[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 59 (Tuesday, April 15, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2990-S2993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FILIBUSTERS AND DELAYS IN THE SENATE
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I extend my appreciation to my good friend,
the senior Senator from the State of Illinois.
Today is April 15. It is a big, red-letter day for people because it
is the last day to file your income tax returns. As we send in our
taxes--and some, as will happen tonight, will wait in line to file
their tax returns--it is a good time to give thought to the economic
state of our families and our economy, generally.
Since President Bush took office, the cost of gasoline has gone up
more than 100 percent, more than doubled. The cost of home heating has
skyrocketed. The price we pay for groceries has never been higher.
The head of the World Bank said, 3 days ago, that 31 countries will
be in desperate need of food within a matter of months, and there could
be riots in those countries. We are very fortunate in America, we don't
have a shortage of food. But people are having trouble paying for the
food they would like to eat. The same is true for health care, for
prescription drugs--for college tuition. At the University of Nevada,
we have a new law school. I was happy to see in the latest rankings it
came out ranked 78th--a new law school ranked 78th in the Nation. That
is remarkable. They have done such a good job.
But they also announced they are going to double the tuition at that
new small law school--double the tuition. The cost of going to State
institutions is going up. Why? Because the economies of our States are
so desperately bad. In the State of Nevada, because of the downturn in
the economy, the Governor, with the State legislature, has had to cut
almost $1 billion in programs that are there in the State--road
construction, new buildings, new programs--and cutting some of the old
programs. Of course, they have a program to let prisoners out of our
prisons more quickly, not because it is good for the people of the
State of Nevada but because they are desperate for money.
We are paying record prices for nearly everything. Yet the average
household income has dropped. American families are earning less and
paying more. The Republican answer, for 7 years, has been to slash
taxes for the ultrawealthy, to side with big business, oil companies,
utility companies, and let the little guy fend for himself.
We have worked hard, as the Democratic Party--first in the minority,
now in the majority--to cut taxes for the middle class, to end the
dependence on oil that keeps our gas and heating bills sky high, to
make health care and college tuition more affordable for families. We
have now tried for days to quickly pass a highway bill that takes care
of some of the problems we had in the massive bill we had before. There
are corrections we would like to make on that. Last Thursday evening,
the distinguished assistant leader was on the floor, as was the
assistant leader for the Republicans. We talked about: Why are we
having another filibuster on this? My friend, the junior Senator from
Arizona, said: Oh, there will be no filibuster on this, everything is
going fine--words to that effect. We had to vote last night to invoke
cloture, and rather than being able to legislate on the bill, we are
talking on the bill, stalling, wasting time.
We could have started on this legislation Thursday night. We could
have legislated all day yesterday and all day today. But, no, we are
not going to be able to do that. We are going to use the full 30 hours.
This is a number--it is probably higher than this, but let's assume
this is right. The last time we came out and said there were 70-plus
filibusters, they came out and said: Oh, no, not that many, not that
many. So say 65, for purposes of this discussion.
In the history of this country previously--and I am going to use
leader time, not morning business time, Mr. President, during my
presentation.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator has that right.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, in the entire history of the country, no
matter what has been going on in this country--and we have been through
some difficult times--the most filibusters we ever had were 61 or 62
during a 2-year period of time, during an entire Congress. But now, in
the first year of this Congress, they broke that record--stalling,
slowing things down so we cannot legislate the people's business. That
is because they are protecting the status quo.
Can you imagine filibustering a bill that is correcting technical
mistakes made by the two Houses in passing this legislation previously?
They are filibustering that--commas, semicolons, dotting an ``i,''
crossing a ``t,'' that is what we are doing, that is what this
legislation is all about, technical corrections--supported by the
ranking member, Senator Inhofe, and the chairman, Senator Boxer. They
are filibustering this, making us use all the time.
Some may ask why they are doing this. The main reason is they are
protecting the status quo. Time after time, Republicans seemed intent
on obstruction only for obstruction's sake. They pursued this course on
legislative matters large and small. It doesn't have to be, as they
have done many times, stopping us from moving forward on matters
relating to Iraq--many times. Let's consider that a big issue. But
let's consider what we are doing today a small issue--technical
corrections on a bill.
Look what is going on in the country today. Look what is going on in
the world today. We listen to the news or find it in the newspaper.
Today in Iraq--scores of people killed in Iraq. Bombs here, bombs
there, two American soldiers killed in Iraq yesterday. We have learned
2.7 million people are displaced in Iraq. That is Iraqis. The
population is only 25 million people to begin with and 2.7 million of
them are wandering around trying to find a place to live in Iraq. About
3 million have left the country. They have blocked us from doing
anything about that.
We had General Petraeus talk about what is going on in Iraq. He
didn't answer the question: Are we any safer now than we were before
this Iraq war started, before the surge started? No answer to that.
When are we going to get our troops home? No answer to that. They have
even gone forward on tactics delaying matters on legislation they
ultimately came to support--stalling for time.
The most unfortunate aspect of Republican strategy is real people
suffer because of it. Why do I say that? There are a lot of things we
need to do as a country. We have, now, a big merger that took place
making big business even bigger. Delta Airlines has joined with
Northwest. They will have 75,000 or 80,000 employees. Now there is talk
of United joining with other companies. We have heard Southwest
Airlines--they were flying airplanes that were in bad shape, but they
did it anyway.
We have learned in recent weeks the Federal Aviation Agency is
protecting the airlines and not the consumer. We have a bill we need to
do, FAA reauthorization. We need to do that bill. We would like to
bring up that bill, but we cannot because we are being stalled on a
technical corrections bill--only stalling for time.
Veterans health care--Senator Akaka has asked for months: Why
[[Page S2991]]
can't I bring up my bill? Every time, I say to him: Senator Akaka, we
are doing our best, but they stalled us on this and they stalled us on
that. That is something we want to do this work period, as we do the
FAA legislation.
There is an important piece of legislation--genetic
nondiscrimination. A lot of things are happening in medicine. We have
the ability to look at people and find out what their genes are going
to forecast for the future. But we don't want, as a result of advances
in medical care and treatment in this regard, to have someone who may
be prone to getting some disease 10 or 15 years from now be
discriminated against in the workplace. This is an important piece of
legislation, and it is being held up; we can't get to that.
Flood insurance--we want to be able to do this. It is important to
the American people. We hear a lot about the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. What they deal with more than anything else--more
than earthquakes, tornadoes, fires--is floods. Flooding is the most
devastating natural disaster we have every year in America, and we want
to do something to have the flood insurance program in this country
mean something. We saw the never-ending litigation in Louisiana and
Mississippi and Alabama as a result of Katrina. One of the reasons for
that litigation is the legislation was not clear. It was not good
legislation. We need to change that.
Food safety? My friend from Illinois has been working for a long time
to do something about food safety--what can we do to make it better, so
that when you go to a fast-food restaurant, you don't get salmonella;
if you get a steak, it is OK. Has it been inspected? We have not been
able to legislate in that regard.
It is disheartening to recognize and realize what we are not able to
do, as a result of the Republicans wanting to maintain the status quo.
Why can't we go through this piece of legislation, let Senator Boxer
move forward on completing it, and then go to one of the other matters.
There are a lot of other matters we need go to. I have only mentioned a
few of them.
When I go home, people ask: Why aren't you getting more done? I tell
them the Republicans are stalling, they want the status quo. Here is a
perfect illustration, I say to my friends who have asked that question.
Why are we being asked to waste valuable Senate time--that is all we
have is time--valuable Senate time on something that is so unnecessary.
We are waiting here. We came in at 10. The Republicans say we can't go
to the bill; they want to go to their caucus and discuss what they want
to do on the technical corrections bill.
I hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle, the
Republicans, would let us start legislating. After we passed the
stimulus bill for housing, I thought we could enter into a program
where we would start doing that. I do not know what they could talk
about in their caucus about how difficult this particular technical
corrections bill is. I said we are not going to fill the tree, which
means they can offer amendments. Let them offer amendments. We invite
them to offer amendments. But let's move forward on this legislation.
The Republican filibusters of this Congress, 65, is recordbreaking.
They should be proud of that. We invoked cloture on more than 65 of
those issues. We are still counting. Today is one of those counts that
continue. I am very disappointed that we are being stalled again on
something as insignificant as a technical corrections bill on highways.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, will you alert me when I have spoken 10
minutes in morning business.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator will be notified.
Mr. DURBIN. A filibuster is a way to stop the Senate from acting. A
filibuster is an effort to make sure the Senate does nothing. You saw
the movie with Jimmy Stewart, ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'' He took
to the floor as a freshman Senator and stood there speaking in a
filibuster until he collapsed in physical exhaustion.
Well, it does not quite happen that way anymore. What happens, of
course, is someone says: I am going to stop the Senate, and you are
going to have to come up with 60 votes to stop me.
Well, Democrats have 51 votes in this current Senate; the Republicans
have 49. So anytime we want to move forward with a piece of legislation
to which a Republican Senator objects, we need their help to stop a
filibuster. They know that.
So their strategy this year has been to slow us down to a crawl so
nothing happens and to make sure when something comes up that they
think might be a delicate vote for them to face, they start a
filibuster. Then we cannot come up with 60 votes, and we move on to
something else.
The net result of this filibuster strategy from the Republican side
of the aisle is that critically important issues, such as the ones
mentioned by the majority leader, cannot be addressed in the Senate.
The House passes important and timely legislation and sends it over,
and the Republican strategy on this side is to stop anything from
happening.
Look at the issues we are facing in this country. The Senator from
California is here. She is the chairman of the Environment and Public
Works Committee, and this committee is considering critical legislation
on the question of global warming. This is important for us as a
nation. It is important for our planet. And we know when this critical
legislation which has now been reported from her committee comes to the
floor, we will face a string of filibusters.
That is part and parcel now of the procedure in the Senate. But you
say: Well, wait a minute. That is a big issue. Global warming is a
controversial issue with some. You expect some political controversy.
Right?
Well, accepting that argument, I then have to ask you: Why were we
involved in a filibuster until last night by the Republicans on the
bill before us today? This is a technical corrections bill. When we
passed the highway bill, the Federal highway bill years ago, it was a
huge bill affecting the entire United States of America. Then, as we
combed through it, word for word, line for line, page for page, we
found there were technicalities that needed to be changed: punctuation,
references to a road instead of a trail. You find them in here. They go
on for hundreds of pages.
But they are technical in nature; it is not a big policy debate. This
kind of bill usually passes in the Congress by a voice vote late at
night and no one notices. It is housekeeping. That is ordinarily what
we do when we try to catch up and make sure everything is done just
right.
Senator Boxer has worked long and hard to bring it out of her
committee and bring it to the Senate floor, and the Republicans
initiated a filibuster against the technical corrections bill. That is
like having a resolution to salute motherhood and having them initiate
a filibuster. Where is the controversy? There is no controversy in this
bill. If they want to offer amendments, we said on this side: If they
are germane amendments to the bill, have at it. That is what the Senate
is all about, after all.
But the Republican strategy of filibusters, as indicated by this
chart, in the history of Congress, the minority party has initiated no
more than 57 filibusters in any 2-year period of time. That is the
record, 57 in 2 years.
So far in this Congress, we are barely a few months into the second
year. The minority party, the Republicans, has initiated 65
filibusters, and we are still counting.
You say to yourself: Well, they must have been some pretty
controversial issues they had to filibuster. A technical corrections
bill? So why do they filibuster? So that we burn the clock and eat up
days so we cannot address the issues that are even more important to
this country.
Would it not be great for us as a Senate to consider and debate a
national energy policy to bring down the price of gasoline in the
United States? No way. The Republicans insist on filibustering a bill
that focuses on punctuation. Would it not be timely for us to consider
the cost of health insurance to businesses and families across America
and find a way to make it more affordable and accessible? No way. The
Republicans want to debate a bill which changes the word ``trail'' to
``road'' and filibuster it.
That is the reality. And time and again when we have brought up
issues,
[[Page S2992]]
the Republicans have initiated a filibuster in this Congress. You
cannot read this; I can barely read it. It is a list of the Republican
filibusters so far in this Congress, 65 and still counting.
Let me give you a couple of examples, if I can, of the egregious
Republican filibusters in this Congress. We had a bill to implement the
9/11 Commission Report to fight terrorism in America--filibustered by
the Republicans.
We had a bill authorizing the intelligence agencies to make America
safer--filibustered by the Republicans.
We had a bill for court security so that judges and their families
would be safe when they are at work or at home--filibustered by the
Republicans.
We had a water resources bill to deal with the infrastructure of
America and create good-paying jobs right here at home--filibustered by
the Republicans.
The Clean Energy Act, an effort to use renewable, sustainable energy
to reduce pollution and stimulate the needs of our economy--
filibustered by the Republicans.
The CHIP reauthorization bill, a bill for health insurance for poor
children across America, not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, not
lucky enough to have health insurance--filibustered by the Republicans.
The economic stimulus package to get this country out of the
recession and moving--filibustered by the Republicans.
A Consumer Products Safety Commission overall to stop toys with lead-
based paint from coming into this country from China--filibustered by
the Republicans.
GOP used to stand for Grand Old Party. That is what the Republicans
called their party, the Grand Old Party. But when it comes to the
Republicans in the Senate, GOP stands for ``Graveyard of Progress.''
They want to stop this Senate from making any progress on critical
issues for this country. They want to run out the clock by
filibustering a technical corrections bill.
There is only one remedy for this. It comes in November. The American
people will have a chance to speak then. They can initiate a filibuster
which the Republicans will hear. They can speak long and loudly and
clearly that it is time for change in this Senate. The old ways of
Washington dominated by special interest groups really hidebound to the
partisanship that will not even let us bring up these technical
correction issues has to change.
Voters in this country have the last word in November to elect agents
of change, people who will make a difference for improving this
country.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask that you notify me when I have gone
10 minutes in morning business.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator will be so notified.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I, too, rise in strong support of the
transportation technical corrections bill. First, I commend my friend
and colleague, Senator Boxer, on her hard work and leadership in
putting in these corrections.
I thank Leader Reid for his determination to get this act through the
body. Yet it seems our colleagues across the aisle will stop at nothing
to obstruct our efforts which will improve the lives of working
Americans who struggle to make ends meet and filibuster a comma,
filibuster an exclamation point, filibuster the name change of a road
to a way.
What is going on here? What is going on? Well, I have two points I
would like to make. But first I ask my colleagues across the aisle, is
there any topic that you will not filibuster? If you will filibuster a
technical corrections bill, name changes, punctuation changes,
corrections in terms of where the miles were supposed to be and where
they are, what will you not filibuster?
Now, let's talk about two things. First, this bill is a win-win for
the American people. We are entering a recession. We all know we need
to prime the pump. Many of us believe we should have a large public
works spending program. But the question is, Should we pay for it or
should we not?
But in the SAFETEA-LU bill, this technical corrections bill, the
money is already allocated. It cannot be spent because of some
nonpolitical small error in the drafting. So this bill makes those
corrections and hundreds of projects can sally forth and employ people
with no particular cost to the Federal Government. Who could object to
that? Do my colleagues want to tell the construction workers and those
who have little diners and lunch places and restaurants where
construction workers eat, and those who supply the construction
industry: Heck with all of you, we are filibustering.
So on the merits it makes no sense to block this bill--on the merits.
I have to say this to our minority leader: I know there are probably
Members on his side who say: I want something else. I do not want to
let this bill go through. There is a larger obligation. If we let every
single Member of the other side of the aisle paralyze this body, then
we are doing America a disservice.
I would plead with the minority leader to tell his individual
Members: You do not have--each one of you does not have veto power over
anything, particularly something as trivial as this.
So why is this happening? That is the second point I wanted to
address. I will tell you why. The other side is basically paralyzed.
They have no program for America. They have no agenda for America. They
do not know what to say except the old nostrums that were rejected
years and years and years ago. They cannot say yes and so they try to
show some kind of position. They just say no. That is what is going on
here. It is the internal problem on the other side of the aisle, the
hard right versus the right, versus the mainstream versus the
moderates. They are all in a knot, and they cannot come to an agreement
on anything, even a technical corrections bill that everyone has agreed
to on the substance.
So the only thing that can unify them is a two-letter word: N-o.
Well, let me say that to allow any single Member to obstruct this
bill is not living up to what the Senate is all about. It is not living
up to what America is all about. It is not living up to what democracy
is all about. Our leader has not said you cannot amend. Our leader has
not said you cannot debate. I know there are a few Members on the other
side of the aisle who believe there may be changes made. Let them
debate it and let's vote.
But, no, the answer is only no. It has not been only on this bill. My
friend and colleague from Illinois went through a long list of bills
that are even more consequential than this one. Now, this one is not
inconsequential. The changes are inconsequential, but the results are
consequential. Again, it will employ thousands of people and release
millions of dollars that have already been paid for to do worthy
projects.
That, nobody disputes. But instead we have 65 filibusters already; 57
is the record--65 and going up. The filibuster used to be used on
issues of major importance. It is now being used for everything, even
the changing of punctuation and spelling, misspellings. Why? Because
the only thing that unifies the other side is the word ``no.''
Well, the American people, come November 2008, are going to say
``no'' to the other side.
They are going to say: No more of this obstruction. We are going to
give our side the number of votes we need to move forward, because 50
votes is not enough. Sixty is the need. This temporary refuge in the
word ``no'' of a false unity will only be temporary.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor, along with the
majority leader and my colleagues, to express our extreme frustration
with what the minority, the Republicans are doing to block basic bills
from getting through the Senate. We are trying to move to debate and
offer amendments on a basic bill that needs to be done, called a
technical corrections bill for transportation projects, changing minor
things in the law so it can move forward. Normally this bill is done
late at night; everyone agrees to it; there is no objection; it moves
on; it takes only a few hours of time. It has gone through a lot of
work in committee, which Senator Boxer chairs. They have done all their
homework. It has passed on a bipartisan basis, and it was approved by
the Senate late last night as a procedural move. But we are here today,
spending hours and hours with no ability to move forward, no ability to
offer
[[Page S2993]]
amendments, no ability to pass it, because the Republican minority has
decided to filibuster this bill.
I go home every week, 2,500 miles away from here to the State of
Washington. People come up to me and say: What are we going to do about
the rising cost of health care? What are we going to do about the fact
that fewer and fewer doctors are seeing seniors going into Medicare?
What are we going to do about veterans waiting in line to get the care
they have been promised? What are we going to do about the housing
crisis? What are we going to do about Iraq and the President's request
for $109 billion more? In Washington, Boeing workers come up to me and
say: What are we going to do about a procurement process that has
allowed our military to send $40 billion to a European-owned company,
our tax dollars, at a time when our economy is struggling, to a
European-owned company to start producing the backbone of our military,
our air tankers? What are we going to do about that?
These are issues that we as Democrats want to bring to the floor and
have major debates on, move legislation forward. They will take time.
There is disagreement. Growing up in Washington State, when somebody
said there is a filibuster, I assumed it was a major argument of the
day. We would rush to find out what it was about and see which Senators
were arguing which way and wonder in what direction this would change
our country in the future.
We are a long way from that today. The filibuster is now being used
as a delaying tactic so we won't get to those critical pieces of
legislation, those critical debates we ought to be having in the
Senate.
Republicans have engaged in an historic, record-setting level of
obstruction over the last 14 months. They haven't filibustered the
bills themselves, but they have filibustered motions to proceed to
basic bills that we need to pass to keep Government running. They have
delayed us from moving forward even after voting in favor of these
bills. That is where we find ourselves today. Once again, Republicans
have decided to keep us from moving forward simply to delay progress.
They don't oppose the legislation. In fact, after filing cloture on the
motion to proceed last Thursday and waiting the obligatory 30 hours,
last night the Senate voted, and 93 Senators wanted to move this
legislation forward. So why are we sitting here today delaying 30 more
hours before Senators can even start to offer amendments, if they so
choose, so that we can then move the bill to final passage, unless, of
course, we have to file a motion to end debate and get to another
filibuster of 30 hours, which will take a lot more time.
We have seen this before. It is about delaying. It is about not
allowing America to move forward. It is about not allowing progress.
The word ``filibuster'' gets thrown around a lot here. People think of
``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' and the movie appears in their head.
That is the most celebrated version of a filibuster. But there are all
kinds of filibusters. We have learned that firsthand, because at the
core a filibuster is any procedural move to delay the Senate. Any one
Senator has the power to delay us. The majority and the minority have
the power to talk to Members and say: This is important to enough of us
that we need to move past those objections and begin to move this
forward. We need to work toward an agreement so we can move forward.
Time and time again we have seen people use delays on motions to
proceed, and then the Senate has to wait 30 hours, 30 long hours with
people such as me sitting out here talking on the floor on
miscellaneous subjects until we can finally get through 30 hours so we
can then be on the floor for hours waiting for Senators to offer
amendments. That kind of delay has forced this Senate in this Congress
for over a year now into weeks and weeks and weeks of wasted time. No
wonder the American people think nothing is getting done in Washington.
We are seeing delay after delay. Believe me, we are all frustrated that
we cannot get to those important topics of the day, to be able to have
perhaps a real filibuster on a real issue that is important, that would
change the direction of this country. That is what a filibuster ought
to be about. But here we have to file cloture on the motion to proceed
to basic bills. We have had to file procedural motions on whether to
follow the 9/11 Commission recommendations, which then passed 97 to
nothing, once we got through all of those hours of waiting around. On
the intelligence authorization bill, we had to file a motion to proceed
to the bill, had to wait the 30 hours, and then the vote was 94 to 3.
So a couple of Senators forced an entire Senate to wait 30 hours and
not get anything done. Bill after bill I could list a desire on the
part of the minority to delay progress.
What we are seeing is Republicans who are united for obstruction on
issue after issue. Month after month, Republicans have put delay before
debate, procedure above progress, and obstruction before solutions.
The American people, certainly in my State of Washington, want us to
move forward and deal with the issues critical to their families. They
are struggling today with the economy. They are worried about their
ability to retire. They are worried about being able to send their kids
to college. Certainly, our men and women who have gone to fight the war
in Iraq are coming home and facing delays. Yet we can't get a veterans
bill up on this floor because of the delays we are seeing.
Here we are today, waiting around to vote on a technical corrections
bill to a transportation bill that ought to take a few minutes.
It is a sad day in the United States. I hope our colleagues will talk
to their leaders and say: We need to move on. It is time to get the
business of this country done. That is our job.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, could the Chair tell me what the current
state of the parliamentary situation is right now?
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