[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 23, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9226-S9227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       LEARNING ECONOMIC LESSONS

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I spent 8\1/2\ hours yesterday trying to 
get back here, and I understand during a period of that time my name 
was mentioned rather prominently several times on the floor, which is 
fine. I know Senator Reid is going to come out in a little bit and 
offer some unanimous consent requests, which I am certainly open to 
considering, but we just got the language on those and so we will be 
looking at that. I will be objecting until I get a chance to see what 
changes have been made, and I look forward to working with Senator 
Reid.
  But I think this whole debate about 35 bills and $10 billion is a 
great lesson for us. We stand right now as a nation on a fault line 
that has created a lack of confidence in the financial system in this 
country--and not just in this country but in the world as well. While 
we are facing what is being requested by the head of the Federal 
Reserve, the Treasury, and the administration--a task of trying to 
reestablish confidence and liquidity in our markets--we have failed to 
learn the lesson. The lesson is this: We cannot continue to 
indiscriminately create more Government without making the Government 
we have efficient.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, regular order. The regular order was I was 
to have the floor when Senator Bond finished.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is correct.


                   ADVANCING AMERICA'S PRIORITIES ACT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday we started a process of trying to 
clear bills and passing matters. Prior to that, to remind everyone, 34 
bills have been held up by Senator Coburn, held up for months. We have 
tried to work with him and it has borne no fruit. I want everyone here 
to understand that Senator Coburn may have been the person objecting to 
these pieces of legislation passing, but the Republicans are complicit 
in this because they have joined with him in blocking these bills. He 
could not do this alone. They have joined with him in doing this. So 
people who go back to their constituency and say they are in favor of 
all these pieces of legislation are not leveling with their 
constituents. I repeat, Senator Coburn may have been the person who 
made the objection, but we have attempted to move forward. He has been 
joined by his Republican colleagues. Every Democrat, of course, is in 
favor of moving these pieces of legislation, even though they are 
Republican bills. We believe, for the good of the people, you don't 
identify a good piece of legislation by whether it is a Democrat or 
Republican sponsoring it; you identify it as to the merits of that 
piece of legislation.
  Again, to recap, the legislation contains 34 bills with broad 
bipartisan support that have been held up by Senator Coburn, who 
obviously thinks he knows better than the House of Representatives--by 
the way, these bills were passed overwhelmingly; the average vote is 
370--that he knows more than the committees that reported these bills 
out, both in the House and the Senate, and he knows better than the 
whole Senate, since he will not give us simple votes on these bills. I 
repeat, he has been joined by his Republican colleagues in the 
obstructionism.
  I tried to get the whole block passed yesterday. I tried to move to 
different sections--there are seven different sections--and there was 
an objection made on behalf of Senator Coburn to each of those. With a 
few things on our plate; that is, the financial crisis facing this 
country, trying to complete a funding resolution to get us through this 
beginning of the next fiscal year, an economic recovery package--we 
have a lot to do. Because of that, I did not have the ability, again, 
to file cloture. It takes 2 days to vote on a motion to proceed, 30 
hours; get on the bill, file cloture, 2 more days, 30 hours. We didn't 
have time to do that. But we are going to continue working on these 
next Congress. If we come back after this weekend--which is looking 
more every day as though we are going to have to--we can consider 
moving forward on these pieces of legislation at that time.
  We are going to do what we can to get these extremely important 
pieces of legislation passed. I again say, each one of these bills 
overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives. Each one of these 
bills has been reported out of the Senate committee. We are going to 
see if any of these will get the approval of the Republicans today.
  We were told yesterday by Republican Senate staff that maybe there 
are other Republican Senators who are using Senator Coburn as a foil, 
using him as somebody to do the blocking, so we will see. Yesterday it 
was interesting, the junior Senator from Arizona said there are 8 bills 
we could clear--8 out of 34, not very good, but 8 is a lot better than 
nothing. Within a few seconds after I agreed to that, well, he said, 
maybe three. I tried to pin him down to three. He said you will have to 
wait until Dr. Coburn shows up.
  I hope everyone is beginning to see a clearer picture of this 
obstructionism.
  Also understand this: Not a single piece of legislation will cost the 
American people 10 cents--nothing, not a penny, because they are all 
authorizations. They allow the appropriations committees to take a look 
at these pieces of legislation. There are a lot of pieces of 
legislation that pass that give authorization and then there have to be 
priorities set by the Budget Committee, sometimes the Finance 
Committee, and the Appropriations Committee, to find out which 
priorities should exist.
  The authorizations do not cost the American taxpayers anything; 
nothing; zero. That is why I was stunned when I got a letter from the 
Senator from Oklahoma saying you strike $10 billion in authorizations 
from these bills and then when the bills come forward you make an 
amendment to put it back in.
  I haven't gone to medical school, but I know that is illogical. We 
are not going to offer consent requests on each bill in this package 
because we have been told in no uncertain terms by Senator Coburn that 
he will not accept that. Right now we have to deal with him. So I am 
going to start on a couple of titles and see what progress, if any, we 
make today. As I have said, we are not going to give up on the rest of 
the important pieces of legislation. But because the Republicans have 
supported Senator Coburn, that is where we are. I repeat, even though 
he is the person out front, the Republicans, the Republican caucus is 
responsible for this.
  I disagree with Dr. Coburn on his concerns about authorizations. I 
think he is wrong, but he has a right to his opinion and I accept that. 
But my disappointment is his Republican colleagues are supporting him. 
I do not think that is going to continue.
  We do not know what is going to be the status next year, but I hope 
there will be fewer of them and more of us and maybe that will lessen 
some of the intransigence we have seen on the other side. I am happy to 
continue discussion with Senator Coburn's office which, frankly, we 
found basically has been a big waste of time, but we will continue to 
do that. I have tried to be patient and I will continue to do that so I 
hope we can get something done.
  The first title of this package deals with health care. This title 
consists of very important bills covering a range of diseases and 
conditions. I venture to say that every American and every family in 
America has been touched by some portion of the health care provisions 
in this package. The health care provisions in this package include the 
ALS Registry Act and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act. That 
piece of legislation is interesting. Christopher Reeve, Superman, who 
was badly injured in a horse accident, and his wonderful wife Dana, who 
was so supportive through his very difficult life, are both dead. As 
young people they are both dead, even though there is legislation that 
has been introduced and we tried to pass in their honor. They are both 
dead.
  The STOP Stroke Act--I don't think there is a family in America who 
has not been affected by stroke in some way.
  The Legislation also contains the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS

[[Page S9227]]

Act, which focuses on postpartum depression, which now is more easily 
diagnosed, and they are looking for ways to lessen the burden that 
people who have postpartum depression have and the Vision Care for Kids 
Act and the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness 
Act.
  Three of the six bills in the health care package were introduced by 
Republicans. All these bills passed the House with extremely strong 
bipartisan support. Eighty-five percent of the people in the House of 
Representatives voted for these pieces of legislation. That is the 
average. Of course, the same over here. We have bipartisan support. But 
procedurally Republicans have supported Senator Coburn.

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