[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 20982-20986]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I understand both leaders are now talking 
about doing some important nominations, and some of us are here to make 
sure that those happen. I will cease and desist from speaking as soon 
as the leaders return and wish to conduct the business of the Senate. 
In the meantime, I thought it would be interesting to sum up where we 
are and try to focus some attention on this economy.
  Today, the Senate did take a first step in addressing the economy, 
and that is by trying to restore some discipline to our budgetary 
process. Sadly, we had a holdup from the Republican side which delayed 
us. As a matter of fact, the way we resolved it, as I understand it, is 
we did not extend these very important budget rules for a year. We just 
did it until April. They have been extended until April, but at least 
we have some fiscal discipline until April 15.
  It amazes me that our friends on the other side of the aisle talk 
about how conservative they are. They are certainly not very 
conservative when it comes to balancing our budget and having some 
fiscal discipline. What we were able to do today was to at least reach 
an agreement until April 15 that we will have a 60-vote requirement in 
order to waive the points of order in the Senate if somebody wants to 
dip into the Social Security trust fund, tries to increase spending or 
increase tax cuts, and completely abandon the kind of fiscal discipline 
we need. So we have kept that 60-vote requirement so we cannot 
completely destroy the budget, which is what has been happening.
  As everyone in America knows, we went from a period of fiscal health 
under President Clinton to a position now where we are deep in debt. If 
we do not put some discipline back into our budget, it is only going to 
get worse.
  We also have retained, at least until April, a pay-as-you-go point of 
order so that if, in fact, spending is increased in any way or the 
deficit goes up in any

[[Page 20983]]

way, it can be offset, and that is very important.
  Pay-as-you-go is something I have been working on since my days in 
the House of Representatives, and it makes a lot of sense. Most of our 
families have to do that. If they decide, for example, that they want 
to send their son or daughter to an expensive college, they have to 
find extra money, they have to figure out how they are going to pay for 
it. All of America does it. We ought to do it here. At least we were 
able to get that done through April 15.
  I want to read what Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve Chairman, has 
said about the importance of putting this discipline back into our 
budget process. First, I have to compliment Senator Conrad, who is the 
chairman of our Budget Committee, for leading us so well, for fighting 
this battle and for not giving up. It would have been very easy for him 
to say, ``forget about it,'' and relent. People want to go home, they 
want to campaign, they want to see their constituents in California, as 
I want to, or the Dakotas, where Senator Conrad's people are.
  The bottom line is, we said we would stay until we got this done, and 
at least we got the Republicans to agree to do this through April.
  This is what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said about the 
important rules we passed today:

       The budget enforcement rules are set to expire on September 
     30. Failing to preserve them would be a grave mistake . . . 
     if we do not preserve the budget rules and reaffirm our 
     commitment to fiscal responsibility, years of hard effort 
     could be squandered.

  It is incredible to me that with that kind of endorsement by Alan 
Greenspan--and all of us know how hard it was to bring the budget into 
balance, to bring the deficit down, to start to reduce the national 
debt. It is incredible to me that our Republicans friends, who claim to 
be fiscal conservatives, were objecting to this. In fairness, we did 
have some of our friends helping us get this through. There was an 
objection on that side of the aisle that caused us not to be able to 
put the budget rules in place until April.
  We did take the first step to restore some kind of discipline to our 
budgeting which is necessary to see an economic recovery. When we are 
out of control and we are losing control over our budget, it carries 
over into the private sector. Eventually higher interest rates will 
come about because there will be a squeeze on lending
  I will share some situations we are facing with the current economic 
situation. We have many problems. This is just one of our problems. We 
are in a recession. We hope it will not be long term. We pray it will 
not be long term. We know there are a lot of problems. Superimposed 
over all the economic problems is the fact that our workers are having 
to pay so much more for their health insurance. By the way, this goes 
for the small business people as well.
  From my family experience, we have seen in small businesses the cost 
of health insurance rising enormously, and good employers who want to 
pay the premiums are looking at disastrous increases in the cost of 
health care for their employees. Family coverage has risen 16 percent 
and single coverage has risen 27 percent in the year 2002. If you have 
a good economy and jobs are plentiful, you can absorb this hit, but if 
you are seeing a recession, maybe your job is not secure, maybe you are 
working fewer hours, you surely have a problem when you look at your 
nest egg, which is another problem we are facing in terms of 
investments for retirement. These increases are hurting our people and 
hurting them badly.
  Now a look at the bigger picture and what has happened under this 
President's watch. We have two arrows on this chart, an ``up'' arrow 
and a ``down'' arrow. It is miserable to look at. Everything you want 
down is up and everything you want up is down. What is up on the 
economic indicators? Job losses, way up; health care costs, way up; 
foreclosures, way up. People are losing their homes. In America today, 
the average American is just a few months away from not being able to 
make that mortgage payment if they were to lose their job. The national 
debt, way up. We are seeing the debt grow again after we thought we 
really had a plan to reverse it. Federal interest costs are going up. 
Social Security trust fund has been raided. The fact is our interest 
costs each year are going up, and that means we do not have funds to 
spend on other things.
  What is down in the Bush economic record? Economic growth is down. As 
a matter of fact, we took a look at the GDP and it looks to us to be 
the worst in 50 years when compared to other administrations. Business 
investment is down. We know the stock market is down. It is volatile. I 
used to be a stockbroker many years ago. I have never seen these 
gyrations. Where is the bottom? We hope we have seen the bottom. 
Certainly we have a problem when we have an administration that is 
talking about privatizing Social Security, when we see what has 
happened to the stock market. If we had turned away from Social 
Security and we had invested as a government in the stock market 
instead of safe government bonds, where would we be with our seniors 
today? Believe me, it would be a disaster. I hope the American people 
will think about that as they look at these economic indicators.
  Retirement accounts are down, 401(k) plans. Everyone--I have spoken 
to so many people--is afraid to open up their mail to see what has 
happened to their 401(k)'s. They believe in this country. We all know 
we will come back. But right now it is a problem.
  If you are at retirement age right now and you do not have the luxury 
to say, as a lot of people tell me, ``Senator, I will just work another 
5 years,'' that is all well and good if you are healthy and can work 
another 5 years. But what is the ramification of that? Not only are you 
delaying this time of your life you wanted to enjoy your family, 
perhaps take a trip, you are staying in the job market. That means 
younger people do not have the opportunity to move in. There are a lot 
of ramifications when we see the stock market down and the retirement 
accounts down. That may not hit you at first glance.
  Consumer confidence is down. The minimum wage, when you take 
inflation into account, is way down. On the other side of the aisle, my 
Republican friends do not want to raise the minimum wage. I ask how 
they can live on $10,600 a year? They know it would be very difficult. 
The minimum wage has not been raised in years. I don't understand their 
opposition. It is not only the right thing to do for our people, but we 
know people at that scale of the economic ladder will spend. That will 
help restore this economy. They will go down to the local store. They 
will spend that increase in the minimum wage.
  This administration believes you give tax cuts to the wealthiest and 
you will solve all the problems of the world. The fact is the wealthy 
people do not spend it. If they earn over a million a year, they do not 
need it; they will not necessarily spend it. Therefore, the economy 
does not get a benefit; whereas, if you direct those tax cuts to the 
middle class, say the people even earning $40,000, $50,000 or $60,000 a 
year or lower, you will have an immediate impact. That is why I never 
understood the ``economic plan'' of this administration with all its 
tax breaks for the richest of the richest of the rich. It does not help 
our economy. We know it does not. Look at our economy. This 
administration has been in for a couple of years now, and we have never 
had a worse economy. Their plan for everything is cut taxes for the 
wealthiest people. It doesn't work. Every indicator you want to see 
down is up, and the opposite is true.
  John Adams said: Facts are stubborn things. They are stubborn, but 
they are facts. And the American people have to look at the facts and 
look them in the eye and think about them.
  The Bush economic record: Record job losses; weak economic growth; 
declining business investment; falling stock market; shrinking 
retirement accounts; eroding consumer confidence; rising health care 
costs; escalating foreclosures; vanishing surpluses and higher interest 
costs for the government. We have to borrow now to pay

[[Page 20984]]

for the daily operations of the government. We pay interest for that--
billions of dollars of interest that we cannot spend investing in 
education, investing in our people, investing to clean up our 
environment. Raiding Social Security.
  We see record executive pay. That is not healthy for our country to 
have that great disparity. I am all for success. But I saw this runaway 
corporate irresponsibility in my State perhaps before others, a little 
company called Enron. Finally we are getting justice. Today we have the 
first news of a guilty plea of a fellow very high up in the chain. What 
did he admit to? Creating these scams to defraud the people, making 
phony electricity shortages. He admitted to conspiracy, wire fraud. The 
bottom line is, names will be named. These people receive record 
executive pay.
  A stagnating minimum wage. I see my friend from Massachusetts, who 
has been a lion on this point. Every day he is here, calling for our 
friends on the other side to let us pass a minimum wage increase. I 
thank him for that because we need his voice. We need it all the time. 
The fact is, people are suffering out there and our economy is 
suffering because the people at the minimum wage have nothing to spend. 
If they got a little increase, it would go right into those local 
stores. So we are very hopeful that maybe there will be a change around 
here and maybe my friend from Massachusetts will hear the echoes from 
the other side of the aisle, and maybe there will be more on this side. 
We don't know what is going to happen.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Will the Senator yield?
  Mrs. BOXER. I will be happy to yield to my friend.
  Mr. KENNEDY. When we think of the minimum wage, we too infrequently 
think of the people who are earning that minimum wage. It has always 
been interesting to me that we are willing to have those who are 
earning the minimum wage take care of some of those individuals who are 
the most precious to us and the most fragile.
  Many of the minimum-wage workers work in child care settings and are 
taking care of the children while workers are out there working, trying 
to provide for their families. Many of them are working in schools with 
teachers. We know how important education is, and these minimum-wage 
workers are working to assist teachers. Many of them are working in 
nursing homes, to try to help take care of parents and grandparents who 
have made such a difference to this country. They have fought in the 
wars and brought the country out of the Great Depression.
  These are men and women of great dignity. Even though these jobs are 
difficult and they are tough, they are prepared to do them because they 
take pride in their work. They are trying to provide for their 
families. All they are looking for is to be treated fairly.
  I thank the good Senator from California for being such a strong 
supporter of the increase in the minimum wage. This is an issue I think 
all Americans can understand. People who work hard, 40 hours a week, 52 
weeks a year, should not continue to live in poverty for themselves and 
their children in this country of ours. Americans understand that. Why 
are we constantly denied the opportunity to bring that measure up here 
on the floor of the Senate, to permit the Senate of the United States 
to at least vote on it?
  We are facing Republican opposition here, we were facing Republican 
opposition in the House of Representatives, and in the White House. 
This is something I find extraordinary. For years the increase in the 
minimum wage, as the good Senator understands, was never a partisan 
issue. It really only became a partisan issue after the 1980 election. 
Prior to that time, we had bipartisan support for it.
  I thank the Senator for including that in the Senator's evaluation of 
the economic record of this administration. The failure to provide that 
not only denies us the economic stimulus that would be provided but 
also is a denial of fairness for a group of men and women who work 
hard, play by the rules, try to raise their children, and ought to be 
treated fairly. I thank the Senator.
  Mrs. BOXER. Before the Senator leaves, I have a question for him.
  We have not seen an increase in the minimum wage since 1996. This is 
going on 7 years. Does it not amaze my friend to see the passionate 
debate that happens here when our friends on the other side of the 
aisle talk about giving tax breaks worth 10 times more than what 
someone working at minimum wage for 1 year would earn? In other words, 
for people earning a million dollars a year, the Bush tax cut is going 
to be more than $50,000 a year in their pocket. That is more than--
well, how many times more than $11,000? Maybe four times. And our 
friends, we see them get tears in their eyes worrying about the people 
at the top of the economic ladder.
  Yet they will not even give us a vote. I just cannot believe it, in 
this day and age, that we would have to wait so long to do this little 
piece of economic justice.
  I wonder if my friend thinks about that. He and I talk about this as 
we watch our friends when there is a tax cut to the wealthy few--the 
passion, the excitement, the dedication to this. Yet we cannot get a 
vote for the people at the bottom of the ladder.
  Mr. KENNEDY. The Senator makes an excellent point. I think she would 
agree with me that, as our President said, ``We are one nation with one 
history and one destiny. We are all really basically together.''
  Yet when we see this callous disregard for working men and women who 
are trying to provide for themselves and for their children, on the one 
hand, and complete callous disregard--and the preference and special 
privileges granted to another group--this really flies in the face of 
what I think this society and this country is really all about.
  I am sure the Senator understands that the $1.50 increase in the 
minimum wage would affect nearly 9 million people in this country. It 
would represent one-fifth of 1 percent of the nation's payroll. That is 
what we are talking about.
  People say it is highly inflationary. Of course, the economic studies 
show it is not because these are funds that are spent by these minimum-
wage workers. It helps the economy. It helps stimulate the economy. 
These are Americans who will invest in the community.
  Wouldn't you think we could say we want to make sure people who are 
working, providing for their families, will not be left out and left 
behind in the richest nation of the world?
  We have Americans who are in the service fighting overseas. We have 
heard the debates of war and peace. We have to ask, why are they the 
best? The reason they are the best is not only that they have the best 
training, are the best equipped, and the best led, but because they 
have values. Those values also include fairness and decency to their 
fellow human beings and to their fellow workers. Fairness and decency 
to those workers includes the raise in the minimum wage.
  I thank the Senator.
  Mrs. BOXER. I thank my friend. He has made, of course, a great moral 
argument for increasing this minimum wage.
  I point out that in 1996 when we passed this--my friend from Nevada 
may well remember--my friends on the other side finally went along. 
Remember, we had a Democratic President. They predicted we would have a 
terrible economy because we were raising the minimum wage. Oh, this was 
going to be a damper. This was going to be awful. What happened? We had 
the greatest economic recovery we have ever seen, the greatest economic 
boom we have ever seen.
  Now, when we are making a plea to our colleagues that those who have 
carried this country through these good times have fallen behind, they 
are too busy thinking of ways to cut the taxes for the people at the 
top.
  I believe it is important to note, as we look at this economic record 
and how terrible it is, that there are a few actions we could take.
  Yes, we did something today. We got some budgetary discipline back 
into this body today. I am proud we did

[[Page 20985]]

that. But I say to my friends, there is lots we could do to change this 
pattern. One is to change this stagnating minimum wage. Give a little 
boost to a few people. They will turn around, spend it at the corner 
store, have more dignity, and spark this economy in a way that all the 
tax cuts to the top people just don't. It just doesn't happen that way.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mrs. BOXER. I am happy to do that.
  Mr. REID. The Senator mentioned the creation of jobs during the 8 
years President Clinton was in office. The Senator is aware, I am 
certain, that he, during his administration, created over 20 million 
new jobs.
  What has happened during the first 2 years of the Bush administration 
is there have been over 2 million jobs lost. A net gain of over 20 
million jobs under Clinton; already a net loss of 2 million jobs under 
Bush.
  Would the Senator comment on that?
  Mrs. BOXER. Yes. I have pointed out here, as has the Senator, my 
friend, and Senator Daschle, record job losses that we are seeing, the 
weakest economic growth. We all know stories. We read the headlines: 
10,000 jobs lost here, 5,000 there, 2,000 there.
  I say to my friend from Nevada, behind every one of these record job 
losses is a personal story. It is not as if this administration is 
willing to give folks the tools to retrain. We on this side of the 
aisle have to fight every inch of the way to save programs that give 
people the tools to retrain. We have had to fight the Bush 
administration on the H-1B program--it is a wonderful program that my 
friend has supported along with me--to retrain people. We have personal 
stories of those people, where they have done so well with worker 
retraining. We have to fight every step of the way. Even with the free 
trade bill, there was a big struggle to see if we could make part of 
that, at least, some worker retraining.
  My friend is right. This is not only a terrible record, it is a 
reversal from policies that were brought to us by a Democratic 
President, Bill Clinton, that brought us a wonderful economy and hope 
in our future.
  I think it is important that our friends ask, What do you Democrats 
want to do? I think Senator Daschle laid that out.
  I want to spend a couple of minutes in closing by laying out what our 
solution is here.
  We took a step today--budget enforcement. Here it is. We took a step. 
We couldn't get it for another year. We took it for as long as we could 
get it.
  It is going to take 60 votes--at least through April--to raid the 
Social Security trust fund again. It is going to take 60 votes to bleed 
this budget without paying for it.
  So we did that. That is something Alan Greenspan said we should do.
  What else can we do?
  Unemployment insurance. We have people who are suffering because they 
cannot find a new job in this terrible recessionary period. They need 
an extension of unemployment. Day after day Democrats have been down 
here asking, begging, cajoling, Can we not pass another extension?
  We can't get it through. They do not want to raise the minimum wage. 
People can't live on a minimum wage.
  They won't expand unemployment insurance to help people get through 
until they find a job.
  What is their answer? More tax cuts for the rich. It doesn't work. We 
tried that. I didn't vote for it, I am happy to say. But it passed here 
because most Presidents get 90 percent of what they ask for. That is 
true of Democrat Presidents and Republican Presidents. The President 
got it.
  What have we seen as a result? Terrible times.
  That is not the answer. Why doesn't this President spend some time on 
the economy? Call Senator Daschle and say, Senator Daschle, you came 
over here to the White House to talk about the war in Iraq. Congressman 
Gephardt, the Democratic leader, you came over here and talked about 
the war on terror. We speak as one voice on foreign policy. Even if we 
have a few disagreements along the way, we set them aside. Why don't we 
have time to talk about this economy, Mr. President?
  I have been saying we have to do foreign policy and economic policy. 
We have to do more than one thing at a time.
  Now the President is doing two things at one time--foreign policy and 
campaigning.
  Call off those campaign trips, Mr. President. Let us have a little 
summit and talk about the need for unemployment insurance and have that 
to stimulate our economy so people get their money.
  Minimum wage. This man is a compassionate man. I have seen compassion 
in his face. I know he has compassion in his heart. Where is his 
compassion for the people who are working at the bottom of the ladder? 
Let us talk about it, Mr. President.
  Fiscal relief to States. This administration is asking States to do a 
lot after we were attacked on 9/11, and the States are trying their 
best. We have been hit with recession. Where is the money for port 
security? Where is the money for airport security? Where is the money 
for chemical plant security? Where is the money for nuclear plant 
security? We gave it to this President--and he refused to spend it--
$5.1 billion for all those things. He is complaining that we will not 
pass this reshuffling and this new Department, which I have a lot of 
doubts about. You could do more good by spending the $5.1 billion that 
we Democrats and Republicans voted to spend under the emergency powers 
we have.
  Instead of walking away from that, that would have helped our people 
in local and State government. That would have helped our people by 
giving them protection.
  We are offering people who live within 10 miles of a nuclear power 
plant an iodine pill in case they are exposed. Wouldn't you rather 
prevent something from happening by making sure that the plants are 
secure?
  All of these things are on point with the economy because we must 
protect the homeland, and if we do it right, we will provide jobs and 
we will stimulate this economy. It all fits in with fiscal relief to 
States, and that will help this economy.
  We have even offered rebates and better targeted business incentives. 
Why do we give businesses incentives to run away off shore to avoid 
taxes? Let us give them real incentives to invest, real incentives to 
hire, and real incentives if they retrain workers.
  I already talked about investments in homeland security. But I didn't 
mention schools.
  We have schools that are falling apart, Mr. President. I know how 
dedicated you are to education. You and I know there is a message sent 
to our children when they go to school and there are tiles falling off 
the ceiling, the place is dirty, and you are breathing in mold. Some of 
these schools haven't been really touched in tens of years. That is 
where our teachers are supposed to teach our children.
  We Democrats believe you are sending a message when a child goes to a 
department store and sees how beautiful it is. There is a message 
there. It is a subtle message--or maybe it is not so subtle. Gee, this 
is important. But when the child goes to school, the place where they 
are going to get the American dream--I am the product of public 
schools. I never went to a private school in my life, from kindergarten 
through college. It is the way I got the skills I needed.
  We need to invest in those schools. In that investment, we will give 
a boost to this economy.
  Investment in health research. How many people do we meet whose 
relatives are suffering from Alzheimer's, or cancer, or heart disease, 
or diabetes? We know we have a host of diseases--spinal cord injuries. 
We should invest in that science. That will help our people. It will 
lift our economy.
  Pension reform. God knows we need pension reform. We can't have a 
circumstance where people are relying on a pension, and when they are 
ready to retire it is not there. That is devastating. It is devastating 
to our whole country. The bottom line is we haven't done anything about 
pension reform. We haven't attacked the problem. Our

[[Page 20986]]

friends on the other side of the aisle are not interested in it. That 
is a fact.
  We now have to enforce the Corporate Accountability Act. Harvey Pitt 
was supposed to appoint someone under the new board created in the 
Sarbanes bill. It got a little too hot at the top there for this man. 
It was too good, and they backed off.
  How can we get anywhere against these people who are in these high 
positions in corporate America if we don't enforce our own laws?
  This President needs a new economic team.
  I listen to the people who come here, and they talk about how great 
the economy is. It is a rosy scenario. They do not even admit we have a 
problem. I could name every single one of them, and I could give you 
their quotes. Maybe someone will do that later in the day. But every 
single member of the economic team is in denial: Oh, everything is 
wonderful. The stock market is turning around. Recession, we don't have 
a recession. We have turned the corner.
  Maybe this is the reason they do not want to act on any of these 
issues. They don't want to raise the minimum wage. They don't care. 
They don't want to give people unemployment insurance. They do not 
care. They don't care about our States. It is unbelievable to me.
  Here is the bottom line. We are getting ready to leave here for a few 
weeks. The people of America are going to make their decisions. I just 
hope whatever side of the aisle they are from, or whatever ideology 
they are from, whatever they are thinking, they will assert their 
responsibility and vote in this election. This election is crucial.
  I meet people all the time who say, Oh, all the candidates are alike. 
No; not true. If you broach any of these issues to people who may have 
touched your heart, you will find people with differing views.
  You are never going to find anyone with whom you agree 100 percent of 
the time. But what happens in this Chamber is dependent on the views of 
the American people. And this is an important time. Whether you agree 
with everything I said, whether you agree with 50 percent of what I 
said, or if you disagree with me on everything I said, that is not 
important.
  It is important to understand what is at stake right now. Are we 
going to move forward with an economic plan that addresses this economy 
while we engage in the challenge we were given on September 11 and all 
the other foreign policy challenges we face? I think we have no choice. 
We need to do more than one thing at a time. We need to do a lot of 
things.
  (Ms. CANTWELL assumed the Chair.)
  Mrs. BOXER. I see my friend from Washington is now presiding. She and 
I have worked very hard to preserve and protect the environment of this 
country. Not a day goes by that this administration isn't doing 
something to weaken our environmental laws, whether it is clean air or 
it is clean water. We all know what happened with arsenic in the water. 
We stopped that. But every day, in every way, they are doing something 
to weaken laws.
  Just the other day, in California, this administration sided with the 
big auto companies. They are suing my State because my State wants 
clean air and they want to see cars that emit less pollution.
  Here is an administration that claims they love States rights, they 
love local control. Well, they love States rights, and they love local 
control, unless they disagree with your State at the moment or your 
locality at the moment. Then, suddenly, oh, the Federal Government: We 
are the ones who have to make the rules.
  So there is so much at stake. I just took to the floor because I 
thought before we recessed, I might put it in the Record. I want to 
say, in relation to all these issues that are so very difficult--the 
issue of war and peace, the issue of this economy, the issue of the 
environment, the issue of a woman's right to choose, that is under 
tremendous attack every day by this administration--and I should 
mention the horrible time people in the Washington, DC, area are going 
through because of a sniper out there--these are hard times, but a 
little light peeks through every once in a while.
  I thought I would end on an up note: Two of my teams in California 
are going to the World Series. So even in these hard times, a little 
brightness shines through. For this Senator from California, I could 
not be more proud of these two teams from San Francisco and Anaheim.
  It is going to be very hard for me. What am I going to do? I have to 
root for everybody. But whatever happens, California will win. And if I 
have my way, once that is over, I want California to win on this 
economy, on the environment. I want the kids in my State to have the 
best education, the best health care, the best life, the best shot at 
the American dream.
  So after the World Series is over, and after the elections are over, 
I will be back here and I will be fighting for those very things.
  I thank you very much, Madam President. I yield the floor and suggest 
the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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