Senate Proceeding on Oct 8th, 2009 :: 3:21:55 to 3:32:20
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3:21:51 to 3:22:12( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: any statements relating matter appear at the appropriate place in the record as if given. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: mr. president, does my distinguished colleague from nevada wish matter? mr. ensign: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. ensign: mr. president, i just want to applaud the senior senator from nevada, the leader of the senate, for this

3:21:55 to 3:32:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John Ensign

3:22:13 to 3:22:33( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: resolution recognizing nevada, the 145th anniversary of nevada's statehood, and i'll insert in the record a statement for t record and ask that it appear at this point. mr. reid: mr. pre will have, as it approaches halloween, which is the real day, i'll have more to say. mr. ensign: mr. president?

3:22:34 to 3:22:54( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: the presiding officer: the senator from he have. mr. ensign: mr. president, i call up -- is thi -- resolution been approved? the presiding officer: without objection, it was approved. yeah, without objection, it was approved, mr. majority leader. the senator from nevada. mr. ensign: mr. president, i call

3:22:55 to 3:23:02( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: send a modification to the desk. the presiding officer: there objectio without objectio

3:23:23 to 3:23:43( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: will report. the clerk:r. ensign proposes amendment numbered 2648, as modified. mr. ensign: ask further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. ensign: mr. president, i rise today to propose an amendment adding $172 million for the state criminal alien

3:23:44 to 3:24:06( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: assistance program and it be offset with corporate welfare funding currently in the bill. the state criminal alien assistance program, known as scap, provides federal payments incur correctional officer salary costs for incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens

3:24:07 to 3:24:29( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: with at least one felony or two misdemeerng convictions for violations of state or local law and are incarcerated for at least fou consecutive days during the reporting period. this program also reimburses states, counties, parish, tribal, or other municipal governments for the costs associated with the prosecution of criminal cases declined by local u.s. attorneys' offices. while we have made strides in

3:24:30 to 3:24:50( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: securing our border, illegal immigration remains a significant problem, and the federal government should bear the additional burden placed on states and local governments. while this fix our problems with illegal immigration, it does help local communities address costs associated with the incarceration of illegal

3:24:51 to 3:25:11( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: immigrants who continually and repeatedly violate the laws of our country. this will bring this program's funding up to the 2009 level of $400 million. this will -- this increase will match the level that the other chamber -- the house of representatives -- accepted by a

3:25:12 to 3:25:33( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: nearly unanimous vote of 405-1. with increased funding for scaap, we could keep more repeat offenders off of o streets and reduce some of the catch catch-and-release instituted by many communities that just don't have the resources to keep these criminals where they belong, which is behind bars. so i

3:25:34 to 3:25:56( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: support this amendment that critical funds reach our state, county, parish, tribal, and municipal governments to help battle the problems with illegal immigration and to keep law-breakinbreaking illegal immigrants off of our streets. mr. president, i have a motion

3:26:12 to 3:26:18( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: at the desk to recommit c.j.s. the presiding officer: the

3:26:46 to 3:27:08( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: clerk will rep the clerk: mr. ensign moves to recommit h.r. 2847 to the committee on instructions to report the same back to the senate with changes -- mr. ensign: what this amendment is doing -- or what this motion is doing is simir to the motions that i've

3:27:09 to 3:27:29( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: made on other previous spending bills. what we're asking the appropriations committee to do is basically, let's fund our government at 2009 levels. in 2009 we saw huge increases and then with the stimulus bill all of the spending programs that the gover massive increases on top of the

3:27:30 to 3:27:51( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: increases in the normal spending bills we had last year. so what we're saying is, while businesses, families, local governments, state governments across the country are cutting their budgets, we're just saying to the federal government, let's just freeze our spending levels to last year's levels. let's don't go on this massive increase in spending.

3:27:52 to 3:28:12( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: now, what this motion did is we understand that the census bureau, which is -- we do this just once every ten years, as not part of the normal budget process, so we allowed for that. we allowed for the census to be funded. but everything else should be funded at 2009 level, at least the total part of the bill.

3:28:13 to 3:28:35( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: we allow the appropriations committee to set the priorities, what funding is to go into which, you know, particular program -- some programs are more effective than others; they may have different priorities; that should be the prerogative of the appropriations committee. but what this body should be doing and should be sending a message to the american people

3:28:36 to 3:28:58( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: that we care about our children and our grandchildren. what we're seeing right now is that we of every $1 that we spend. think about that. think about a family or business borrowing 43 cents out of every $1 that they spend.

3:28:59 to 3:29:19( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: that's what we're doing. well, i think this next illustrates very, very well who this burden is going to fall on. this picture was taken -- this young lady was out in public a had this sign around here and the sign says "i'm already

3:29:20 to 3:29:40( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: $38,375 in debt, and i only own a dollhouse." you know, kind of cute little picture of a cute little girl, and it would eelly be a cute picture if it wasn't so sad becausit's true. every child in america has a huge debt burden

3:29:41 to 3:30:01( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: because this body and the other together are spending our country into debt. during the last have heard about the spending programs. the other side of the aisle actually ran on fisl discipline. they said, we spent too much money under the bush burkt. -- under the bush administration.

3:30:02 to 3:30:22( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: by the way, i agree with them. i agree with that statement. i think we did spend too much money during the first part of this decade. but the spending levels now compared are and what we're doing is we are adding trillions and trillions of dollars in debt to future generations.

3:30:23 to 3:30:43( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: so what my motion very simply says is instead of this large increase in this spending bill, we're going to live at last year's numbers. we're not even going to cut like state governments and local governments are doing. they're cutti we're just goingo live within last year's funding levels, which were, by the way,

3:30:44 to 3:31:04( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: increased dramatically. last year i think the same appropriations bill got a 15% increase. and so let's at least year at last year's level instead of living on huge increases this year. i think this -- this motion is the responsible thing to do for

3:31:05 to 3:31:25( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: future future of this country. we have to think about this debt. what is this debt going to do? we're hearing about the weakening dollar. there's articles every day in financial magazines about what a weak dollar means to america. well, the higher the debt, the weaker the dollar gets. and we're adding billions and trillions of dollars on to the debt that.

3:31:26 to 3:31:48( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: weak dollar is going to hurt our economy into the future. we have to worry about it not just inflation but hyperinflation. we have to worry a jobs are going to continue to go overseas because of dollar. every country that's tried to handle their debt by devaluing their currency, which is what seems to be going on now, it's

3:31:49 to 3:32:10( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: never worked the only way t control your debt is to get spending under control, and that's what we have to do in this -- in this body. that's what we have to do in this country, and that's what these motions that i've been bringing to the floor are attempting to do is to say, you know, turnout. turnout from all the spending -- you know, time-out. time-out from all the spending.

3:32:11 to 3:32:21( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: last at least year at last year's spending level. let's put a freeze on federal spending sohat we are thinking about the future generations. so. mr. president, with that, i would encourage our -- my