[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6429-6432]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              JOB CREATION

  Mr. CARPER. I am not quite as proud, however, when it comes to one of 
our responsibilities; that is, the responsibility to provide and 
nurture a climate for job creation and job preservation. I talk a lot 
with small business folks, and I talk in my work with people who run 
pretty big businesses. One of the things I have heard again and again--
not just this year but last year and the year before--large businesses 
are making a fair amount of money these days and a lot of them are 
sitting on a pile of cash. When you ask them, why are you sitting on a 
pile of cash and not hiring people, what we hear from a lot of them--
particularly large businesses--is businesses like certainty and 
predictability. In too many areas--areas we actually have something to 
do with--there is not the kind of predictability and certainty those 
businesses need.
  For example, are we going to get serious about reducing our deficit? 
I hope so. I think the Deficit Commission, led by Erskine Bowles and 
Alan Simpson, gives us a pretty good roadmap to take $4 trillion out of 
the deficit over the next 10 years. I hope in the end we will use that 
as a roadmap, not to use it with precision but to use it as a roadmap. 
But that is a big uncertainty.
  The Tax Code. What about our Tax Code? We are running sort of a 2-
year extension of the previous Tax Code, but that will end at the end 
of next year. What are we going to do about it? There is a lot of 
uncertainty there.
  We have worked long and hard to try to pass health care legislation 
that is designed not just to extend coverage to people who do not have 
it but also designed to get us to better health care outcomes, to 
achieve better health care outcomes for less money, or at least better 
health care outcomes for the same amount of money.
  We have the prospect of the Federal courts, with a number of 
litigations that are underway around the country, either at the circuit 
court of appeals level or maybe someday at the Supreme Court level, 
taking apart pieces of the health care bill. We need some certainty 
there, and we need the courts to act on it. I am not a lawyer, but some 
of my friends are, and some of them, who are a lot smarter than I am on 
these things, suggest that as far as they are concerned, this meets 
constitutional muster. We need an answer and we need to get on with it. 
To the extent we need to change the health care legislation to fix it 
and make it better, let's do that. But there is a lot in the 
legislation that enables us to get better health care results for less 
money. We need to do more of what works.
  There is a lot of uncertainty with respect to transportation policy, 
on the series of extensions of the transportation programs for this 
country.
  The way it works, if you will, Mr. President: Looking at my podium 
here, we will say right here is the transportation trust fund, and 
right here in the middle is the general fund for our country, our 
Treasury, and over here on the other side is sources of capital from 
the rest of the world. We do not have enough money in our 
transportation trust fund over here to build transportation projects. 
We end up borrowing

[[Page 6430]]

from the general fund right here, moving funds over to the 
transportation trust fund. Unfortunately, we do not have enough money 
in the trust fund to run the general government, so we go overseas and 
borrow money from everybody we can to replenish the general fund, in 
order to put money in the transportation trust fund. It is crazy, and 
it is one of the reasons why we have a big budget deficit. We have 
uncertainty. The transportation system in this country has been awarded 
a grade ``D'' as in ``dealt,'' actually a grade ``D'' as in 
``decaying'' because that is what is going on in our transportation 
system. I think things worth having are worth paying for. We need to 
get on with it. That is a source of uncertainty.
  The last one is energy policy. As we see runups in energy prices--the 
price of fuel at the pump--people are wondering, What are we going to 
do about it? Part of what we tried to do is say, we want more energy 
efficient cars, trucks, and vans to be built in this country. We 
changed the CAFE legislation to raise the fuel efficiency standards for 
cars, trucks, and vans. So now, by 2016, the overall average has to be 
36 miles per gallon--a huge increase from where it has been since 1975.
  That is being ramped up, and that will help. But beyond that, we do 
not have, really, the kind of energy policy we need. That is another 
uncertainty.
  So those are five reasons why large businesses, especially, sit on a 
pile of cash and are not hiring. One of our obligations is to address 
those uncertainties. My hope is we will do it. We actually got off to a 
pretty good start this year in a couple ways. No. 1, we passed the FAA 
reauthorization, the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization. 
In doing so, we agreed on a revenue package--agreed to by the 
industry--to be able to modernize the air traffic control system--that 
is great--to be able to put some extra money toward airport 
construction--that is good as well--as part of our infrastructure 
system.
  We passed in the Senate patent reform legislation. If the Presiding 
Officer from Montana were--and he is a very clever fellow, but if he 
invents or thinks he has invented a product or technology, and he goes, 
under current law, to the patent office and files for a patent, I can 
come along, even if I had nothing to do with that technology or that 
product, and say I had that idea first and draw him into a lawsuit and 
maybe make it difficult for him to actually get his patent.
  We changed that in this patent reform legislation. If he is the first 
one to file, then he is the first one to file, and a patent troll like 
me would not be able to get in the way and create mischief and simply 
maybe ultimately get bought out. So the idea of changing that is very 
encouraging.
  We have a deficit reduction agreement for this fiscal year, which 
took about $40 billion or so out of our spending, and that is 
encouraging.
  We have actually another piece of encouraging legislation that I 
think passed by unanimous consent in the last Congress on small 
businesses and how to help small businesses do more innovative research 
and how to help them ease their ability to do technology transfer. I 
think it passed by unanimous consent last year.
  And now, so far this year, we have been working on this legislation 
off and on since March, since the early part of March, and we have a 
whole lot of amendments that have been offered to the bill. One of them 
is from myself and Senator Vitter, Senator Coburn, and Senator 
McCaskill, Senator Begich, and a bunch of other people. It is not 
related to small business but it is certainly related to the deficit. 
What it does is--as the President mentioned in his State of the Union 
Address, we have thousands, maybe tens of thousands of pieces of 
surplus property the Federal Government owns that we are not using. We 
pay money to keep them secure. We pay money for their utilities, for 
their upkeep. We are not using them. We ought to sell them. We cannot 
give them away to State and local governments, homeless groups. We 
ought to sell them, at least get them off our books. That is going to 
be offered as an amendment to this small business bill. My hope is my 
colleagues will support it. Senator Landrieu, who chairs the Small 
Business Committee, and Senator Snowe, who is the ranking Republican 
member--previously the chair--have worked on the underlying bill for 
something like 6 years--6 years. It passed, again I will say, I am 
pretty sure, last year, by unanimous consent. We need to get it done. 
My hope is that those of us who have amendments, especially those that 
are not controversial, will have an opportunity to offer our amendments 
to this bill, and then we need to move on.
  It is interesting, if you look at small businesses, an inordinate 
number of scientists actually work for small businesses. Something 
like, I want to say, 40 percent of America's scientists and engineers 
actually are employed by small businesses. We have some studies that 
show the small business innovation and research programs actually are 
responsible for something like 25 percent of our Nation's crucial 
innovations over the past decade and account for, again, something like 
40 percent of America's patents.
  For us to be successful in the 21st century, we need to, as the 
President likes to say, outeducate, outinnovate, and outcompete the 
rest of the world. Part of what we need to do is make sure we are 
creating a world class workforce, we are producing a world class 
infrastructure, and, finally, we are making sure we are making research 
and development investments that will lead to products that can be 
commercialized, ideas that can be commercialized, turned into products 
we can be making here in this country and selling around the world.
  I think if we can somehow figure out how to resolve our differences 
so the people who want to offer amendments to this bill, especially 
noncontroversial ones, maybe they can be successful, and let's save the 
controversial stuff for another day. We may disagree on 20 percent. 
That is Senator Enzi's 80 percent/20 percent rule. Let's agree to the 
80 percent and put it in the bill. The 20 percent that we don't agree 
on, let's work on that and save it and have additional hearings and 
deal with that later.
  In the meantime, why don't we pass this bill. Why don't we make it 
easier for small businesses to get R&D money, to be able to do 
technology transfers. In some cases where that is noncontroversial, why 
don't we make that happen. If we do that, we can show the American 
people we can work together and get stuff done, and we will actually 
help small businesses get stuff done. We will help them make money and 
hire more people and, in the end, some of those people and businesses 
will pay more taxes, which will bring down the deficit. That is a 
pretty good outcome. It is worth pursuing.
  I commend Senator Landrieu and Senator Snowe for working on this 
legislation for 6 years. We need to put that good work to the vote and 
move on.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut is recognized.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Delaware for 
those very important and insightful comments both on the Navy SEALS and 
on the small business legislation that is pending before this body.
  Mr. President, as my colleague, the distinguished Senator from 
Delaware, has mentioned, over the last 36 or so hours, our Nation and 
its allies around the globe have rightly celebrated an extraordinary 
military triumph, a great victory in the war on terror, a turning 
point, perhaps, toward peace: Osama bin Laden, the heinous mastermind 
of the 9/11 attacks, who murdered thousands of Americans, has been 
finally brought to justice.
  We are rightly celebrating the extraordinary service, bravery, and 
skill of the Navy SEALS who were the tip of the spear--an American 
military that has brought to justice one of the worst war criminals of 
our time.
  We celebrate not only, of course, the Navy SEALS, but all of the men 
and women who have given their lives and their service over the past 
years, and their families. We celebrate also the intelligence 
community's support of this effort, which was so crucial.

[[Page 6431]]

  Yet even as the celebration has been conducted, on one small beach in 
Connecticut this news was greeted with solace and somber remembrance. 
It is the beach at Sherwood Island, in Connecticut, which is home to 
the living memorial for the Connecticut victims of 9/11, a memorial to 
152 victims of this tragedy, this murderous attack by the man who has 
now been brought to justice. It is a beautiful place--exquisitely and 
heartbreakingly beautiful. The skyline of New York is visible from this 
point, jutting out from Westport. The skyline of New York could be seen 
in flames on the day of 9/11. This place provided a staging area for 
many of the relief efforts that happened on that day and succeeding 
days. Now it is a place where the community of Westport, the State of 
Connecticut, and the world can remember that tragedy and the people who 
lost their lives. It is also the place where every year Connecticut 
gathers to honor their memories and their families.
  Many come--as some did yesterday--with very mixed feelings. The 
recent news, while welcome indeed, brings forth anew the agony of their 
loss. I know there are mixed feelings because I talked, a short while 
ago, with Lee Hanson, who is the father of Peter Hanson. Peter, his 
wife Sue Kim and their daughter Christine Lee Hanson all lost their 
lives on that day. Christine was only two and a half years old. People 
came to that place yesterday and on many other days to pay their 
respects and reflect on the tragedy of 9/11. They have felt 
ambivalence, mixed feelings, and their grief is renewed. For them there 
is no celebration because the legacy of their loss remains.
  At the memorial, on a granite marker in Westport, there reads the 
following:

       The citizens of Connecticut dedicate this living memorial 
     to the thousands of innocent lives lost on September 11, 
     2001, and to the families that loved them.

  Today, while there are many voices who celebrate this victory--and 
rightly so--there are voices that are harder to hear, perhaps unheard: 
the victims and their families whose memory I wish to honor today. I 
wanted to take a moment of our time to recognize those that cannot 
speak, but in whose memory justice was served.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the names of 
those 152 men and women from Connecticut who died on September 11, 
2001, as they are recorded on the memorial that honors their legacy at 
Sherwood Island.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              Connecticut Victims on September 11th, 2001


      First Row of Stones (South or Left looking toward Monument)

       Richard M. Keane; Peter R. Kellerman; Stacey Leigh Sanders; 
     Joshua Piver; Lawrence Getzfred; Jonathan J. Uman; Scott 
     Thomas Coleman; Keith Eugene Coleman; Richard S. Gabrielle; 
     Thomas M. Brennan; Ronald Gilligan; Jeffrey D. Bittner; John 
     Fiorito; William J. Meehan, Jr.; Eskedar Melaku; Glenn Davis 
     Kirwin; Joel Miller; Adam J. Lewis; Michael M. Miller; Steven 
     Lawrence Glick; Eamon McEneaney; Craig William Staub; James 
     Thomas Waters, Jr.; Frederick Varacchi; James Andrew O'Grady; 
     Edward ``Teddy'' F. Maloney; Charles A. Zion; Michael J. 
     Lyons; Amy King; Michael C. Farrou; Heather L. Smith; Raymond 
     Joseph Metz, III; Jason E. Sabbag; Candace Lee Williams; 
     Maurice Patrick Kelly; Peter Alan Gay; Stephen Lamantia; 
     Thomas E. Galvin.


      Second Row of Stones (South or Left looking toward Monument)

       Francis Henry (Frank) Brennan; Thomas Anthony Palazzo; 
     James A. Greenleaf, Jr.; Mike A. Pelletier; Michael C. 
     Rothberg; David H. Winton; Allen V. Upton; Peter C. Fry; 
     Kevin P. Connors; Christopher William White Murphy; Madeline 
     Sweeney; Cheryl Ann Monyak; Francis McGuinn; Ada Maason; 
     Robert A. Lawrence, Jr.; Martin Phillips Wohlforth; Joseph A. 
     Lenihan; Jesus Sanchez; Amy E. Toyen; Jeffrey David Wiener; 
     Cesar A. Murillo; Gary E. Lasko; Margaret Quinn Orloske; 
     Derek J. Statkevicus; Randy Scott; Lindsay S. Morehouse; 
     Dianne Bullis Snyder; Sean P. Rooney; George E. Spencer, III; 
     Christopher Orgielewicz; Garry W. Lozier; Gregory T. 
     Spagnoletti; Jude Moussa; James Matthew Patrick; Sean 
     Schielke; Tyler Ugolyn; Ulf Ramm Ericson; Juan Ceballos.


      Third Row of Stones (2nd from Right looking toward Monument)

       Edwin J. Graf, III; Timothy John Hargrave; Christopher W. 
     Wodenshek; Dolores Costa; Geoffrey W. Cloud; Edward T. 
     Fergus, Jr.; Michael Egan; Bradley Fetchet; Andrew 
     Stergiopoulos; James D. Halvorson; John Bruce Eagleson; 
     Edward Calderon; Margaret Connor; Peter Gelinas; Paul M. 
     Fiori; Robert Higley, II; Robert W. Noonan; Michael Grady 
     Jacobs; Patrick Danahy; Christopher Samuel Gardner; Robert 
     Gerlich; John Works; Laurence Abel; John P. Williamson; 
     Michael John Simon; Kiran Kumar Reddy Gopu; John Henwood; 
     Judith Florence Hofmiller; Bradley H. Vadas; Bryan C. 
     Bennett; Timothy M. O'Brien; Kevin Michael McCarthy; Thomas 
     Edward Hynes; John F. Iskyan; H. Joseph Heller; Stephen P. 
     Cherry; Edward Raymond Vanacore; Eric B. Evans.


   Fourth Row of Stones (Right most row when looking toward Monument)

       Paul Curioli; Scott J. O'Brien; William Christopher Hunt; 
     Alexander Braginski; Paul R. Hughes; Donald F. Greene; Pedry 
     Grehan; Edward P. York; James J. Hobin; Ruth McCourt; Juliana 
     McCourt; Osseni Mama Garba; William Hill Kelly, Jr.; Brian 
     Thomas Cummins; Eric (Rick) R. Thorpe; Sandra Campbell; John 
     B. Schwartz; Bennett Lawson Fisher; Mark Steven Jardim; 
     Joseph John Coppo; Richard Peter Gabriel, Sr.; Allen Patrick 
     Boyle; Christopher J. Blackwell, FDNY; Roger Mark Rasweiler; 
     Evan Hunter Gillette; Peter Burton Hanson; Sue Kim Hanson; 
     Christine Lee Hanson; Jean Destrehan Roger; Sean S. Hanley; 
     Wilder A. Gomez; Robert Thomas Jordan; Wendy R. Faulkner; 
     Michael G. McGinty; Michele Heidenberger; Daniel Robert 
     Nolan; James A. Gadiel; Thomas F. Theurkauf, Jr.

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, we should be ever mindful of the 
people whose lives have been changed forever. The families of the 
victims and survivors need our help. Their children may have grown. 
Some may have children of their own. Their lives have moved on. Some 
have come to peace. But their lives, like the lives of the emergency 
responders who ran into the buildings--the firefighters, the police--
have been changed forever. Whether by maintaining a memorial in your 
community, helping to meet the needs of their children, or just 
listening to their voices, it is an honor to help those who have 
already given so much.
  Many questions will arise in the days ahead over what will be the 
course of action for our Nation, but today let us give pause and 
reflect on how America's military has kept focused on justice for the 
victims of terror for almost 10 years. We have lost many servicemen and 
women in the line of duty and many more have been injured in this war. 
The lives of our veterans who have fought and served and sacrificed in 
the war on terror have been changed forever. We owe it to them to never 
forget as we celebrate this victory. We owe it to our veterans who have 
served and sacrificed to honor that service, not just in rhetoric but 
in deed. Our veterans have fought for a Nation that keeps faith with 
them.
  We must make sure to leave no veteran behind in education, jobs, and 
health care--to provide for them what we have obligated and promised to 
provide. While we hope for peace from this day forward, we must do 
everything we can to support the brave American men and women in 
uniform and those of our allies whose relentless service and sacrifice 
have helped us to win this victory. So too do we support the brave 
first responders who are always poised, always ready, to respond when 
their city, State or the Nation calls. They should know they each have 
the thanks of a grateful Nation.
  My hope is that the memory of the victims of 9/11 will bring us 
together in a time of unity and purpose just as that heinous act did on 
that day almost 10 years ago. The brutal murderers of September 11, 
2001, hit the World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon, but they missed 
America, as was remarked at the time. They missed what makes America 
great. They brought us together in a time that we can remember with 
pride because it was a time of resolve and unity.
  I hope the memory of those victims--the 152 from Connecticut and 
thousands more from around the country--as well as their families can 
bring us together now in a renewed sense of unity and purpose to face 
the challenges that lie ahead.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.

[[Page 6432]]


  Mr. REID. Mr. 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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