I am not here to call into question the integrity of any employee of the Department.

this is about geographical equity for all States. The Senate health reform bill just signed into law includes a frontier sweetheart deal that improves Medicare payments for five rural States at the expense of the other 45. The special deal…

Yes? Mr. President, let's wake up. This has to be passed. It has to be passed before the end. One of the problems we always have is that it is not offset. It was included in the Baucus- Grassley bill way back in February. The leader had…

This is the nationalization of the student loan program. For a long time, colleges on behalf of their students have had the benefit of going with a direct student loan from the government or getting it through the banks. They have voted by…

This amendment is based largely on the extenders package that passed the House last week. It includes a 30-day extension for unemployment insurance, COBRA coverage, and the SGR Medicare physicians payment fix. It includes provisions on…

I wish to speak in support of Senator Inhofe's amendment No. 3588, which would be to exclude medical devices for children and persons with disabilities from a medical device tax. I know that when you talk about a medical device tax and if…

my amendment would require the President, the Vice President, Cabinet members, and White House staff to use exchanges created in this bill. It would also fix a loophole so that the committee and leadership staff are also required to obtain…

there is finally some sunshine on the Capitol dome today, and it is a welcome change from all the snow we have had this winter, so it is appropriate that this is Sunshine Week. But that is not a reference to the weather. Sunshine Week is a…

Bloomberg News reported that large Wall Street investment banks were charging 37 percent higher underwriting fees on Build America Bond deals than on other tax-exempt bond deals. Therefore, American taxpayers appear to be funding huge…

I voted against waving a budget point of order to the Murray/Kerry amendment on the grounds that it is not paid for and contained terrible welfare and Medicare policies. The Congress cannot keep spending money it does not have. It is…

Citizens United found that independent expenditures, advertisements, pamphlets, books, documentaries produced independently from a party or candidate's campaign cannot be suppressed under the First Amendment.

It did not reverse a century of law because there was no law limiting independent expenditures until 1947.

The President's charge right there before all the American people that the Court had opened the door to special interests, bankrolling elections, I think was very misleading.

The President claimed that the decision 'reversed a century of law' and 'opened the floodgates' for special interests and foreign powers to 'bankroll American elections.'

According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, only about 7 percent of Americans would actually receive the government subsidy for health insurance under the Senate-passed health care reform bill. The remaining 93 percent of Americans would…

my amendment extends critically needed Medicare provisions for all of 2010, not just part of it. It replaces the provisions that are not fully offset with fully offset provisions, and it adds an additional 3 months for the physician update…

In October of 2008, the Social Security Administration, SSA, announced that beneficiaries would receive a 5.8-percent COLA in 2009, the biggest increase since 1982. This increase was primarily due to record high energy prices. Energy…

a couple of days ago I stated that I had worked in early February to put together a bipartisan package with my colleague, Finance Committee Chairman Baucus, to address some time-sensitive matters that needed to be considered. So I find it…

What I find surprising is, we are taking up a package that, similar to last week's exercise, absolutely belongs to the Senate Democratic leadership; that is to say, we are not taking up a bipartisan package that I put together with my…

We have an administration that insists on giving Miranda warnings to terrorists caught during wartime.

We have an administration that has announced that it intends to hold an Article III common criminal trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

We have an administration that gave Miranda warnings and a lawyer to a terrorist directly coming to America.

We have an administration that not only repealed tough and effective interrogation techniques that are lawful.

in 1997 then-Senator Biden and I sponsored legislation to create the Drug Free Communities, DFC, grant program. At the time, I believed, as I still do today, that one of the most effective ways the Federal Government can prevent drug abuse…

I rise to address the jobs issue and the bill before the Senate. Part of it is to show to my fellow Senators and the American people that the Democratic leadership has a different view on this bill before us that is a partisan bill…