The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PRESIDENT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S936-S937 on Feb. 12, 2014.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PRESIDENT
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, as we leave Washington for about 10 days, I wish to leave some suggestions in President Obama's suggestion box.
There has been a lot of commentary about income inequality, needing to raise the minimum wage, needing to create more jobs, and the President talked about doing these things with the stroke of a pen in his office because of an uncooperative legislative branch. I want to suggest four things the President himself could do to immediately initiate job creation, opportunity, and a more robust economy for the United States of America.
First, trade promotion authority. The President said in his remarks in his State of the Union speech he was for trade promotion authority. We need him to get with the Democratic majority in the Senate to bring TPA to the floor of the Senate.
A history lesson: In the 1990s, a Republican Congress gave Democratic President Bill Clinton trade promotion authority for fast track. America's exports and imports grew exponentially, jobs were created, and America became a robust trading partner around the world with countries all over the world. That has expired. We need to give it to President Obama.
We have three pending opportunities: The Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and the African Growth and Opportunity Act, all of which are pending negotiations between now and 2015, and all of which will generate jobs, trade, and opportunity for the United States of America.
Please, Mr. President, demand from the Senate that you get TPA and you get it now.
Secondly is Keystone. We have all heard a lot about Keystone, but I want to reiterate, now that the State Department has for the fifth time signed off on the Keystone Pipeline, why are we denying America the oil and petroleum it needs and instead acceding ourselves to the nation of China?
America has the opportunity to become the most independent energy country in the world. It is critical the Keystone Pipeline be built to create jobs and to see that we continue to control the generation of petroleum and energy in our country and become a net seller rather than a gross importer, which we have been for many years in the past.
The Keystone Pipeline makes sense for the unions, makes sense for business, makes sense to America, and America does a better job environmentally of treating petroleum and refining it than any country in the world, particularly China. It ought to come to America, and the President can do that with the stroke of a pen.
Third, GSE reform. Our government-sponsored entities Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae continue to do business, but they languish from a lack of attention. We need to reform those two entities so we can have a robust housing market for a middle America.
If you have enough money to pay cash for a house in America today, you can do that. If you are on the low end and want an FHA loan, you can get that. But if you are in middle America--if you are one of those Americans we all talk about wanting to help--there is not enough mortgage money available because there is no government-sponsored entity to guarantee the paper to guarantee the capital to flow into America.
If you want to get the unemployment rate down from 6.4 to 5 percent, which all of us want, there is one way to do it; that is, bring back a robust housing market, which still does not exist in the United States today.
Fourth, talk to Patty Murray and Tom Harkin. Tom Harkin is the chairman of our Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Patty Murray is the chairman of the subcommittee I serve on in terms of labor, and let's get the Workforce Investment Act, which for 6 years has languished in terms of continuation and renewal, renewed and reauthorized. Let's get it done. The work is done. We are this close. We just need an impetus from the White House to tell the Congress to go ahead and get it done and send it.
I appreciate what the President said he is going to do with Joe Biden. I think Joe Biden is a tremendous Vice President and he does a great job, but we don't need to recreate the wheel. Congress has done the work on WIA. It is time to pass it and it is time for the President to sign it.
Tribute to Bobby Cox
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I want to pay tribute to a great Georgian, a personal friend of mine, and a great baseball player in the history of our country: Bobby Cox, No. 6, former third baseman for the New York Yankees, third baseman for the Atlanta Braves, manager of Toronto's Blue Jays when they won a World Series, and for 14 consecutive seasons he took the Atlanta Braves to a playoff. Five of those seasons he took them to the National League Championship and one of those seasons he took them to win the World Series against the Cleveland Indians.
Bobby Cox was voted into Baseball's Hall of Fame and will be sworn in at Cooperstown, NY, on June 27 of this year. Bobby Cox is an icon in baseball and a greet human being. He set many records, such as the following: 2,085 victories with the Atlanta Braves, best in Braves history; overall record of 2,413 wins and 1,930 losses. The Braves won more games with Cox, 1,725 in a 19-season span, than any other team in baseball; 15 divisional crowns, 5 pennants, and he holds the record for the most ejections of any manager in the history of baseball.
The reason that is a positive story is this: Bobby Cox fought for his players. He knew how to motivate a crowd, he knew how to get on an umpire's back, and he knew how to turn the team bench around. His 132nd ejection took place in November of 2007 during one of the playoff games when he went out and argued a third called strike against his star player Chipper Jones. Two innings later the Braves came back and rallied and won. In large measure, it was Bobby's fighting for his players that made the difference.
But Bobby Cox also fights for Georgia. His work with the Dreams of Recovery Foundation, which Cindy Donald founded for those who are paraplegic and quadriplegic in Georgia, has been a miracle. Bobby gives his time and effort all the time to help those who are less fortunate.
He also continues to help the Atlanta Braves, who will soon be moving from downtown Atlanta to my home county of Cobb County, in Marietta, GA.
I pay tribute and give thanks to Bobby Cox for all he has given to our State and recognize him for the achievement of being sworn into Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Best of luck, Bobby, for many more years to come.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
____________________
