[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 20, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1840-S1842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             JUMPSTART OUR BUSINESS STARTUPS ACT--Continued

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Reed be 
recognized for 2 minutes and Senator Landrieu for 2 minutes. I ask 
unanimous consent that those two Senators be recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader. I rise because 
in a moment we will be voting on the Reed-Landrieu-Levin substitute 
amendment. This legislation corrects glaring defects in the House-
proposed bill on a so-called jobs bill. It protects investors. It 
allows capital formation, but it does not do that at the expense of 
investors.
  We have taken all the major provisions of the House bill with respect 
to the IPO onramp. We have not deleted them, we have improved them. We 
have lowered the threshold in terms of the size of the business so 
these IPO onramps can be designed for small businesses, not for 
businesses of $1 billion in annual revenue.
  We have gone ahead and looked at the aspects of regulation A in the 
House, and we agree there should be an increase in the limit from $5 
million to $50 million. But we have made improvements. For example, the 
House bill will allow people to solicit these securities under 
regulation A without audited financials. I think at a minimum the 
investing public should have some audited financials to rely upon.
  We have taken provisions with respect to the ability to go dark--the 
ability to stop reporting if you have 2,000 or less record owners--and 
we have raised the limit from the existing 1 to 750 beneficial owners. 
But we haven't opened it broadly so that large well-known companies 
could suddenly stop reporting their financial information on a routine 
basis.
  We have looked at the reg D offerings in terms of a private offering 
versus a public offering, and we have given the Securities and Exchange 
Commission the ability, in this age of the Internet and of Twitter, to 
make adjustments so that a private offering under reg D would not be 
compromised because it gets into the media through Twitter, et cetera. 
But we haven't opened it to general solicitation, as the House bill 
does.
  By the way, our bill actually tries to create jobs, not just 
opportunities to raise funds through Wall Street. With Senator 
Landrieu's help, we have strong small business provisions in there. We 
include the Ex-Im Bank provisions of Senator Cantwell. We worked very 
closely with Senators Merkley, Bennet, and Brown of Massachusetts to 
include a crowdfunding provision which is much superior.
  If we do not achieve cloture, we will see, by default, a bad House 
bill on its way to becoming law.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Shaheen). The Senator has used 2 minutes.
  The Senator from Louisiana.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Following up on the leadership of the good Senator from 
Rhode Island, let me say there are many reasons--many reasons--to vote 
against cloture on the House bill, and I will get to that in a minute. 
But I am urging my colleagues to vote yes on cloture for the Reed-
Landrieu-Levin substitute.
  We have tried to address the many concerns raised by the House bill 
in our substitute. If we vote yes on cloture for our substitute, we can 
then go into some more meaningful debate on the Senate floor, and this 
bill needs some additional debate.
  Mary Schapiro from the SEC said, clearly, the House bill goes too 
far. The Chamber of Commerce even says there are concerns in the House 
bill. AARP is opposed to the House bill. Securities and Exchange 
Commissioner Mary Schapiro wrote last week:

       H.R. 3606 would remove certain important measures put in 
     place to enforce separation between the research analysts and 
     investment bankers who work for the same firms. These careful 
     principles were put in after the scandals that ensued on Wall 
     Street.

  This bill has flown out of the House. Even Barney Frank said what we 
are doing in the Senate, by slowing it down and amending it, is the 
right thing. So I urge my colleagues to give our substitute a chance. 
They can vote yes on Senator Cantwell's amendment, and vote no on 
cloture to the House bill so we can continue this important debate in 
the Senate.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the substitute 
     amendment No. 1833 to H.R. 3606, an Act to increase American 
     job creation and economic growth by improving access to the 
     public capital markets for emerging growth companies.
         Harry Reid, Mary L. Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Carl Levin, Jon 
           Tester, Mark Begich, Patty Murray, Mark R. Warner, 
           Christopher A. Coons, Robert Menendez, Thomas R. 
           Carper, Joseph I. Lieberman, Debbie Stabenow, Robert P. 
           Casey, Jr., Jeanne Shaheen, Tom Udall, Jim Webb, 
           Barbara Boxer.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on 
amendment No. 1833 to H.R. 3606, an act to increase American job 
creation and economic growth by improving access to the public capital 
markets for emerging growth companies, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 54, nays 45, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 51 Leg.]

                                YEAS--54

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Bingaman
     Blumenthal
     Boxer
     Brown (MA)
     Brown (OH)
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Conrad
     Coons
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Inouye
     Johnson (SD)
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (NE)
     Nelson (FL)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--45

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Collins
     Corker

[[Page S1841]]


     Cornyn
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Enzi
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     Kyl
     Lee
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Snowe
     Thune
     Toomey
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Kirk
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 54, the nays are 
45. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
  The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, we need order in the Senate. People should 
take their seats. The Republican leader has some words he wants to 
share with the Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on my leader time, briefly, there is 
substantial support on this side of the aisle for the Ex-Im Bank. 
However, it is important that we get this bipartisan JOBS bill that 
passed the House overwhelmingly and that the President supports on down 
to the President. So it is going to be my recommendation to my Members, 
which I hope they will follow, that we oppose cloture on adding the Ex-
Im to this bill.
  I say to my friend the majority leader, I have discussed this with 
virtually all my Members. We believe that if you turn to the Ex-Im 
matter, we can pass it in a relatively short time with very few 
amendments related to the subject matter. But I think it is important 
that we get this JOBS bill down to the President.
  I urge my colleagues at this particular point on this particular bill 
to oppose cloture.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, at a meeting very recently with people 
from the Pentagon, their No. 1 issue is not Afghanistan, it is not 
Iraq, it is not Pakistan, it is not North Korea, it is not Iran, it is 
cybersecurity. We have to move to that legislation. The post office is 
going broke as we speak. We have to move to that bill as quickly as we 
can. The Violence Against Women Act has expired. We have to move 
forward on that. We have so much to do in such a short period of time.
  The Export-Import Bank is a powerful piece of legislation--300,000 
jobs this year alone. It saves $1 billion. And my Republican 
colleagues, as has been standard procedure around here, even on a bill 
that is as supported as this by the country, want to have a fight. The 
fight is on a procedural matter, that they want offered amendments--
plural.
  As my friend the Republican leader said, we could pass this bill in a 
relatively short period of time. Think about that. Right now, we could 
pass that, it would be part of this IPO bill we got from the House, and 
we could go on about our business. So I think this is a huge mistake by 
my Republican colleagues.
  Everyone, listen. Ex-Im is, for the foreseeable future, not going to 
be able to be moved forward. I cannot move it to the front of 
everything else when we have all these things due. I have only talked 
about a few of the things we have to do, and we have to do them very 
soon.
  So go ahead, my friends. You picked a fight where it is not a 
necessary fight, but you may be surprised how this winds up. I will say 
no more. I know what the rules of the Senate are, and I am going to 
follow them. So have at it, vote no on the Ex-Im Bank.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. This JOBS bill passed overwhelmingly in the House, 
with only 23 votes against it, supported by the President of the United 
States. It is ready to go down to him for signature. If we add the Ex-
Im Bank to it, we only delay the passage of this bipartisan JOBS bill, 
and we send it back to the House, and we don't know how they feel about 
the Ex-Im extension. We do know that here in the Senate, as I just 
indicated, there is a significant majority in favor of passing this 
legislation, which we ought to be able to do very quickly.
  I do not think there is any particular reason for delaying a jobs 
bill that is overwhelmingly supported on a bipartisan basis; therefore, 
I say to my friends on this side who are in favor of the Ex-Im Bank, I 
am in favor of moving to that rapidly. I can say to the majority 
leader, as I said before, we would be willing to agree to very few 
amendments related to the subject matter. I encourage him to turn to 
that soon, even though it doesn't expire, I believe, until sometime in 
May.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I say go ahead and vote against a bill you 
favor. It is very clear. The only way to ensure that this program, the 
Ex-Im Bank, advances is to see that it is attached to the House 
measure. Clearly, that is it.
  I am very, very tired of this bill, the IPO bill, being referred to 
as a jobs bill. That takes a lot of gall, to talk about that as a jobs 
bill. We have a jobs bill that we, on a bipartisan basis, passed after 
5 weeks on the Senate floor. Have I heard one word from my Republican 
colleagues about a real jobs bill, saying, why is the Speaker driving a 
nail in this bill that we worked on for 5 weeks?
  Understand that the surface transportation bill is a jobs bill. The 
IPO bill is a nice thing to do, if it were done in the right manner and 
we had some amendments that got rid of some of the bad provisions. 
Before this is all over, that may be just what happens.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican Leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. If I may say to those who are watching and those 
interested in the Ex-Im Bank, if I had my good friend Harry Reid's job 
and I were the majority leader, we would be turning to the Ex-Im Bank 
next, right after this, and we would be doing it with very few 
amendments because the advantage to being the majority leader, 
obviously, is you have the ability to schedule. I want everybody who is 
following this issue to understand that if I were setting the agenda, 
the next item up, right after this bipartisan jobs bill, would be the 
Ex-Im Bank.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, remember, anyone who can read--we can all 
do that--the morning press accounts. Cantor of the House leadership has 
said he doesn't support the Ex-Im Bank; that my amendment--my 
amendment, sponsored by Democrats and Republicans--was a partisan 
maneuver. They are not about to take the Ex-Im Bank unless it is part 
of the overall package, and that is why we are doing it this way.
  Madam President, as my friend the Republican leader said so clearly, 
he is not the leader. I am. We have a number of very important issues 
we have to deal with. Even though I believe in the Ex-Im program, it is 
going to drop to the bottom of the calendar because we have things we 
have to do.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion to invoke 
cloture.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close the debate on amendment No. 
     1836 to H.R. 3606, an Act to increase American job creation 
     and economic growth by improving access to the public capital 
     markets for emerging growth companies.
         Harry Reid, Ben Nelson, Mary L. Landrieu, Carl Levin, Jon 
           Tester, Mark Begich, Patty Murray, Mark R. Warner, 
           Christopher A. Coons, Robert Menendez, Thomas R. 
           Carper, Joseph I. Lieberman, Debbie Stabenow, Robert P. 
           Casey, Jr., Jeanne Shaheen, Tom Udall, Jim Webb, 
           Barbara Boxer.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on 
amendment No. 1836 to H.R. 3606, an act to increase American job 
creation and economic growth by improving access to the public capital 
markets for emerging growth companies, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 55, nays 44, as follows:

[[Page S1842]]

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 52 Leg.]

                                YEAS--55

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Bingaman
     Blumenthal
     Boxer
     Brown (MA)
     Brown (OH)
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Conrad
     Coons
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Heller
     Inouye
     Johnson (SD)
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (NE)
     Nelson (FL)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--44

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Enzi
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Hoeven
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     Kyl
     Lee
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Snowe
     Thune
     Toomey
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Kirk
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 55, the nays are 
44. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, for my Members, we are going to have a 
conference at 5:15 in the LBJ Room. I have spoken to the Republican 
leader. We will have no more votes tonight. We will determine a time in 
the morning to have the next vote or votes. We will move on from there. 
So, again, I say to my Senators, 5:15 in the LBJ Room.
  I note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________