[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 28, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1063-S1064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         MAKING THE SENATE WORK

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, last evening in an hour set aside at the 
request of Senators Pryor and Alexander, a very good conversation took 
place on the Senate floor.
  Senators Pryor and Alexander are exemplary in trying to work things 
out; they are good legislators because they understand no side gets 
their way. I have been here a long time, and I have been fortunate to 
get pieces of legislation passed that I sponsored and worked toward, 
but I have never ever had a piece of legislation that I introduced that 
wound up with that piece of legislation; always there are changes. That 
is the legislative process.
  That is what Senator Pryor and Alexander talked about yesterday 
evening. It was important. They talked about the need to bring bills to 
the floor. They focused on appropriations bills--and rightfully so. I 
am a longtime member of the Appropriations Committee, as is the 
Republican leader, and we understand the importance of working on these 
bills.
  In the last number of years, we haven't been able to do individual 
appropriations bills, except on rare occasions. We have done these 
omnibus and minibuses, and we are trying to get away from that. I think 
the framework

[[Page S1064]]

laid last night was extremely important.
  The Republican leader and I have talked individually, personally, 
away from everyone, about the need to get this done for the integrity 
of the Senate, and the colloquy last night helped what I think the 
Republican leader and I wish to get done. We need the agreement of 
Senate Republicans and Democrats that we will work together to complete 
this important work, and they talked about appropriations bills.

  Senator Warner and Senator Hagan joined Senator Pryor; Senators 
Isakson, Collins, Boozman, and Graham joined Senator Alexander. So it 
was a significant number of Senators who talked about wanting to do the 
same thing and I commend and applaud their work.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Will my friend yield for me to make a couple 
observations on what he just said?
  Mr. REID. I will yield.
  Mr. McCONNELL. We have negotiated the top line for the discretionary 
spending for this coming fiscal year. That process is normally done by 
the passage of a budget by the House and a budget by the Senate, with 
some reconciliation between the two bodies on the top line. But we 
already have that number. I wish to second what my friend the majority 
leader said. There is no good reason for this institution not to move 
forward with an appropriations process that avoids what we have done so 
frequently under both parties for years and years: either continuing 
resolutions or omnibus appropriations.
  We have an opportunity to avoid that this year. It is the basic work 
of Congress. I wish to second what the majority leader said and 
congratulate Senator Alexander and Senator Pryor for their leadership 
on this issue. I hope we can join together and do the basic work of 
government this year and do it in a timely fashion.
  I commend the majority leader and associate myself with his comments.
  Mr. REID. I have spoken to Senator Inouye, the chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee. He is beginning, with Senator Cochran, the 
hearing process where administration officials come in and report to 
the individual appropriations subcommittees.
  Senator Inouye thinks that, come late April, we can start moving some 
of these bills to the floor. We have to wait until the House does 
something because otherwise we get into procedural hurdles. But the 
House, I am told, wants to move these quickly also. I hope we can get 
these bills done.
  The first real good experience I had in the Senate was working as a 
conferee on individual appropriations bills. That is fun. That is what 
legislation is all about and we have gotten away from that and I hope 
we can get back to doing some good things in that regard.


                           The Auto Industry

  Mr. President, when President Obama took office 3 years ago, the auto 
industry was on a life support system. It was in very bad shape. I am 
sorry to say the life support system the Detroit auto industry was 
surviving on, Republicans wanted to pull the plug.
  One man who is now seeking the Republican nomination for President of 
the United States said, ``We should kiss the American automobile 
industry good-bye.'' We can't make up stuff like that. That is what he 
actually said. He called the death of American auto manufacturers 
``virtually guaranteed.'' ``Virtually guaranteed'' is another direct 
quote. So he argued we should let Detroit go bankrupt. But he wasn't 
alone. If he were alone, that would be a lone wolf crying in the 
wilderness, but that is not the way it was. Republicans in this Chamber 
agreed. Many of them agreed.
  Democrats, though, weren't willing to give up on American 
manufacturing because saving the automobile industry wasn't about 
saving corporations; it was about saving millions of Americans who work 
for these corporations. It wasn't about saving the people who own race 
cars; it was about saving the people who work on assembly lines making 
the parts to keep those race cars running.
  There is no way Democrats would walk away from millions of Americans 
whose jobs were on the line. Americans working in dealerships and 
distribution centers and manufacturing plants across the country were 
depending on us to do something, and we did. We didn't give up the 
fight to save the auto industry. We didn't give up even when one Senate 
Republican called the efforts ``a road to nowhere.''
  Here, the verdict is in. We were right. The American auto industry 
has added 160,000 jobs in the last 24 months alone. Last year, General 
Motors reported record profits and sold more vehicles than any other 
car company in the world. Chrysler is profitable again. People are 
boasting about the quality of American cars, and Chrysler is growing 
faster in the United States than any other major automobile 
manufacturer.
  So when a Republican Presidential frontrunner said we should kiss the 
American automobile industry goodbye, he couldn't have been more wrong. 
We all make mistakes. We all get one wrong occasionally. The test of 
character is admitting when we make that mistake, and it is time for 
Republicans to recognize that saving the American automobile 
manufacturing industry and millions of middle-class jobs was the right 
thing to do.
  There is good news from the auto industry: Twenty-four months of 
private sector job growth is evidence our country is headed in the 
right direction. But too many Americans are still hurting financially 
and struggling to find work, and it is crucial Congress continue 
efforts to create jobs and rebuild our economy. So Democrats are moving 
forward with a bipartisan package of bills that will spur small 
business growth.
  These measures will improve innovators' access to capital--that is so 
important--and will streamline how companies sell stocks through 
initial public offerings or, as they are called, IPOs. These pieces of 
legislation will also protect the rights of investors.
  Next week, Chairman Johnson, the senior Senator from South Dakota, 
will hold a Banking Committee hearing on this issue. It will be the 
third hearing on these measures since December. Senate Democrats have 
been working on these measures for a long time, and I am so happy to 
have read that House Republicans are joining Democrats to move this 
legislation. Commonsense issues such as these should not have to turn 
into knock-down, drag-out fights. This is something on which we should 
agree.
  These companies need the ability to get cash to innovate, to grow, to 
build. This legislation that is being promulgated in the Banking 
Committee and the hearing that takes place there is very important to 
our country. I look forward to moving these measures and our economy 
forward with the help of my Republican colleagues.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader.

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