[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 24, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6689-S6691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   MAKING CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014--MOTION TO 
                                PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 195, which 
is the continuing resolution.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The assistant bill clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 195, a joint resolution 
     (H.J. Res. 59) making continuing appropriations for fiscal 
     year 2014, and for other purposes.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the 
Republican leader, there will be a period of morning business until 
11:15 this morning. The Republicans will control the first half and the 
majority the second half. At 11:15 a.m. the Senate will proceed to 
executive session to consider the nomination of Todd Hughes to be a 
U.S. circuit judge for the Federal Circuit. At 11:45 a.m. there will be 
a rollcall vote on confirmation of that nomination. Following that 
vote, the Senate will recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly 
caucus meetings. At 2:15 p.m. we will resume consideration of the 
motion to proceed to the continuing resolution. Senator Mikulski will 
make opening remarks at that time, and Senator Cruz will be recognized 
after her.
  Mr. President, on the morning news I hear there will be a filibuster 
today. I want to disabuse everyone. There will be no filibuster today. 
Filibusters are to stop people from voting, and we are going to vote 
tomorrow. Under the rules, no one can stop that. We can advance the 
time and do it more quickly. We could do that at any time, and I would 
be happy to make sure we accomplish that, if both sides agree that, in 
fact, is something we should do. But we are going to vote tomorrow 
regardless of what anyone says or does today, unless it is a consent 
agreement to collapse the time, and that vote will occur sometime 
around noon tomorrow. So I want to make sure everyone understands there 
will be no filibuster today.


                           Economic Recovery

  Mr. President, for millions of American families, the road to 
economic recovery has been long, long, and very, very hard. Now, just 
as the economy

[[Page S6690]]

begins to gain steam, some Republicans in Congress seem determined to 
derail 4 years of progress. They are obsessed with defunding health 
care. They are pushing us closer and closer to a government shutdown 
that would tank the economy, and that is an understatement.
  The business community is gravely concerned about the impacts of a 
shutdown on the economy, and middle-class Americans are really upset 
and concerned about this threat.
  Yesterday Republican and Democratic leaders in both Houses of 
Congress received a letter from the Business Roundtable, an association 
of chief executive officers who employ more than 16 million people. It 
is respected by Democrats and Republicans. The CEOs cautioned us about 
the economic dangers of a government shutdown. They warned of the 
catastrophic effects of a first-ever default on the Nation's debt--the 
next looming crisis Republicans hope to exploit to their own short-term 
political benefit. I should say some Republicans.
  This is what the Business Roundtable wrote yesterday:

       Failure to fund the basic business of government and adjust 
     the debt limit in a fiscally responsible manner would risk 
     both the immediate and long-term health of the U.S. economy. 
     . . . Even a brief government shutdown would have serious 
     economic consequences and default, however temporary, would 
     be calamitous.

  Five years removed from the worst of the great recession, job 
creation, economic growth, and other key economic indicators are not 
where they should be, but they are headed in the right direction. The 
private sector has created 7.5 million jobs in the last 42 months, 
jobless claims are at a 5-year low, and consumers feel more optimistic 
about the economy than they have at any point in the last 5 years. A 
government shutdown would reverse these trends and stunt future 
economic growth, it would panic consumers and financial institutions, 
and it would cost the economy more than $30 billion for every week the 
government remained shuttered--each week, $30 billion. We know this 
from experience. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget 
Office, the shutdowns of the mid-1990s--which lasted 27 days, all 
told--reduced GDP by half a percent. That is a huge amount of damage to 
our economy.

  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has joined the Business Roundtable in 
calling on Congress to keep the government open. Here is what they 
said:

       It is not in the best interest of the U.S. business 
     community or the American people to risk even a brief 
     government shutdown that might trigger disruptive 
     consequences or raise new policy uncertainties washing over 
     the U.S. economy.

  But the dire effects of a shutdown would not just impact the economy; 
a shutdown would send half the Defense Department's civilian workforce 
home without pay and delay paychecks for many military families who 
already live paycheck to paycheck. Although checks would go out to 
seniors already on Social Security, no new applications for benefits 
would be processed, putting seniors and disabled Americans at risk. 
Likewise, veterans applying for education, disability, and pension 
benefits would be forced to wait. The Centers for Disease Control would 
stop monitoring disease outbreaks. Passport applications would 
languish, costing airlines and travel-related businesses millions of 
dollars.
  By a 3-to-1 margin, Americans already oppose this senseless 
Republican plan--some feel more strongly than others--to hold the 
government hostage to defund ObamaCare.
  As I said here yesterday morning, CNN, CNBC, in separate polling, 
show 59 percent--the same number in both polls--59 percent of the 
American people support ObamaCare, and even a larger number of people 
think the government shutdown is the worst idea that ever came along--
as one Republican Senator said, the dumbest idea he ever heard. So 
imagine, Mr. President, their reaction--the American public--once they 
see the dark economic outcome of a shutdown. I have told you how they 
feel. But they can see in their mind's eye that they are losing their 
jobs, their families are losing jobs, and an unquestioned economic 
downturn.
  Confucius, the famous Chinese philosopher, offered a warning--now a 
long, long time ago--when he said: ``When anger rises, think of the 
consequences.''
  I realize generally the Republicans are still upset and mad, angry 
that they lost the election in 2008. I understand that. They are still 
angry that they failed to stop a landmark expansion of health care to 
millions of Americans. I understand that. They are angry that they have 
failed to regain control of the Senate. They are angry that President 
Obama was overwhelmingly reelected last year. But it is time to set 
that anger aside. It is time to stop obsessing over old battles and 
think of the consequences of a government shutdown.
  So, Mr. President, what we need to do--the Acting President pro 
tempore, a longtime Member of Congress, approaching four decades of 
being in Congress, recognizes how we have worked together over those 
decades, accomplishing good things for this country--is go back to 
those days, days of working together. We could start in many places. We 
could start by funding the government without a big hassle. We could 
work together to do postal reform, which affects 6 million working 
Americans. We could work together to do agricultural reform, which 
under the bill we passed out of this body will save $23 billion. We cut 
the deficit by $23 billion. We could work together to pass immigration 
reform. My Republican colleagues are concerned about the debt. That 
reduces it by $1 trillion.
  Mr. President, the American people at least deserve that we work 
together and get things done. I would hope that with this crisis facing 
us we can put all our obsessions about health care and President Obama 
getting reelected and our still controlling the Senate behind us and 
move on to do good things for our country again.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is 
recognized.


                      House Continuing Resolution

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, about 4 years ago I mounted a campaign 
right here on the Senate floor against a bill that would come to be 
known as ObamaCare. Nearly every day we were in session, I spoke about 
the dangers of this bill for individuals, for families, for businesses, 
and the very character of our country. I predicted that it would be a 
complete disaster and that anyone who voted for it would come to regret 
it because the promises that were being made about ObamaCare could not 
possibly be kept. And guess what happened. These predictions are all 
coming true.
  ObamaCare has not even been fully implemented yet, but we can already 
see the train wreck headed our way. Premiums are skyrocketing. Major 
companies have been dropping the health care plans their employees have 
and like. And every week it seems there are new reports about glitches 
that will hurt families, compromise personal information, or expose the 
American people to fraud--all of which helps explain why even some of 
the bill's fiercest early backers are looking for an escape hatch.
  But there is only one escape hatch that will fully help those trapped 
by this law, and that is full repeal. That is why I am supporting the 
House-passed CR. Not only does it defund this terrible law, it does not 
increase government spending by a penny, and it keeps the government 
from shutting down, which nobody wants. It does something else--and 
this is really important--it puts the focus right where it belongs: on 
the Democrats who voted for and continue to support ObamaCare. Once we 
invoke cloture, the focus will then turn to our friends on the other 
side of the aisle, the Senate Democrats. The majority leader is 
counting on his Democratic allies to amend the bill. He can only afford 
to lose four Democrats--just four--if he wants to restore funding for 
ObamaCare. So if five Senate Democrats vote against the majority 
leader, ObamaCare will be defunded. That is a vote we should have and 
in all likelihood will have.
  Democrats have been hearing the same complaints about ObamaCare that 
the rest of us have. The spotlight--the spotlight--really should be on 
them. This is a rare opportunity to defund the law with a simple 
majority--a simple majority to defund ObamaCare. We should have that 
vote. I just do not happen to think filibustering a bill that defunds 
ObamaCare is the best route to defunding

[[Page S6691]]

ObamaCare. All it does is shut down the government and keep ObamaCare 
funded. And none of us want that. That would be the results of 
filibustering.
  Four years ago every Democrat voted for this bill and had the excuse 
that they did not know how it would turn out. Well, they do not have 
that excuse now. I think we deserve to know where they stand now. Four 
years ago every Senate Democrat worked to jam this bill through the 
Senate, over the loud objections of their constituents. As the 
implementation of this law proceeds, their constituents remain just as 
angry about it, and it is important for their Senators to go on record 
once again. We are giving them a do-over--a second chance, if you will. 
Do they stand with the people of their States, who do not want this law 
to be implemented, or did they double down on this failed experiment? 
That is the question.
  Everybody knows where Republicans stand on this issue. We may be 
divided on some things. We may not always agree on tactics. But on the 
question of repealing ObamaCare, we are totally united.
  This law should be defunded. That is what the House bill does. That 
is why I plan to support it. But if we are going to repeal ObamaCare, 
we are going to need some Democratic votes to do that. That is the only 
plan I have seen in this debate that will actually get us to our common 
goal of undoing the law.
  For the sake of our constituents, we need to unite to achieve it. So 
this morning I would like to make a plea to our friends on the other 
side: Join us in taking it off the books and replacing it with the kind 
of commonsense, step-by-step reforms that lower costs and that 
Americans will actually embrace.
  I yield the floor.


                       Reservation of Leader Time

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
leadership time is reserved.

                          ____________________