[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 10, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2547-S2551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SAFE COMMUNITIES, SAFE SCHOOLS ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO PROCEED--
                               Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, tomorrow at 11 o'clock we are going to vote 
on cloture on the motion to proceed to the gun legislation that is now 
before this body.
  This morning and throughout the day, our friend from Connecticut 
spoke, a freshman Senator who was brought to the Senate with this 
tragedy having taken place shortly after he arrived. My friend the 
Presiding Officer, a longtime attorney general, the chief law 
enforcement officer of the State of Connecticut, has lived with this 
tragedy that happened at Sandy Hook like nothing that ever happened in 
his career. And, of course, for Senator Heinrich, a new Senator, this 
was something he never appreciated he would be faced with.
  I saw the pictures today of those little babies who were murdered, 
some of them shot multiple times--little tiny kids shot multiple times. 
The shooting was on December 14, about 4 months ago--120 days. So the 
time has come--it has arrived--when we have to debate this issue. We 
have to have a response to this tragedy.
  When this incident took place on December 14, it struck me, as it did 
everyone in America--virtually everyone in America; we had been through 
Aurora, CO--that vicious, brutal machine-gunning of people going to 
watch a movie, and then little kids getting killed in an elementary 
school, kindergartners, first-graders--so we need to respond, this 
great deliberative body, to what the American people want. So we are 
going to vote. It is time to vote. I hope we get cloture on this 
matter. We certainly should. After that, there is no reason not to 
start legislating immediately. I hope we do not have to go through this 
procedural mishmash--30 hours; somebody on the floor all the time; if 
people are not, there are dilatory tactics; only one quorum call--and 
all this. Let's get past that. If somebody has something to say, come 
and say it. But this week we are going to start legislating. We are 
going to start legislating whether there is cloture or not. One will be 
a little longer process. But we are going to start legislating on this 
bill this week. I hope we can get to it tomorrow.
  I do not think it is any secret, if we are on this bill, I am going 
to--the first amendment in order will be the amendment to change the 
background checks that has been worked on for weeks by Senator Manchin, 
Senator Kirk, and Senator Toomey, and then we will decide where we go 
from there.
  To all my friends, we are going to have amendments. Some of them are 
going to take a little bit of time. We are not going to finish the bill 
this week. I do not know if we will finish it next week. But that 
really does not matter. Are we going to legislate the right way? Are we 
going to legislate? I have in my mind these little children who were 
murdered. What we do here is not going to prevent all gun violence in 
America, but if we stop a few, isn't that remarkably important for us 
to do? I think we can do a lot more than saving the lives of just a few 
people.
  But let's work on this bill. We are going to start. If we have to use 
up the 30 hours, we will use up the 30 hours. I think there are ways 
around that procedurally. I hope we do not have to test that. There are 
a number of amendments. We all know. We have been reading about them. 
There are lots of amendments; people have been waiting a long time for 
this legislation.
  One of my Republican colleagues yesterday said: I have a number of 
germane amendments I want to offer.
  I said: Fine. Good. Do it.
  We know we have to do background checks, assault weapons, the 
ammunition capacity of clips or magazines, mental health. That is just 
to name a few of the things. And I repeat, we are going to begin this 
process before we leave here this week.
  I so appreciate the work done by Senators Manchin, Toomey, Kirk, and 
many others. My friend Senator Schumer has been working on this issue. 
My friend Dick Durbin, who has been involved in guns for a long time, 
has been involved. I appreciate the work of everyone. As the press has 
indicated, we are likely going to get cloture on this tomorrow. I hope 
so. But, as I have told individual Senators, if we do not get cloture, 
we are going to have a vote in the Senate on capacity clips, assault 
weapons, background checks, and some mental health items or item. That 
we are going to do. I hope we can do it in the regular process.
  We have had people for a long time now--my friends on the other side 
of the aisle--saying: We want regular order. We want to be able to 
offer amendments. Well, I do too. And I hope people will not see how 
many amendments they can offer, not see if they can set a record for 
how many amendments can be laid down, because we should have this as a 
civil process and culminating in a better set of laws for our people in 
this great country in which we live.
  For those of us who have the opportunity to try to address this 
issue, I hope we all understand that the world is watching what we do.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.


                      Nomination of Sri Srinivasan

  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, earlier this afternoon I had the 
opportunity, the honor, to chair a hearing of the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, on which we both serve, to consider the President's 
nomination of a highly qualified lawyer, Sri Srinivasan, to serve on 
the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
  I am encouraged by what the majority leader has just said about the 
very real possibility that we will get a vote on the floor of this 
Senate on vital and important issues affecting guns, immigration, and 
other issues, but what I speak to today is the absolutely essential 
role this Senate must fill of voting on qualified judges who have been 
nominated to the circuit courts of the United States.
  Earlier today at this hearing, 10 of our colleagues, Republicans and 
Democrats, asked thoughtful questions, and Mr. Srinivasan gave thorough 
and thoughtful answers. I came away convinced that he has the 
background, the education, the skills, and, most importantly, the 
temperament to serve as a circuit court judge. And I was encouraged by 
comments of my colleagues, both Republican and Democratic, that they 
too were inclined to support this nomination.
  Under normal historical circumstances, today's hearing would be the 
beginning of a deliberate, timely, orderly process--a process required 
of this body by article II, section 2 of our Constitution by which we 
advise and consent to the President's nominations.

[[Page S2548]]

  We should, of course, carefully consider the qualifications of 
candidates and not serve as some rubberstamp, but neither should we be 
a firewall blocking qualified nominees from serving. Unfortunately, for 
some number of years, this Senate has, in some vital instances, served 
more as a firewall than as an advise and consent body. Instead of doing 
our due diligence with appropriate speed, we have seen delays, stalling 
tactics, and in some instances filibusters of highly qualified 
nominees.
  Five years into President Obama's administration, the courts are 
still nearly 10 percent vacant. In my view, our courts should be above 
politics. When the President of either party submits a highly qualified 
candidate of good character and sound legal mind, absent exceptional 
circumstances, that candidate is entitled to a vote.
  The actions or in this case inaction of the Senate with regard to the 
DC Circuit have consequences. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has a 
series of vacancies, the result of which, in my view, are to delay and 
deny justice for Americans far beyond the boundaries of this District 
of Columbia.
  The DC Circuit Court is often called the second most important in the 
Nation, because, like the Supreme Court, it handles cases that impact 
Americans all over our country. Regularly, it hears cases on issues 
ranging from terrorism and detention to the scope of Federal agency 
power. Yet it is critically understaffed. This circuit court has not 
seen a nominee confirmed since President George W. Bush's fourth 
nominee to that court was confirmed in 2006. Today, more than 1,500 
days after President Obama has taken office, 4 of the 11 seats on the 
DC Circuit are open, making it more than one-third vacant and putting 
the remaining judges under undue strain to decide the complex and 
important cases before this court.
  Contrary to the previous administration, this administration was 
recently recognized by the New York Times Editorial Board as putting 
forward nominees who are decidedly moderate. President Obama first 
nominated for this vacancy on this court the exceptionally qualified 
Caitlin Halligan, who waited more than 900 days for a simple up-or-down 
vote on the floor of this Chamber. She came with the American Bar 
Association's highest rating, glowing recommendations from bipartisan 
supporters, and a diverse legal career marked by distinctive service as 
New York's solicitor general. Nevertheless, sadly, Republican Senators 
successfully filibustered her nomination, and last month President 
Obama reluctantly withdrew Ms. Halligan from consideration.
  We have today a chance for a fresh start with Mr. Srinivasan, who 
would serve equally well and ably on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. 
As he demonstrated in today's hearing, he has a sharp and capable legal 
mind. He has served in the Solicitor General's office for both 
Republican and Democratic administrations. He has served in the private 
sector and the public sector and has earned bipartisan support from 
those who have worked with him.
  In fact, he has been endorsed publicly in a letter from 12 former 
Solicitors General and Principal Deputy Solicitors General, six 
Democrats, six Republicans, for those who have served in Democratic and 
Republican administrations.
  The letter, signed by conservative legal luminaries such as Paul 
Clement and Ted Olson, notes Mr. Srinivasan is ``one of the best 
appellate lawyers in the country,'' with an ``unsurpassed'' work ethic 
who is ``extremely well prepared to take on the intellectual rigors of 
serving on the D.C. Circuit.''
  At the same time, throughout the course of his career in private 
practice and as a public servant, he has represented clients with 
causes diverse enough that any individual policymaker or elected 
official is likely to disagree with some of them, including me. I 
disagree with a position he argued in Rumsfeld v. Padilla in support of 
the idea that the government has a right to detain U.S. citizens 
indefinitely, but I do not ascribe that position to him.
  One of the most foundational principles of our legal system is that 
we do not ascribe to the attorney the position which he successfully 
and vigorously advocates on behalf of his client. I will not block his 
nomination simply because I might disagree with the position he took on 
behalf of a client in one case.
  Sri, in my view, is a highly capable attorney, with the character and 
demeanor to serve on the bench. I will strongly support his nomination. 
I am following in this instance the wisdom of Chief Justice Roberts, 
who has said: ``It's a tradition of the American Bar that goes back 
before the founding of our nation that lawyers are not identified with 
the positions of their clients.''
  So I say to my colleagues, let's move forward in that spirit. Let's 
return to our historic constitutionally mandated role. Let's give Mr. 
Srinivasan a speedy up-or-down vote, which I believe he has earned with 
decades of public service and public sector experience.
  To be honest, if this nomination cannot move forward, if this 
nomination is filibustered for what can only be political reasons, I 
cannot imagine what nomination could move forward to this court. A 
filibuster of this nomination would sadly prove to me, just as it did 
to those of the other party in 2005, that the judicial nomination 
standards and procedures at work are unworkable, the system is broken, 
and it would lead to a reconsideration.
  There was a crisis of this sort when the parties were of opposite 
configuration in 2005 that led the majority to threaten the so-called 
nuclear option to end judicial filibusters by the party in which I 
serve, a result that was avoided only at the last moment for the good 
of the Senate and the Nation. I urge my colleagues to come together to 
give this good man a vote and avoid another such crisis today.
  Let's do our job so the judges of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals can 
do theirs for the people of our Nation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.


                         GAO Duplication Report

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I would note to my colleague from the 
State of Delaware, if I heard him correctly, we just now have had a 
hearing on a nominee for the DC Circuit Court. He is not even on the 
Executive Calendar because he has not even been voted out of the 
Judiciary Committee. So the Senator makes a lot of great points. But I 
think the fact we are talking about a potential judge who has not even 
cleared the Judiciary Committee yet may be a bit premature.
  He will get a fair hearing. I think we have noted that more judicial 
nominees were approved in the last two Congresses than the two 
Congresses before under the last 4 years of the Bush administration.
  I rise to say this evening there has been a lot in the news. One 
thing that has not been in the news very much is the third and final 
report of the Government Accountability Office in terms of looking at 
duplication within the Federal Government.
  I hope as the American people listen to this, they will take a couple 
things away. No. 1, we have a great organization called the Government 
Accountability Office. They have done a wonderful job. We mandated this 
4 years ago. They have been on time with their reports. What they have 
shown us has been tremendously revealing. The first thing I want 
Americans to note is Congress has failed to act on the first two 
reports--no substantive action whatsoever.
  One significant thing in the Senate was the elimination of the 
ethanol mandate. With this report today comes an estimated $98 billion 
a year in savings. What we take by looking at this report could 
potentially yield us $98 billion in savings by eliminating duplication 
in what they just found in this one report.
  Let me go through it for 1 minute. They found 679 different renewable 
energy programs across 23 agencies--not across the Energy Department. 
If we are going to have renewable programs, that is where we should 
have it. Across 23 different agencies of which we spend $15 billion a 
year, they found instances where we are giving grants from different 
agencies to the same projects for the same thing, spending three times 
as much money as we should be spending on the one project even if we 
did not have that.
  So the potential for us to work our way out of the consequences of 
the sequester is at our fingertips. Here, drug

[[Page S2549]]

abuse prevention and treatment, 76 separate programs, not run through 
the Department of Health and Human Services, run through 10 different 
departments with overlap that shows no metrics but multiple agencies 
having programs doing exactly the same thing: $4.5 billion a year. That 
is half the size of my Oklahoma State budget a year.
  Catfish inspection. I saw in the President's budget today three 
different agencies where one has to meet the requirements before they 
can have their catfish inspected. The only thing they did not recommend 
in the budget today is getting rid of the Agriculture Department. They 
approve your cheese pizza. But the FDA approves your pepperoni pizza. 
So if you are a pizza maker, you have to comply with one agency on one 
type of pizza and another agency on a different type of pizza.
  Defense foreign language support. Those are people who come in and 
help us learn other languages, interpret for us other languages so we 
can have an effective response and not have a communication error. We 
have 159 different programs in the Pentagon alone. What they are 
estimating is that we could save tons of money. We do not know exactly 
how much it costs because the Pentagon does not know how much they are 
spending on it, which is another one of the problems.
  The GAO report said this week one of the reasons they cannot estimate 
the savings more accurately is because the majority of the agencies 
have no idea what they are spending on these programs. The question I 
have had is, why not? If they do not know what they are spending, why 
are we not doing something about it?
  Higher education assistance: 21 different programs, four different 
agencies--not all in the Education Department, which is from where I 
think we would do education assistance, $174.7 billion a year. That 
includes Pell grants. That includes student loans, the cost associated 
with student loans.
  Veterans employment training. We have six programs, not all of them 
run by the Veterans Affairs Department but run by the Veterans Affairs 
Department and other agencies. We are spending $1.2 billion. Here is 
what we know. We are running these programs, and veterans unemployment, 
even though they have a skill when they come out of the military, is 
higher than what the average is in the country. So it is obviously not 
working.
  Also, in the report is something that is very important to me. Let me 
find it, if I might for a moment. GAO's report exposes a government 
office that does some good things. It is called the National Technical 
Information Service. It was established in 1950 and tasked with 
collecting and distributing certain reports. Despite the fact--here is 
what GAO found: 75 percent of the information that NTIS supplies, all 
you have to do is Google it. You do not have to go to NTIS. All you 
have to do is Google it. So 75 percent of their budget is spent 
providing reports to other government agencies and other people that 
you can get with the touch of your iPhone. Why would we continue to do 
that?
  This is just one example that I bring up. We are continuing to fund 
an agency where three-quarters of what they do has no bearing on it. If 
it went away, it would not affect us at all. The other thing is they 
charge other Federal agencies a fee for this information that the other 
Federal agencies, at a touch of their computer, can get for free.
  It is another case of inefficiency. What else did the GAO report 
show? What the GAO report showed is that we have done nothing of 
significance in the last 2 years based on what they have recommended we 
do given their first two reports. Our office calculates, based on the 
three reports that GAO has given us, that we could save in excess of 
$250 billion a year if we would follow the recommendations of the 
Government Accountability Office.
  If you are sitting out there wondering why we are having tax 
proposals increased in the President's budget and that we are having 
such a hard time with the sequester, you only have to look at one 
place; that is, Congress. Congress refuses to follow and do the 
oversight. We have had GAO do a lot of it. We refuse to pass amendments 
that eliminate duplication. We refuse to make the tough choices. So, 
consequently, we are spending $250 billion a year--that is $2.5 
trillion over 10 years--that we should not be spending.
  Where does the money come from to pay for that? It comes from our 
kids. It doesn't just come in dollars, it comes from a reduced standard 
of living and limited opportunities in the future because we don't have 
the courage or the work ethic to address the very real issues which are 
in front us, on the tips of our fingers, where the money is, where we 
could actually save money.
  We have had almost 1,000 days since the first report came out. We 
have done one significant thing in the Senate; we have eliminated the 
ethanol tax credit and saved $6 billion the first year and about $4 to 
$5 billion afterward. This is the one thing we did. We fought tooth and 
nail while we did it, but we did it.
  This is one bill to save $6 billion in 3 years out of $250 billion. 
No wonder the confidence level in the Congress is at 13 percent. What 
we are actually doing is throwing away our kids' future as we fail to 
address these issues.
  When we are spending money we don't have on things we don't 
absolutely need, and we are borrowing money against our children's 
future, I can't think of a greater immoral act of the Congress. It is 
not red hot lit up as some of the more controversial issues such as the 
gun bill we are doing or immigration; however, I will state it will 
have a profound effect if we were to address it in terms of the future 
of our country, the health of our country, and the job-creating 
capacity for our country.
  Yet what is it about your Senator or your Congressman which keeps 
them from having the courage to challenge the status quo? I know what 
it is. It is the desire to get reelected by not offending anybody.
  We don't have tough oversight hearings. We will not allow bills 
through committees which actually eliminate waste. There is a bill that 
has passed the House sitting on the docket right now called the SKILLS 
Act. It takes 47 job-training programs and puts them into 6. It saves 
billions of dollars a year and puts metrics on the outcome. We will not 
even bring it to the floor even though it saves $5 to $6 billion a year 
in addition to markedly improving the outcome of our job-training 
programs. It is not here.
  It passed the House. The House is doing oversight in every committee 
right now. The Senate is not.
  The House is reading the GAO reports and acting on them. They are not 
right 100 percent of the time, they are right about 95 percent of the 
time. Nothing is going to be done about it unless we have an oversight 
hearing to actually discover information. Nothing actually happens 
unless we write a bill to change things.
  Yet this is not the emphasis in the Senate. There can be no greater 
emphasis than for us to get out of the financial troubles we are in. 
There can be no greater emphasis than for us to create an environment 
which produces jobs in the country when we stop wasting money at the 
Federal Government level.
  Our answer is more government--not less, more. Our answer, according 
to the President's budget, is more taxes, not less.
  I commend the President. He has $25 billion worth of programs he 
wishes to eliminate in his budget, $25.8 billion. He could send over 
what the GAO said and eliminate $250 billion a year.
  The problems are not really with the President, it is with us: our 
intransigence to do our job and keep in our focal point what is most 
important. What is most important is our future and the capability for 
us to create opportunity in the future for our children and our 
grandchildren.
  I have been fighting this for 8 years. There is a lot of oversight 
which has been done, tons of reports. The American people are going to 
eventually learn everything that is in this report because there is an 
app coming out which will be on people's cell phones very soon, and 
they may find out anything about everything where the government is 
wasting money. They will be able to look at an address in their own 
city and see how much money a company, business, or that farmer 
received from their Federal tax dollars. They will be able to see that 
in about 3 months.
  When the American people discover our incompetence, it will not 
matter

[[Page S2550]]

that we didn't offend somebody. They are going to see we didn't do our 
job. We are not doing our job because we are not addressing the things 
we actually have some control over.
  What do we do now? Here is what GAO explains: Although Congress had 
made some limited progress in addressing the issues we have previously 
identified, additional steps are needed to address the remaining areas 
to achieve associated benefits. A number of the issues are difficult 
but not impossible. Implementing many of the actions will take time and 
sustained leadership.
  The key word there is ``leadership.'' Who is going to lead in the 
Senate to solve our problems? It is not party identified. Real 
leadership about solving the real problem is in front of us.
  It is time for each congressional committee in the Senate to 
undertake the waste and overlap identified by GAO within their 
jurisdiction, begin writing bills to consolidate and eliminate these 
programs, and put metrics as far as performance on every one of them. 
It is also time for the White House to put real muscle into their 
proposal coming in through OMB.
  I am thankful we will have a new OMB Director. She will be terrific. 
She has the skills, dedication, and qualifications. I praise the 
President for nominating her. She will fly through the Senate because 
she is superqualified for the job. Also, she knows what she is doing. 
But it will not matter what she does if we don't respond, if we don't 
do our work.


                              Gun Control

  Mr. President, I would like to take the time now just to spend a 
moment or two on the guns issue.
  I spent a lot of time over the last few months thinking about Sandy 
Hook. I actually met with a large number of those people today. I am an 
A-plus-rated member, a lifetime member of the NRA. I firmly believe in 
the second amendment, and I firmly believe in the tenth amendment.
  We are hearing a lot of politics about the gun situation. What we are 
not hearing is how do we really keep guns out of the hands of people 
who shouldn't have them. This is what we need to be addressing.
  Whether this would prevent a Sandy Hook, nobody knows. There are some 
things we do know. What we do know is the vast majority of people who 
are convicted the first time of a gun crime didn't steal their gun, and 
they didn't buy it from a federally licensed firearm dealer. They 
bought it from one of us.

  The very fact we are going to have a piece of legislation go through 
here which will not solve the real problem of keeping guns out of the 
hands of the mentally impaired and felons is a shame. There are ways we 
can do that.
  I haven't spoken to one owner I know who hasn't agreed with the fact 
that they would like to know if they sold their gun--they don't want it 
to go into the hands of a felon or somebody mentally impaired. Yet we 
are hung up on records. The proposal which comes from Senator Toomey, 
Senator Manchin, and Senator Kirk is a step forward. I will not deny 
it. However, tell me how a record which will only be looked at after a 
crime is committed is going to help anybody who is a victim of a crime. 
It is not.
  If we really wish to solve this problem, what we need to do is put 
into the hands of Americans who are law abiding the ability to know 
they didn't sell their gun to somebody who is on the NTIS list. Give me 
the ability to know when I sell my gun to a stranger that they are not 
on that NTIS list.
  This has been rejected out of hand because there is no record with 
it. The reason there doesn't need to be a record is because we are 
putting an onus on responsible citizens doing the right thing. Also, 
the government has no right to have a record of when I transfer a gun. 
They do have a right to expect me to be a responsible citizen when I 
sell my gun.
  The question is, Are we as a body going to take something which is 
far less than appropriate to actually keep guns out of the hands of 
felons and mentally impaired and call it a day? This is what is getting 
ready to happen. Are we going to make a difference and not impair 
second amendment rights at all and not impair tenth amendment rights 
because we give States supremacy on that? If they want to give us 
something more or different, they may.
  We are going to go through a great deal of debate and have all these 
amendments. I thank Senator Reid for making it an open amendment 
process. I called and spoke to him last night. I said I was happy to 
support going to this bill provided we use the regular Senate 
procedures and we actually are able to offer amendments which are 
germane to this bill in any number of ways. He is going to allow this 
process. I take him at his word he will allow this.
  When it is all said and done, will we have made a difference to those 
families who are wanting us to make a difference? Would we have made a 
difference?
  If we don't allow responsible citizens the ability to know whether 
they are selling their gun to a felon or a mentally impaired person, we 
haven't made any difference. We have made a lot of noise, but we 
haven't made a difference.
  Let me tell you why the Toomey-Manchin proposal will not work. The 
largest gun show in America is in Tulsa, OK. It is called the 
Wanenmacher Gun Show. Tens of thousands of people come to it twice, 
maybe three times a year. The sale will be impeded by requiring an FFL 
license, which is to say a gun dealer at the show will be required to 
do a background search against the NTIS list for somebody who purchases 
a gun at the show whether they are buying from that dealer or not.
  The first thing which will happen is the Federal firearms licensed 
dealer will say: I want a fee for transferring this gun, for doing the 
work--and rightly so. I don't blame him. What is the option?
  The option which will happen is the people who are going to make the 
deal buy the gun. Subsequently, 2 or 3 days after the gun show, they 
will buy the gun because they will not be at the gun show anymore.
  Look at the opposite side of that. If we had a portal or we could get 
a certificate which says someone is not on the NTIS list and are able 
to buy a gun anytime, anywhere, somebody selling a gun would have a pin 
code to make sure their identity is correct and see their ID. Whether a 
person is in a gun show or outside a gun show, the responsible gun 
seller will know they didn't sell a gun to somebody mentally impaired 
or a felon.
  We will have all sorts of statements, but what we are going to do 
isn't going to decrease guns in the hands of felons and the mentally 
impaired. We can say we need to win. If we want a bill to get through 
the Senate and get through the House which will actually make a 
difference in people's lives, that felons and the mentally impaired 
aren't empowered to buy guns, we need to do something different.
  My friends in the second amendment community don't even like my 
proposal. I understand this. But there is no impairment when all you 
need to do is go to your cell phone to receive a clearance to know 
somebody is not on the NTIS list.
  We get to decide. Are we going to do it in a way which smells good, 
looks good, but doesn't do anything? Are we going to fight to do 
something which actually makes a difference? I hope we choose the 
latter. I am not convinced we will. The reason Senator Manchin couldn't 
get me to agree to what he had agreed to with Senator Toomey is because 
I don't think it is going to work. I think the vast majority of gun 
purchasers at gun shows are going to wait to buy them later from the 
very same people who were going to sell them at a gun show so they do 
not have to pay a fee and wait 3 or 4 days on a background check. If 
that happens, what good have we done? How have we made a difference? We 
haven't.

  It is a sad fact, as a practicing physician, and having done training 
and surgery, I have had to operate on a lot of people who ended up with 
the consequences of a weapon being used on them.
  Oklahoma has a gun culture, and I own multiple guns. I cherish my 
second amendment right. But with that right comes some responsibility 
to do the right thing. Liberty without responsibility isn't liberty, 
and it will not last unless we attach responsibility to it. So if we 
really believe in the second amendment, and if we really believe in the 
tenth amendment, we will relook at what we are going to do in terms of

[[Page S2551]]

gun transfers. There is a way to do it that will actually make a big 
difference in people's lives in this country, and it may actually get 
through the House.
  What we are proposing, what we are seeing proposed right now, is 
never going to pass the House. Consequently, we will have done 
something in the Senate with no long-term consequences and actually 
making a difference for the American people.
  Mr. President, I thank the Presiding Officer for the time. I yield 
the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning 
business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                      Tribute to Margaret Thatcher

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to pay 
tribute to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who passed 
away Monday.
  In the 1970s, Britain was mired in debt and even had to go to the IMF 
for a bailout. Britain was known then as ``The Sick Man of Europe''--
how we think of Greece today.
  Governments of both political parties had tried to stimulate the 
economy through Keynesian spending policies and government intervention 
into the economy was widespread.
  Britain faced massive strikes in the winter of 1978-1979, known as 
the Winter of Discontent. There was talk that Britain had become 
ungovernable.
  Then Margaret Thatcher came on the scene. Her policies of fiscal 
responsibility and promotion of ``free enterprise'' completely reversed 
Britain's economic decline. Her foreign policy achievements were no 
less impressive. This was the era of detente.
  Most people accepted that the Soviet Union was strong and successful 
and was here to stay so we had to learn to live with it. It was 
fashionable for political leaders to talk as though the Soviet system 
was just different, but no better or worse than our own.
  Margaret Thatcher had no hesitation in pointing out the truth that 
the Soviet Union and its satellites held their citizens in bondage and 
she encouraged dissidents who sought freedom. In fact, it was a speech 
in 1976 when she was still just leader of the opposition in which she 
warned about the Soviet military buildup that caused a Soviet army 
newspaper to coin her nickname the ``Iron Lady.''
  Together with President Reagan, she sought every opportunity to 
undermine the Soviet system until it collapsed. If this doesn't sound 
like a bold position today, it is only because Reagan and Thatcher were 
proven so profoundly right that everyone now claims to have always 
agreed.
  I should also note that there is a temptation for many people 
remembering Mrs. Thatcher's legacy to note that she was the first 
female prime minister of the United Kingdom. While this is a 
significant historical fact, to mention it as though it was one of her 
most important accomplishments comes off as patronizing.
  Margaret Thatcher rejected the identity politics that is so popular 
today. She said:

       I've always believed that what matters in politics, as in 
     the rest of life, isn't who you are or where you come from, 
     but what you believe and what you want to do with your life. 
     What matters are your convictions.

  Because of her convictions and because she acted on those 
convictions, she restored Britain's economy, national spirit, and 
international reputation. Millions of people around the world now live 
in peace and freedom thanks in large part to her efforts. As a result, 
Margaret Thatcher is unquestionably one of the most significant leaders 
of the 20th century.
  Mrs. Thatcher's legacy shouldn't simply be relegated to history 
though. We have a lot to learn from her today. As the President submits 
his overdue budget this week, I would ask my colleagues to ponder this 
quote by Margaret Thatcher:

       If spending money like water was the answer to our 
     country's problems, we would have no problems now. If ever a 
     nation has spent, spent, spent and spent again, ours has. 
     Today that dream is over. All of that money has got us 
     nowhere but it still has to come from somewhere.
       Those who urge us to relax the squeeze, to spend yet more 
     money indiscriminately in the belief that it will help the 
     unemployed and the small businessman, are not being kind--or 
     compassionate--or caring. They are not the friends of the 
     unemployed or the small business. They are asking us to do 
     again the very thing that caused the problems in the first 
     place.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, are we in a period of morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is on the motion to proceed at this 
point.


                            MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. REID. I thought so. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the 
Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted 
to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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