Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20140107

Ms. Ayotte mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from new hampshire. Ms. Ayotte mr. President , i ask that the quorum call be vacated. The presiding officer without objection. Ms. Ayotte thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , i come to the floor today to talk about an amendment that i will seek to offer on the pending bill, amendment number 2603. We all sympathize with those who are struggling to find work in a difficult economy, and i want to see people get back to work. Certainly a shortterm extension for those who are relying on Unemployment Insurance, if its paid for, will allow a transition for those who are out of work to do what we need to do most in this chamber, and to give them an opportunity to get a goodpaying job. The focus in this chamber most of all needs to be on enacting progrowth policies that will encourage both small and Large Businesses to thrive and grow in our economy and to create jobs. I have voted today to begin debate on the legislation to provide a temporary extension of Unemployment Insurance. And i voted to begin this debate because i believe that both sides of the aisle can find a way to grant this temporary extension to those who are struggling to find work in this difficult economy while making sure that we dont add to the 17 trillion of debt that also threatens our country and our economy. And i continue to believe that any temporary extension in longterm Unemployment Benefits should be paid for in a responsible manner. So i have introduced an amendment, ayotte amendment 2603. I think its an amendment that makes a ton of sense and let me tell you what this amendment does. This amendment pays for the threemonth extension of Unemployment Insurance, it fixes the unfair cut to military cost of living that was just enacted in the budget that i voted against because i felt that this was unfair to those who have served in our military and were singled out for cuts to their Retirement Benefits, unlike anyone else, including, by the way, those who were retired because they had a medical retirement. In other words, those that many of us, i know that the president has visited walter reed as have i, those who have lost arms, legs, they receive a medical retirement, and their cost of living was cut under this budget as well. So my ameny would pay for this temporary Unemployment Insurance for those who are struggling to find work, to give them a transition, to get them back to work, but it would also pay for it to fix and reverse this unfair cut in military Retirement Benefits to their costofliving increase, those who, by the way, have served, many have served multiple tours for our country and have sacrificed a tremendous amount because they moved around, because they have served both, many of them in iraq and afghanistan on behalf of our country. And it would also, in addition to that, give 7 billion to reducing our deficit. And the way i pay for this is to close, to fix an egregious problem in our tax code. Its a problem that was identified by the treasury i. G. It is, frankly, egregious. This is a problem in our tax code that has allowed Illegal Immigrants, has allowed people who are claiming a tax credit, a refundable tax credit for children who shouldnt be entitled to it. Many of these children dont even live in the United States of america or may not even exist. Why . Because when this refundable tax credit, someone claims it, they dont have to put a Social Security number for the child. This is based on a treasury i. G. Report that identified this problem. And this amendment, this simple fix that would require a Social Security number with anyone who is claiming the additional Child Tax Credit on their tax return is estimated to save 20 billion over the next ten years. So paying for fixing the retirement cuts of the costofliving increase that went to those who have sacrificed so much for our country, paying for a temporary Unemployment Insurance extension for those who are trying to find work, reducing our deficit by 7 billion over ten years, all three of those things done by fixing an egregious problem in our tax code. The audit of the treasury i. G. In 2011 reported that individuals who are not authorized to work in the United States of america receive 4. 2 billion by claiming this additional Child Tax Credit. The audit found that the payment of federal funds through this tax benefit appears to provide an additional incentive for aliens to reside in the United States without authorization, which contradicts federal law and policy to remove such incentives. The audit was based upon an analysis of tax returns filed by persons with individual taxpayer identification numbers which are issued to individuals who are required to have a taxpayer i. D. Number for tax purposes but are not eligible for a Social Security number because they are not authorized to work in the United States of america. Again, this saves 20 billion over the next ten years. And let me just tell you how egregious this is. Heres some of the reports about this problem in our tax code. Its fraud. This is fraud that were going to fix. This is Good Government. We should fix this now regardless. This 20 billion is money that should not be going out the door over ten years. Heres some examples from indiana. In fact, i just saw walk in the chamber one of my colleagues from indiana, senator coats. An indiana local television station found that an undocumented worker who was interviewed at his home in Southern Indiana by a reporter admitted his address was used this year to file tax returns by four other undocumented workers who dont even live there. Those four workers claimed 20 children that live in one residence, and as a result the i. R. S. Sent the Illegal Immigrants tax refunds totaling over 29,000. The local station has found that many undocumented workers are claiming tax credits for children who live in mexico. Many children that dont even live in this country are claiming tax credits. Theyre being used by those committing fraud on the i. R. S. To claim for tax credits even though they dont even live in the United States of america. An indiana tax prepareer who acted as a whistleblower to an indiana news station said weve seen sometimes 10 or 12 dependents, most times nieces or nephews, on these tax forms. The more you put on there the more you get back. The whistleblower had thousands of examples. Another example from the whistleblower we got over a 10,000 refund for nine nieces and nephews he said. Pointing would the words niece and nephew listed on the tax form nine times. Were getting an 11,000 refund on this tax return. Theres seven nieces and nephews, he said, pointing to another set of documents. I can bring out stacks and stacks. Its just so easy, its ridiculous. In North Carolina investigators uncovered more than 1,000 tax returns linked to eight addresses in North Carolina last may with refunds worth more than 5 million. Investigators tied at least 17 tax returns totaling more than 62,000 in refunds to a charlotte, North Carolina apartment one woman leased. At another apartment nearby investigators discovered 153 returns valued at over 700,000 in returns, claiming fraudulently this tax credit because they did not have to list a Social Security number. Another address in the same apartment complex had 236 returns worth 1. 1 million in refunds. At another charlotte apartment complex, investigators traced 398 returns to two apartments totaling more than 1. 9 million in additional Child Tax Credits with no guarantee that the children even existed or lived in the United States of america. Another North Carolina woman owned a tax preparation business. A search of that business in her home turned up more returns, dozens of uncashed u. S. Treasury checks, a fedex box containing dozens of foreign birth certificates and a notary public stamp and signature stamp listing her as a notary. That fraud case by the i. R. S. Totaled over 5 million in fraud. In tennessee, a search warrant prepared by the i. R. S. Claims that a phur murfreesboro worker encouraged workers to lie on their children who live in mexico as their depends. The i. R. S. Said the tax preparer filed 600 tax returns over the last three years and although his clients only paid 3. 3 million in taxes, they were able to claim more than 17 million in return, and because of this tax credit and the fact that they did not have to put Social Security numbers for the children that they were claiming a refund for. The refunds left the United States on the hook for 14 million. So heres the question in this chamber. The question is should we affix egregious fraud in our tax code where we have people that arent entitled to work in the country are claiming tax refunds for children, some of which have not been determined to exist, some of which dont even live in our country . Should we fix that in our tax code . Isnt that Good Government . And if we fix it, we can use the pay for, the 20 billion that the joint Tax Committee has estimated to save over the next ten years to do the following. To help for three months give a temporary extension to those americans who are struggling for work right now. To fix the unfair cut to our military retirees, including those who have gotten a medical retirement, those who have, are Wounded Warriors who have been injured, many of them serving in afghanistan and iraq. And return 7 billion to the treasury. So heres the choice. Only in washington would this be the choice. We can fix the egregious problem with the tax code where theres all kinds of fraud and save billions of dollars. We can fix it for those who have sacrificed the most, the unfair cuts to their costofliving increase, those who have served our country admirably and our Wounded Warriors and return money to the deficit. Or what . We can be denied a vote. I hope that i will get a vote on this. Its pretty outrageous if im not granted a vote on this tax fraud that needs to be fixed on behalf of the taxpayers in this country. And that if i cant get a vote to take that 20 billion and to help struggling workers and to fix the unfair cuts to those who have sacrificed the most and taken the bullets for this country and also help fix our deficit, only in washington would that be a tough choice for anyone. How do you vote against doing that . I really hope, mr. President , that the majority leader will allow a vote on this commonsense amendment that will allow us to help struggling workers without adding to the 17 trillion in debt, will allow us to say to our men and women who have sacrificed the most that we arent going to continue to target you with these unfair cuts to your cost of living when no one else has sacrificed under this budget agreement like that, and particularly our Wounded Warriors. And to say to the American Public were going to fix fraud in our tax code and also take some money and apply it to the deficit. Mr. President , it makes so much sense that only in washington would i even be asking the question on the senate floor, will i get a vote on this commonsense amendment that allows us to do important things for the nation and fix this egregious fraud in our tax code, putting taxpayer dollars to uses that they should be put to. I thank you, mr. President , and with the hope that ill get a vote on this commonsense amendment and that my colleagues will support this. Thank you, mr. President. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from indiana. Mr. Coats mr. President , id like to discuss todays vote as others have come down here. First of all, its important to understand that this was a vote to start debate, or whether to start debate. And i was one of those who joined several of my colleagues saying, yes, this ought to be debated. It was not a vote to pass or not pass the legislation. That will come. But the frustration that so many of us have had over this past year in particular of not being able to participate in the process of legislating boiled over at the end of the year. Ended with a change in the rules in the way the senate has operated for more than 200 years. And stuffed the desires of the minority to be able to participate in certain areas regarding nominations. Now theres some talk about doing the same for legislation. That frustration has led to many of us to try to rethink how can we get back to whats called regular order, the way the senate has always operated in the past, the way it operated when i came here in my First Tranche in the senate. I started in the house of representatives back in 1980. I was part of a minority for four straight terms. There, majority rules. And if youre in the minority, you dont have a whole lot of authority. Maybe at that time we held the white house under ronald reagan, and he had the ability to go above a congress which did not support him but went to the American People, and through their efforts many changed their minds in the Majority Party and supported the policies of president reagan. When i came to the senate in 1989, i was asked, whats the difference between the house and the senate . Youre in the minority in the senate. You were in the minority in the house. I said, the ditches i difference going from legislative heaven, from a place lot lower than that in the house, because any senator majority or minority had the opportunity to offer an amendment, to offer an alternative, to offer a substitute, to participate in the effort to pass better legislation. Any senator had that, and anybody in the minority had that, and the majority leader then senator george mitchell, the democrat leader honored that, and it was honored thiewt throughout my time in the United States senate. I was then gone for several years and came back. I thought i came back to that same process, toll fin only to , no, the whole process has been changed. You dont have the rights that you once had. You dont have the opportunities you had. I came here to represent the people of indiana and their wishes and yet now im in a position where i dont even have an opportunity to offer an amendment, an alternative or a substitute say, look, this mabe ma this may be a legitimate issue. I cant support what is being handed to us, take it or leave it. It deserves debate, it deserves alternatives, it deserves to give us an opportunity to try to convince our colleagues that a majority of us can Work Together to pass legislation. And thats the kind of legislation that works as opposed to some of the legislation that were dealing with now that has been enacted simply by oneparty rule. I think looking back on the Affordable Care act the socalled obamacare act those who supported it wish now that it did have bipartisan support, that it was worked out, that some of the alternatives that were presented by republicans were debated and perhaps supported. Maybe wed be in a different position now. So its not right to characterize a vote on a procedural motion to say, lets go afford and open this up for debate. The opportunity to have amendments. And thats why i voted for it. Unemployment insurance is a legitimate issue policy issue to debate. I cant support the proposal that was brought before us, but i can support going afford to discuss that proposal, to look at the alternatives, to offer my own amendments, and to see if our thoughts, our ideas prevail. And im hoping thats what will happen. Now, thats up to the majority leader, senator reid. 2013 did not offer us very many in fact, very few opportunities to do that. We needed up on a really sour note in 2013. It was good we had that break, and were back here this is the second day of the new session of congress. I hope that members both sides of the aisle reflected over this period of time on how we can return the senate to its original intent, how we can get back to socalled regular order, so that we could have legitimate debate on the floor. We could go back and forth with our colleagues. I think if we amend this, it would be a better bill. You dont think that bill really is the one that ought to address this problem, but heres a substitute. Lets debate it and then lets have a vote. And some of us will win, some of us will lose. But every one of us will have the opportunity to have their voice heard, their amendment voted on, their alternative evaluated, and perhaps work in a bipartisan way to come up with something constructive. And so that was the purpose for leaving most of my party and voting for the motion to proceed, to go forward. And here we are. Now we have a chance to debate it. Senator ayotte was on the floor speaking before me, senator po portman, suggestin suggesting wn debate this. We havent come to grips with the deficit. The future consequences for our economy, children, grandchildren, future generations is something were all going to be ashamed of if we dont try to impose some discipline. How do we do that . We start well, we tried many efforts going all the way back to simpsonbowles and all the major effort efforts and were uo get the president s support for any of those, even though he commissioned the simpsonbowles group, which is bipartisan. We have not been able to tbet that larg been able to get tt large effort in place that will put us on the path to fiscal health. When we have new programs, an extension of programs like this is, come before us, we can say, lets, one, reform it so that we really achieve what we want to acheervetion andachieve, and, ns make sure we dont add more taxpayer dollars to our deficit and debt. Lets offset it with something. For those who say, we cant caught penny more, for goodness sakes. The organizations the federal organizations, office of management and budget, Congressional Research service, on and on General Accounting Office and others have proposed numerous ways of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars of savings for programs that are deemed wasteful, fraudulent. Senator ayotte just mentioned specific examples, some in my state, of abuse of the system, and there has been abuse there are concerns about abuse of the Unemployment Insurance, people seeing this not as a help to getting a job and getting comeback into the workforce getting back into the workforce but see this yet as another entitlement benefit that they can receive without putting the effort in to get meaningful employment. Now, we have a responsibility to bring afford measures that i think give people a connection between the unemployment and their ability to get employed. And that has been suggested by senator portman and others here, senator cornyn also talked about that. And so whether it is an offset in order to pay for this so that we dont go further in debt and use taxpayer money foreclosure ssess spending when for excess spending when we know over here theres waste and fraud and abuse in programs that have been deemed dysfunctional, unnecessary, the federal government should have never been involved in this process in the first place. Why not take those programs that have been recommended to us by nonpartisan agencies of the federal government . Senator coburn has spent his career down here pointing out the excessive, outrageous, egregious waste thats gone on and misuse of taxpayer dollars. Thats not how to run a government. My state has had to face up to this, and think faced up to it, and we made ther toug the tough. There is an Interest Group on everything we spend money on, but we separated the necessary, the efficient, the effective from the unnecessary, uneffect uneffective. And we now have been rated as the most taxpayerconsciou cons consciousfriendly state in the nation per capit. Per capita income tax in indiana is the lowest in the nation. And we have an effective, Efficient Government that has a aaa Credit Rating that has been deemed business friendly, taxpayer friendly, residentially friendly, family friendly. It is a good place to live because were not wasting taxpayer dollars and people are tired of spending money on stuff that doesnt work. Wcialtiowell, ive gotten way oy intended statement here. But im expressing my frustration over the ability to participate in a process here that can bring but better use of the taxpayer dollar and more effective government. And i think i speak for a lot of people on both sides of the aisle that the way to do this is simply not to freeze out debate, not to freeze out amendments, not to freeze out the opportunity to offer alternativesment by moving alternatives. By moving through this motion to proceed, im hoping this is a step afford to returning to a process in which were able to do what i just suggested. This decision is going to be up to the majority leader. If he wants honest debate, if you wants the American People to know and awfu and all of us s chamber to examine alternatives, if he wants to be conscious conscientious about spending taxpayer dollars, allow us the opportunity to offer some offsets. Now, senator ayotte had a specific and i think very compelling offset. Take a fraction of the money that that would save and you can cover the cost of this extension, if thats where you think we should go with this. I think major reforms need to be made to this program, and we ought to be emphasizing on how getting people back to work rather than keep extending unemployment. But the two go somewhat hand in hand. There are people in indiana and other places that have made every possible effort to get a job and have come up short. We need to be sensitive to the plight of those people. But we dont need to be sensitive to those who have taken abuse taken advantage of this program and are abusing this program simply saying, i dont have to work because the government will send me a check. When i add up all my benefits, hey, im doing as well as i could if i worked. That is not the kind of policy we ought to be advocating or enabling here in the United States senate. As i said, there are numerous alternatives of ways in which we can find a way to pay for this, if we can also put the reforms in place that mean we ought to go afford with this particular program. Let me suggest three. Let me suggest three that and my colleagues have suggested others also, which i support. Any one of those i these could. This program is scored at a cost of about 6. Something billion. A program a policy which would this would require taxpayers, in order to claim refundable portions of the Child Tax Credit, it would require them to provide a Social Security number. I mean, this is so elementary, its unbelievable to discover that a Government Agency has said, this is not in place. In other words, if you want to qualify for a refundable Child Tax Credit, you have to verify who you are by giving them your Social Security number so they can check to see if this is legitimate or not legitimate. Senator ayotte just laid out situations where people were claiming 10, 15, 20 exemptions for children that didnt even live in the United States. They werent even citizens. I was embarrassed that one of these examples came from my state, but i think its true of all states. The savings here, to just put a good bit of common sense into a program, saves is scored not by dan coats, not by senator republican by a Government Agency it is scored at 27 billion. Here was a program that wants to spend 6. 6 billion. Republicans say, you know, first of all we have problems with the program. I may or may not support extending this. But if it does get extended, surely, we dont want to dump more money more future debt on our children and grandchildren. So lets take this 27 billion or fraction of that 27 billion and pay for this. Let me offer another option. A delay for one year of the individual employer mandate under obamacare. It is legislation that i introduced higher in the senate. Introduced higher in the here senate. Shouldnt the president offer the same delay to families and individuals. It is a simple issue of fairness. Whats the score . 30 million a third prohibit those who are eligible for Unemployment Insurance from claiming Social Security disability benefits. Under the law, you must be able to work to qualify for Unemployment Benefits. Yet some people claiming Unemployment Benefits are also claiming Social Security disability benefits. You cant make some of this stuff up. Savings roughly 6 billion, maybe more. And that, if you want to support this bill, would be a payfor. So whether it is a payfor or whether it is necessary policy changes to make the program more effective, including and i would suggest, including a number of efforts that have been proposed by my colleagues in terms of better connecting the unemployed with those who are seeking with the employers. I cant tell you how Many Employers ive talked to in indiana that say i have jobs. And ive talked to others who but the bottom line is there are people out there who look at what i have to offer, it is not the greatest, but it is a job, it covers benefits, it is a step afford for them, but they say, well, it doesnt match what im getting from the government, so i think ill take a pass. This is not america and not the policies that made america not the principles that made america the kind of country it is. Weerkd nowe should not be enabln that regard through legislation that we pass here. So i hope that we can have a full and open debate on this bill and move to policies that will grow and create jobs, will adopt a practice of paying for new spending with offsets from known waste, fraud, and abuse that has been documented by government agencies. Cant we at least do that . Cant we at least agree in the future interest of our country, both fiscally and domestically on a number of issues for all of the number of reasons that i have articulated or tried to articulate . Doesnt this make sense . So breaking with i guess some of the past ways ive given my vo vote, ive said im going to vote for the motion to proceed and im going to challenge the majority leader to look at this and say, lets run this place differently in 2014 than it was run in 2013. Lets not be afraid of debate. Lets not be afraid of amendments. Lets let the yeas be yeas and the nays be nays. Lets give everybody an opportunity to state their case or offer an alternative to be recognized as a member of the United States senate and the way this senate was designed to be and traditionally for over 200 years has been. Lets move back to that. So what happens next is now up to the majority leader. The balls in his court. Had we not passed the motion to proceed with the support of republican help then we wouldnt have given the majority leader the need to make a decision. So what kind of senate do we want in 2014 . A senate thats doing what the American People want us to do, representing the people of our state with their interest, representing our beliefs about how government should be run, how it should be funded, having open and honest debate, not afraid to take votes, trying to construct good policy for the future of this country . We cant do that if this body is run by one person saying my way or the highway. Youre in the minority, tough break. This is your chance, mr. Leader. Lets give us the opportunity. Lets return this back to the senate that it once was and always has been until lately. Mr. Leader, its up to you. With that, i yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from massachusetts. Mrs. Warren mr. President , im here today with some good news. This week the government will fix something that was broken. I know that some people want to deny that thats possible but hear me out on this. Five years ago during the 2008 financial crisis, we witnessed firsthand that the market for home mortgages was badly broken. The fundamental problem was that many lenders issued mortgages without any concern about whether the borrower would be able to repay those mortgages in the long run. Now, why would they do that . They did it because they could immediately sell the mortgage to another Financial Institution. If the borrower couldnt pay, that would turn out to be someone elses problem. And we all know what happened next. Millions of these dangerous mortgages were bundled together, sliced, diced, slapped with triplea ratings and sold to Retirement Funds and local governments and investors all over this country. When borrowers couldnt make their monthly payments, the bundles of mortgages began collapsing and the effects were felt in every corner of the economy. This friday, that basic Business Model will change thanks to the Consumer Financial protection bureaus new mortgage rules. When these rules go into effect, lenders will be able to issue a mortgage only after they determine that the borrower has the ability to repay it. Lenders will no longer be able to make loans they know will blow up and then feed those dangerous loans into the financial system. Because of the consumer agencys new rules, families will be safer, Pension Funds and other investors will be safer, our whole economy will be safer. Not completely safe but with a new cop on the beat, it will be safer. The new rules will fix other problems as well. Before the crisis, some Mortgage Brokers who were supposed to be helping consumers find the best mortgage were actually taking money from lenders to steer those consumers into highcost loans. The cfpbs new rules will prohibit this sort of underthetable dealing and protect consumers from being tricked by people they think they can trust. The rules will also address many of the Mortgage Servicing problems that emerged during the crisis. After mortgages were sold off, bundled and cut into pieces for various investors, too many borrowers were unable to track down information about their accounts. Some of the companies responsible for servicing their loans took days or even weeks to give them credit for their payments. And when borrowers fell behind, these servicers often began foreclosure proceedings without giving people full information about the options they had to modify their loans. The consumer agencys new rules will help clean up the Mortgage Servicing industry so more families can keep up with their payments and stay in their homes. Cfpb director rich cordray and his hardworking and incredibly talented staff have worked for a long time to put these new rules together, and the rules will reshape the Mortgage Market for the better. They will give people a better chance to buy homes and a better chance to keep those homes, and they will force mortgage lenders and servicers to compete by offering better rates and better customer service, not by tricking and trapping people. These rules will help markets work better and they will reduce the risk that the economy will crash again. Our work is not done. The march toward financial reform has been too slow and the chances of another crisis, while dialed back in some areas, remain unacceptably my others. Even today the toobigtofail banks that nearly crashed the Global Economy in 2008 are nearly 40 bigger than they were back then. Yes, we have more work to do on dangerous banking practices but this week marks an important milestone. Six years ago i noted that it was impossible to buy a toaster with a 15 chance of bursting into flames and burning your house down, but it was possible to take out a mortgage that had the same 15 chance of putting a family out on the street. The point was that consumers had the Consumer Product Safety Commission to keep people safe from dangerous toasters and they needed the same kind of agency to keep people safe from dangerous and deceptive financial products. In the years since, weve built that agency and it has already returned nearly a billion dollars to consumers who were cheated, and its helped tens of thousands of consumers resolve complaints against Financial Institutions. And now this friday that agency will put in place some commonsense rules that will make a real difference for millions of families who own or who hope to own their own home. The consumer bureaus new mortgage rules show once again that government can fix proble problems. Sure, we have to work hard, we have to fight against those who benefit from a broken system, and we have to stick with it even when the odds are against us. But when we do those things, real change is possible in this country. Were seeing that upclose this week. Thank you, mr. President. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call a senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from alabama. Mr. Shelby i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Shelby madam president , thank you. Last night here in the senate, we confirmed janet yellen to be the next chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve system. I firmly opposed her confirmation. In 2010, i also voted against dr. Yellens nomination to serve as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. I will explain. At that time i stated my deep concerns about dr. Yellens keynesian dais toward inflation as a member of the federal open Market Committee and her poor record of Bank Regulation as president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve. Those concerns have not faded. Rather, they are magnified in light of the importance of the position to which dr. Yellen has now been confirmed. That is, the chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. Madam president , its not just that the chairman of the fed is perhaps the most powerful individual in the Global Economy. Its that the institution itself is in utterly uncharted waters. I believe that we need a Federal Reserve chairman with the record and resolve to navigate our economy through this incredibly delicate situation. In my judgment, i thought dr. Yellen was not that person. Madam president , the Federal Reserves Balance Sheet currently stands at 4 trillion, and i ask unanimous consent to place in the record a copy of the Balance Sheet as of january 1 of this year. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Shelby thank you, madam chair. A recent bloomberg analysis contains figures that help us put this staggering number, 4 trillion, into perspective. I also ask unanimous consent to place that article in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Shelby thank you, madam president. The article contains the following three comparisons that i found more than interesting. 4 trillion is equivalent to 24 , madam president , of the u. S. G. D. P. Thats greater than the g. D. P. Of the worlds fourth largest country, germany. Think about it. 4 trillion is twice the amount of all student and auto debt in this country. Yes, 4 trillion far surpasses even the amount of money that the federal government spends in an entire year. Madam president , this brings me to my next point. Many hold the misconception in this country that china is the Worlds Largest owner of u. S. Debt. Thats not true. In fact, madam president , the Federal Reserve Balance Sheet shows that the Federal Reserve itself is by far the largest holder of u. S. Treasury bonds, with 2. 2 trillion in treasury debt, the fed holds nearly 900 billion more than china does, if you can think in those terms. Madam president , the fed holds more in Treasury Bonds than do china and most of the euro zone combined. Madam president , the rate of acceleration with which the Federal Reserve is purchasing treasuries should be alarming to all americans. On the day of president obamas first inauguration, the Federal Reserve held 475 billion in treasuries. Today it holds 2. 2 trillion in treasuries. That represents a 363 increase in the past five years, and its no coincidence that president obama has greatly accelerated our National Debt over that same period of time. There is a connection here. When he took office, the National Debt stood at a large 10. 6 trillion. Thats a lot of money. Today it stands at 17. 3 trillion, five years later. The Federal Reserve is aiding, i believe, and abetting the failed policies and the reckless spending of the obama administration. But the feds binge on treasuries alone doesnt tell the full story of the exploding Balance Sheet. The Federal Reserves portfolio is also loaded with nearly 1. 5 trillion of mortgagebacked securities. I have long been concerned that this aggressive and extraordinary purchasing program is artificially propping up home prices, and this is especially pertinent since an overheated Housing Market greatly contributed to the financial crisis that caused this situation in the first place. Taken all together, madam president , the Federal Reserve has added more than 3 trillion to its Balance Sheet since early 2008, just before the Investment Bank bear stearns failed and the Federal Reserve stepped in. Now, i realize that sometimes its easy to become lost in all of these huge figures that i have been sharing. I have brought a simple chart that illustrates the magnitude of the Federal Reserves actions. It shows here the size of the Federal Reserves Balance Sheet by decade from its creation in 1913, 100 years ago, to the present day. As you can see, it took 95 years for the Federal Reserves Balance Sheet to reach 1 trillion. But look at the incredible spike in just the few years since, in the red here. Here we are today just five years later at 4 trillion and growing. Madam president , lets call this what it is, a back door Stimulus Program through Monetary Policy. Very complicated, yes, but very important. It dwarfs even the fiscal stimulus package that president obama rammed through congress during his first days in office about five years ago. President obamas fiscal stimulus package totaled 787 billion, a lot of money. And i have just described the feds monetary stimulus package is nearly four times larger and growing. Madam president , this highly unconventional Monetary Policy poses huge risks to our economy, namely inflation in the future, and the devaluation of our currency. I realize that current Inflation Expectations are relatively low, and hopefully again were in completely uncharted territory. Should Inflation Expectations become unglued, prices could increase uncontrollably. There is simply no playbook, that im aware of, on how to deal with such a situation successfully. And yes, madam president , i also understand that the fed has recently announced that it will modestly scale back its socalled quantitative easing program. The fed will still purchase tens of billions of dollars of securities each month, but make no mistake, madam president , the feds Balance Sheet will continue to expand rapidly. How long will this continue . We dont know. How large will the feds Balance Sheet ultimately grow . We dont know. Will the fed be able to contain inflation if it does begin to rise . Again, we dont know. And when will the fed, Federal Reserve, actually begin to unwind the Balance Sheet which will be shrinking . Again, we dont know. How exactly does the Federal Reserve plan to unwind the Balance Sheet . Again, madam president , we dont know and i dont believe they know. I raise these points because i met with dr. Yellen in my office and attended her confirmation hearing in the Banking Committee. I received no meaningful answers to any of those questions. Only the usual platitudes that so often mark such meetings. If i can, i will now turn briefly to the subject of Bank Regulations, which is very important in this country. A primary and critical function of the Federal Reserve. I have been a member of the Banking Committee since i first came to the senate in 1987. I have served on the committee through many difficult times in the financial markets, including the savings and loan crisis and the 2008 financial crisis. In all of my experience, madam president , i have never seen a Financial Institution fail that was well managed, well capitalized and well regulated. The fact is, madam president , so many Financial Institutions failed in 2008 and 2009 in no small because the Federal Reserve failed spectacularly in its role as a regulator. I think thats a given. As president of the San Francisco fed from 20042010, dr. Yellen prescribed presided over a reasonable housing bubble and failed to restrain the excesses in the market. Yet, despite this record of failure, she now runs the most powerful Bank Regulatory institution in the world, the Federal Reserve. Failure, i guess, begets promotion in president obamas view. Weve seen it time and again. This is all the more important, considering that the fed gained even greater power under the doddfrank Financial Regulation law, despite the fact that the Federal Reserves own failures contributed to the need for financial reform in the first place. Madam president , in light of dr. Yellens weak touch as a Bank Regulator and her strong inclination to print more and more money, i firmly opposed her nomination. Only time will tell, but i believe that a vote in the affirmative is one that many of my colleagues will come to regret. Thank you, madam president. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call quorum call mr. Whitehouse madam president . The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse if i may presume that we are in a quorum call and request that the pending quorum call be lifted. The presiding officer without objection. Wouldmr. Whitehouse thank you y much. Madam president , im back again today now for the 54th time to urge my colleagues to wake up to what Carbon Pollution is doing to earths climate and oceans. Facts that we see all around us but cant seem to penetrate the politics of congress. We in this body are willfully ignoring changes that weve never seen before, changes that threaten our planet and its rich array of plant and animal life, our homes, farps farms, and facs and our very health and wellbeing. Carbondriven Climate Change can be seen in warming surface temperatures and in shifting seasons, but perhaps nowhere is Carbon Pollution doing more harm than in our oceans. The year 2013 brought ample new evidence of these changes in our oceans. Here is what we know people often talk about Climate Change as if it were a theory. Heres what we know we know that the oceans are warming. Thats not a theory. Thats a measurement. Its done with thermometers. Its not complicated. Sea level, we know, is rising. Thats another measurement, very simple. You can do it with a yardstick. Oceans are becoming more acidic. Every american with an aquarium measures acidity with litmus paper. Again, simple measurementproven facts. If we put those proven facts into context, lets look at geologic context. According to an article published last year in the journal science, our current rate of Carbon Dioxide emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, is enough to cause the most severe changes to the chem strife our oceans in chemistry of our oceans in 300 million years. Madam president , 300 million years ago is before the dinosaurs, before the dinosaurs. We know the oceans are warming. The oceans have absorbed more than 90 of the excess heat in the atmosphere between 1971 and 2010, according to a 2013 report by the International Panel on Climate Change. Heres the heres where the heat goes. 93. 4 into the ocean. The rest that were seeing, 2. 3 goes into the atmosphere. So our owe san oceans are real g the brunt really taking the heat of the added heat. That is why were seeing these peculiar weather changes. We also know that sea level is rising. We know this. Its driven not only by melting graismeltglaciers by meltinge sheers bus glaciers but also by ocean water expanding. The principle of thermal expansion is known in every science class in this country. Manyty newport tide gauge in rhode island, sea level is up almost 10 inches since the 1930s. So that means that storms driving the sea against Rhode Islands coast have ten more inches of sea to throw against our homes and our infrastructure. Recently, satellite measurements from the university of colorado tiosea Level Research group so 3 millimeters of Sea Level Rise from 1993 to 2013. Go back to 2010 and that wraits estimated at 1. 7 millimeters per year. So the rate of increase has nearly doubled and that means Sea Level Rise is very likely speeding up. And thats all stuff we mairchl that wemeasure. Thats not theyr theyre rism. Sea level will likely rise one half to one full meter by the year 12100 if we do nothing to dial back Carbon Pollution. The other estimates are for far more extreme Sea Level Rise. We know that oceans are becoming more acidic. Oceans not only absorb 90 of the heat, theyre absorbing about 30 of the carbon itself. It goes to the sphras of the ocean and is is goes to the surface of the ocean and is absorbed there. As all that carbon dissolves into the oceans, what happens . Ocean water becomes more acidic. It is a chemistry experiment u if you do the measurement, weve gotten about 26 more acidic, the seas have, since the industrial revolution. That was reported again last year by the International Program on the state of oceans. The rate of change in ocean acidity you can see it speeding up. The rate of change in ocean acidity is already faster than at any time measured in the past 50 million years, according to Research Published in the journal nature geoscience. And yet we sleepwalk here in congress, narcotized by polluter money. Ocean acidification and warming are undermining our underwater environment. When pope francis called the ocean wonder world. These changes, among other things, have made the worlds s coral reefs u areas like the Great Barrier reef, one of the great global wonders of the world off the coast of australia, theyve already experienced largescale bleaching. As a boy, i used to scuba dive in the andeman sea. These are pictures taken in 2002 by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and they show clearly a once lush and vibrant reef, now gone baron. Worsening this bleaching would be particularly hard on countries whose people depend for their protein, for their success sentence nance and economies on the bounty of the leaves. The reefs are the oceans nurseries and they support food and economic stability as well as pretty tropical fish. New Research Also suggests that even the most remote depths of the ocean will suffer the consequences of Climate Change. A study published in the journal Global Change biology looked at various climate models to predict changes in food supply. The models predict that the changes to our ocean could lead to a worldwide drop in seafloor dwelling life by the year 2100. The north atlantic off our shores in massachusetts and in rhode island may lose more than a third of all dee deepsea marie life. These drastic changes from our Carbon Pollution are daunting ones, particularly for our ocean state of rhode island. Our way of life in rhode island, like yours in mass marks has always been closely tied toed sea, yet here in congress we ignore all of that and continue perilously sleepwalking through history. The become obama administrationt least put afford a Climate Action plan, the cornerstone of which will be e. P. A. Regulations to limit Greenhouse Gas emissions. Our 50 worst power plants put out more Carbon Pollution than the entire country of canada, the entire country of korea. So solving that problem is vitally important. The plan also directs executive Branch Agencies to take concrete steps to safeguard the American People and our interests in the world against the harmful effects of excessively high temperatures, melting ice, ocean acidification, and Sea Level Rise. These are important steps, but they must ultimately be backed up by congressional action. E. P. A. Regulations and executive orders will never have the same economywide effect as a congressionally approved carbon fee, for instance. The sweeping changes take flais our oceans taking place in our owe shang oceans make this particularly important along our coastlines. Higher seas load the dice for more damaging storms and our coastal counties in this country harbor 39 of the countrys population and account for 41 of our g. D. P. , look just at our ports, for example. According to a 2009 National Ocean economic report, ail quote, threequarters of all United States trade passes through estuary ports. No wonder then that the American Association of port authorities is taking Climate Change seriously, woggin working to ree Carbon Pollution and stave off its effects rather than waiting for congress to awaken from our slumber. American ports are switching trucks and cranes from diesel to electric and installing onshore power fly supply to ships, thus reducing emissions from the port and from idling vessels. Likewise, the International Association of ports and harbors has launched the world port pors Climate Initiative to reduce crovmenreco2output. In my state, the rhode island Climate Change commission reported that inundation of the states ports and railroads may reduce interstate access effecting economic viability and limiting imports and exports. Sea level rise may also reduce navigational clearances for the states bridges, additional limiting access. These changes will be particularly harmful for the port of providence, which today brings hundreds of millions of dollars to the region. Madam president , we need strong federal action to reduce the Carbon Emissions that are threatening our coastal communities. We must also take firm federal action to adapt ourselves and our states and our coastal communities to the changes that we can no longer avoid because weve already pumped into the at most spheerks because o atmose harm weve already done. But this is a real threat and it is embarrassing and it is wrong for congress and the senate to continue to ignore it. Somebody who knew something about looming threats was sir winston churchill. He he gave this advice one ought never to turn ones back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Thats good advice, and whats embarrassing and wrong is not only are we failing to meet it promptly and flinching, but that failure and that flinching are the result of special interest influence in this body. Madam president , we face uncommon challenges, and they demand uncommon resolve. America has not overcome past crises by pretending they did not exist. That state of play is a preposterous one for us to embark from. We actual lay have Clear Scientific understanding of the problem, the doubt is past. The injury is in, the verdict the jury is in the verdict has been delivered. And yet we lack the will of leadership to forge a solution. Another great leader who knew something of leadership in times of crisis was president lincoln. He understood that the greatest challenges require clear vision and brave thinking. Faced with a crisis, president lincoln said this the occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. Madam president , it is time it is past time to disenthrall ourselves, to disenthrall ourselves of the corrupt thrall of polluting special interests. It is time, at last, to wake up and get to work on the job we have before us. I thank the presiding officer, and i yield the floor