[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 94 (Friday, July 9, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7891-S7892]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am struck by the way the Republican
majority is managing the Senate. I have noted that we do not yet have a
Federal budget resolution. It is July and we have as yet considered
only one appropriations bill, and that one bill still has to be
resolved with the House. We have yet even to consider the other 12
appropriations bills that are normally regarded as ``must pass''
legislation--that is unless Republicans intend to shut the Government
down, again.
[[Page S7892]]
Instead, the Republican majority has apparently decided to devote the
July work period to partisan political matters. We are reading press
accounts about Republicans maneuvering to bring the divisive
constitutional amendment to federalize marriage to this floor for
debate. The Senate Judiciary Committee has held a few hearings on this
issue but has yet to consider language of a proposed constitutional
amendment. Bypassing the committee of jurisdiction to bring this or any
constitutional amendment to the Senate floor is an unmistakable sign
that political expediency and haste, in the furtherance of political
expediency, are the guiding principles for the Republican majority in
scheduling the Senate's time. Political expediency--whatever it takes--
is their guidepost, not the pressing needs of the country to act on a
budget or on the annual appropriations bills. Paramount to Republican
leaders at the moment are such matters as the divisive, hot-button
topic of federalizing marriage law, by constitutional amendment.
Republican partisans seem intent on politicizing not only judicial
nominations but also the Constitution itself during this election
cycle.
Democrats fulfilled our commitment to the White House when we
considered the 25th judicial nomination that was part of our
arrangement this year. I read that Republicans will now insist on
devoting a good portion of the Senate's remaining time to the most
divisive and contentious of the President's judicial nominees. They are
intent on following the advice of the Washington Times editorial page
to, they believe, make Democrats look bad, when in fact it is the
President who is seeking to make judicial confirmations a partisan
political issue. Democrats have cooperated in confirming almost 200
judges already. That is more than the total confirmed in President
Clinton's last term, the President's father's presidency or in
President Reagan's first term. Federal judicial vacancies have been
reduced to their lowest level in decades.
It is wrong and it is corrosive to seek partisan advantage at the
expense of the independent Federal judiciary or our national charter,
the Constitution. I wonder in Presidential election years whether we
should not have a corollary to the ``Thurmond Rule'' on judicial
nominations that we could call the ``Durbin Rule.'' The astute Senator
from Illinois recently observed that we should prohibit consideration
of constitutional amendments within 6 months of a Presidential
election. He is right in pointing out that the Constitution is too
important to be made a bulletin board for campaign sloganeering. We
should find a way to restrain the impulse of some to politicize the
Constitution.
This week the Republican leadership has stalled action for days on
any legislation as it resists amendments to the class action
legislation from both Democratic and Republican Senators. The
Republican leadership's handling of this bill is a prescription for
nonaction, not for legislative movement forward.
Just yesterday Roll Call published an insightful editorial lamenting
what it called the ``Big Mess Ahead.'' I think we may already be stuck
in that big mess. The editorial noted that ``July should be
appropriations month in the Senate.'' I agree. This traditionally has
been when we were focused on getting our work done and making sure the
funding for the various functions of the Federal Government were
appropriated by the Congress, in fulfilling Congress's responsibilities
and its power of the purse. Not this year.
Roll Call observes that ``the second session of the 108th Congress is
poised to accomplish nothing.'' The way things are going, under
Republican leadership, this session will make the ``do-nothing''
Congress against which President Harry Truman ran seem like a
legislative juggernaut by comparison.
I ask unanimous consent that the July 7, 2004, Roll Call editorial be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Roll Call, July 7, 2004]
Big Mess Ahead
Here we go again. The Senate can't pass a budget
resolution. Only one of the 13 appropriations bills has
cleared both the House and Senate, July is a short
legislative month, and everyone will be gone in August. You
know what this means: a lame-duck session in November and a
messy, pork-riddled omnibus spending bill.
And it's not just on the money front that the second
session of the 108th Congress is poised to accomplish
nothing. The House and Senate can't agree on an energy bill
despite high gasoline prices, last year's Northeast blackout,
repeated urging from the White House and constant reminders
of America's over-dependence on risky Mideast oil.
Bankruptcy-reform legislation is stymied. So is welfare-
reform reauthorization. Maybe there will be a Transportation
reauthorization bill, maybe not. Even the Defense
reauthorization bill faces a tough conference.
Sure, the House and Senate have done a few must-do things.
The United States is in a war, so both chambers have passed a
Defense appropriations bill. And both have approved
legislation repealing a $5 billion-a-year export subsidy
after the World Trade Organization ruled against it and
authorized imposition of punitive tariffs against U.S.
products. Despite complaints from both parties about
expanding budget deficits, however, the House's repeal
measure contained $15 billion in new corporate tax breaks;
the Senate added $17 billion.
As any House Member will tell you, the perennial locus of
delay in Congress is ``The Other Body.'' And so it is this
year. The House has passed four appropriations bills, and
three more have cleared committee. In the Senate, it's one
and one. July should be appropriations month in the Senate,
but instead Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has
scheduled class-action tort reform--which had the 60 votes
necessary for passage last November--and an anti-gay-marriage
constitutional amendment designed mainly to embarrass
Democrats before their national convention.
Republicans blame Democrats for Senate ``obstructionism,''
but the failure to pass a budget resolution--which would have
made it easier to pass appropriations bills--is mainly an
intra-GOP affair. Moderates want to impose a pay-as-you-go
system to restrain spending. Conservatives, ironically
enough, don't. The situation has the conservative Senate
leadership so exercised that it's trying to acquire the means
to threaten wayward moderates with the loss of committee
chairmanships.
It's true that if Senate Republicans drop the seniority
system and give leaders the power to make committee
assignments and choose chairmen, they simply will be
following the authoritarian patter of Senate Democrats and of
both parties in the House. Still, the effect would be to
smother centrism--what there is left of it--and enhance
partisanship and polarization. That's a distinct
Congressional pattern: When things are going badly, make them
worse.
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