I am very pleased to rise with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pay tribute to somebody who is much more than a colleague--someone who is also a mentor and a great friend, the Senator from Maryland, Barbara Mikulski. Today, as we…

I rise today to talk about the bill in front of us and particularly a provision I would like very much to see in this legislation. ... This is one provision that is very important that is in the bill.

But the Senate Republican Caucus is willing to put all of that in jeopardy, hold hostage tax cuts needed by people, working people, middle-class families, small businesses, if they can't get a bonus tax cut for millionaires and…

I agree with my friend from Wyoming. We need certainty in the marketplace, and we are happy to do that. We are happy to create certainty right now that middle-class taxpayers and small businesses will be able to receive tax cuts…

this is not theater. This is about real people in my State who want to work. This is about investing in middle-class jobs and manufacturing. It is about taking a policy that has been in place now for 18 months that has worked and being…

I agree with one thing my friend from Wyoming said in the letter they signed, which is we should not be continuing job-killing practices. I would say after 10 years of tax cuts for the wealthy, where are the jobs? If there ever was a…

The Republicans--and they have now done through a letter to the leader--are basically saying they are willing to risk everything--everything--to give a bonus tax cut--as my friend and colleague from Alaska talks about, not a tax cut…

as we come to the end of the year and the end of the session, I want to talk about what is happening for the American people, for small businesses, what is happening in terms of the Senate, and what is at stake as we come to the end of the…

I rise to speak and to offer S. 3706, the Americans Want to Work Act, and to ask that our body act on this today--now. Americans want to work. That is a fact. That is a fact. People want to work. But this is the worst recession in our…

the reality for us in America is that we will never get out of debt. We will never get out of debt with more than 15 million people out of work. We know it is substantially more than 15 million. We know there are millions of others who…

The bill is designated, as other unemployment extensions have been designated, as emergency spending, just as we would do for any other catastrophe. If 15 million people out of work isn't an economic disaster, I don't know what is. For the…

I rise today asking that we vote to proceed to this measure so that we can have a full discussion and debate and work on the issues that are so important to middle-class families related to incentives for jobs being shipped overseas versus…

We certainly want to focus on the legislation we will have an opportunity to vote on together tomorrow to decide whether we are going to take up a bill that will stop shipping our jobs overseas. That is what this is about. We want to make…

this evening, we will be discussing-- debating--a very important principle; that is, whether we are going to focus on making things in America and whether we are going to stop the incentives that ship our jobs overseas. This debate is…

It took a while but we came up with something that made sense and it was science-based and it was something in the end that was embraced by everyone to go forward.

This Administration has really taken a program that wasn't moving at all and has begun to move it.

the reason we put in the 80 percent was to be different, to create--to be willing to take on a little more risk because of the jobs.

I would urge you to really take the time necessary to bring all parties to the table to work out a balanced approach going forward on this.

Thank you for joining us in a very tragic situation with the Kalamazoo River with the oil spill.

I realize my time is up, Mr. Chairman, but just on that point.

I think this is an ongoing discussion we really need to have.

I have concerns about what appears to be gray areas here in this permitting process.

I am very appreciative that Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi and Senator Durbin and others have been willing to put this in the bill.

I wish to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the legislation that allowed for the formation of real estate investment trusts, now commonly known as REITs. On September 14, 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Cigar…

We are very hopeful that we are going to see that happen very soon.