Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 20; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour…

Mr. President, I again thank my colleague for her leadership. We together as a Senate need to stand with our small businesses so we can revive our communities, restore our economy and create jobs for our families. I thank the Senator again…

I thank Senator Levin and will be setting forth here our joint explanation of the Merkley-Levin provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. Sections 619, 620 and 621 do three things: prohibit high-risk proprietary trading at banks, limit the…

Mr. President, I thank Chairman Dodd for yielding to me and for his leadership on financial reform. I yield to Senator Levin.

Mr. President, I rise to engage my colleagues, Senators Dodd and Levin, in a colloquy regarding some key aspects of our legislative intent behind sections 619 through 621, the Merkley-Levin rule on proprietary trading and conflicts of…

I appreciate the gentlelady's courtesy in permitting me to speak on the rule, as I have appreciated her work in her community over the years dealing with the consequences of flooding and water damage. I rise in support of the rule and…

It is important that we no longer put the taxpayer on the hook for massive losses and have the rest of the people who pay flood insurance pay higher premiums while people who should start making some modification waiting 10 years before…

I am proud today to have the opportunity to support H.R. 1722, the Telework Improvements Act of 2009. I would like to thank Representative Sarbanes, Representative Lynch, Chairman Towns and Representative Wolf for their leadership on this…

Mr. President, I rise to address the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill and to share the reasons it makes a great deal of sense to restore the lane markers and traffic signals to our financial system--lane markers and traffic signals that…

For as long as I have been in Congress, I have worked on being a proponent of ``bike partisanship,'' something that everybody ought to be able to agree on. That's why I have been appalled at the repeated attacks on cycling by the…

Mr. President, I rise to speak to legislation I am introducing today, with my colleagues, Senator Crapo of Idaho, Senators Baucus and Tester of Montana, and Senator Wyden, from my home state of Oregon, to protect and restore the Columbia…

I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in reluctant opposition, but I want to acknowledge the hard work of my friend and colleague, Chairman Berman, in piloting this legislation through difficult times. He made some important…

I am proud today to join my colleagues in designating the week of June 13th as High-Performance Building Week. Green buildings present an important opportunity: we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help people lead healthier, more…

Thank you, Mr. President. It is an honor to come and say we need to do right by working families in America, and we need to not do it by creating more unemployment.

Mr. President, we have a chance on the floor of this Chamber to come and debate issues that are important to the success of our families across this Nation. There are some who will come to this floor and they will argue that we should do…

This legislation is personal for me. We've watched our country come back from the brink in the fall of 2008. In my State of Oregon, helped by Recovery Act funds of about $6 billion, we've been able to stabilize and make some progress. Is…

This is part of an ongoing effort which is making a difference. The job losses peaked the month that President Obama took office--not his fault. They had been building for 22 months. Now we are making some progress. Is it enough? All of us…

Thank you. As I am listening to your presentation, talking about what could have happened, what should have happened, and looking at the magnitude of the devastation that we are facing in an ongoing disaster, I was reflecting on my…