[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 113 (Thursday, August 1, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6154-S6155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLOTURE MOTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 10 
minutes for debate only, with the Senator from Maine Ms. Collins 
controlling 8 minutes and with 2 minutes equally divided in the usual 
form prior to a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on S. 1243.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, the Senate is not in order.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is not in order.
  The Senate will be in order.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, have Senators sit down and shut up. OK. It 
is unfair. Senator Murray has something to say. Senator Collins has 
something to say. It is just not polite.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will be in order. Senators will 
take their conversations from the well. The Senate will be in order.
  The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Thank you, Madam President.
  Madam President, the Senate will shortly decide whether to invoke 
cloture on the fiscal year 2014 Transportation, Housing and Urban 
Development appropriations bill. We have spent nearly 2 weeks debating 
this bill and working through approximately 85 amendments.
  We were making progress. We even had a vote on a nongermane 
amendment, which clearly would have fallen to a point of order had one 
been raised. So no one has been shut out of this process.
  Chairman Murray and I have repeatedly encouraged Senators to come to 
the floor, file, and debate their amendments to improve the bill we 
reported.
  It has been an open and transparent debate thus far, a return to 
regular order--something I have heard virtually everyone here urge us 
to do.
  Nevertheless, some Senators are intent on preventing this legislation 
from moving forward, despite the fact that this bill is not the final 
version of the transportation and housing appropriations bill. It is 
only one step in the process but an essential step--one that will allow 
the Senate to move forward and eventually negotiate with the House of 
Representatives to decide on a top line and to further improve the 
bill.
  A considerable number of my colleagues have advocated for the House 
funding level of $44 billion and have opposed the Senate bill. But I 
would like to point out that not one of my colleagues has offered a 
specific amendment, account by account, to reduce the funding levels, 
program by program, in this bill to meet the $44 billion level in the 
House bill.
  I personally offered an amendment that said that in October, if we 
find we have breached the top line of the Budget Control Act, we would 
go back to the appropriations process and redo the bill to meet that 
top line.
  I would also point out that yesterday the House leadership was forced 
to pull its THUD bill from the floor due to lack of support. Some 
Republican Members thought the spending levels were too high. But it is 
surely significant that a substantial number of Republicans felt the 
bill, as written, was far too low and would hurt our homeless veterans, 
would delay repair of our crumbling infrastructure, and would slash the 
Community Development Block Grant Program to the lowest level in 
history, to below the 1975 level when it was first created by President 
Ford.
  Let me point out that the numbers in the House bill were not 
realistic. That is one of the reasons it failed. The numbers in our 
bill are not unrealistic. They are too high. They would come down in 
conference. The President's request was artificially low due to several 
budget gimmicks and scoring differences. We took care of those 
gimmicks. We have an honest bill that is before our Members. Let me 
give you just one example of a gimmick that was in the President's 
budget. His request for the section 8 project-based rental assistance 
is insufficient to fully fund the 12-month renewal contracts with 
private owners.
  We are not going to be throwing people out of those subsidized 
apartments after 10 months in the year. So Senator Murray and I added 
funding to more accurately reflect what was needed. That was over $1 
billion of the difference. There was the difference in the scoring by 
CBO and OMB. We have to go by CBO. That accounted for $1.8 billion.
  It is disappointing to me that we have not gone to conference on the 
budget because we would not be in this dilemma. We would have agreed-
upon allocations that would guide the appropriations process. But in 
the absence of that, what is wrong with proceeding with this bill with 
cutting spending in it? If Members have amendments they wish to offer 
to cut spending--and there are a few that have been offered, but as I 
said, none that bring it down to the House's level in an account-by-
account manner.
  I am still hopeful we will be able to pass this bill and start 
bringing other appropriations bills to the floor before the end of the 
fiscal year because forcing the government to operate under continuing 
resolutions is irresponsible. It ends up costing more money in the long 
run. It is wasteful because we continue to fund programs that are no 
longer needed because we are just continuing current law.
  So I urge my colleagues to think very carefully about this vote. It 
would be so unfortunate if we go home to our constituents in August and 
are forced to tell them we are unable to do our job. We should continue 
working on this bill. We should invoke cloture. This bill undoubtedly 
would have been reduced in conference had we been allowed to go 
forward.
  I do wish to thank many of my colleagues for working with us as we 
tried so hard to advance this important legislation. I am particularly 
grateful to Chairman Murray for her bipartisan approach and 
collaboration and for working so closely with me throughout the 
process.
  Finally, I would be remiss if I did not thank our staffs on both 
sides of the aisle for their hard work. They have worked night and day 
on this bill. I will put all of their names in the Record. I know my 
time is expiring.
  Let's do the right thing. Let's proceed to end the debate on this 
bill, take

[[Page S6155]]

care of the rest of the germane amendments and proceed to final passage 
and ultimately to conference with the House. Let's show that we mean it 
when we say we are committed to full and open debate and returning to 
the process that used to serve us well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I wish to echo what my good friend and 
partner on this bill Senator Collins just said. Similar to all of us, 
when I go home to my State of Washington, I do not hear a lot from my 
constituents about partisan politics. They do not ask me which party is 
up or which party is down. They do not care about the political games 
and certainly not who is winning or losing them.
  The vast majority of people I talk to when I go home ask me what we 
are doing in Congress to create jobs and get this economy going again. 
They ask me what we are doing to break through this gridlock and the 
constant manufactured crises and make sure this country, this economy, 
is working for them and their families.
  They tell me they want Democrats and Republicans working together. 
They want us to get into a room and put politics aside and put our 
country first and find some common ground and get something done. That 
kind of work is far too rare these days, though many of us are fighting 
to change that. I am very proud the Transportation bill we are about to 
vote on does just that.
  The bill is not exactly what I would have written had I done it on 
our own or what Senator Collins would have done on her own.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent for 30 
additional seconds.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. MURRAY. This is a bill that is a compromise that reflect the 
deep cuts we have set in the spending levels of the Budget Control Act. 
It reflects the best ideas of both sides. So I urge my colleagues to 
move past the obstruction, get over the gridlock. Let's show the 
American people we can work for them.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I wish to commend the Senior Senator 
from Maine for the extraordinary amount of work she and her staff have 
put into this bill. But regretfully, where we are is cloture on this 
Transportation bill will be viewed as a question of whether we intend 
to keep the commitment we made to the American people 2 years ago this 
month to reduce $2.1 trillion in spending over the next 10 years.
  The House of Representatives is marking to a $91 billion-a-year lower 
figure which reflects the law. I believe that if we invoke cloture on 
this bill and move forward, it will be widely viewed throughout the 
country that we are walking away from the commitment we made, on a 
bipartisan basis, that the President signed just 2 years ago, that we 
would reduce spending by this amount of money, $2.1 trillion over the 
next 10 years.
  Regretfully, I would strongly urge my colleagues to keep the 
bipartisan commitment we made 2 years ago and to vote no on cloture on 
this bill.
  I yield the floor.
  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 S. 1243, a bill 
     making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, 
     and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for 
     the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other 
     purposes.
         Harry Reid, Patty Murray, Barbara A. Mikulski, Jon 
           Tester, Tom Harkin, Jack Reed, Dianne Feinstein, Tim 
           Johnson, Tom Udall, Mark Begich, Christopher Murphy, 
           Patrick J. Leahy, Richard J. Durbin, Bill Nelson, 
           Christopher A. Coons, Amy Klobuchar, Mazie K. Hirono, 
           Richard Blumenthal.

  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 S. 
1243, a bill making appropriations for the Departments of 
Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies 
for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes 
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. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Louisiana (Ms. Landrieu) 
is necessarily absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. 
McCain).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 54, nays 43, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 199 Leg.]

                                YEAS--54

     Baldwin
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Boxer
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Coons
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Hirono
     Johnson (SD)
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--43

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Chambliss
     Chiesa
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Enzi
     Fischer
     Flake
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     Kirk
     Lee
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Thune
     Toomey
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--3

     Inhofe
     Landrieu
     McCain
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 54, the nays 43. 
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in 
the affirmative, the motion is rejected.

                          ____________________