Madam President, next Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA is one of America's great civil rights achievements. In its scope and intentions, it ranks alongside major victories…

Are we under controlled time or seeking unanimous consent? The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are not.

I ask unanimous consent to speak for 5 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I thank Senator Landrieu, who chairs the Small Business Committee. Not only does she have the facts, she has the tenacity and ferocity to take on these issues. You always want Mary Landrieu on your team. Like Senator Boxer, there are times…

I thank the gentleman. You know, if you were going to sit around and come up with a movie script of absurdity, you couldn't come up with a script that was this real. In other words, taxpayers out subsidizing first class passenger travel on…

I join my colleagues in support of the U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act of 2010, H.R. 4380. This bill seeks to bolster manufacturing across the country through reductions and suspensions of duty taxes on non-competitive industrial goods…

Mr. President, first, I thank the Senator from Michigan. Her State more than any State in the Nation has been hit harder by this recession and high employment. I am sure, as I have found and the Presiding Officer has found back in…

Let me ask this question of the Senator, through the Chair. I have had heard an argument from the other side of the aisle that says these checks make people lazy; that they don't go out and look for work. With $250 a week, they take it…

Not to mention the State of the Republican minority leader, Kentucky, with 32,200 people who have had their unemployment benefits cut off. I would say to the Senator from Michigan that I am contacted by these families, and they describe to…

Let's get to the hot-button issue--the deficit. Because every Republican who comes to the floor tries to explain why we should change the rules when it comes to unemployment compensation, why we should deny to millions of Americans that…

If the Senator would yield for a question, through the Chair. I have a chart given me by my staff that says in my home State of Illinois--and the State of the Presiding Officer--137,600 people in Illinois have had their unemployment…

I would say to the Senator from Michigan, by way of a question in closing, that it would seem to me a person who is unemployed, who doesn't get the basic check they need to survive and is forced to live in their car, that is a more…

The people of Louisiana have suffered a lot of catastrophes: the BP explosion, fishing industry's down, the tourism industry is down. Now, to add insult to injury, we have the moratorium which is costing thousands of jobs in Louisiana…

Madam President, this afternoon is a historic moment in the history of this great Chamber. Our beloved and now departed Senator from West Virginia, Robert C. Byrd, will be succeeded in office with a temporary appointment from West…

One in every four American households relies on Social Security, including 33.5 million retirees, 7.8 million disabled workers, and 4.2 million children. Its benefits are modest. The average retiree benefit is about $14,000 a year, less…

Social Security benefits make a significant contribution to the well-being of many Americans. Today, 83,545 persons in the Seventh District of Illinois rely upon these payments to sustain their monthly living expenses. Fifty-nine percent…

On rollcall No. 447, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' ____________________

Mr. President, there will be no rollcall votes during Monday's session of the Senate. Senators should expect the next vote to occur at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20. That vote will be on the motion to invoke cloture with…