[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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