Mr. President, I am still hopeful we can find a way forward. Many things in life are worth fighting for and this bill is one of them. I did not know if we would have to fight 12 hours and a few days or 12 hours and a month. But we are going to continue to fight for a strong small business bill for America. It is extremely important that we focus our attention on small business and that is what this bill does. We have a bipartisan bill. We have had a bipartisan amendment offered by the Republican from Florida, Republican George LeMieux, that got on this bill after 12 hours of debate. It is a stronger bill because of it. Because of a request by Senator Lincoln from Arkansas and, I understand, Senator Saxby Chambliss from Georgia, the leader, our leader, included at the request of both of them--not one, but both the Senator from Georgia and the Senator from Arkansas asked for the farm disaster relief to be included. It costs $1.2 billion. The wonderful thing about it is it is paid for. The status now is we have a very strong bill--$12 billion in tax cuts, a small business lending program and credit and collateral programs, a strengthening of all the SBA programs, the entire bill is paid for, and we have bipartisan support. What could go wrong? Something has. I am not sure that I know all the details of it, but I do know this bill is worth fighting for. I have been joined by the U.S.…
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Mr. President, I would like to speak for up to 10 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is recognized. ____________________
Mr. President, as you know--and many know--I have come to the floor now on several occasions since we arrived back here at 2 p.m. yesterday to talk about an important piece of legislation I have cosponsored with Senator Hoeven. I…
Absolutely. This morning, to prepare for offering this unanimous consent request--which I will do in a very short period of time and ask for a couple of hours of debate tonight and then tomorrow--I spoke to the leader of the building…
In addition, the only other requirement is from the State Department, and I want to put this into the Record. But the bottom line is the last statement of the State Department finds ``there will be no significant impact on the environment…





