I call up amendment No. 207. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the clerk will report. The legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Vermont [Mr. Sanders], for himself, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Ms. Boxer, Ms. Stabenow, Mr…

I ask the Senate set aside the pending amendment so I can call up amendment No. 207. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Amendment No. 207

this amendment is identical to the Social Security Protection Act I introduced yesterday with Senators Mikulski, Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Blumenthal, Stabenow, Akaka, Whitehouse, Begich, and Lautenberg. This legislation has the strong support…

This standard will save, we believe, some 17,000 lives every year.

The economic benefits of the Clean Air Act are estimated at more than 30 times the cost of compliance.

I think we all know elections have consequences. I doubt seriously, however, that when most voters went to the polls last November, they were voting for more of their kids to get aggravated asthma or more people to go to the hospital with…

I will try to bring this budget debate down to Earth and talk a little bit about the reality of what is happening and go beyond the amount of numbers that are out there. My good friend from Alabama who sits with me on the Budget Committee…

as you well know, Congress is now engaged in a debate of huge consequence; that is, the budget. The budget of a nation, like the budget of a family, expresses who we are as a people and what our priorities are. Where you spend your money…

Last month, Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Robert Aderholt, Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Representative Robert J. Wittman, and Representative Dennis Kucinich met with two members of the Russian Federation lower house of…

we face as a nation some of the most difficult circumstances this country has faced since the Great Depression. Two of the major issues we are facing is the collapse of the middle class and, simultaneously, while poverty increases and the…

Thank you very much, Madam Chairman.

It appears to me we are making some progress. Can you give us some background on that?

Everybody is concerned about the high costs of health care in the United States.

I know that you are also focusing on two of the major signature problems of our time, and that is PTSD, a very, very serious problem, and TBI.

You made that point, and you pledged to us that you would address that issue, which you are doing.

The fact that veterans do not have to drive long distances to a large hospital to get the primary health care they need is a huge benefit to them.

We are working with other organizations, we are making some significant progress.

But you would argue that at a time of great concern about health care costs, you are running a cost-effective operation?

I think what Senator Inhofe is saying in a sense is correct.

So the bottom line is that investing in maintaining clean air and water creates jobs?

Enforcing the Clean Air Act vigorously not only saves lives but it also saves money.

I suggest those pundits and economists and politicians take a look at the booklet we recently produced in my office. It is called ``Struggling Through the Recession--Letters from Vermont.'' We have also received letters from other States…

We are in the midst of this recession right now primarily, in my view, because of the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street.

We don't want it invented in the United States and manufactured in China.

We are getting out the weatherization money that came from the Department I think very rapidly and effectively.