This is an excellent, necessary bill for small businesses in this country who need the credit flowing. And those who vote ``no'' are standing in the way of that flow of credit for the small businesses of this country. Inexcusable.

I know the Senator from Hawaii has to leave, but before he goes I just wish every American could have heard from a hero not of this body, of this Nation but of the world. Senator Inouye did more than swim against the tide in order to put…

Mr. President, I want to quote Admiral Mullen. Admiral Mullen reached a conclusion about the necessity to change this policy. He reached this conclusion, I hope and believe, without any regard to an election coming up. Admiral Mullen…

if what the Senator from Florida said is going to occur, it indeed would be a broken system. But the majority leader has said and said publicly that there are many other important matters that both sides of the aisle wish to address other…

ever since an act of horrific violence on a bright blue morning 9 years ago, our Nation has been at war. At home and abroad, this war has tested our Nation, tested our military strength and our diplomatic skill, tested our resilience and…

Well, again, I would point out again that not only do the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and our service chiefs object to this truncated process, being left out of the final decisionmaking process, they do not have to sign on to any…

I hope we will proceed to the Defense authorization bill this afternoon. The Senator from Maine, as far as I am concerned, has raised a very legitimate question about whether amendments will be offerable to this bill, and the majority…

I wish to thank Senator Brown for his service on the committee. He has been invaluable to the committee, and I very much appreciate that. The Senator's statement that he favors an open process is one that I share. That is why I talked to…

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has reached a conclusion, the Secretary of Defense has reached a conclusion--that this policy should be changed. It should be. We ought to debate it. Whether to change this policy, how it is…

I am writing to urge the Senate to vote in support of the 2001 national Defense Authorization Act. Each element contained in the legislation that passed the Senate Armed Services Committee is essential to the maintenance of a strong…

This bill includes a handful of contentious provisions which were adopted during the course of the markup. There always are contentious provisions in this bill, and the reason we are here is to debate those provisions. Hopefully, we will…

we have enacted a National Defense Authorization Act every year for the last 48 years, and we need to do the same this year. I hope we can at least make some progress during the next few days and weeks on this bill. This year's bill would…

I went through a long list of the items we added to the bill, probably three pages of types of items that we added in the Armed Services Committee that support the troops, their readiness, their capabilities, their benefits. He…

the bill H.R. 6102 is an important bill. Based on authority provided in two acts, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 and the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010, the Navy and contractor…

I will be very brief and save most of the debate for next week, but I do want to respond to a few of the statements my friend from Arizona made. First of all, in terms of hate crimes amendments, last year when we adopted this, it was not…

It has proven much more difficult to get bills passed to accomplish that. On both sides of the aisle we say we are in agreement that small businesses are the engines of job growth. Before us is a bill that would put our words into action…

The minority comes here and talks about wishing to be back at a jobs fair for those who are unemployed and looking for work, having voted against continuing unemployment compensation for those out of work and looking for it. The minority…

The main point is that the place to debate these policies is on the floor of the Senate. The Senate will determine, if we can get this bill to the floor, whether we make that conditional change in the don't ask, don't tell policy or…

It is the intention, I hope and believe, of the leader, and it is surely my intention this year, that we have an amendment process which is traditional for the Defense authorization bill; that it be a very open process for amendments on…

I will be happy to tell the Senator from Arizona what hate crimes has to do with the defense of this country. Men and women who defend this country defend this country for a lot of reasons. One of them is we try to act against hate in this…

there can be no doubt of the need for this bill, which includes an extension of enhanced Medicaid funding to States and funding to help keep teachers in the classroom and out of the unemployment line. Failure to enact this extension would…

earlier this week I spoke on the Senate floor, calling for the confirmation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. I added my voice to a chorus of bipartisan praise for her…

I wish to add my support to the many voices calling for the confirmation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. At a time when the discussion of our legal system is so often dominated by…

I and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Camp have asked the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation to make available to the public a technical explanation of H.R. 5982, the ``Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2010''. This technical…

There's obvious discomfort on the side of the minority. There's a claim about procedure. What I said before about our notice to motion on the motion to recommit is exactly correct. Now, you say we should act on elimination of 1099? That's…