the Dreams of 
Recovery Foundation, which Cindy Donald founded for those who are 
paraplegic and quadriplegic in Georgia, has been a miracle. Bobby gives 
his time and effort all the time to help those who are less fortunate.
  He also continues to help the Atlanta Braves, who will soon be moving 
from downtown Atlanta to my home county of Cobb County, in Marietta, 
GA.
  I pay tribute and give thanks to Bobby Cox for all he has given to 
our State and recognize him for the achievement of being sworn into 
Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Best of luck, Bobby, for many 
more years to come.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

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