Unanimous-Consent Request - H.R. 5569

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator from Louisiana yield for a question?

Mr. VITTER. Certainly.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want some clarification because I thought I heard the Senator say something. Is the Senator saying that if we offer a separate measure on the floor which reauthorizes the National Flood Insurance Program--and let's add in there, for example, this $8,000 home buyer credit we have talked about for more real estate closings, the extension of the home buyer credit, which was passed on the floor--and unemployment compensation as an emergency expenditure, is the Senator from Louisiana saying he would vote for that package?

Mr. VITTER. If that package is paid for. I will be happy to produce all of the pay-fors. I will be happy to produce ways to responsibly pay for that package. If that package is handled responsibly that way, absolutely yes.

Mr. DURBIN. Then we are still at loggerheads because unemployment compensation has been offered as emergency spending throughout this recession, and now I am not sure where the Senator's pay-fors would come from, but that creates a problem.

Mr. VITTER. To reclaim my time, they have been offered over and over. I will be happy to offer them. There are ways to solve that problem. But in the meantime, can we pass a necessary program, the cessation of which is holding up real estate closings all around the country and hurting an already ailing economy when we are experiencing almost 10 percent unemployment?

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois is recognized.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am going to make a unanimous-consent request, I notify my colleague from Louisiana. This unanimous-consent request will extend and reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program, the reason he came to the floor. It includes the provisions that are also part of the earlier discussion about the extenders package. It is a lengthy list and many of these are traditional annual reauthorizations of a number of provisions in the Tax Code that encourage research and development, the development of biofuels, and that sort of thing.

It also includes, for the record, $33.7 billion in emergency spending to extend unemployment compensation benefits to the end of the year. It would help 10,700 residents of the State of Louisiana who currently are being cut off from unemployment compensation. It includes $16 billion, paid for, that is going to be given to the States to help them deal with the costs of Medicaid in this recession. It has the provision in there for the so-called Medicare doc fix and a number of other provisions.

I am going to give the Senator from Louisiana an opportunity to extend the National Flood Insurance Program by agreeing to the following unanimous consent:

I ask unanimous consent that the Chair lay before the Senate the Message from the House on H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act; that the Senate move to concur with the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 4213 with the Baucus amendment No. 4386; that the motion to concur with an amendment be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?

Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, reserving my right to object and I will object in a minute, I guess this exchange is at least useful because it illustrates the gamesmanship that is continuing to go on. My distinguished colleague is giving me this opportunity. My distinguished colleague is holding a gun to my head, trying to say you have to vote to balloon the deficit, trying to say you have to vote for other irresponsible action if you simply want a necessary program for your State and the Nation, which does not cost anything in terms of increased deficit spending, to move forward. I thank my distinguished colleague for holding the gun to my head for that wonderful opportunity, but I reject it and I think the American people reject it, so I object.

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