[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 5, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S3119]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE PARTY OF NO

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the manager of the Wall Street reform bill--
at least most of it--is the chairman of the Banking Committee, Senator 
Dodd. As I reflect on what we have been through with him in this 
Congress, it is really incredible. We withstood seven filibusters on 
housing legislation he was responsible for managing. At the height of 
the housing crisis, we were trying to deal with seven filibusters. We 
have worked our way through many different issues he has been front and 
center on, including health care. He has done this with such remarkable 
strength. We have had situations he has been thrown into as a result of 
the death of Senator Kennedy that will be written about in the history 
books for some time. And then, with no breathing room in store for him, 
immediately he had to go to this very important piece of legislation 
dealing with the Wall Street crisis.
  We started on this 2 weeks ago tomorrow. We have been stalled ever 
since. Maybe today there will be a breakthrough and we will be able to 
legislate. We don't have a lot of time to spend on this bill. We have 
so much important work to do that has been held up as a result of 
scores of filibusters conducted by Republicans. An indication of how 
they treat themselves: we had amendments their Senators offered 
yesterday that we were willing to accept, and they refused to let us do 
so. But that is nothing unusual. We have had nominations they have held 
up for months that get virtually unanimous support after we go through 
all the time wasted in the cloture process to move forward.
  Yesterday, I announced we had a really big day legislatively. I love 
classic cars. I love to watch them. That is what we accomplished. We 
voted on a unanimous basis to establish Classic Car Day. That was our 
accomplishment in this body.
  We are waiting around on issues relating to the financial crisis. New 
Mexico, Nevada, Connecticut--all over the country, States are desperate 
for us to do something with this legislation so people on Wall Street 
can't continue to take advantage of the people. We would like to move 
forward and start legislating. It would seem that after 2 weeks it 
would be a pretty good thing to do. Basically during that 2-week time, 
we have accomplished virtually nothing.
  I am a little frustrated, but I understand the Republicans have made 
a decision that they are going to be the party of no. You would think 
after they established that, that would be good enough for them. I 
guess they want to underscore and underline it and have a big 
exclamation mark so no one will ever miss the fact that the Republican 
Party in this Congress has been the party of no.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut.

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