[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 3, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4901-S4902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              FILIBUSTERS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday there was a vote, as we all knew 
there would be--an overwhelming vote--to proceed to legislation to stem 
the tide of global warming. This strong bipartisan vote came only after 
the Republicans forced us to file cloture and use more of the Senate's 
valuable time. Another filibuster. This is, as I have said before, 
filibusters on steroids. We have never, ever, in the history of our 
great country, had as many filibusters as this Republican minority has 
initiated. In a short 10 months, the 2-year record for filibusters was 
broken by this Republican minority. They have stopped or slowed down 
everything they could. They have even forced us to file cloture on 
things they agree on. Why? Because it eats up valuable time.
  We now have 12 weeks left until our adjournment time. There is so 
much to do--so much to do. We are interested in doing the people's 
business. The Republicans are interested in stalling--stalling. As an 
example, today we should be on this piece of legislation, but, no, they 
are going to do as they have done time and time again: use 30 hours.
  For everyone listening, what does this mean? The rules of the Senate 
are that once you file cloture--first of all, it takes a couple days to 
file cloture. You have to let it wait for a couple days. Now, why would 
they make us file cloture on this bill? It is bipartisan; it is 
sponsored by Senator Warner and Senator Lieberman, but they have done 
this. So after we file cloture, we come in and we have a vote. 
Remember, we waste those days while cloture is ripening. Then, to make 
it even more absurd, the rule is that after cloture is invoked, you 
have 30 hours. They make us use that 30 hours. It is wasted time. There 
is no reason we can't be on this bill.
  I spoke to one of the Republican leaders yesterday, and he said: 
Well, we want more time to debate the bill. No one is taking any debate 
time away from anybody. But shouldn't we be on the bill? So I say time 
runs out tonight, shortly before midnight, on the 30 hours. In the 
morning, we are going

[[Page S4902]]

to be on this bill. That means we are going to have to stay in until 
midnight tonight. That is up to the Republicans. That is up to the 
minority. But we are going to start legislating on this bill tomorrow 
morning. As everyone knows, the rules around here allow me to have the 
right of recognition, first recognition. We are going to start 
legislating in the morning.
  I am happy if there is a need for more debate on the bill. This is an 
important bill. We should have all the debate; people should be able to 
make their statements. I am not trying to disallow anyone from making 
their statement, but let's at least legislate, as we should in this 
most serious body, the greatest debating--they say--body in the world, 
the Senate of the United States.
  This strong bipartisan vote came, as I have indicated, after 
Republicans forced us to file cloture and use 2 days of Senate time, as 
I have already outlined. It forces us to waste 2 days for a vote they 
overwhelmingly supported. Now, the Republicans are forcing us to burn, 
as I have indicated, another 30 hours of procedural time before we can 
begin debate. That is two filibusters and more than 3 days of valuable 
Senate time wasted, all for a vote that most Republicans supported. We 
should have been on the bill, at the very least, last night.
  Why would Republicans set these roadblocks to progress? I have 
outlined why. They are still in a snit because the American people 
surprised everyone and we are in the majority. It is a slim majority, 
but we are in the majority. We believe the people's business should be 
the issue at hand.
  I have said many times Republicans have every right to vigorously 
debate and oppose legislation on which they have disagreements. That is 
how the legislative process is supposed to work. The majority 
introduces a bill, the two sides engage in debate and, in many cases, 
some type of compromise is reached. Legislation is the art of 
compromise. Then a vote is taken and whoever has the most votes--then 
we have a winner and a loser. But most of the time, if you are moving 
forward, there are only winners, there are no losers.
  The Republicans have every opportunity to debate this bill in public 
and negotiate it in private. That is what we would like to do. If there 
is some way they think this can be compromised, condensed, made bigger, 
we are willing to work with them. This is a bipartisan bill. It is 
their legislative right and obligation--I understand that--to convince 
Senators who are in disagreement to join with them. But the 
unprecedented Republican filibustering we have seen renders the 
legislative process difficult--difficult. Seventy-two times, and add to 
this almost every time we have had to do 30 hours--sometimes twice.
  So I think the American people are clearly seeing the picture. The 
picture is the Republicans are wanting to maintain the status quo. They 
are treading water until President Bush leaves. The good news for the 
American people is there are only 7 months of that left. I think it is 
clear what has happened. You see in Louisiana, you see in Mississippi, 
you see in Illinois, three heavily Republican House seats went 
Democratic. Why? Because the American people see what is going on, just 
as they see that global warming is here. The American people aren't 
going to get lost in cap and trade. What they are concerned about is 
emissions, lowering emissions. They know it is a problem. They know 
what is going on in Congress is a problem. That is why we have seen 
these special elections go overwhelmingly Democratic in places where 
the Republicans always used to win.

  On this legislation, I say to my friends, let's debate the 
legislation, let's try to work to pass it. Let's try to move forward on 
it. Stop running out the clock. Engage in the legislative process so we 
can continue to work toward making the American dream affordable for 
our country's struggling families once again.
  The price of gasoline during the 7 years and 5 months President Bush 
has been President has gone up 250 percent--250 percent. In Nevada, you 
can still find a place to buy gas for less than $4 a gallon, but it is 
not easy. One of my friends I went to high school with called me--Teddy 
Sandoval, a wonderful guy. I have known him my whole life. He called 
me. I thought he was having some personal problem, and he was. Do you 
know what it was? He said: Harry, I bought a diesel truck because 
diesel fuel was so low, and now I can't afford to fill it anymore 
because diesel has gone way up.
  Diesel. I saw over the holiday we just had, the week off we had, in 
California and Nevada diesel fuel was as much as $4.50 a gallon. My 
friend told me he had been in New York, and it was $5.15 a gallon for 
diesel fuel.
  So I plead with my Republican friends: Let us move forward on this 
legislation. I have said I don't want to use this term ``fill the 
tree,'' but we have to have some recognition from the Republicans that 
we are going to legislate seriously. Do you remember what happened last 
time when we said let's have an open amendment process? There was a 
rush to the floor to try to help John McCain on the flawed piece of 
legislation he had. Thinking the GI bill of rights is too generous--too 
generous--they rushed to the floor to support John McCain's flawed GI 
bill of rights. Now, fortunately, Democrats and Republicans saw it was 
flawed. It took a lot of procedural time. The Republicans, which was 
never done--never done previously, rarely done previously--would come 
with a piece of their legislation and file cloture. That was a 
prerogative that was left to the majority. That was the way it was 
around here.
  So unless we have some agreement that we are going to legislate 
appropriately on this bill, then I think we are going to have to step 
back and see what we can do because it will appear very clearly that 
the Republicans are not at least willing to engage in that regard and 
that they are not willing to engage in serious legislation.
  There have been 72 Republican filibusters, and we are going up, not 
down. That is not good for the country. It is not good for the Senate. 
I don't think it is good for my Republican colleagues.

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