[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 161 (Thursday, December 13, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8001-S8004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRANSACTION ACCOUNT GUARANTEE EXTENSION ACT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of S. 3637, which the clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 3637) to temporarily extend the transaction
account guarantee program, and for other purposes.
Pending:
Reid amendment No. 3314, to change the enactment date.
Reid amendment No. 3315 (to amendment No. 3314), of a
perfecting nature.
Reid motion to commit the bill to the Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs, with instructions, Reid amendment
No. 3316, to change the enactment date.
Reid amendment No. 3317 (to (the instructions) amendment
No. 3316), of a perfecting nature.
Reid amendment No. 3318 (to amendment No. 3317), of a
perfecting nature.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania is recognized.
Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, the pending measure, S. 3637, the
Transaction Account Guarantee Act, exceeds the Banking Committee's
section 302(a) allocation of new budget authority and outlays deemed by
the Budget Control Act of 2011; therefore, I raise a point of order
against this measure pursuant to section 302(f) of the Congressional
Budget Act of 1974.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from South Dakota is
recognized.
Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota. Mr. President, pursuant to section 904
of
[[Page S8002]]
the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, I move to waive all applicable
sections of that act for purposes of the pending measure, and I ask for
the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to
be a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 12
noon will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or
their designees prior to a vote on the motion to waive the budget point
of order.
The Senator from Tennessee is recognized.
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I support the budget point of order that
has been raised, but let me just make a point. I had an amendment that
would have kept this budget point of order from being a problem. The
reason we are where we are is that both Republicans and Democrats had
amendments to this bill, and the ones we put forth would have solved
this budget point of order, but because my amendment has not been
heard, the Senator from Pennsylvania has raised this budget point of
order, and the fact is that I hope it will be sustained. But what is
the shame of all of this is that both Democrats and Republicans had
amendments to this bill. I think the amendment I put forth would have
carried the day. It would have allowed the FDIC to actually charge
enough money in the difference for these transaction accounts so we
would not have the budget point of order that has been raised. But the
amendment has not been heard. The leader filled the tree, and therefore
no amendments--not Republican amendments, not Democrat amendments--
could have been heard.
The other amendment I had that would have helped even more or added
to this solution is we could have made this program voluntary so that
if there are community programs around the country that wanted to
participate in this program, they could have done so on a voluntary
basis.
So there are two amendments--one that would have forced the FDIC to
actually charge enough money to make this account actuarially sound,
and that amendment is not being heard, and an amendment to allow this
to be voluntary so that if there are community banks that are
struggling and feel as though they need to protect these accounts and
still keep them in their banks, they could have paid the actuarially
sound amount to make that occur. But neither one of those amendments
has been heard.
I would say to everybody in this body who is tired of this place not
working because neither side of the aisle has the opportunity to vote
for amendments, to have amendments heard and voted on, I say to both
sides of the aisle that we absolutely should vote to uphold this point
of order and hope that when we come back next year, both Republicans
and Democrats will have the opportunity to represent their constituents
back home by offering amendments that can actually be voted on in this
body.
I thank the Senator for raising the point of order. I wish we could
have made this work for our country in an appropriate way, but what we
are going to have today is just a simple vote.
I will just say this--and I probably shouldn't--the only reason we
are voting on this amendment is that my friends on the other side of
the aisle know Dodd-Frank has hurt community bankers throughout this
country. They are trying to throw a bone out to community bankers
across this country, and they are trying to get us to vote against it.
That is not the way this place should work.
I have amendments that would have fixed this bill, made it work for
community bankers, and we could have gone forward. The only reason we
are doing it this way is because my friends on the other side of the
aisle know the provisions in Dodd-Frank are hurting community bankers
and they are trying to throw a bone.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I wonder if the Senator from Tennessee
would yield to me on this very point.
Mr. CORKER. Absolutely.
Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for
making this point. I have an amendment to this bill that I would like
to have had heard. It strikes a middle ground between the unlimited per
account liability and the $250,000 we have traditionally had. It is a
modest compromise as well as an alternative, and it will not be
considered because of the very practice my friend from Tennessee has
mentioned.
It is not only our amendments--I just came in on the tail end of the
Senator's remarks--but there are Democratic amendments which deserve to
be heard on this bill. Senator Udall has an amendment--he is a member
of the majority party--and it is a well-reasoned amendment that
deserves to be considered and heard. The distinguished majority leader
has chosen to fill the amendment tree and offer only his select
amendments, and now I am deprived from the ability that I think a
representative of several States should have; that is, to bring forth
an idea and have it heard. I might not be able to get a majority on it
and Senator Udall may not prevail, but we deserve to be heard.
This has been the greatest deliberative body in the world--at least
that is what I heard before I came over from the House of
Representatives--but it has not turned out that way. The majority
leader time and time again fills the amendment trees, thereby
preventing any of the other 99 Senators from offering amendments.
The Congressional Research Service has identified 40 instances in
which opportunities for debating and offering amendments had already
been limited by the Senate majority leader by filling or partially
filling the amendment tree.
I have one more point and then I will yield back to my friend from
Tennessee. We are going to miss the services and the independence of
the distinguished senior Senator from Maine, Ms. Olympia Snowe. I think
anyone in this body would have to admit Senator Snowe has been
evenhanded, bipartisan, and often nonpartisan. She has objected to this
very practice by this very majority leader, and I think it is
destructive to the overall process of the Senate.
In the specific words of retiring Senator Olympia Snowe: First and
foremost, the Senate should have the ability to debate more than the
three amendments the majority leader is allowing. It is therefore
imperative that Senate deliberations on the Defense bill be conducted
without limitations and in a manner that allows for the consideration
of all related amendments that Senators may wish to offer.
I have been aggrieved that my little amendment is not going to get
anymore debate than these few moments right now. I know the Senator
from Tennessee feels the same way, and undoubtedly Senator Udall would
prefer a vote and debate on his amendment. We can fix the Senate. We
can get back to the leadership we had under Mansfield and Mitchell of
Maine and Lott of Mississippi and other majority leaders. We can move
legislation along but not if we continue this abuse of the process by
filling the amendment tree.
I will be voting with the distinguished Senator from Tennessee and
the Senator from Pennsylvania on the point of order because we need to
draw a bright red line there. Perhaps we can get on this issue at some
other point. I hope the Senate can get back to an orderly debate on
matters of substance.
I thank my friend, the Senator from Tennessee, for yielding on that
point.
I yield back.
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Mississippi for
his comments, and I will yield the floor to the Senator from
Pennsylvania.
I have a couple more comments, and when appropriate, I will make
them.
Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for
allowing me to make a couple points. These are very well-made points
about having the opportunity to actually debate and try to improve a
bill on the floor. One of the things that disturbs me is that I see a
pattern that is playing out today, and this is not the first time. This
is just part of why we have not had a budget resolution for 3
consecutive years. The majority party does not want to have to come
down and actually cast votes.
If there is a budget resolution on the floor, there surely will be
amendments. We all come from different places, have different ideas,
and we want our constituents to have a chance to get their
[[Page S8003]]
say. The majority party apparently does not want to have to cast votes.
I think that is part of why there has not been a single appropriations
bill on this floor, and that is just a shocking abdication of our
responsibility.
Here we are in mid-December, and while the committee has voted this
out--if not every appropriations bill, the vast majority of them--not a
single one has been brought to the floor. We have seen this happen on
bill after bill. I hear the criticism that Republicans will not allow
the body to get on the bill. The motion to proceed passed; the cloture
motion passed. We are on the bill. Despite that, there is no
opportunity to have a meaningful, substantive debate about ways this
could be improved and changed. It is not possible because the
distinguished majority leader refuses to permit it. In my view, that is
the dysfunction of this body; it is a pattern, and it is a problem. I
too had a couple of amendments I would like to have had an opportunity
to discuss.
I wish to make one other point. On the few occasions when the
majority leader has actually permitted an open amendment process--the
farm bill, postal reform bill, and Defense authorization come to mind--
we would start with a huge, long list of amendments. Then people say:
There are too many. I will give up some of mine. We got to a manageable
amount, we dealt with them, and actually all three of those bills
passed. The process works when it is allowed to take place, but this is
not a very good function.
The last point I will make is to urge my colleagues to remember when
we are running trillion-dollar deficits as it is, the last thing we
ought to do is increase the size of those deficits with a taxpayer
bailout of banks, and that is what this ends up amounting to.
I urge my colleagues to sustain this point of order.
I yield back to the Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I will be a little more brief this time. I
thank the Senator for the point of order that he made and also his
comments. We have some people on our side of the aisle who I know--due
to things that have happened in this body previously--have had some
amendments. I know some people feel as though we are harmful to banks
which they may have supported in the past and maybe this is a way to do
something that sort of makes it even, if you will.
I will just say to my friends on this side of aisle that may have
some of those feelings, we have two amendments--there are actually
multiple amendments--that will make this bill work. One amendment would
cause the FDIC to charge the rate necessary to take into account the
losses that are going to occur. I think it might pass by unanimous
consent. I cannot imagine why people in this body would not like the
FDIC to have to charge the appropriate amount.
Secondly, it would make this program voluntary. There are a lot of
banks that candidly don't want to participate. They don't want to pay
the fee. We can make this voluntary.
To my friends on this side of the aisle, I just want to say: Look, if
we could hear these amendments, we could make this bill work for
everybody. I don't like these kind of guaranteed programs, generally
speaking, but I would be willing, if my amendment is passed, to support
this bill.
I wish to go back to the last point. A point of order has been
raised. The way this bill is now constructed, it violates the Budget
Control Act. This body has voted to uphold budget points of order on
some pretty tough issues.
I think the point the Senator from Pennsylvania is making is we are
going to violate a budget point of order to create a bailout for banks.
I don't know. In my opinion, that is not exactly what we need to be
doing. We can fix this if we could hear our amendments to make it so it
is not a bailout for the banks by just making it actuarially sound and
know they are covering their costs themselves, but the majority leader
will not let us do that.
Candidly, I hope my friends on the Democratic side of the aisle would
vote to uphold this budget point of order, knowing that if we could
consider all the amendments today, we could actually make this sound. I
hope we would unify the body and say to the majority leader: Enough
with filling the tree and not allowing the Senate to operate. Let's get
beyond that.
Again, I hope we will support the budget point of order.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama is recognized.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, the way we arrived at this point is the
Congressional Budget Office, our chosen authority on budget matters,
has concluded that the legislation violates the budget, and they
submitted analysis to that effect that has been provided to the
chairman of the Budget Committee, Senator Conrad, an honorable chairman
of the committee. He and his staff have examined it, and they concluded
that it does. They have advised the Parliamentarian.
Senator Toomey has now raised the budget point of order, and based on
the report from the chairman of the Budget Committee, the
Parliamentarian will rule that this legislation spends more than we
agreed to spend under the Budget Control Act limitations and will
therefore sustain it. The people who are promoting the legislation will
seek to waive the budget, ignore the fact that it violates our spending
limits, and pass the bill anyway. I think that is bad.
We have had a series of these votes. It is time for the people who
advance legislation in the body to be careful, and when they submit
legislation that it stays within the budget. When they block this
legislation, it violates it.
In August a year ago, Congress agreed to certain spending
limitations. It was not enough in my view, but there were some
noticeable limitations. We would still spend more every year but limit
the growth. Regardless, it was limited. There was a limit on how much
we could spend. Whether it is up or down, it limited it, and this would
be in violation of it.
I wish we could get to a point of where the legislation was fixed
before it got to the floor and was in compliance with the budget.
I say to my colleagues, as ranking Republican on the Budget
Committee, we can get the score. CBO will give us the score. There is
plenty of opportunity to have this information before the vote and
before the bill comes before the floor.
I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. FRANKEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Under the previous order, the question is on agreeing to the motion
to waive the budget point of order.
The yeas and nays have been ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer),
the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr.
Lautenberg), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy) are necessarily
absent.
Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator
from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe),
the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), and the Senator from Arizona (Mr.
McCain).
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hagan). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 50, nays 42, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 227 Leg.]
YEAS--50
Akaka
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Bingaman
Blumenthal
Brown (OH)
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Collins
Conrad
Coons
Durbin
Feinstein
Franken
Gillibrand
Hagan
Harkin
Hutchison
Johnson (SD)
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Levin
Lieberman
Manchin
McCaskill
Menendez
Merkley
Murray
Nelson (NE)
Nelson (FL)
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
[[Page S8004]]
NAYS--42
Alexander
Ayotte
Barrasso
Blunt
Boozman
Brown (MA)
Burr
Chambliss
Coats
Coburn
Cochran
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
DeMint
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Hatch
Heller
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson (WI)
Kyl
Lee
Lugar
McConnell
Mikulski
Moran
Murkowski
Paul
Portman
Risch
Roberts
Rubio
Sessions
Shelby
Snowe
Thune
Toomey
Vitter
Wicker
NOT VOTING--8
Boxer
Hoeven
Inhofe
Inouye
Kirk
Lautenberg
Leahy
McCain
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are
42. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted
in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.
The point of order is sustained. Under the previous order, the motion
to invoke cloture on S. 3637 is withdrawn.
The majority leader.
Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that today,
Thursday, December 13, at 1:45, the Senate proceed to executive session
to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 830, 832; that
there be 30 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form; that
upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate proceed to vote
without intervening action or debate on Calendar Nos. 830 and 832, in
that order, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon
the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further
motions be in order; that any statements related to this matter be
printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of
the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________