[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 18, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6632-S6633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              OBSTRUCTION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have had several very good conversations 
with Senator McCain and Senator Levin about the provisions they have 
spent a lot of time on this morning. Discussions have been very 
positive. And, hopefully, these concerns can be resolved. Of course, if 
they cannot be, the only way to resolve them would be here on the 
Senate floor. I hope in the next several days we can work something out 
on this somewhat difficult provision that is in the bill reported out 
of the committee.
  First of all, let me say to my friends who came and spoke on the 
floor today, I understand their concern about the defense of this 
country. Anytime John McCain comes to the floor or comes anyplace in 
the world and talks about anything dealing with the security of this 
country, everyone should listen. He is a man we all know, we respect, 
and hold in the highest regard, not only because of his legislative 
skills--he has been a Presidential nominee--but the fact is, he is a 
certified American military hero. So I want everyone to understand that 
I have no problem at all with Senator McCain coming to the floor 
talking about something he knows a lot about.
  But I do want to remind everyone that we are now in the 10th month of 
this Congress and we have been blocked, obstructed, prevented, and held 
up from moving legislation for 10 months. We have wasted months and 
months because of obstructionism, threats to shut down the government.
  Think back a little while on trying to get the government funded 
until the 1st of October. I do not know at this stage how many votes we 
had but at least a half dozen extending the government for a week, a 
few days, with the threat of the government shutting down with every 
one of those extensions of the continuing resolution.
  Then we moved to a new stage in the history of our great country; 
that is, extending the debt ceiling. Times in the past it has been done 
routinely--hundreds of times--18 times during the Reagan 
administration. But, no, we took months to do it for President Obama. 
And that has prevented us from doing a lot of the routine work we need 
to do here, including the Defense authorization bill. These items used 
to be routine under Democratic and Republican Presidents. But in this 
Congress, Republicans have turned even routine matters into crises.
  Since the beginning of the year, they have blocked jobs bills using 
obstructionist tactics. They have filibustered everything by amendment. 
Remember the small business innovation bill--a bill I like to talk 
about because it has been one of the best things that has happened to 
this country. Small business entrepreneurs, people who had ideas on how 
to improve the economy did good things with these small grants they 
got. My favorite, of course, is the electric toothbrush, but there were 
other things that have been done. But that bill traditionally has been 
handled with minimal controversy--in fact, no controversy--always 
passes unanimously with help from both sides. Republicans amended this 
little piece of legislation--so good for our country in creating jobs--
to death. The process took nearly 2 months. There was the Economic 
Development Revitalization Act, something that started during the time 
Richard Nixon was President. We did this routinely, most every time by 
unanimous consent. A bill that creates lots and lots of jobs, 
employment for our country--the Republican Senators blocked this bill, 
dragging out the process for months. Their obstructionism has cost this 
country millions of jobs, including 2 million that would have been 
created by the American Jobs Act.

  Suddenly they are calling for a return to regular order. Well, after 
10 months of dragging out the most routine matters, preventing the 
normal order of business here in the Senate, suddenly they are calling 
for us to move quickly on the Defense authorization bill, something 
that should have been done some time ago. They are threatening to shut 
down the government if they do not get their way. We have coming up, in 
less than a month, another threat by the Republicans to shut down the 
government. That seems to be the mantra: If we do not get what we want, 
we will close the government.
  The continuing resolution expires on November 18, right before 
Thanksgiving. My colleagues are right about the Defense Authorization 
Act--absolutely right. We need to do this. We have always done it, and 
we are going to do it this year. As I said to Senator McCain on a 
number of occasions, and Senator Levin, I am eager to find a path to 
get this done.
  My colleagues have said several times that they believe these 
provisions ought to be considered in regular order and that the Senate 
ought to proceed to debate them. As I indicated a few minutes ago, if 
that is the only avenue we have, then that is what we will do.
  The Defense authorization bill is going to get done this year. But we 
have been held up for 10 months in doing the ordinary process this 
government is required to do.
  Mr. DURBIN. Would the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield to the Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. I say to the majority leader, since I have listened to 
the colloquy by my Republican colleagues just a few minutes ago, and it 
related to the detainee policy, which is one of the controversial 
issues in the Defense authorization bill, I am sure he is aware of the 
fact that last week in Detroit, in an article III Federal court, an 
accused terrorist--the so-called Underwear Bomber--pled guilty to 
terrorism, having gone through the regular criminal process in article 
III courts, having been interrogated by the FBI, and even after Miranda 
warnings, surrendering very valuable information and intelligence to 
protect the United States.
  Is it not true that when we look at the record about detainees or 
those accused of terrorism being tried, we find that since 9/11, over 
200 of them have been successfully tried in article III courts under 
President Bush and President Obama and that under military commissions, 
exactly 4, 4 terrorists have been tried; and that the argument on the 
other side, which is that the article III courts are incapable of 
protecting the United States and successfully prosecuting terrorists, 
absolutely flies in the face of the facts: 200 terrorists convicted in 
article III courts, 4 by military tribunals. You would think it was 
exactly the opposite, from the arguments made on the floor by my friend 
from Arizona and others.
  I would ask the Senator from Nevada, our majority leader, are we not 
trying to give to any President--this President and any President--the 
tools and the decisionmaking necessary to protect our Nation, to pick 
the best place to investigate and to prosecute those who are accused of 
terrorism?
  Mr. REID. In response to my friend's question, he is absolutely 
right. Remember, this is not an Obama-driven

[[Page S6633]]

program. It started during the George Bush era. Why? Because George 
Bush was President of the United States on 9/11, and he recognized the 
importance of doing this in a fashion that would maintain the civility 
of our criminal justice system.
  I say to my friend, I want to make sure--I will repeat what I said 
earlier. No one is saying we are not going to do the Defense 
authorization bill. We are going to do that. But we are really, because 
of being jammed, as I have tried to outline here to the entire country, 
and being unable to get our work done here these last 10 months, we are 
trying to find time to do lots of things. That is why we have come up 
with this unique way of moving appropriations bills. We are doing them 
together--three at a time rather than one at a time--in an effort to do 
what I have been asked to do by the Speaker of the House: Do what you 
can to get these appropriations bills done. Senator McConnell suggested 
something. We are doing our very best, but we have been held up from 
doing the ordinary business. I gave two examples that were about as 
good as you could give of our trying to do things to create jobs in 
America today. We have been stymied from doing that.
  So I say to everyone here that I am really somewhat at a loss for 
words, for an organization here--the Republican caucus has done 
everything they can these past 10 months to stop us from moving 
forward. Remember, the No. 1 goal of my friend the Republican leader--
and I admire his honesty--he said his No. 1 goal was and has been to 
defeat President Obama. As a result of that, we have not been able to 
do the government's business, because everything they can do to slow 
down government is something they believe will help them a year from 
now.
  Mr. DURBIN. Would the Senator yield for one more question?
  Mr. REID. I would be happy to.
  Mr. DURBIN. Is it not true that the majority leader came to the floor 
on the pending legislation, the appropriations bills, and invited 
Members on both sides to bring their amendments to the floor, call 
their amendments for a vote, that some 10 or 11 or more amendments have 
been filed, and we are still waiting for that? Is it not true that we 
are giving this opportunity to our colleagues to offer their amendments 
and to call their amendments, and that is a way for those who are 
looking for their opportunity on the floor to express their point of 
view and get a vote?
  Mr. REID. I appreciate very much the Senator from Illinois reminding 
me what took place at the beginning of this Congress.
  Mr. McCAIN. Would the Senator yield for a comment?
  Mr. REID. As soon as I answer my friend's question.
  I am reminded of what took place at the beginning of this year. We 
had a number of new Senators--relatively new Senators--who joined with 
some of the more experienced Senators who wanted to change the way the 
saw our having done business in the last Congress.

  I joined with my friend the Republican leader and said: Let's back 
off a little bit.
  The Republican leader said: We are going to be very discrete in what 
we do with the motions to proceed, to allow us to get on legislation.
  I said: Fine. If that is the case, we will make sure we have the 
opportunity to offer amendments.
  That has broken down big time, I say to my friend, because it is a 
rare day here that we have been able to move to a piece of legislation 
without having to go through the process of filing cloture on just the 
ability to get on a bill. And we have had open amendments, as we did on 
the small business innovation bill. Guess what happened. It was amended 
to death. So after 2 months--after 2 months--we gave up. We could not 
do that bill as had been done routinely in the past.
  So I say to my friend, we are going to try it again. We have these 
appropriations bills. We are going to try to get it done. We are 
waiting for people to offer amendments, and we are going to try to move 
through this and get it done. We are going to do the appropriations 
bills this week. We have other things we need to do. It is an important 
time in the history of our country to show the American people we can 
work together. I hope that, in fact, is the case because based on my 
experience from the beginning of this Congress, where there was 
supposed to be a good-faith effort to return to regular order, it has 
not happened.
  I would be happy to yield to my friend for a question.
  Mr. McCAIN. I want to say to the majority leader, whom I have known 
and been friends with for many years, I thank him for his kind remarks. 
I am very appreciative of his commitment to bringing the Defense 
authorization bill to the floor. I thank the majority leader.

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