[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 58 (Tuesday, May 3, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2589-S2590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, following any leader remarks, the Senate 
will be in a period of morning business until 5 p.m. this evening. The 
Republicans will control the first 30 minutes, the majority will 
control the next 30 minutes.
  The Senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 to allow for our weekly 
caucus meetings. We expect to have a rollcall vote this afternoon on 
the adoption of the resolution commending our Armed Forces and the 
intelligence community regarding the death of bin Laden. Senators will 
be notified when that vote is scheduled.
  Additionally, there is a Senators-only briefing today--it is 
classified--on the U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden. That 
will be at 5 p.m. today in the Visitor Center.
  CIA Director Leon Panetta will be there; Vice Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff James Cartwright will be there; National Counter 
Terrorism Center Director Michael Leiter will be there; and Deputy 
Secretary of State James Steinberg.


                           Order of Procedure

  Last night I filed cloture on the small business jobs bill, S. 493. 
Senators should expect a cloture vote to occur tomorrow morning. I ask 
unanimous consent that the filing deadline for all first-degree 
amendments be at 2:30 p.m. today for S. 493.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. Additionally, I also filed cloture on the nomination of 
John McConnell of Rhode Island to be a district judge for the District 
of Rhode Island. This vote may also occur tomorrow morning.


                               SBIR/STTR

  The bill before this body today, the small business innovation bill, 
is the latest in a series of bills we have written to help small 
businesses grow. It supports a research and development program--the 
Small Business Innovation Research Program--that has helped tens of 
thousands of small businesses create jobs and shape the future.
  This bill is an adaptation of the bill that President Reagan created 
30 years ago. It is a continuation of that program. It has been proven 
that these investments work. It helped get great new ideas off the 
ground. For example, the electric toothbrush was invented with a small 
business grant, the satellite antenna that helped our first responders 
in Haiti, to technologies that keep our food safe and our military 
tanks from overheating in the desert. These are all the result of what 
this legislation has done over the years. There are success stories in 
virtually every State and nearly every industry.
  Before the recess, we spent days working on an agreement to have 
votes on three amendments on this bill so we could move forward and 
finally pass it. We have voted on many amendments. This legislation 
started on March 10. It is now the first part of May. We have had some 
breaks in time because of our going back to our States, but there is no 
excuse for not completing this important legislation.
  Every time we get one problem taken care of another Republican raises 
their head. The latest is Senator Snowe. Of all people who should 
understand the importance of small business, it is the Senator from 
Maine, who was at one

[[Page S2590]]

time chairman of the Small Business Committee. Yet she has been 
unmoving in wanting a vote on a piece of legislation that has not even 
had a hearing.
  The chairman of the Small Business Committee said she is happy to 
work with Senator Snowe. Senator Landrieu said she will work with her 
to hold hearings, whatever is appropriate. But it is unfair that we 
have not been able to move forward on this bill.
  As I indicated, we spent days before the recess working on an 
agreement to have votes on amendments to move this bill forward. 
Included in this agreement were Senator Cornyn's amendment, which would 
establish a commission on government waste, and Senator Hutchison's 
amendment, which related to health care reform litigation. This 
agreement was objected to by Senator Snowe while everyone else in the 
Senate has signed off on it.
  During the course of many weeks debating this bill, we have made 
significant efforts to accommodate Senator Snowe and the rest of the 
Republican caucus on amendments. She has had one. We voted on it 
already. We even had a vote, as indicated, on an amendment offered by 
Senator Snowe, as well as many other Republican amendments, nearly 
every one of which had nothing to do with the underlying legislation. 
They were not relevant. They were not germane.
  In light of our accommodation of extraneous amendments, it is 
difficult for me to understand why we cannot finish debate on this 
bill. We have been more than fair. We should be able to reach agreement 
on considering the remaining amendments and voting on final passage. I 
hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle would recognize how 
unfair it is that one Senator would hold up this legislation.
  There are amendments pending, I repeat, that are not germane or 
relevant to this piece of legislation. We are willing to take votes on 
those. It would seem to me that Senators such as Cornyn and Hutchison, 
who have worked hard to get votes, should vote with us on our ability 
to move forward on this legislation. We should be able to get this 
done. It is the right thing for the country. It appears that we are not 
going to be able to do that. So I had no choice but to file cloture in 
order to bring this debate to a close. That is what I did last night.
  If this job-producing legislation is not passed, there is only one 
problem with it: the Republicans on the other side of the aisle. It is 
unfair that we have worked so hard to get this important piece of 
legislation done, and because of one Senator it is not going to happen. 
I hope that is wrong. I hope my prediction is wrong. This has been on 
the Senate floor for far too long. We need to resolve it so we can move 
to other matters.

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