[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
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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
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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.
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