today I rise to address the rising costs faced by Americans as they try to heat their homes this winter. Obtaining affordable heating assistance each winter, and cooling assistance during the summer months, is critical to hundreds of…

Thomas Jefferson called religious freedom the ``first freedom.'' As founder and leader over the last 3 years of the Congressional Working Group on Religious Freedom, I wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to this pivotal liberty…

I rise to introduce the ``Sportsmen's Privacy Protection Act'' to address a number or privacy concerns I have heard from my constituents. When I worked with my colleagues to pass the 1996 welfare reform law, we made sure that we created a…

it is sort of with mixed emotions that I am here on the floor to talk about this tax bill. In one sense, I am very happy we are moving forward with the Tax Increase Protection Act. At the same time, I am at somewhat of a loss as to why we…

I think that there is a tremendous amount of commonality here.

This needs to be a cooperative and bipartisan effort.

I am going to propound what I hope will be two unanimous consent requests about one particular issue. The issue is on the anti-Semitic statements made by the President of Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad, who said, among other things, that the state…

our top U.S. trade negotiators traveled this week and last in Europe, Africa, and Asia. They are making a concerted effort to encourage certain influential countries among our 148 trading partners in the World Trade Organization to put…

I first want to start out by thanking the chairman for all the hard work he has put in on this package. The work we have done together has been at times a challenging process, but I certainly appreciate working together, particularly on a…

I have worked with my constituents. I have had I don't know how many meetings with members of labor unions across Pennsylvania to talk about this issue and get their input as to how we can deal with the problem of multiemployer plans to…

What is the impact? Let's take it a step further. Let's assume we were successful tonight in getting the Stop the Raid bill passed and every American would have their own personal retirement account with the money from the Stop the Raid…

while I was trying to be courteous in yielding to my colleague, I want to make a couple of comments about what the Senator from Montana said. I would hope he would go back and read the Social Security Guarantee Act of 2005 because it does…

So this is not just a Stop the Raid bill. This is a truth in accounting bill? This basically says: Here is how much money we are taking in. Here is the obligations that the Federal Government has with this money we are taking in. In fact…

if I may address just briefly the comments made by the Democrat leader before I propound one final unanimous consent request, the Senator from Nevada suggested that there is a legal right to Social Security benefits in the law. The fact is…

Today the Senate unanimously passed the Defense authorization bill. I congratulate Senator Warner and Senator Levin for this long, long, long awaited accomplishment, keeping up the record of the Armed Services Committee in passing Defense…

Senator DeMint and I are here tonight to talk about an issue that has drifted to the back burner of American political discourse. It is unfortunate that it has. It is an issue that both the Senator and I, and I know many others on this…

Would it cure the problem of hiding the deficit? Mr. DeMINT. It is definitely an honest accounting bill. Right now this money goes on the table and the Government secretly sweeps it away and spends it.

The Senator got into something that is a rather complex concept, but it is really important for understanding the difference between what he wants to accomplish and what goes on in the current system. That is, what your bill does is it…

I would just ask the Senator from South Carolina, this bill has something to do with something else I hear a lot about, which is honest accounting. One of the things I hear a lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about…

And lowers the deficit as a result, correct? Mr. DeMINT. Right. We are going to take it off the table and save it. So the whole point is, if you want to keep spending that money as a Congress, we are going to have to recognize it as debt…

I would be happy to yield. I will yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Montana, the ranking member of the Finance Committee. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.

before I talk about the situation in Iraq, I want to mention something that has gone on in my City of Philadelphia which I think deserves recognition during Veterans Day; that is, a situation with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the…

this is a four-part amendment. The first part would provide for a screening for aortic aneurysms, offered by Senator Bunning and Senator Dodd. The second part of the amendment would allow for the purchase of electronic mobility equipment…

I perfectly understand what the concerns are of the Senator from Iowa and would be happy to work with him over the next several hours to get that amendment cleared. Amendment No. 2237 Mr. President, I ask that amendment No. 2237 be called…

This is an amendment that is to instruct the Department of Health and Human Services to purchase of no less than 1 million rapid oral HIV tests. As we all know, the problem of HIV and the spread of HIV continues to be a problem. Experts…