Transportation, Housing And Urban Development, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 - Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, pending before us now is an omnibus bill which contains six different appropriations bills. It was not our intention to call this omnibus bill but to call each one of the appropriation bills. Unfortunately, it has been impossible to reach that goal because of a strategy that has been employed by the Republican side of the aisle to slow down any debate on any topic as much as possible, to challenge us with filibusters and force cloture votes and make the Senate go into interminable quorum calls. So many times we have called bills that came out of the Appropriations Committee with overwhelmingly positive votes only to run into roadblocks on the floor. And then after weeks and weeks and weeks of procedural problems tossed our way by the Republican side of the aisle, the bill is finally called and passes by an overwhelming margin. The strategy is clear.

It is as clear on the health care bill as it is on the appropriations bills that the Republican side of the aisle doesn't want us to complete. So we are attempting to do our best by consolidating into one appropriations bill six different appropriations bills that passed with overwhelmingly positive margins out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. There were three bills that received 30 to nothing votes in the Appropriations Committee and three others that were reported out 29 to 1, to give an idea of the kind of support they had. We brought up the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill on October 6. It took us a month to finish that bill because of the delay tactics of the other side. That is the reality of what we face. We have run ourselves into the ground day after day, week after week with amendments relating to things of little or no consequence. I cannot count how many ACORN amendments we voted on. It would be a forest of oak trees if those acorns were planted. But we voted on them regularly, religiously. We made sure we took care of ACORN, but we didn't take care of the people's business because those amendments wasted our time.

These appropriations bills have taken longer and longer because the minority will not agree to reasonable time agreements to consider amendments and finish debate.

Instead, we found ourselves consistently sidetracked by the minority, spending hours on the floor taking the same votes on keeping ACORN from receiving money from different Federal agencies like the Interior Department.

So, here we are. We have 21 days before the end of the calendar year and we need to finish the business of the Congress.

To do so, we engaged Republican members of the Appropriations Committee and worked on reasonable compromises to the differing bills in the House and Senate.

This package of appropriations bills is the result of a truly bicameral and bipartisan effort.

This package represents the priorities of the American people. The conference report invests in students, veterans and law enforcement.

The bill before us makes college education more affordable for students by increasing Pell grants to $5,500.

This will help all students, whether they are going to college for the first time or going back to acquire new skills, get the college education necessary to compete in the global economy.

The conference report also helps local governments fight crime and puts more police on our streets.

We have increased grants for State and local law enforcement by $480 million over last year.

These grant programs were cut by almost $2 billion during the last administration.

This conference report sets the right priorities by increasing funding essential to helping our States and local police departments fight crime.

We also help local law enforcement with hiring and training by including $298 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services or COPS program to put more cops on the beat.

This funding will help hire or retain approximately 1,400 police officers.

The COPS program has helped train nearly 500,000 law enforcement personnel and put over 121,500 additional officers on the beat nationwide.

This conference report also helps keep our promise to our Nation's veterans by increasing funding for the Veterans Affairs Department by $5.3 billion above last year's level.

This funding will increase access to quality health care for our veterans. In particular, the conference report increases discretionary spending at the VA by more than $5 billion to help the VA care for the more than 6.1 million veterans they expect to see in 2010.

As chairman of the subcommittee responsible for Division C of this consolidated appropriations bill, I would like to take the next few minutes to describe the key components of that portion of this bill.

Before doing so, I want to recognize and commend my ranking member, Senator COLLINS, for her helpful counsel, input, and support in crafting the bill. It has been a privilege and pleasure to collaborate with her in addressing the needs of the agencies and programs dependent on funding under our division of this conference agreement. I am proud that we have produced a truly bipartisan product.

This conference agreement allocates budgetary resources totaling $46.3 billion. This consists of $24.2 billion in discretionary spending and $22.1 billion in mandatory spending for financial services and general government accounts. The discretionary funds are $1.6 billion above the fiscal year 2009 enacted level and $40 million less than the President's request.

Our work has provided a valuable opportunity to evaluate the responsibilities, functions, and budgetary needs of the diverse agencies and programs under our jurisdiction. Our challenge has been deliberating carefully to make tough decisions within our conference funding allocation to address many worthy requests.

The bill provides resources for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President and White House operations, the Federal judiciary, and the District of Columbia.

In addition, the bill funds over two dozen independent and vital, but often obscure, Federal agencies responsible for a wide array of critical functions in the delivery of public services.

I would like to share some of the highlights of the bill:

My top priority this year was to continue to address the resource needs of two of our Nation's premier regulatory agencies: the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. These two agencies occupy pivotal positions at the forefront of stimulating and sustaining economic growth and prosperity in our country.

The CFTC received its fiscal 2010 funding as part of the Agriculture appropriations bill, signed into law in September. I am pleased to have played a role in providing that agency with $168.8 million, a 16-percent boost above last year.

For the Securities and Exchange Commission, this bill includes $1,111,000,000, an increase of $85 million above the President's budget request and $151 million more than the fiscal year 2009 enacted level.

The SEC is the investor's advocate. I want to make certain that the SEC has the necessary resources to effectively fulfill its singular obligation: protecting shareholders.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro has charted an aggressive new course to strengthen SEC vigilance by recruiting professional expertise and investing in enhanced technology. The $85 million increase in this bill will support 420 additional investigators, attorneys, and analysts to expand significantly the SEC's enforcement, examination, risk assessment, and market oversight functions.

In addition, the SEC will be able to accelerate investments in several key information technology projects, including installing and launching a new system to track tips and complaints.

The conference bill supports community and small business development at a time when these investments are more crucial than ever. With the economy struggling, economic development must be a top priority.

Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund program--CDFI--helps finance community development projects throughout the country and supports basic financial services for underserved communities. The bill provides $166.8 million for CDFIs to provide financing for projects such as day care centers, community centers, and affordable housing projects in America's underserved neighborhoods.

Through the Small Business Administration, the bill provides over $824 million to promote the development of America's small businesses. The bill supports $28 billion in new lending to small businesses, providing financing opportunities for small businesses at a time when private sector credit is difficult, if not impossible, to access. The bill also provides $22 million for microloan technical assistance grants and supports $25 million in microlending.

Funding also supports SBA's partners, including Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers, and Veterans Business Outreach Centers. These partners form a foundation of support to help America's small businesses weather the economic downturn and assist newly unemployed Americans seeking advice on starting a small business as a new career path.

As we have done in the past few years, this bill provides a significant funding increase for the Consumer Product Safety Commission. To help keep CPSC on track to meet its new responsibilities under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the bill provides $118.2 million, an increase of $13 million above last year's level and $11 million above the budget request.

These funds will help expand the import safety initiative, which puts CPSC inspectors at key U.S. ports, and to further investigate suspected problems with imported drywall from China. With these resources, the CPSC can provide the nation with a robust safety program and protect the public against unreasonable risk of injury associated with consumer products.

For the Internal Revenue Service, the bill provides $12.2 billion. Of this, $7 billion is for tax law enforcement, $387 million more than last year, to help advance the administration's initiative to target wealthy individuals and businesses who avoid U.S. taxes by sheltering money in overseas tax havens.

The bill provides nearly $6.4 billion to enable the Federal judiciary to carry out constitutional responsibilities to administer justice and resolve disputes impartially under the rule of law.

Of the $752 million in Federal funding for the District in this bill, the largest portion, $563 million, is designated for the local courts and criminal justice system including public defender services and pretrial and postconviction offender supervision.

In addition, the bill provides a total of $186 million in Federal funds for local District of Columbia activities under the control of the mayor. Of this amount, $110 million is for education-related functions, specifically support for local school improvement and post-secondary tuition assistance.

This $110 million continues our commitment to improving the quality of education for children in the District of Columbia. I convened two hearings this fall to assess the Federal investment in school improvement over the past 5 years. To date, including this bill, Congress has provided $348 million since fiscal year 2004 as special payments to help the District address long-standing deficiencies in its education system.

This conference agreement provides $75.4 million for school improvement in the District in three sectors: $42.2 million for public schools, $20 million for charter schools, and $13.2 million for opportunity scholarships. The bill also includes $35.1 million to continue the District of Columbia resident tuition assistance grant program which permits eligible District residents to attend out-of-state colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates.

Finally, just a few words about earmarks. This is a very transparent appropriations bill shining a light on requests from Senators, House Members, and the Obama administration. Quite frankly, that is the way it should be.

Nothing is buried or disguised. The name of every Member who has asked for anything in the House or Senate bill that has been included in this conference agreement is disclosed in the explanatory statement. Every Member has to stand by every request he or she makes, and it is printed right there for the world to see.

After the document went to print, Senator SCHUMER submitted a letter to the committee conveying his support for several items included in the bill at the request of House members.

I ask unanimous consent to have the text of Senator SCHUMER's letter printed in the RECORD.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record

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