[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 135 (Thursday, October 3, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7147-S7149]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 3230
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I yield to the Senator from South Dakota.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the men and women who serve our Nation in
the Guard and Reserve shouldn't be impacted by a partial government
shutdown.
Recently, the House and Senate unanimously passed the pay our
military first act, which was signed into law by the President this
past Monday. That bill ensures that Active-Duty military and those who
support them stay on the job regardless of the dysfunction in
Washington. Congress was right and passed the legislation, and
President Obama was right to immediately sign it into law.
Today, the House of Representatives is going to pass H.R. 3230, the
Pay Our Guard and Reserve Act. This bill provides funding to pay Guard
and Reserve troops who are not currently on Active Duty. Although these
men and women currently don't have Active-Duty status, they have
regularly scheduled training requirements. They stand ready to serve in
overseas conflicts and to respond to domestic disasters if called upon
by their country.
These men and women proudly serve this country, and they should not
be impacted by spending disagreements in Washington. Today the Senate
has a chance to give these individuals and their families greater
certainty by passing H.R. 3220, as soon as it is received from the
House.
I am sorry to hear that the majority and the President have already
indicated they are going to oppose this and that the President has
threatened to veto this legislation. I can't imagine that we would not
do for our Guard and Reserve troops what we have already done for our
Active-Duty troops. I think that is a big mistake.
So I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate receives H.R. 3230,
making continuing appropriations during a government shutdown to
provide pay allowances to members of the Reserve components of the
Armed Forces; that the measure be read three times and passed; and the
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would ask the Senator from Illinois and
the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense to respond.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I am going
to offer to the Senator from South Dakota an even better deal. Not only
will we help the reservists, not only will we open the Veterans'
Administration, but out of the two million federal workers, 800,000
have been furloughed. There are over a half a million veterans in the
federal workforce and a fourth of them are disabled. Now I am going to
give the Senator from South Dakota an opportunity to put them all back
to work immediately, including paying the reservists and everything he
suggested.
I ask unanimous consent that the request of the Senator from South
Dakota be modified as follows: that the amendment which is at the desk
be agreed to; that the bill as amended then be read a third time and
passed; and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon
the table, with no intervening action or debate.
This amendment is the text that passed the Senate. It is a clean
continuing resolution for the entire government and will put thousands
of disabled veterans back to work. It is something already in the House
and reportedly has the support of a majority of the Members of the
House of Representatives.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the modified
request?
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, as the
Senator from Illinois has already pointed out, that has already passed
in the Senate. What he is suggesting is already in the House, not being
acted on.
What the Senate can act on is legislation that is being sent from the
House that would ensure that our National Guard and Reserve troops are
treated the same way as our Active troops are treated. I think that is
only fair and only fitting. These are people who not only respond to
domestic disasters but are also involved in conflicts overseas on a
regular basis.
So I would object.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The objection is heard to the
modification requested.
Is there objection to the original request?
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on behalf of the one-half million veteran
Federal employees, one-fourth of whom are disabled, I object.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard.
The Republican whip.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, may I inquire how much time is remaining
in our allocated time?
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The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Thirteen minutes.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I grew up in an Air Force family. My dad
served in World War II in the Army Air Corps, and as I have mentioned
on this floor many times, he continued to serve for 31 years in the
U.S. Air Force.
As fate would have it, he was transferred to Tachikawa Air Force Base
in Japan right after my junior year in high school. So I graduated from
high school in Japan, and I became acquainted with this 17th century
stylized form of drama and dancing called kabuki.
The thing about kabuki is that the audience oohs and aahs as the
actors demonstrate their great skill at carrying out this stylized form
of drama and dance. What we have seen on this government shutdown,
contrived as it is, is a form of kabuki. We know exactly what is
happening.
The Senate, under the majority leader, has turned down at least
four--and now here today four more--proposals from the House of
Representatives to try to mitigate some of the hardship as a result of
their determination to protect the special congressional carve-out from
ObamaCare--which was tabled the other day at the instance of the
majority leader--as well as to deny average Americans the same
opportunity the President has unilaterally given to employers to delay
the implementation of ObamaCare for 1 year when it comes to the
individual mandate.
That is what the majority has objected to. That is what the majority
leader in a party-line vote has tabled, and that is the only reason we
are engaged in a government shutdown--because of their refusal to
accept those reasonable conditions from the House of Representatives.
So this is kabuki as we in America understand it. We all understand
the dance. We understand this is a form of drama. But the problem is
the American people are suffering either hardship or great
inconvenience as a result of the unwillingness of the President of the
United States to negotiate and the hard-line ``my way or the highway''
position of the majority party.
I ask my colleagues who are on the floor--both of whom served with
great distinction in the House of Representatives--whether they believe
the House has acted in good faith, whether they have tried to resolve
this impasse by sending over to the Senate reasonable pieces of
legislation which, if accepted by the majority, could break this
impasse and reopen the Federal Government.
I ask the Senator from Missouri to respond first.
Mr. BLUNT. Let me say to my friend from Texas that until the
leadership in the Senate changed to the current leadership 7 years ago,
we always did appropriations by debating and advancing individual
things.
The idea that we don't want to debate anything if we don't debate
everything makes no sense. It is not the way the government should run.
I think the House is not only well intended but that their goal is a
worthy goal. The House of Representatives, led by Republicans beginning
in 1995, doubled NIH funding in 10 years. My good friend from South
Dakota and I were there for the majority of that 10-year doubling of
NIH funding.
Last year in the Appropriations Committee markup I voted for a bill
that would add $1 billion extra to NIH funding. It was defeated in the
committee. This year I voted for a bill that would add almost $1.5
billion of additional NIH funding.
This makes a difference in the lives of people. Dr. Francis Collins,
the Director of NIH, has estimated that each week there is a shutdown
his agency's research hospital would have to turn away an estimated 200
patients. He estimated 30 of those patients would be children.
I know they took the children and individuals who were coming Monday
and Tuesday but are now beginning to notify people: If you were
scheduled to come, we have 4,000 people working and 14,000 people not
working. We can't accept you right now.
I think this is the right thing to do. It is an easy thing to do, if
we would just stand and do it.
If we do not oppose NIH--and I do not believe there is a Senator who
does--why don't we continue their funding and do it right now?
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I heard the assistant leader on the
Democratic side, the majority side, yesterday make what I thought was a
very impassioned speech on behalf of access to research that is
provided by the NIH for children who are suffering from cancer. I ask
the Senator from Missouri, would the bill the House has passed and the
Senator asked consent the Senate consider address the very same sort of
cancer research for children the assistant majority leader was arguing
for yesterday?
Mr. BLUNT. I was impressed by the comments of my friend from Illinois
yesterday about NIH funding. I am for NIH funding. I have never failed
to vote for NIH funding. Frankly, I have never failed to vote for an
amendment that would increase NIH funding, as far as I know. I have
seen it increase dramatically.
Opening the doors of that research facility is the right thing to do.
We could do it today. I cannot imagine the President would not sign a
bill that let three-quarters of that workforce go back to work and let
the 200 people who will be turned away in the next 7 days be told
instead: Come on, be part of this process. We are waiting for you. We
are here. We are doing the kinds of things your family critically needs
us to do.
Mr. CORNYN. I ask the Senator from South Dakota, I know South Dakota
has a lot of uniformed military. The Senator has already addressed a
piece of legislation that has passed the House and come over here. Is
it the Senator's impression that the House is trying to address some of
the hardships--inconvenience in some cases, hardships in others--that
are caused by the government shutdown? In his experience, are they
being reasonable in demonstrating good faith in trying to break this
impasse?
Mr. THUNE. I say to the distinguished whip, the Senator from Texas,
he is exactly correct. The House of Representatives has moved several
pieces of legislation--and will this morning--that address some of what
we think are the real needs out there in the midst of a very
unnecessary government shutdown. Some of those have been mentioned here
on the floor this morning. I would point out two in addition: taking
care of our Guard and Reserve troops as we have our Active-Duty
troops--it is really important. All of us have Guard units with
families that have been impacted. The House of Representatives has
given us an opportunity to do that.
The other thing I would mention, I spoke yesterday about President
Obama's refusal to open the World War II Memorial for veterans on their
Honor Flight. He rejected their appeal to visit the memorial dedicated
to their service, an opportunity to honor their brothers in arms, many
of whom died in that great war. I am pleased that the veterans--not
ones to be defeated--breached the barricades and took their memorial.
I have had the opportunity--my father is a World War II Navy fighter
pilot--to be able to show him some of these memorials we have,
monuments here in Washington, DC, particularly the one that was erected
in honor of his generation.
They should not be denied the honor of visiting these monuments to
their service.
When we are thinking about that generation of Americans, we had
Senator McConnell put forward an opportunity today to address the needs
of our veterans. We found out that even though the veterans budget is
advance-funded by a year, there are certain elements of that budget
that are going to run out of money. We want to make sure those of the
great generation that served our country, defended our country around
the world, have access to the programs and the benefits that have been
assured and promised to them.
I think it is unconscionable, unacceptable that we not agree to allow
those services to continue to be funded. I am very disappointed to see
our colleagues on the Democratic side resist and object to that motion
here this morning. If anything, if any group of people in this country
deserves to have the respect and also the promises honored, the
promises we made to them, it is those American veterans.
If we look at the last shutdown in 1995 and 1996, President Bill
Clinton
[[Page S7149]]
came to the table and supported legislation to protect veterans
programs. I hope we could get some cooperation from our colleagues on
the other side to do that today, I say to my colleague from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. May I ask how much time remains?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Three minutes.
Mr. CORNYN. I thank the Senators from South Dakota and from Missouri
for making very important points. I know the leaders--bicameral
leadership of the House and the Senate--were called to the White House
last night, at which time Senator McConnell, the distinguished
Republican leader, reported here on the floor, the President announced
he was not going to negotiate. Bizarre. Why would the President call
the Republican and the Democratic leadership to the White House to say:
I am not going to negotiate. Is it for a photo opportunity? Is it to
give sort of some false impression that he is actually rolling up his
sleeves and is engaged in the business of government to which he was
elected?
I hope the President reconsiders leaving town while the government is
shut down, in the words of the majority leader, and leaving for a trip
to Asia while, as our distinguished Democratic colleagues just pointed
out, many federal employees are furloughed during this government
shutdown. My hope would be that the President would cancel his trip and
that he would stay here in Washington, as we are, trying to solve this
problem and break this impasse.
These proposals we have made here today, many of which have been
voted on by the House of Representatives in a bipartisan fashion, are
designed to do exactly that--to break this impasse. Yet what is the
response of the White House to some earlier proposals? They sent out a
Statement of Administration Policy saying: If it is passed, I would
veto it. That is President Barack Obama. How is that rolling up your
sleeves and being engaged in the job you got elected to? He earned it.
He was elected twice as President of the United States. But it is not
leadership to convene a meeting of Republican and Democratic leadership
at the White House and say: I am not going to negotiate. And by the
way, I am leaving town on Saturday. Good luck.
That leads me to conclude that the President and his party are
actually enjoying this shutdown because they see this as partisan
political gain. They read the public opinion polls, just as we do, but
I do not think the American people should be fooled and they are not
being fooled. House Republicans and Republicans in the Senate have made
many reasonable proposals, only to be given the Heisman, and the
President is not negotiating and the government remains shut down.
The President needs to stay here, demonstrate leadership, continue to
meet with leaders on both sides of the Capitol, and we can break
through this impasse, get the money for children's cancer research, get
the money for the troops, and open the World War II Memorial to the
Honor Flights coming from Texas and around the country. We can do this.
They call it self-government for a reason. We all ought to be working
together toward that end.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican time has expired.
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