Making hall of fame military fellow which we have in in our offices as the presiding officer knows, we have military fellows who are active duty military and they help us, we can have one a year, and they will help us with the military perspective on the things that were doing. And, of course, myself serving on the Defense Appropriations Committee and the military Construction Committee of appropriations and the Veterans Affairs committee, i love to have those military fellows. And i was so pleased that within just a month or so when the choices were made for military fellows, this young man was chosen by general odierrno whose own son also has lost an arm in combat. So i think that with is a wonderful thing that in reflection is one of the highlights of my moments to remember. I also remember some of the great things that my staff has done and i have to say my staff has been the cando staff of all time. They never take no for an answer. And so when we have challenges, individuals who need help with maybe a veterans benefit, maybe a Social Security problem, we have always been the staff that tries to do Everything Possible to come through. And im very pleased that my staff director for casework has had such a great reputation, joyce sibley, that the senator who is going to take my place on january 3 is going to have her continue in that position. And she knows the issues, she knows the people, and shell be great, and i applaud senatorelect ted cruz for making that decision and for keeping most of the staff that has done this wonderful work. But let me give you a couple of examples. First of all, we got a frantic call from a friend of mine about a doctor who was trapped on top of mount everest. He was a dallas doctor, and he was trapped up there in a blizzard, and they had a had had a terrible loss of some of the people in their climbing group. And a friend called and said is there anything you can do . And my wonderful staff, one of whom is retired military and knew some of the things that could be done, dave davis, actually made a contact, got into the Nepalese Army air force, rather, and was able to get a helicopter up and once you get past a certain level, 13,000 feet, the oxygen, you have to have oxygen in a helicopter or obviously if youre climbing. So it was something that was a real ask of the nepalese air force. And we were able to get them to take that risk and to go up and we were able to rescue dr. Beck wet weatherers and he is alive, wrote a great book about that experience from his Vantage Point but we were very pleased to take part in Something Like that. Ill tell you, maybe the alltime great experience was my Houston Office, led my jason fuller. And we got a call in the Dallas Office, and so the houston and Dallas Offices together did this. So we got a call in the Dallas Office from a woman in mississippi, and she said i didnt know who else to call but i knew senator hutchisons name. And my son is having a an asthma attack. In houston. And i dont know how to get him the help he needs. Hes in his apartment by himself. And my staff said please give me the information, and we will call our Houston Office and we will see if we can get help. Which they did, called the Houston Office. The Houston Office called 911, they went out to the young mans apartment, and he was, in fact, in a dire circumstance, and would have died had he not gotten help right away. But they took him in, they gave him the help that he needed, and that man young man is alive today. So this these instances are some of the great memories that i will have of having a wonderful staff that will go the extra mile and try to help the individuals in our state as well as on the big issues where we also try to make sure that we do everything we can to get something thats very important to us, whether its to america or to texas or to texans or to americans. And these are some of the memories that i will take with me as i leave this great body. And as i said in my actual formal farewell speech, its easy to be critical and i saw on television the esteem of congress has gone to 5 favorable, and im not surprised at that, as my colleague, john mccain, once said, now were down to blood relatives and paid staff. And, you know, it is easy to criticize. And a lot of reason to criticize, i will admit that things not have been as productive and most certainly the acrimony does show sometimes. But i am going to say as i leave, after almost 20 years in this body, that the people here are all dedicated. Theres not one that isnt a dedicated, patriotic american. What we we disagree, sometimes violently disagree on the way we should get to our goals. But our agreement is on the goal of keeping america the beacon of freedom to the world, to keeping our military strong, to doing right by all of our people, whether its a Small Business person who is creating jobs, who is trying to go up the ladder of success, or whether it is someone who is in trouble because they have had a huge setback in their lives. Everyone here wants america to continue to be the magnet for the intellectual property of the world. We want to be the science and technology . Oaftors innovators that will continue to fuel our economy. Its just how we get there that causes the disagreement. We have patriotic people who have been elected. I hope for the next two years we will put aside the partisan politics, put aside the thoughts of future elections, and try to solve the big issues of our time. Because theres a lot of intelligence in this body, theres a lot of ability to come together. And i just keep the abiding faith that our messy democracy will, in fact, prevail because i cant think of going to anything else. And as long as we can function and show the world that we can govern as we disagree, that will be the example that will forever make our country the best and hopefully be a model for others to not think you have to take to the streets, not think that you need guns to have the government that you want but to show that peaceful transition can be done and also that we can have a lot of discussion, a lot of disagreements, but we can do it civilly, and i leave this body knowing that if we just remember the honor that we have of growing up in the greatest nation on earth, that we will know that it is our responsibility to give the same to our children and grandchildren. And its the least we can do. Thank you, madam president. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Brown madam president . The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown i ask unanimous consent top dispense with the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown madam president , i ask unanimous consent the period for morning business for debate only be extended until 3 00 p. M. With senators for debate only to be extended until 3 00 p. M. With senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, madam president. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from tennessee. Mr. Corker madam president , id like to ask unanimous consent that we vitiate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Corker madam president , i just listened to the president and my heart is still pounding. I was very disappointed to hear what the president just had to say in front of a pep rally. Something very unbecoming of where we are at this moment. Its my understanding that most of the tax issues have been worked out, should have been worked out on the floor in regular order. I think most of the senate is very distressed that were in a situation where a negotiation is taking place all of this time, and its not being done through regular order, but thats the way things are today in the senate. But i just heard the president say that in dealing with the sequester that was put in place to reduce spending, it was part of a 2. 1 trillion package to reduce spending so that we could raise the debt ceiling back in august of 2011, no one ever thought we would end up in this place where the sequester would be enacted, but it was done so that we would reduce spending. And i notice my friend from arizona is here who has been one of the best there is to focus on defense spending and how it should be done, and i know he would like to see things happen in a very different way in that regard, but i just heard the president say that the way were going to deal with this sequester is in a balanced way through revenues and through reduced spending, and i just want to go on record here on the senate floor. I know there are negotiations that are taking place, but the sequester was to be dealt with substituted with other spending reductions, not through revenues. And i just hope that all those who are involved in bringing this together understand that even on the democratic side, that that was the understanding. And not only was it to be dealt with through spending reductions if these were considered to be hamhanded, and they are, and we should deal with them in a different way, but they were to be dealt with on the same time period. In other words, we werent going to reduce 100 billion of the sequester and pay for it over ten years. It was to be done during the same amount of time. So i know the president has fun heckling congress. I think he lost probably numbers of votes with what he did. He didnt lose mine. Im not that way, im going to look at the substance. But its unfortunate that he doesnt spend as much time working on solving problems as he does with campaigns and pep rallies. But i just want to say im very disappointed in what the president had to say. Im just one senator i want to go on record that it is absolutely unacceptable to pay for this sequester with revenues. Yesterday we had a meeting that broke down because all the money was being spent. The president campaigned for a year on raising taxes on the upper income. We have acquiesced to that, we know its going to happen, but yesterday the deal was all the money is going to be spent. There was going to be no deficit reduction. Unbelievable, unbelievable that all the money was going to be out the door as soon as it came in. As a matter of fact, before it came in, it was going to be spent. So, mr. President , i just want to say i know the president enjoys heckling and having pep rallies to try to get congress to act instead of sitting down and actually negotiating, but i hope that whats going to happen is we will end up following through on the reductions in spending that need to take place to replace this sequester. I will also add just for what its worth the last time we extended unemployment insurance, we paid for it. The last time we did not cause the doc fix s. G. R. To go into place, we paid for it. And i hope that as this negotiation goes forth, we keep the same principles in place that weve had. This country has over 16 trillion in debt. Sequester was put in place because we couldnt reach an agreement on reductions, but we knew they had to take place. And, mr. President , i hope we will continue to honor the fact that the sequester, the 1. 2 trillion that we dont like the way its being implemented will only be adjusted through other reductions. And if thats not the case, count me out. I think most people in this body consider me to be a semi reasonable person, but if thats not what we do, count we out. This country has a spending problem and a revenue problem, i agree with that, and im willing to support revenues to deal with this problem. The overall problem. But what i will not agree to is using revenues to replace spending reductions that were part of the budget control act that candidly we need further reductions in place to actually get this country where it needs to be. With that, i know we have other senators on the floor. I dont know what their response is to what just happened over at the white house, but i yield the floor. Mr. Mccain mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that i be allowed to follow the senator, senator mikulski. The presiding officer without objection. Ms. Mikulski mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Ms. Mikulski mr. President , i rise to speak on behalf of whats going on here today as the new chair of the Senate Full Committee on the Appropriations Committee. That means were the committee that actually puts money in the federal checkbook. And id like to talk about that because, you see, mr. President , today here we are, new years eve, doing what we should have done right after labor day. Were behind. Were behind the clock, and actually were behind the thinking of the American People. They want us to come together and have sensible fiscal policies that promote both growth and at the same time balance it with a new sense of frugality. The fact that we have come here to this point with this culture of delay in this institution i think is really unacceptable. But i dont want to go into the culture of the institution. I want to go into actual discussions of something called sequester and spending. Mr. President , the words of washington are a foreign language. We use words that nobody understands and we use numbers that nobody believes, and im telling you with me theres going to be a new day and a new way. Plain talk, Straight Talk about what we are doing here. So lets talk about the word sequester. Sequester literally means that you are going to sequester means that stands for a government arcane word that means you are going to have automatic acrosstheboard Government Spending cuts. These are supposed to be triggered if we dont resolve the issues today, will happen on january 2. What is being proposed is that we would cut 110 billion in 2013, 55 billion in defense and 55 billion in nondefense. This means every single program. Not programs that are dated, not programs that are bloated, not programs that might be for another era or only benefited a small group of people in a distant past. It means every single program. Yes, there will be certain exemptions to that in terms of Social Security benefits, veteran benefits and certain things related to the military. Since we are already three months into the fiscal year, the impact of these cuts will even be worse. So when you hear about were cutting deals on sequester, were actually talking about Government Spending. Now, lets talk about cuts. This is not like the first time either party has talked about cuts nor is it the first time either party has started to talk about a sense of frugality. One party, however, wants to also understand that we need to be able to have meet the compelling needs that are in the mission of our government, and we have already given it the office. So lets talk about oh, this could be new spending and i dont want this. The fact is that since 2010 not 2001. Lets get our zeros straight for a change 2010, we have already cut domestic spending by 43 billion. So we have already cut 43 billion. Thats nearly 10 of domestic spending in just three years. That 43 billion was in nondefense programs. Then there is talk oh, why dont we have a budget . Mr. President , when august 2, 2011, we passed something called the budget control act. That was deemed to be the budget of the United States of america. In that budget control act, they instructed we on the Appropriations Committee to cut Discretionary Spending 1 trillion over the next ten years. The Appropriations Committee will honor the instructions of the Budget Committee as approved by the congress of the United States. Were on the program. Were on the same page. Were on the same glide path. We dont have to have showdowns here. So we have already cut actual dollars, an actual checkbook of 43 billion. Thats a lot of money. And also we are in the budget control act to cut a trillion dollars over the next ten years. That would mean what was being discussed in simpsonbowles and so on. So we need to understand that. Now, lets go to this acrosstheboard cut. I see on the floor the distinguished gentleman from arizona, a wellknown advocate for a national security, well versed over the years in the compelling needs that our military needs to have to protect the nation. Im sure he will speak to those needs, and i, too, will also, but i also want to speak about another dynamic which is the impact of 55 billion across the board in Discretionary Spending. What i want to say is this that if, in fact, we go ahead with this, were going to cut defense, theres no doubt about it. 55 billion. And its going to be a meat ax. Thats not the way to go. Thats not the way to treat our military, and thats not the way to focus on our national security. Secretary panetta, along with general dempsey, the head of the joint chiefs, has gone through his own budget, and he has recommendations where out of the 66 billion of defense how we could begin to have a prudent way where we could begin to have modest reductions in the d. O. D. Account without jeopardizing national security. I serve on the intelligence committee. I serve with the gentleman from arizona and other distinguished people. Were going to make sure that we can do this in a way. But sequestering could really affect a variety of things related to operation and maintenance. But let me tell you what else. There are many other people that defend the United States of america and im proud of them. They have things like our federal law enforcement. With our federal law enforcement, if, in fact, we go into this meat ax approach, over 7,500 positions because it will come out of personnel will be affected. This could affect as many as 3,000 federal agents. 3,000 federal agents of the f. B. I. , d. E. A. And a. T. F. Now, they might not be laid off but theyre going to be furloughed. Theyre going to have shortterm furloughs. This is going to have a direct impact on morale, a direct impact on mission and it will have a direct impa