[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 9, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8149-S8150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                GRIDLOCK

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the American people sent us here to get 
things done, and they are obviously very frustrated with the fact that 
this has been a do-nothing Congress, a do-nothing Senate. We have not 
gotten much done. In fact, the problem has been identified by both of 
the Presidential candidates, Senators McCain and Obama, who have railed 
about the fact that we need reform in this body because nothing is 
getting done on behalf of the American people.
  The Democrats have been in charge of the Senate and House for the 
last 2 years. So one wonders why haven't we been able to get things 
done? For example, to fund the Government for next year, we are 
supposed to by now have passed 13 appropriations bills to fund all of 
the departments of the U.S. Government. Not one appropriation bill has 
been passed and sent to the President. We are going to have to bundle 
everything up in a giant ball at the end of September and, instead of 
carefully considering each individual department, we are going to have 
to adopt a continuing resolution so the Government can continue to 
operate. That is not the way to do business.
  With rare exception, the majority leader in the Senate has been less 
interested in enabling the Senate to work its will and finding 
consensus than simply pushing an agenda of the majority in a sort of 
my-way-or-the-highway kind of approach. This has led to gridlock and, 
as I said, not much getting done.
  Let me illustrate this by a simple statistic that says it all. In 
2008 alone, so far, 28.4 percent of all rollcall votes have been 
cloture votes. That is a record historic high. Over 28 percent of our 
votes--over a fourth of them--have been cloture votes. Last year set 
the all-time record at 14 percent, and the average is 4.3 percent.
  Why is this important? Because cloture stops debate, and it stops 
Republicans, in this case, from offering our solutions, alternatives, 
or amendments to what the Democratic leader puts on the floor. He says 
it is either this way

[[Page S8150]]

or nothing. You either vote on this or we are not going to let you have 
amendments and we are going to have a cloture vote. Again, 28.4 percent 
of the votes have been cloture votes.
  I remember several years ago when my colleague John McCain stood on 
the Senate floor fighting for the right of a Democratic Senator to get 
a vote on an amendment. He said something we all agreed with, which is 
that a Senator has a right to get a vote on his or her amendment. That 
was then and this is now: Sorry, Republicans, no votes on amendments. 
We are going to fill the legislative tree--a parliamentary tactic--or 
file cloture and stop anything from being debated or voted on. We don't 
want to take tough votes or give Republicans a chance to win one of the 
votes.
  What have been some of the results? Well, in 2007, some very 
important tax provisions expired. The research and development tax 
credit, for example, and the ability to fix the alternative minimum tax 
so it doesn't apply to most taxpayers. We have to pass what is called a 
tax extender bill to extend these expiring provisions and make sure the 
AMT doesn't get 23 million to 26 million American families this year. 
We have not gotten it done so far. Why? There is an obvious way to do 
this. The ranking member on the Finance Committee pretty well figured 
out how this could occur. No, we cannot get that done.
  On energy production, both of my colleagues have talked about that 
issue. The majority leader called up the so-called antispeculation 
bill. We all agree we could add resources to the Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission and make sure it has the ability to regulate this 
futures trading in a way that would prevent manipulation and 
speculation in the market. But we also appreciate the fact that supply 
and demand is a much larger factor with regard to the price of 
gasoline, for example. So Republicans wanted to offer amendments that 
created some alternatives to the Democratic bill that would assist in 
nuclear energy production, coal to liquids, and allow offshore drilling 
as one of the key elements of it. We need relief from high gasoline 
prices. The Democratic leader said no.
  The only thing the President could do was to at least remove an 
Executive moratorium, which he did. That moratorium no longer exists. 
What happened to gas prices? Oil prices have dropped, I should say, by 
$40 a barrel, and gas prices have dropped somewhat off of the high 
above $4 because of the market's belief now that when the President 
withdrew the Executive moratorium, it was the first step. The second 
step would be Congress doing something, and that would increase 
production, and therefore reduce the cost of the oil, and therefore 
enable the American consumer to pay less at the pump. But Congress 
still has not done anything.
  Now we hear that next week the majority leader is going to allow a 
bill to come to the floor, but it is not going to provide the kind of 
offshore drilling that Republicans have been advocating. The ability to 
debate it is going to be very circumscribed. We are not going to be 
able to present the kind of amendments we would like to present and 
have this debated and amended so we can come up with real solutions.
  Another example is free trade. The Colombia Free Trade Agreement is 
one that almost everybody acknowledges is a good thing. It is critical 
for our relationship with this important country in our hemisphere, 
which is standing against the likes of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Yet 
the Democrats, because of their concern about the reaction of labor 
unions, have said, no, we are not going to take up this Colombia Free 
Trade Agreement.
  These are the kind of issues--and let me add one more: judges. These 
are the kinds of issues Americans expect us to get done. We have only 
confirmed four circuit court judges this year, four in the entire year, 
less than the average of all of the last Presidents, certainly less 
than Bill Clinton. Yet the majority says we don't have time to do that.
  Clearly, this is a do-nothing Congress. Clearly, our Presidential 
candidates, both of them, recognize reform is necessary.
  Let me mention the last issue. I mentioned appropriations bills. We 
are going to have to ball them up into one giant bill called a 
continuing resolution. Mark my words, one of the things somebody is 
going to try to do is attach a rider to the appropriations bill--maybe 
in the middle of the night, I don't know--but it is going to be to 
continue a moratorium on offshore drilling. Mark my words, somebody is 
going to try to do that. We cannot allow that to happen. Will 
Republicans be cut off from our ability to prevent that rider from 
going on the appropriations bill or to allow us to vote it off, to have 
an amendment to say, no, moratorium and offshore drilling is not going 
to be on that continuing resolution? This is critical to the American 
future. Are we going to have this right?
  These are the kinds of questions I think are going to be necessary 
for us to resolve before Congress is going to be able to get anything 
done. But I will suggest this as well: Republican Senators can only do 
so much in the minority when Democrats are in charge. As my colleague, 
Senator McCain, said at the Republican Convention, if he is elected, 
change is on the way. And one of the big changes is going to go right 
back to what he said several years ago. As I said, whether it is a 
Democrat wanting a vote on an amendment or a Republican, they are going 
to get that vote, and we are not going to have so many cloture motions 
filed to cut off amendments, to cut off debate, and say it is my way or 
the highway.
  The American people want something done. We still have time--even in 
the short time remaining in this year--to do something about the energy 
crisis in this country, and that means to get offshore drilling. That 
has to be at the top of our agenda. Secondly, we have to get the 
Government funded so it can continue operating next year without, as I 
said, a moratorium on more offshore drilling.
  I am hopeful that in the next 3 weeks we will be able to do some 
things we have not been able to do in the last 6 months. But if we get 
cooperation from the majority, the minority stands ready to try to work 
out these issues, to conclude this session on a positive note in a way 
we can finally say we accomplished something this session for the 
American people. After all, that is what they sent us here to do.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Pryor). The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I have been listening with great interest 
to my colleague from Arizona. I might say, before he leaves the floor, 
my hope is that after trying eight times and failing to pass a bill to 
extend the tax incentives for renewable energy, we will get a little 
cooperation from the other side in the coming weeks to begin the first 
step of what we ought to have been doing easily, and that is pass the 
tax extenders to encourage renewable energy.
  One of the reasons they have opposed it is because we actually pay 
for it. One of the ways we pay for it is to say to hedge fund managers, 
who are only paying a 15-percent income tax rate anyway, that they 
cannot be running their income through foreign tax-haven countries as 
deferred compensation to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Because the other 
side is upset with that as a pay-for the tax extenders for renewable 
energy, eight times they have blocked our ability to extend renewable 
energy tax credits, which is a way of substantially expanding our 
country's homegrown energy.
  It is interesting for people to comment on the floor and say we need 
more cooperation, when eight times we have tried to extend these tax 
incentives for renewable energy, and eight times we have been blocked 
by those who are concerned about protecting the ability of wealthy 
hedge fund managers to avoid paying Federal income taxes. Enough about 
that.
  With respect to drilling, I was one of four Senators--two 
Republicans, two Democrats--who opened the 8.3 million acres called 
lease 181 in the Gulf of Mexico. I have other legislation I have had in 
for a year and a half to increase substantial drilling. It is a canard 
for a number of them to come to the Senate floor to say Democrats don't 
support drilling. It is simply factually wrong. That is a debate 
perhaps for tomorrow or another day.
  (The remarks of Mr. Dorgan pertaining to the introduction of S. 3454 
and S. 3455 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on 
Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')




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