[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5465-5466]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, the Senate is now considering the motion 
to proceed to S. 1925, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.
  The Republicans will control the first half hour, and the majority 
will control the second half hour this morning. The Republicans will 
also control the time from 11:30 to 12:30 today. The majority will 
control the time from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
  At 2 p.m. the Senate will resume consideration of the postal reform 
bill. There will be several rollcall votes--six to eight votes--at that 
time in order to complete action on the bill.


                             Postal Reform

  I am very gratified about the work that has been done over the last 
many months, which will culminate today in the passing of this postal 
bill. It has been extremely difficult. Lots of people have worked on 
this bill, and it has been a bipartisan effort. It is going to send a 
message to the House that we can do big things.
  It is an important piece of legislation--one of the biggest and most 
complicated we have dealt with in a long time. As I said, I am 
gratified, and I congratulate and applaud Senators Lieberman, Collins, 
and others on our side--especially Senator Tom Carper, who worked hard 
with the chairman and ranking member and many others who were 
stalwarts. We saw that yesterday when there was an effort to bring the 
bill down. That was the first vote we took. Senators stood at their 
desks in the Chamber on a bipartisan basis and indicated how important 
this legislation is. It was a very important day for the American 
people.


                       Violence Against Women Act

  We will be on this legislation I announced dealing with violence 
against women. Each year about 5 million Americans are victims of 
violence by their spouses or partners. Every single day 3 women are 
killed at the hands of their abusers, and every day 9 or 10 are beaten 
very badly. They are hospitalized, and some have permanent injuries 
from their abusers. We authorize and ensure in this law that the police 
have the tools to more effectively stop this and prosecute those people 
who are the abusers.
  As I said yesterday, I held hearings many years ago on this subject, 
and the one issue that was pronounced so clearly is that in many 
instances the only thing that helps these abusers is to send them to 
jail. It works better than counseling, better than threats, and people 
should realize we need law enforcement to have better ways of 
approaching these calls they get all the time.
  I also mentioned yesterday that in Las Vegas one of our prized police 
officers, a sergeant on the police force for many years, was called to 
a scene along with one of the junior police officers, and he was killed 
as soon as he walked in the door. This is an important piece of 
legislation. It has 61 cosponsors, and we should pass it.


                             Student Loans

  Madam President, the Senate has a long list of things to do. One of 
the things we have to do is stop the raising of interest rates on 
students who borrow money to go to school. We were fortunate to reduce 
this rate from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. We cut it in half. We did 
this in 2007. We had just obtained a majority in the Senate, and we 
worked on this very hard. It went to President Bush, he signed the law, 
and rightfully so.
  Everyone should understand this is a bill that was signed by 
President Bush. We need to go back to what he signed. We cannot have 
these rates go up. If we don't act by July 1, more than 7 million 
students will be forced to pay an average of $1,000 more each year for 
these student loans. College is already unaffordable for too many 
people. I hope we can get this done.
  I am going to stop my comments because I was, of course, impressed by 
the remarks of the guest Chaplain. Many years ago I went to the 
Armenian Church, and it was a wonderful experience. I say to my friend 
from Rhode Island, to whom I will yield in a second, we went to Armenia 
after that very brutal winter when the Turks had cut off the oil to 
Armenia. The Armenians cut down a lot of trees, and they survived. Most 
said they could not. It was a brutal winter. Peace Corps volunteers 
were there and not one left Armenia, even though they suffered along 
with the Armenian people.
  So I have fond memories of my visit to Armenia. I understand the 
resiliency of the people of Armenia, and I remember visiting that 
church.
  I yield to my friend, the Senator from Rhode Island.

[[Page 5466]]

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. REED. I thank the leader for yielding.

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