Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Florida for his outstanding remarks and for his ability and his willingness to stand for the people of Florida because his State has had a great deal of difficulty, not unlike the State of…

We have had three Senators come to the floor. The Senator, the ranking member of the committee is here now, Senator Snowe. I have the greatest respect for the Senator. She outlined a few points that she has concerns about. I will come back…

I thank the Senator from North Carolina, and I ask unanimous consent to yield the next 15 minutes to the Senator from Florida. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The Senator from Florida. Mr. LeMIEUX. I again thank…

Mr. President, I see the cosponsor of this amendment. I will ask unanimous consent for him to be recognized. But before I do, I wish to ask a question of the Senator from North Carolina. Senator Hagan is on the floor. I would like to pose…

Mr. President, I appreciate those remarks. A portion of the LeMieux-Landrieu amendment is to step up exports. The Senator from Oregon has been one of the key designers of this program. He is going to speak about a very important point that…

This says: Is small business credit in a deep recession? This is the NFIB. They are one of the most conservative business organizations. I want to read to you their executive summary. It says: Forty percent of small businessowners…

Mr. President, I see several Members on the floor. I am going to speak for 2 minutes, and then Senator Klobuchar for 1 minute, and Senator Merkley for 10; and if somebody else comes, we will put them in the queue. Senator LeMieux may want…

Yes. It will create many jobs, and maybe we can then have a recovery that has jobs associated with it. That is the effort. We have fashioned this so that it is going to make money for the Treasury. It is not related to TARP funding. It is…

Absolutely, this is a jobs bill. The Senator from Michigan represents a State that has been one of the hardest hit States, the automobile industry. She has firsthand experience there. She knows these numbers as well as I do: From 1993 to…

Absolutely. The Senator is correct. He refers to this long list, which I have read several times on the floor. It is quite lengthy. These are not liberal organizations. They are not even Democratic or Republican organizations. They are…

Mr. President, I have spent the better part of this day on the floor with many of my colleagues speaking about the small business jobs bill that is so important, and I would like to give credit to some of my Republican colleagues. They…

Mr. President, before I speak about the underlying amendment, the small business amendment----

Madam President, I thank the Senator from New York for those very kind words. But I wish to say again I am humbled, actually, to be able to present this amendment because it is quite unusual. Normally a chairman or a chairwoman presents…

Mr. President, I don't think we are under any time agreement. I think the leadership is coming to talk about how we might vote tonight because we have a couple of very important votes to make tonight, if I could speak for the next 10…

Madam President, I wish to yield the 8 minutes to the Senator from Washington, who was extremely instrumental in designing this program. Perhaps the Senator knows I am evidently having some difficulty explaining to some of the Senators…

No, I will not yield. I will say one thing to the Senator from South Dakota. If I took out the words ``big government,'' ``taxes,'' or ``regulations,'' neither the Senator from South Dakota nor most of the Members on the other side could…

I thank the Senator for that question. I would like to respond. I do want to be courteous to the other Members who are on the Senate floor, and if we could get some kind of timeframe, then I would be very open to that. But let me respond…

Then I will continue to speak since I have the floor. I am going to just continue to talk about the bill. I see other colleagues who are coming down to speak about it. I would just like to read some of the letters that have come to my…