Congressional Record
111th Congress (2009-2010)
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TAX EXTENDERS ACT OF 2009 -- (Senate - March 09, 2010)
[Page: S1284] GPO's PDF---
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 4213 which the clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 4213), to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend certain expiring provisions, and for other purposes.
Pending:
Baucus amendment No. 3336, in the nature of a substitute.
Reid (for Murray-Kerry) further modified amendment No. 3356 (to amendment No. 3336), to extend the TANF Emergency Fund through fiscal year 2011 and to provide funding for summer employment for youth.
Coburn amendment No. 3358 (to amendment No. 3336), to require the Senate to be transparent with taxpayers about spending.
[Page: S1285] GPO's PDF
Baucus (for Webb-Boxer) amendment No. 3342 to (amendment No. 3336), to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose an excise tax on excessive 2009 bonuses received from certain major recipients of Federal emergency economic assistance, to limit the deduction allowable for such bonuses.
Feingold-Coburn amendment No. 3368 (to amendment No. 3336), to provide for the rescission of unused transportation earmarks and to establish a general reporting requirement for any unused earmarks.
Reid amendment No. 3417 (to amendment No. 3336), to temporarily modify the allocation of geothermal receipts.
McCain-Graham amendment No. 3427 (to amendment No. 3336), to prohibit the use of reconciliation to consider changes in Medicare.
Lincoln amendment No. 3401 (to amendment No. 3336), to improve a provision relating to emergency disaster assistance.
Baucus (for Isakson-Cardin) modified amendment No. 3430 (to amendment No. 3336), to modify the pension funding provisions.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana is recognized.
AMENDMENT NO. 3429 TO AMENDMENT NO. 3336
Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, pursuant to the previous order, on behalf of the chairmen of the Rules and Budget committees, I call up my amendment No. 3429.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Montana [Mr. BAUCUS] proposes an amendment numbered 3429 to amendment No. 3336.
Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. BUDGETARY EFFECTS OF LEGISLATION PASSED BY THE SENATE.
(a) Establishment of Web Page.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--Not later than 90 days after the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Senate shall establish on the official website of the United States Senate (www.senate.gov) a page entitled ``Information on the Budgetary Effects of Legislation Considered by the Senate'' which shall include--
(A) links to appropriate pages on the website of the Congressional Budget Office (www.cbo.gov) that contain cost estimates of legislation passed by the Senate; and
(B) as available, links to pages with any other information produced by the Congressional Budget Office that summarize or further explain the budgetary effects of legislation considered by the Senate.
(2) UPDATES.--The Secretary of the Senate shall update this page every 3 months.
(b) CBO Requirements.--Nothing in this section shall be construed as imposing any new requirements on the Congressional Budget Office.
Mr. BAUCUS. The first amendment is a simple attempt to improve the availability of budgetary information on what Congress does. This amendment would require the Secretary of the Senate to create a new Web site that clearly provides information from the Congressional Budget Office on the legislative actions of the Senate. This is a side-by-side amendment to the Coburn amendment on the same subject.
I believe Senator Coburn has the same purpose in mind, but we have drafted this side-by-side amendment to avoid new burdens on the Congressional Budget Office. The Rules Committee and Budget Committee worked together with us on the drafting of this amendment to assure that it would work.
I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.
I yield the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is all time yielded back? If all time is yielded back, the question is on agreeing to the amendment.
The amendment (No. 3429) was agreed to.
Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. SCHUMER. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
AMENDMENT NO. 3358
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the Coburn amendment No. 3358. There is 4 minutes, evenly divided, before the vote. The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized.
Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, we just voice voted an amendment that will not do anything. What this amendment says is, where we violate our own rules in terms of pay-go, we will actually publish both the number of times and the amount of dollars we do that. It is about transparency of the Senate, being honest with the American people.
With great fanfare, the Senator from Montana came down and we put into law a pay-go law. Since that time, including this bill, we will have passed $120 billion of debt to our kids by saying we waive pay-go.
That is OK. That is the right of the body to do that. But it is not OK not to let the American people know that and let them keep track of us.
This amendment is very simple. Anytime we create a new program, anytime we pass and violate the pay-go rules by overriding the pay-go point of order, then we should list that with the American people so they can see what we are doing. It is quite simple, quite straightforward. It doesn't require any time. You will spend forever going to the Congressional Budget Office to find this. This makes it very simple, very straightforward.
I reserve the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana is recognized.
Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I think we can vote on this. I yield the remainder of my time, but before I do, I think it is a step toward transparency, and I urge all my colleagues to vote for it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. COBURN. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be. All time is yielded back.
The question is on agreeing to the amendment. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
The result was announced--yeas 100, nays 0, as follows:
Akaka
Alexander
Barrasso
Baucus
Bayh
Begich
Bennet
Bennett
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Brown (MA)
Brown (OH)
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Burris
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
DeMint
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Ensign
Enzi
Feingold
Feinstein
Franken
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagan
Harkin
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson
Kaufman
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
LeMieux
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (NE)
Nelson (FL)
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schumer
Sessions
Shaheen
Shelby
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
The amendment (No. 3358) was agreed to.
AMENDMENT NO. 3356, AS FURTHER MODIFIED
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 4 minutes equally divided on the Murray amendment No. 3356.
The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent to use 1 minute and for Senator Kerry to have the second minute.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am offering the youth summer jobs amendment to build on the extremely successful summer jobs program that made it possible for over 313,000 young people to have a job. I have personally heard amazing stories from these young men and women who got a job. It changed their lives and gave them the experience they needed.
This amendment will provide $1.3 billion to create up to 500,000 temporary jobs this coming summer. It will invest in critical employment and learning programs that will help not only these young people but the businesses that hire them. The underlying bill is going to help millions of families across the country who need a job. This amendment will make sure young people get a start in their professional lives, firmly planted on their feet and moving toward success.
[Page: S1286] GPO's PDF
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I thank Senator Murray for her work on this amendment.
Today, almost 15 million Americans are unemployed, 9 million can only find part-time work, and 25 percent of our Nation's teenagers and 42 percent of African-American teenagers are unemployed. Both the TANF Emergency Fund and the summer jobs program provide desperately needed jobs to our Nation's families who are the most vulnerable to our economic down turn. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, extending the TANF Emergency Fund will save more than 100,000 jobs. And providing up to $1.3 billion in funding for the summer jobs program will create 500,000 summer jobs.
I promise my colleagues, provide these summer jobs, and it will save far more than that money in the criminal justice system and in other social services. This is money well invested.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire is recognized.
Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, why do we keep doing this? Why do we keep passing debt on to our children? Why do we keep running program after program out here that is shrouded in sweetness and light but not paid for?
We just passed a pay-go point of order 4 weeks ago to great fanfare, great breast-beating about how fiscally responsible we were going to be. Yet time after time since we passed that pay-go point of order, amendments have been brought to the floor which violate it. This is another one. This amendment costs $2 billion which is not paid for.
Summer jobs may be good. I am sure they are. But why do we want to put the debt for those summer jobs onto the children of the people who are having the summer jobs?
If this is a priority--and it is--let's pay for it. Let's take the money out of some other account. But let's not add to the debt, and let's not once again violate the pay-go rules which this Senate has so loudly proclaimed is the manner in which we will discipline ourselves fiscally. It is a $2 billion item. If we can't stand by pay-go for $2 billion, we are making a farce out of it.
As a result of this violation of pay-go, I raise a point of order against the amendment pursuant to section 201(a) of S. Res. 21, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2008.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mr. BAUCUS. How much time does the Senator from Washington have?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has consumed her time.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, let me be clear: Working with the Finance Committee, this amendment is paid for over 10 years.
I ask that the budget point of order be waived.
Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, is this a pay-go point of order violation?
Mrs. MURRAY. I move that the budget point of order be waived and ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be.
The question is on agreeing to the motion. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 55, nays 45, as follows:
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Begich
Bennet
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown (OH)
Burris
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Conrad
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Franken
Gillibrand
Hagan
Harkin
Inouye
Johnson
Kaufman
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schumer
Shaheen
Specter
Stabenow
Tester
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Whitehouse
Wyden
Alexander
Barrasso
Bennett
Bond
Brown (MA)
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
DeMint
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Johanns
Kyl
LeMieux
Lugar
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Risch
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Snowe
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Wicker
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 55, the nays are 45. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
The point of order is sustained, and the amendment falls.
The Senator from New York is recognized.
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