[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 146 (Tuesday, October 15, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7475-S7485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DEFAULT PREVENTION ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO PROCEED
Mr. REID. I move to proceed to Calendar No. 211, S. 1569, the debt
limit bill.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
The bill clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 211, S. 1569, a bill to
ensure the complete and timely payment of the obligations of
the United States Government until December 31, 2014.
Schedule
Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 to
allow for weekly caucus meetings.
There are productive negotiations going on with the Republican
leader. I am confident we will be able to reach a compromise agreement
this week in time to avert a catastrophic default on the Nation's
bills. The Republican leader and I will keep our Members informed as to
how negotiations are going.
I express my appreciation to everyone for their patience.
Reservation of Leadership Time
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the leadership
time is reserved. Under the previous order, Senators are permitted to
speak for up to 10 minutes each.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the distinguished Presiding Officer is,
like myself, a New Englander and knows what fall is like in our part of
the country. Late last month, I was fortunate to enjoy the most lovely
settings I think can be found anywhere at any time, as Vermont's
hillsides are painted orange, yellow, and red by peak fall colors set
against powder blue skies. Vermonters love these sublime few weeks. We
happily welcome visitors around the United States. Actually, we welcome
visitors from around the world. It is interesting to walk down the
streets in some of our cities and hear several different languages
being spoken as visitors come here. They share the experience, and they
hike and bike and fish, and they hunt in our extensive preserved
natural areas.
But these best of times have become the worst of times, as Vermonters
and visitors alike have found closed signs on their favorite natural
areas due to the tea party shutdown of the Federal Government. The
window is quickly closing in Vermont for the Fish and Wildlife
biologists and national forest rangers who have work that must be done
before the first snow falls. We know how Washington can close down for
an inch or two of snow. In Vermont, we are talking about 10, 15, or 20
inches of snow. These Fish and Wildlife biologists and national forest
rangers' schedules are dictated by the changing seasons and the
biological clocks of nature. The House Republican leadership has been
no more able to undo the law of the land--which is the Affordable Care
Act--than they would be able to slow or stop Vermont's changing
seasons.
Insisting on tying a repeal or a defunding of the Affordable Care Act
to reopening the government is doing real and lasting damage to
Vermont's economy and natural resources as fall quickly becomes winter.
The 26,000-acre Nulhegan national wildlife refuge in Vermont's
Northeast Kingdom is among the best upland bird hunting areas in New
England. There is plenty of room for everyone, but just days after the
opening of grouse season, the refuge has been forced to hang up a
closed sign and lock its gates. This has dealt a blow to the tourism
economy of the small towns around the refuge that depend on these
annual visitors and hunters.
The Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge on the shores of Lake
Champlain is, without a doubt, the best and most extensive freshwater
duck habitat in New England. Huge meadows of wild rice attract
thousands of migrating waterfowl and legions of bird watchers
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and hunters. Even with the fall migrations in full swing, the
Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge has hung up a closed sign and
locked its gates for the start of the fall hunting season.
Hikers looking for the best panoramic views of Vermont's fall colors
flock to the Appalachian Trail and Vermont's Long Trail which run
together up the spine of the Green Mountains, through the 400,000-acre
Green Mountain National Forest. Through-hikers, weekenders, and day
trippers spread out to enjoy hundreds of miles of trails. But only a
skeleton crew of forest rangers and fire crew remain on the job.
Visitors centers and restrooms are closed; even volunteer workers have
been pulled from the trail and forced to stop shelter work and trash
collection at trailheads because of the tea party shutdown.
These may not seem like huge matters in the national scheme of
things, but in a State of 600,000 people they are major. Not only are
the livelihoods of Vermonters being devastated, but the things that we
cherish the most about our State are being denied to people who want to
come and see them.
Woodstock, VT, is the quintessential New England village and host to
the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. The
centerpiece of the park is the oldest sustainably managed forest in the
United States. It is a beautiful forest. But visitors are denied access
to this forest in all of its fall glory. Long-planned events at the
park have been canceled and the gates have been locked.
Certainly there are many more places for visitors to enjoy--this has
been a wonderful picture-perfect season. I am told by my friends and
neighbors who live near our home in Vermont that it has been absolutely
gorgeous. As much as I love all my colleagues and enjoy being with
them, I would much rather be up there seeing the same view as
Vermonters are. But the closing of our Federal lands, just as hunting
seasons begin and the hillsides shine, is depriving Americans from
experiencing the country's natural heritage and causing serious
economic damage to the small towns, and the innkeepers and guides who
depend upon these areas for their living. Foreign tourists,
increasingly important to our economy, and their tour operators, are
confused and disappointed by these outcomes. They say: this sort of
thing has never happened in our country and yet you are the wealthiest
and most powerful country on the earth; why are you doing this?
Other conservation work is being curtailed, as well, in ways likely
to do lasting damage. Control of parasitic sea lamprey in Lake
Champlain has to be accomplished each fall to protect the game fish and
threatened species. There is a very short window when the sea lamprey
treatments can be applied before these parasites migrate from the
rivers to the lake. That window is fast closing. It is going to be
missed if U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists remain on furlough.
If these fall treatments do not take place, thousands of young sea
lamprey will be allowed to reach the lake, where they are immune to
treatment, live for years, and devastate the fishery. This will undo
years of work, and taxpayer dollars invested in this program will be
wasted by a small group of radical obstructionists who jump in front of
the cameras and say things that make no sense at all.
In Vermont and across the country, there is a lot of work that needs
to take place on Federal lands before winter snows sweep in.
Snowmobiling is very popular among my constituents. It is a mainstay of
our winter economy. But fall is the time the trails are graded and
bridges repaired. Our most important trail networks are on Federal
lands, and important maintenance is being delayed--deferred in some
cases--due to the tea party shutdown. If trails are not opened before
the snow flies, the devastating impact on tourism and local communities
is going to last all winter long and impact people who want to go to
work every day, who are hard-working, honest, good people who can't
understand what is happening here in Washington.
Fall in Vermont is the most glorious season. It is my favorite one.
We welcome visitors. We get outdoors more ourselves, and are busy
preparing for the long winter to come. Our hard-working Federal
partners are proud of the work they do on these Federal lands, and they
know this manufactured tea party crisis is causing real and lasting
damage to our natural resources and the Vermont economy.
National parks and refuges in Vermont are not the only places closed
for business. According to the Coalition of National Park Service
Retirees, every day the Federal Government is shuttered costs the
National Park Service nearly $\1/2\ million in lost fee collections
nationwide. And the impacts are even greater for the surrounding
communities that are losing $76 million per day in visitor spending.
While some in the tea party actually have the arrogance to go on
television and argue that shutting down the Federal Government is
saving us money, the truth is just the opposite. It is costing every
one of us taxpayers money, and it is costing everybody in the private
sector huge amounts of money. And now, as we reach day 15 of the tea
party shutdown, the National Park Service has been denied over $6
million in lost revenues, and local communities--not government
workers, but local communities--honest, hard-working men and women have
lost over $1 billion. This is why several States have chosen to foot
the bill to reopen a handful of national parks to stop further losses
to local economies. The cost of shutting down the government, paying
the lost revenue--that is what is keeping us in the red.
So I say to the small group of obstructionists, stop wasting time.
Put our government back to work. Show the rest of the world that we
really are the great country we know we are. I want to get back to work
for Vermonters; we owe it to our constituents to resolve this now and
start making real decisions about our future.
Speaker Boehner should call up the Senate continuing resolution for a
vote. It would receive bipartisan support, and we could put an end to
this pointless tea party shutdown. We would reopen our Federal lands.
We would be supporting our local economy.
There is more I can say, Mr. President, and I will, but I applaud
Majority Leader Reid for working with the Republican leader, Senator
McConnell. I applaud them for being what grownups should be, trying to
bring us back and trying to bring our government back, showing what a
great country we are so we do not have countries such as China saying:
Oh, we should not rely on American currency. They are not reliable
people.
We are getting this all over the world--Americans are not reliable.
What damage these tea party obstructionists are doing to our great
country. We ask our military to serve around the world and protect us--
and maybe they will get paid, but a lot of the support for them, the VA
and whatnot, is being closed down. It is shameful. The same people who
shut down the government are saying it is terrible that the government
is shut down. I think the American people can see through this.
I don't care what party you belong to or who you are, with the
exemption of a small group, people know this country has to be open so
it can work--can work for all of us--and can project an image of
strength and stability throughout the world, can do the things that
made us great in the past and that will keep making us great in the
future, not this shabby exercise.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. 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. DURBIN. Mr. President, for 2 weeks the government has been shut
down. It is hard to imagine. It seems a lot longer if you have been
sitting here in the midst of this maelstrom--2 weeks since the junior
Senator from Texas took the floor and for 21 hours held the floor,
giving a speech calling for the end of ObamaCare as we know it.
In that period of time we have learned a lot about ourselves. We
learned a lot about this country. I think about the 800,000 Federal
employees furloughed, many of whom struggle to get by and now have no
paycheck coming in. It is a hardship that is totally unnecessary, a
hardship that was
[[Page S7477]]
imposed on them because there was a strategy, a political strategy,
political gamesmanship that said: We can sacrifice the well-being of
those Federal employees and their families to make our political point.
It turns out they went further. They went further in suggesting they
were going to cut off the benefits these government agencies offered.
At this point in time, we have come to learn what that means. People
who were turned away from the National Institutes of Health, children--
some 30 children with cancer were turned away because that agency is
closed. Families who were notified they had lost a loved one in battle
were denied the basic benefits we provide to all families facing that
terrible grief. There was a lack of food safety inspections when
salmonella outbreaks were being reported around the country. The list
goes on and on.
John F. Kennedy wrote a book called ``Profiles in Courage'' that
talked about those in public service who showed extraordinary courage.
I suggest it takes no courage whatsoever to hurt 800,000 innocent
Federal employees. It takes no courage whatsoever to deny the basic
benefits of government to thousands, maybe even millions, of American
people. I think it is political cowardice.
Sadly, it has gone on for 2 straight weeks. The House did some
curious thing there, where they voted to say: But we will pay these
employees.
A friend of mine back in Edwardsville, IL, sent me an e-mail.
Let me get this straight. They closed down the Government,
they turned the employees away, they said they don't have to
come to work but they promised they were going to pay them?
What is going on in Washington? What are you people thinking?
I couldn't defend it. I wouldn't even try. It is evidence of the kind
of abandonment of reason which has become the hallmark of some Members
of Congress.
What do the American people think? They are not happy with any of us,
let's get it straight, but when it comes to the responsibility for this
madness, they have said it is on the other side of the aisle. It is
their idea--not just the tea party but many who were complicit in this
strategy.
As if this were not enough, now in just 2 days, for the first time in
the history of the United States of America, we face a default on our
debt.
You might say: So what. Who cares. What difference would it make.
Listen to what Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary
Fund, said:
The failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause not only
serious damage to the U.S. economy but also to the global
economy as a result of spillover effects. . . .
In response to a question about debt prioritization proposals, she
said:
When you are the largest economy in the world, when you are
the safe haven in all circumstances, as has been the case,
you can't go into that creative accounting business.
Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund.
It is an interesting thing in politics: you can always find somebody
who is going to agree with almost any point of view. Tea party
Republicans have rounded up some flat Earth economists who say default
on the debt is really not a big deal. In fact, I have heard some of my
colleagues on the floor argue that we just have to pick and choose who
is going to get paid, that everything will work out and you really will
not even notice.
It reminds me of the time--Mr. President, you were in the House when
I was--when there was the Gingrich shutdown, Rush Limbaugh and others
announced they would shut down the government and no one would notice.
You don't really need a government. They noticed in a hurry. In less
than 2 weeks they opened the government.
This, sadly, is much more grievous and will have terrible
consequences for innocent people. If we default on our debt in 2 days,
for first time in history we will destroy a global confidence in the
U.S. dollar that we built up since World War II, since 1945. Right now
the U.S. dollar is the most respected and strongest economy in the
world, period, bar none. Countries far and wide that want to invest in
the safest possible investment invest in U.S. Treasurys because they
trust our government and its word that it will pay its debts. Those who
are toying with this possibility of default are putting that at risk.
It is not just a matter of the views of the world. It is bad enough
that we are being lectured to by Vladimir Putin about responsible
governance--Vladimir Putin lectures to us about being a responsible
government. That is bad. What is even worse is the impact on ordinary
people and their lives. We know what happened when we went through the
last recession. People who had carefully saved for their futures saw
the bottom fall out of their savings accounts and their retirement
accounts. We run that very same risk if we default on this debt again.
We run that very same risk. And many hard-working families, people who
have scrimped and saved for college education for their kids, for their
own retirement, for their next home, will find that they are devastated
by this default on our national debt. That is the most reckless and
irresponsible single act we could undertake.
They asked a Member of the House, a Republican Member of the House,
if yours was the deciding vote on extending the debt ceiling--if it was
up to you, one person, to decide to extend the debt ceiling, would you
vote for it? He said: Not unless there were some strings attached. You
think to yourself: Still bargaining, right up to the edge of the cliff.
Sadly, if we go over, the pain will be felt as much by that Congressman
as it will by working families in Massachusetts and Illinois. That is
what this is all about.
Paul Schott Stevens is president and CEO of the Investment Company
Institute. At a banking committee hearing on October 10, he said:
I also will avoid parsing the differences among ``technical
default, ``selective default,'' and ``actual default,'' or
whether missing a Social Security payment is equivalent to
missing an interest payment or failing to redeem a maturing
Treasury bill. All such discussion misses the point. The
United States, like any other major debtor, must maintain the
confidence of its creditors--or risk the consequences. . . .
Once Treasury has exercised the option to delay payments,
investors will learn a lesson that cannot and will not be
unlearned--even after all missed or delayed payments have
been made good. That lesson is simple: Treasury securities
are no longer as good as cash--they carry a future risk of
further missed payments.
That future risk is a political creation. It is a bargaining tool by
the Republicans, and it goes too far.
At a banking committee hearing, Gary Thomas, president of the
National Association of Realtors, said:
[A]n increase in U.S. Treasury rates would result in higher
mortgage rates. In the event of a default, U.S. Treasury
prices would fall and yields, which move inversely to prices,
would rise. . . . Historically, an increase in mortgage rates
of 1 percentage point reduces home sales by roughly 350,000
to 450,000 units . . . [and] roughly 700,000 to 900,000 fewer
jobs would be created. . . .
This is a job-killing strategy. Default on our national debt is a
job-killing strategy.
Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., president of the Securities Industry and
Financial Markets Association, said:
It is important to note that Treasury securities are a key
factor in the daily financing of market operations, with the
U.S. Treasury repo market totaling between $1.2 and $1.9
trillion daily. Undermining that market could have a
deleterious effect on every major market participant.
If that were not bad enough, I have received some e-mails from some
friends. The one that sticks in my mind is from a friend who does not
live in my State. He is a man I have come to know. I am not going to
use his name on the floor--I didn't ask his permission to--but I can
certainly tell his story.
He sent his son off to war in Iraq. He and his wife took care of his
son's wife and little baby while his son went off to fight in a war.
Sadly, his son was the victim of an IED. As a result of that terrible
incident, his son is quadriplegic and cannot speak.
People had given up on the son in his midtwenties; they recommended
putting him in a nursing home. And his father said: I just won't let it
happen. His father took him to a hospital in Chicago, a renowned
hospital, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. His son made
dramatic progress. Eventually, he was able to return home with some
limited function but was able to enjoy the things in life that make a
difference to him. He loves to go hunting. His father picked up a
mechanism whereby his son could actually go out,
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sit in a blind, and fire at those ducks and feel as if he was back
where he was before he went to war.
I cannot tell you the love that the mother and father have given to
their son, daughter-in-law, and now their two children. They basically
gave up their life and their business and, with the help of a lot of
good people in the community, built a special home for their son so
that he could get around in his motorized wheelchair. I have been down
there. The outpouring of generosity and charity in North Carolina for
this family is just amazing, and they continue to give their entire
lives to their son and his wife and kids.
He wrote me an email and said:
I hope you are doing well. We see you on C-SPAN. Thank you
for taking a moment to read about our concern. This concern
is about my son. It affects him and thousands of other
wounded veterans. We are quite concerned about what we are
hearing coming out of the VA. The thought of the VA check not
arriving in November has all of us nervous. We are sure this
is a feeling in households across the country. We are praying
that all the parties in Washington will soon come to terms.
After years of war, a sagging economy, and now the shutdown,
nerves are stretched. I am writing to you to see if there is
a light at the end of this dark tunnel. My son and wife,
after years of working to establish a near-normal life, have
to start worrying about losing what they worked to return to
and enjoy as a near-normal life.
In writing he said:
My mood does not mean to be so down, but as a parent of a
family that has been through so much, the thought of this
threat is very heart-wrenching.
Thank you for listening to me.
I think of that letter, and I think of that family worried about that
VA check.
I received an e-mail yesterday from a family that is worried about
whether they will receive their Social Security check. Why do we put
the American people through this? Why do we put families through this?
This is totally unnecessary.
We need to open this government. We should do it tomorrow morning,
period. Just open it. We need to bring these people back to work to
perform the services they need to perform for this great Nation, and we
need to make certain we don't default come Thursday. The default would
have a negative impact that would have far-reaching consequences beyond
this political battle.
In years to come nobody may remember the names of the people involved
in this political fight that goes on day after day on Capitol Hill, but
they will remember the failure of the Congress to pay the Nation's
debts, to stand for the full faith and credit of the United States, and
to maintain our reputation as a leader in the world.
That is what is at stake. There is no political victory worth that. I
hope Members on both sides will come to their senses.
I wish to salute our leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. I have
been standing by him through this. He has been stalwart and courageous.
I know he has been exhausted at times, but he keeps on fighting.
I also wish to salute Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the
Republican leader, who, over the last several days, has played a very
active and positive role in trying to resolve this issue.
It is time for the Senate to show leadership. It is time for the
Senate to come together on a bipartisan basis and show the path that
takes us out of this political crisis.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, in the midst of the current crisis there
have been some who have questioned the relevance of the Federal
Government to our overall economy. Some have even called the current
shutdown just a slimdown. But in my home State of New Mexico, there is
no question that this government shutdown has been irresponsible, it
has been reckless, and it has been absolutely devastating to our
economy.
New Mexico serves the Nation in many ways, through our national labs
and our military bases, with Federal lands and monuments that host
Americans from every corner of the Nation. As a result, Federal dollars
in 2010 were nearly 36 percent of our State's gross domestic product.
This figure includes veterans' benefits, Social Security, and student
financial aid.
Federal dollars go toward grants to help fund State and local health
care, transportation, education, and housing. Many of us who have
served as either city councilors or mayors, legislators or Governors
realize the role Federal passthrough dollars play in keeping our States
and municipalities solvent.
In New Mexico, Federal contracts are also critical for our small
business community. Defense purchases account for almost two-thirds of
total procurement spending. We are home to nearly 27,000 Federal
workers--workers who want to go back to work, workers who just want to
do their job.
Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory
employ an additional 18,000 New Mexicans as contractors, and the U.S.
Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad employs
1,000 more. That is out of 2 million people. So it is an understatement
to say that shutting down the Federal Government strikes at the heart
of my State's economy.
Between sequestration furloughs, the shutdown, and the current
impasse over averting a catastrophic default on the Nation's's debt,
hard-working, middle-class families across New Mexico are the ones who
are saddled with uncertainty and hardship. These manufactured crises
have very real consequences for these families.
Since the shutdown began, I have heard time and again from
constituents who are paying the price for this reckless debacle. They
say they feel like the collateral damage in the ongoing ideological
battles in Washington, DC. Hard-working civil servants dedicated to
their jobs and their country have been sent home without pay, while
many others have to work through the shutdown without a paycheck.
Yesterday I spoke with a Rio Rancho resident named Chad Didier, a
former marine who is now an air traffic controller in Albuquerque.
During the shutdown he has been reporting to work every day to help
keep our airspace safe, but he does not know when he will start getting
a paycheck again. This comes on the heels of forgoing pay earlier this
year due to sequestration.
As the father of four young children and the sole breadwinner in his
family, he is worried about making rent next month and making his car
payments on time. He is frustrated because he is doing everything he
has been asked of him, everything he is supposed to do to take care of
his family, to serve his country, but he feels his government has
failed him.
Last week, because of the shutdown, the National Nuclear Security
Administration ordered that Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs should
be ready to shut down by October 21.
Katy Korkos with the Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce told the Los
Alamos Monitor that the impact of the shutdown at LANL could hit
subcontractors twice as hard as other entities because they will never
be able to recover the income they are currently losing.
EnergySolutions, a subcontractor that processes and ships transuranic
waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, has already had
to lay off 154 workers.
The general manager at a department store in Los Alamos was quoted in
the newspaper as saying: ``Anytime the lab sneezes, we catch cold.''
In southern New Mexico, Crysta Quintero told the Las Cruces Sun-News
that she was immediately worried for her 3-year-old son after hearing
about the Federal Government shutdown. That is because she relies on
the Federal WIC Program to supply a prescription baby formula for her
son who has a disability. Unfortunately, Crysta is not alone. Tens of
thousands of women and children in New Mexico who receive assistance
from this program every month could be left without vital nutritional
support if the shutdown continues to drag on.
What is also at stake is the incredible work being done at New
Mexico's colleges and universities. These first-rate research
institutions rely heavily
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on Federal grants to fund staff, training, and projects, including
clinical trials for cancer treatment. I am told those trials--and years
of hard work--will have to pause or even stop if the government stays
closed. Scientists will see their salaries reduced, and research
students who want to dedicate their lives to finding the next cure will
have to wait even longer just to earn their degree.
Because of the shutdown, important job-creating investments in small
business--the very engine of our economy--are delayed. On average, over
$300,000 in Federal loans are approved for small businesses in New
Mexico each and every day--but not today. Because of this reckless and
irresponsible shutdown, those small businesses are not getting the
loans to grow their business. They are not hiring new workers.
New Mexico is home to many of the Nation's most treasured public
conservation lands, including national parks such as Carlsbad Caverns,
BLM monuments such as the newly created Rio Grande del Norte, and
national forests such as the Gila and Carson that are unstaffed during
the fall hunting seasons. More than 4,000 men and women work on these
public lands, and they are being forced to stay home.
Andrew Graves is an entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service in
Albuquerque. Specifically, Andrew is in a program called Forest Health
Protection that works across agency lines providing expertise and
assistance to Federal and tribal land managers, foresters throughout
New Mexico so they can deal with outbreaks of disease or insect
infestations. Andrew says they have already canceled or postponed
meetings and training because of the shutdown.
Each day the government remains closed, thousands of people who
planned to visit our national parks and our wildlife refuges will be
turned away. That does not just hurt the government. Restaurants and
hotels, tire shops, and grocery stores feel this pain in towns such as
Socorro, Taos, Grants, Alamogordo, and Las Cruces.
Because of the shutdown, the Bureau of Land Management has stopped
processing energy leases on Federal land. A lengthy delay in the
permitting process will not only take its toll on New Mexico's oil and
gas industry but also on the revenues generated for New Mexico's public
schools. The 8,000 New Mexican children enrolled in Head Start are
feeling the impact of the shutdown on top of the cuts sequestration has
already imposed on that critical program.
The shutdown also endangers the benefits that we owe over 170,000
veterans in New Mexico, people who served this country with
distinction. The VA will run out of money to pay mandatory benefits by
the end of October if we do not act.
Americans are fed up. Other debates in recent years have been just as
heated, just as partisan, but this crisis is far more dangerous for our
country. The American people--my constituents in New Mexico--want their
Federal Government to function again. The Federal workers in my State
want to go back to work. Our constituents want us to move past the
gridlock and actually govern. They want economic security and to be
able to take care of their families.
It is time to reopen the government, it is time to take the threat of
default off the table, and it is time to stop playing games with the
livelihoods of hard-working Americans.
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. MURPHY. 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. MURPHY. We are now going into week three of a government
shutdown, a totally unnecessary, totally avoidable, totally
manufactured government shutdown that is now morphing together with a
potential failure on behalf of the U.S. Government to pay its debts,
the first time we have ever intentionally done that in our entire
country's history.
This is not theoretical any longer. This is now right on top of us.
On Thursday of this week we will no longer have enough money to pay all
of the bills that come in to the government. We only have about 65
percent of the funds necessary to pay out all of the bills that come
due to us, whether it is to our creditors or to the thousands of small
businesses that rely on contracts with the Federal Government every
week to pay their bills as well.
I appreciate all of my colleagues coming down here and talking about
the real-world consequences of what this shutdown has meant and what a
failure to pay our debts will mean. I come down and want to share a
handful of stories from my State of Connecticut to tell you what is
going on out there beyond the talking heads on the cable news networks.
They are simple stories, but they are impactful because for hundreds of
thousands of people in my State of Connecticut, there was no margin
with which to operate when this shutdown hit and the consequential
economic impact that has come to so many families. There was not any
money stuffed under their mattress they could pull out and try to pay
the bills they could not, now that their paycheck or their business had
been lost.
This is a big deal to people in Connecticut, and in Hawaii, and to
States all across our land because there was so much economic hurt that
had already piled up for months and years that people had no wiggle
room when the tea party decided to stick a knife into the backs of
already hurting families.
That is why this makes no sense. It is not as though we had the
cushion as an economy, it is not as though families had the ability to
take on a little extra hurt when the tea party decided to shut down our
government--not that it would make sense even if we were living in
heady economic times. But today, right now, for families who are
getting killed by an economy that has recovered for the top 5 or 10
percent of America but certainly has not recovered for the bottom 80
percent, this is no time to be playing around with people's lives.
Every single year at the start of the home heating season, I go to a
nonprofit in Waterbury, CT, which dispenses home heating assistance to
the thousands of families in the Greater Waterbury, CT, area who know
that without a little bit of help from this agency they will literally
not be able to heat their home, that their children will go cold that
winter, because even though they are making money, they cannot keep up
with the mounting bills.
Every single year, as I watch the sort of macroeconomic numbers get
better for the economy, I keep on thinking that when I go to that
agency in August or September or October, they are going to tell me:
Guess what, Chris. Less people are coming in this year than last year
to ask for home heating assistance.
We are in year five of this recession now. Every single year of those
five, the number has gotten bigger--every single year. Even as
unemployment goes down, demand for home heating assistance in
Connecticut goes up. Why? Because the top echelon of our country has
recovered but nobody else has. So that is why when this shutdown hit,
it hurt so badly for someone such as Rich Martin in New London, CT.
Rich did something heroic during this recession. He started a new
business. Frankly, even more heroic, he started a bookstore and a
record store in New London, CT called the Telegraph.
He said that business has been growing for the last 12 months. Every
month he has been doing a little bit better. Then guess what. The
shutdown. Rich wrote me and said: After growth in my business over the
last 12 months, people have stopped coming in these last weeks. Because
in New London, CT, where we make submarines for the U.S. Navy, where we
have submariners at our base there, we have a whole lot of people who
depend on the Federal Government or contracts from the Federal
Government to be able to pay their employees. Nobody is coming into the
Telegraph any more. His business is getting hurt. A business, a small
businessman who did something great, is now wondering whether he can
make it through the next couple of days and weeks.
Here is how the trickledown of this happens: Kathi Sanborn in
Hartford is
[[Page S7480]]
paying the bills right now by babysitting. She is babysitting for a
couple. But the husband is a defense contractor. Guess what. He has
been furloughed, so he cannot pay her to babysit. Frankly, he is home
anyway, so he can look after the kids. So she does not have her
babysitting gig any longer. He is out of work and she is out of work.
Guess what. That is not where it ends. Because now that Kathi does not
have her babysitting job, she is going to stop buying what she used to
buy. She is going to have her groceries. She is not going to go to the
store down the street for a purchase for herself. It just keeps on
going.
Don Spaeth in Putnam, small business owner, runs a little restaurant
there. Small town, Putnam. He says his business has dried up the last
couple of weeks. People are not coming in.
Rich from Fairfield has a severely autistic son. He is an adult, so
he was on Social Security disability. But he had his disability
benefits cut off because they wanted to review his eligibility. Well,
guess what. The reviewer has been furloughed for 2 weeks. So his son,
who was hoping to be able to have his benefits turned back on, or at
least have resolution so the family would know what to do, now cannot
get a resolution to his disability claim. His son cannot pay the bills
to the provider who gives him housing. He is potentially going to be
out on the streets because he does not have a reviewer in the Social
Security office. That hurts economically, but that hurts
psychologically as well.
Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers in New Haven gets Federal money to do
something really simple: Provide frail seniors with rides to their
doctors' appointments. They lost their Federal funding for 2 weeks, so
they cannot give rides any longer. So seniors are sitting home not able
to get to their doctors' appointments. Think about that. You have an
85-year-old widow who has to worry every day if she is going to get
sick because she lost her ride to the doctor's office.
Then let me read you this quote from Michael in Hartford. I do not
even have to embellish it:
I am an attorney and work for the IRS.
I have 3 children, a 16 year old girl and 8 year old twins.
My wife is pregnant with my fourth child. My 16 year old is
taking driver's education and wants her license. I cannot now
pay for the insurance necessary for her. She also wanted to
take a PSAT prep course, another $1,200 that I don't have.
She needs to start visiting college campuses. More money that
I don't have. One of my twins, Sofia, had some learning
disabilities and had private tutors and other professionals
to assist her in staying on grade level in reading and math.
I will soon run out of savings to pay for Sofia's support
system because November 1st means that there is a mortgage
payment, car payment, car insurance payments and the other
dozen or so monthly bills that keep our household up and
running. I do hope that the shutdown ends soon so that I can
get back to work.
These stories can be repeated, frankly, hundreds of thousands of
times over all across this country. While to some people they may sound
like small stories--a babysitter losing a job, the inability to get
your disabled daughter a little bit of help for a couple months--they
add up to $1.6 billion in economic activity coming out of our country
every single week.
They add up to unemployment claims jumping to their highest level
last week in 6 months. They add up to consumer confidence being the
lowest in this country since the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008.
This doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is not as if we can tread water
or move backwards economically while the rest of the world waits for us
to resume our mantle of economic leadership.
China says they are looking to take their $1.3 trillion in U.S.
Treasurys and find someplace else for it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. MURPHY. I ask unanimous consent for 5 more minutes.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. MURPHY. Last month Japan announced its machinery sales were the
best since 2008. The rest of the world is moving on.
If we are doing this much damage to the economy, why are we here? We
are here mainly because tea party Republicans in the House see this
misery as a bargaining chip. They couldn't get their way any other way.
They couldn't win the legislative argument on the health care bill, a
bill that passed the House and the Senate and was signed by the
President. They couldn't win the judicial argument. It came before the
Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court upheld the health care law. It
couldn't win the electoral argument.
The health care bill was on the ballot in 2012. The President who ran
on it and signed it was reelected by a wide margin. Every single
Senator in this Chamber who supported it was returned to their seat.
Tea party Republicans have lost the argument on health care in all
three of the traditional forums by which one would get their way in the
legislative process--the legislative forum, judicial forum, and the
electoral forum.
Just as a criminal fleeing the scene of a crime, they have been
confronted with a last desperate option, which is to grab hold of the
economy, put a gun to its head, and hope then that Democrats and
President Obama will relent simply because of our compassion for people
like Rich in New London, Kathi in New Hartford, Don in Putnam, the
seniors who rely on Interfaith Caregivers in New Haven, and the young
IRS attorney with a disabled daughter. They hope it will be our passion
for those people which will cause us to do something other than what
the people sent us to do and repeal, delay, or displace the health care
law.
The good news is cooler heads are prevailing, that people do see--in
this Chamber at least--the need to let go of the hostage. Two weeks
into the shutdown, the cumulative economic effects on the economy are
real. Those stories I told from Connecticut can now be multiplied
thousands of times, tens of thousands of times.
The House looks as if they are going to try to pass another partisan
political bill loaded with add-ons as conditions to restart the
government and pay our bills. The Senate is working on a different
solution, a solution that could bring together Republicans and
Democrats to at least temporarily end this crisis. On behalf of my
constituents in Connecticut, we certainly hope that is the result.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I am very pleased to follow my colleague from
Connecticut in recounting to this body some of the voices we have been
hearing from across our State, some of the individuals whose stories
make very compelling evidence for the need of this body to heed the
bipartisan spirit--indeed, nonpartisan spirit that so animates and
moves this country--to demand that we get the job done yesterday. I
used exactly that expression to tell this body how important action is
to move forward.
I am on the floor today with thanks to our majority leader Senator
Reid, who has come to the floor and has so ably and courageously led
us, not only on the Democratic side but also on the minority side as
well. I hope we will demonstrate in this body the profile in courage
the country expects and needs from us at this time.
I yield to the majority leader at this time if he has a message to
bring to us.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Mr. REID. I appreciate my friend's always courteous attitude. I
appreciate it very much.
The House Republican leadership plan that is now out--and people may
look at it--is a plan to advance an extreme piece of legislation and is
nothing more than a blatant attack on bipartisanship.
The past several days we have been engaged in productive bipartisan
negotiations in the Senate. Everyone knows this. We have been working
across party lines and making steady progress to achieve an agreement
that reopens the government, protects the full faith and credit of our
country, and opens talks to put this country on a firm fiscal footing.
Everyone needs to know that the measure under discussion in the House
is no part of what we have negotiated in the Senate.
The debt is here. The deadline is looming. Rating agencies are
talking about downgrading us as early as tonight, again.
I know I speak for many of us. We have been working in good faith
when I say that we felt blindsided by news from the House, but this
isn't the first
[[Page S7481]]
time. Extremist Republicans in the House of Representatives are
attempting to torpedo the Senate's bipartisan progress with a bill that
can't pass the Senate--can't pass the Senate and won't pass the Senate.
The House measure would take away the President's fundamental
authority that has been in existence for as long as political science
can remember. It has been in place for decade after decade after decade
to prevent a catastrophic default on the Nation's bills. Out of spite,
tea party Republicans are trying to take authority away from President
Obama. They would never, ever consider doing this if it were President
Romney, President Bush, President Bush, or President Reagan. Never.
As they have said--and they have cheered on the other side--the
government is closed. We don't mind defaulting on the debt. It is good
for the country. That is what they have said.
Their legislation would also make unacceptable major changes to
ObamaCare. The House legislation doesn't even include a process for
bipartisan negotiation on a sensible long-term budget. They throw out
these numbers, think magic is going to happen, and somehow when January
15 arrives, everything will be hunky-dory. There are still processes we
have to follow. They set no pattern, no schedule, no routine to do
that.
For weeks Republicans have claimed they want to negotiate, but their
legislation completely ignores the need to work together, craft a
budget, and put our country on a fiscally sustainable path.
For years they have complained about why don't we have regular order
here. They complained about lack of a budget. Now they don't even want
us to negotiate a budget. It is hard to comprehend this logic, but the
tea-party-driven part of the Republican Party doesn't follow logic. Why
would they want to close the government for 15 days, have us default on
our debt?
Introduction of this measure by House Republican leadership is
unproductive and a waste of time. Let us be clear: The House
legislation will not pass the Senate.
This is what the White House said only a few minutes ago:
The President has said repeatedly that members of Congress
don't get to demand ransom for fulfilling their basic
responsibilities to pass a budget and pay the nation's bills.
Unfortunately, the latest proposal from House Republicans
does just that in a partisan attempt to appease a small group
of Tea Party Republicans who forced the government shutdown
in the first place.
I am very disappointed with John Boehner, who once again would try to
preserve his role at the expense of the country.
I have worked hard to rise above bipartisanship and find common
ground in the Senate. We have done that together for the good of the
Nation. This is much bigger than the presiding Senator, who is from the
State of Hawaii, or the assistant leader, who is at my side. This is
much bigger than that. It is much bigger than me, it is much bigger
than the two Senators on the floor who are from Connecticut. We have
Senator Murray, who is chairman of the Budget Committee. It is bigger
than her. It is bigger than the senior Senator from New York, Senator
Schumer, who is on the floor.
We have to start working together as a country. This is what we have
been trying to do. This is so disappointing. On the eve of financial
destruction for this great country, this is what it is--to appease a
small group of people over there. I am so disappointed.
Mr. DURBIN. Would the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. REID. I yield to the Senator.
Mr. DURBIN. I ask the majority leader, through the Chair, one of the
key elements in this new proposal from Speaker Boehner is to diminish
this President's authority to deal with a default on our national debt.
This authority, so-called extraordinary measures or emergency measures,
gives to Presidents, going back to President Kennedy, the wherewithal
through the Treasury Department to try to avoid an economic disaster
which could impact families, businesses, jobs, and the reputation of
the United States in the world.
I ask of the majority leader, through the Chair, now that we have
seen the Republican Party bring us so close to the precipice on a
default, it is unimaginable to me that any President, including
President Obama, would surrender this authority to keep America safe in
light of this type of threat. Is this one of the key elements in terms
of the problems associated with the Boehner proposal?
Mr. REID. Mr. President, to my friend, the senior Senator from
Illinois, we have seen what has gone on these last few months, through
this whole year, with a group of people who are giving press
conferences, holding demonstrations. They want the government to stay
closed. They wanted it closed in the first place.
The hardship we have over this country is awful. If that is not good
enough, they are boasting they want the country to fail its obligations
to pay its bills.
These are not new programs. These are obligations we have. That is
one of the problems. The proposal they have would not allow--for
example, my friend is the chair of what some say is the most important
part of the Federal Government, to protect the safety and security of
the United States, the subcommittee dealing with defense that was led
many decades by Senator Dan Inouye. The proposal they have sent gives
the President of the United States, the Chairman of the Chiefs of
Staff, no flexibility whatsoever when sequestration kicks in on the
15th.
We are not asking to change those numbers. We agreed to those
numbers. We voted to approve those numbers, but they won't even allow
flexibility to allow the Department of Defense to shift that money
around. I do not know how the defense of this country can go forward if
they don't have flexibility with losing $22 billion beginning January
15. They don't even give authority for that.
The bill they are sending over is doomed to failure. It is doomed to
failure legislatively and it is so awful for our country.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I would like to underscore for a brief
moment what our leader has said: Default would be devastating to this
country. Closing the government is awful for our country. Yesterday we
all saw for the first time, after the government has been closed for
too many days, when we are on the eve of default, some real progress--
Leader Reid and Leader McConnell coming together on the outlines of a
plan which made a great deal of sense, where each side had to give but
could accept. And all of a sudden at the last minute, as the locomotive
to avoid default is heading down the tracks and getting some steam,
Speaker Boehner throws a log on the path. This is wrong.
He knows his proposal--we don't even know what it is yet. They have
to tweak it probably to try to appease the hard right. But he knows his
proposal with the measures in it already that have leaked out would not
be signed by the President or pass the Senate. So instead of doing the
right thing, looking at the Senate bipartisan proposal and moving
forward on that, Speaker Boehner decides to light a match and throw it
on the gasoline that is already all over the place. I hope he will
desist.
We all have seen that the House can't lead in this regard. They can
pass a lot of one-House bills, but they can't get anything done. Let
him desist. Let him defer to the Democratic and Republican leaders here
in this body so we can avoid default, open the government, and get back
to America's business.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, let me add my voice to the eloquent
and powerful remarks made by our majority leader and the Senator from
New York, who have rightly deemed this House proposal an obstacle--
indeed, an obstructionist move--designed to perpetuate and not end the
shutdown, and to block and not enable our efforts to reach a bipartisan
compromise which would allow America to continue paying its bills on
time.
Those two goals--ending the shutdown and enabling America to pay its
bills on time--are the predominant objectives we must have as a
bipartisan effort goes forward here in the Senate. This House proposal
is doomed to failure. It would be a failure not just for
[[Page S7482]]
the legislative process, not for the political actors here, but a
failure for America.
I am reminded of the remarks so well made more than 10 days ago by
the majority leader about one aspect of the effects of this shutdown on
an industry very important to his State of Nevada and very important to
the Presiding Officer's State of Hawaii--the tourism, lodging, and
hotel industry. That impact is devastating.
As their Senator, I have heard this morning from staff and employees
of the Starwood Hotels based in Stamford, CT, who have written to
Members of Congress about the effects they see to their company and to
others like theirs in this industry--hotel and tourism--which is vital
to the State of Connecticut. In fact, we invest constructively and
positively in promoting our State's tourism industry.
I will read from a letter from Amy Kilbury, associate director of IT
finance at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide:
The current impasse, now in its third week, is having a
negative impact both on the economy in general, and
specifically on the travel and tourism industry, which
depends on the confidence of business and individuals on the
future stability of the economy. The shutdown is having
ripple effects; as federal agencies have reduced their
operations so have private government contractors, and in
turn, this is affecting both business and leisure travel.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this letter,
and a letter written by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Starwood Hotels &
Resorts Worldwide, Inc.,
Stamford, CT.
Dear Representative Himes, Senator Murphy, and Senator
Blumenthal: I am the Associate Director of IT Finance at
Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which has its headquarters in
Stamford, CT. I wish to express my concern over the impasse
in government funding and the impending risk that the United
States could default on its obligations, and to urge you to
work with your colleagues to forge a bipartisan compromise to
reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.
The current impasse, now in its third week, is having a
negative impact both on the economy in general, and
specifically on the travel and tourism industry, which
depends on the confidence of business and individuals on the
future stability of the economy. The shutdown is having
ripple effects; as federal agencies have reduced their
operations so have private government contractors, and in
turn, this is affecting both business and leisure travel.
There is no question that the future health of the American
economy depends on policies that will restore robust economic
growth and job creation while gradually reducing debt, and I
know that you are committed to those objectives. The
government shutdown, however, and even the threat of default,
will only slow the economy down and jeopardize efforts to
achieve a lasting economic recovery.
The next few days are very important and I hope that you
will make a major contribution towards reaching a positive
compromise that will move this Nation forward. You have my
best wishes as you deal with the awesome challenges ahead.
Regards,
Amy Kilbury,
Assoc. Director, IT Finance.
____
American Hotel &
Lodging Association,
Washington, DC, October 10, 2013.
President Barack Obama,
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives,
Members of the U.S. Senate.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and our
members in every state and congressional district
respectfully urge Congress and the President to reach an
immediate agreement to fund the government and establish a
degree of economic certainty to allow for continued growth.
Equally important is the looming breach of the debt limit
and the need to come together on a plan to address our long-
term fiscal challenges. Current fiscal uncertainty and the
increasing lack of consumer confidence are disrupting recent
economic progress and job creation, in which the lodging
industry has played a significant role.
Analysts say that for each day the federal government is
shut down, collective American income is reduced
approximately $200 million, and our nation's hotels are
losing more than $8 million in economic activity--putting
jobs at risk and causing repercussions across many other
related sectors. Communities near national parks are expected
to lose $76 million a day in visitor spending. In Yosemite
National Park, for example, lodges and cabins scheduled to be
filled to near capacity are instead giving thousands of
visitors 48 hours to leave. Additionally, thousands who had
planned to visit national parks are cancelling their trips
and hotel reservations. Stories continue to pour in from
AH&LA members about how their businesses are being negatively
affected.
The impacts extend far beyond our national treasures.
Hoteliers with international travelers have experienced a
significant increase in cancellations because these visitors
are confused on whether they will be able to enter and leave
normally. Our members in northern states receive calls daily
from Canadians checking to see if the border is open.
Current fiscal conditions are leading to increased consumer
uncertainty, all to the detriment of economic growth. In
short, the government shutdown is increasingly impairing the
lodging industry's ability to hire, grow, and contribute to
the economy.
It is imperative that Congress and the President act now to
address the fast-approaching deadline to raise the U.S. debt
limit, or else risk default and further economic damage.
Acting to put the debt on a downward path into the future and
addressing our long-term fiscal challenges are imperative to
stronger consumer confidence, future job growth, and our
nation's standing throughout the world. The lodging industry
will continue to be a leader in U.S. economic growth if our
leaders can provide fiscal certainty.
AH&LA and our members thank you for your efforts to address
these critically important issues.
American Hotel & Lodging Association; America's Best
Franchising, Inc.; Arizona Lodging & Tourism Association;
Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA); Association
of Starwood Franchisees & Owners--North America (ASFONA);
Best Western International; Bev Kaftan, American Payment
Solutions, Mesa, AZ; Brian Latture, The Hotel Group,
Franklin, TN; California Hotel & Lodging Association; Carlson
Rezidor Hotel Group; Catherine DeVane, The Hotel Group,
Franklin, TN; Chandler Wiens-Thayer, RHW Management, Overland
Park, KS; Choice Hotels International; Chuck Donnelly, The
Lodge at Mountaineer Square and The Grand Lodge, Gunnison
County, CO; Colette Wear, Country Inn & Suites By Carlson,
Lincoln, NE; Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association; Cortney
Damiano, Best Western Plus, Olive Branch, MS; Delaware Hotel
& Lodging Association; Douglas Dreher, The Hotel Group,
Edmonds, WA; Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association;
Georgia Hotel & Lodging Association; Hilton Worldwide; Host
Hotels & Resorts.
Hotel Association of Washington, D.C.; Hyatt Hotels and
Resorts; IHG Owners Association; InterContinental Hotels
Group; Jeff Gouge, The Arctic Club Seattle, Seattle, WA
98104; Jeffrey T. Kmiec, The Greenbrier, White Sulphur
Springs, WV; Jim Abrahamson, Interstate Hotels & Resorts,
Arlington, VA; Joe Martin, Stillwater Hospitality,
Stillwater, OK; John Shingler, President, Association of
Starwood Franchisees & Owners; Josh Messer, Hilton Garden
Inn--Eugene / Springfield, Springfield, OR; La Quinta Inns &
Suites; Lara Latture, The Hotel Group, Franklin, TN; LaSalle
Hotel Properties; Laurel Gaylor, La Quinta Inn & Suites Red
Rock/Summerlin, Las Vegas, NV; Liban Abdi, Holiday Inn
Express on the River, Corvallis, OR; Loews Hotels; Maine
Innkeepers Association; Mark G. Carrier, B.F. Saul Company
Hospitality Group, Bethesda, MD; Marriott International,
Inc.; Massachusetts Lodging Association; Michigan Lodging and
Tourism Association; Montana Lodging & Hospitality
Association; New York State Hospitality & Tourism
Association.
NewcrestImage; Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association; Oklahoma
Hotel & Lodging Association; Opal Wedgewood, The Hotel Group,
Franklin, TN; Paresh (Perry) Patel, MRPC Hotels, Newark, DE;
Pedro Mandoki, Mandoki Hospitality Group, Gulf Shores, AL;
Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association; Rhode Island
Hospitality Association; Robert A. Alter, Seaview Investors,
Corona Del Mar, CA; Ruby Goodwin, Pacific Palms Resort, City
of Industry, CA; Sam Patel, Best Western Mountain View Inn,
Springville, Utah; Shannon E. Johnson, Plaza Inn and Suites
at Ashland Creek, Ashland, OR; Sonny Sailesh Babu, Atlantic
Hotels Management, Carrollton, TX; South Carolina Restaurant
& Lodging Association; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide;
Steven Cooke, American Public University, Charles Town, WV;
Tabitha Caldwell, The Hotel Group, Edmonds, WA; Tennessee
Hospitality Association; Texas Hotel & Lodging Association;
Toma G Brashear, Lanier Parking Solutions, Atlanta, GA;
Warren Klug, Aspen Square Hotel, Aspen, CO; William Folkerts,
Quality Inn & Suites, Watertown, SD; Wisconsin Hotel &
Lodging Association.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. These Starwood employees are writing to their
Senators and Members of Congress because they see firsthand the effects
on their livelihood and their lives. The stories recounted earlier by
my colleague from Connecticut and those I recited yesterday on the
floor are real effects in the lives of real people, negative and
painful--indeed, devastating effects on people who depend on the
economic flow of certain and stable work by the government,
contractors, and small and large businesses like Starwood that are
affected.
There is no question the future health of the American economy
depends on the policies we need to adopt
[[Page S7483]]
and advance to sustain economic growth--indeed, to make it more robust
to preserve job creation and, in fact, heighten and enhance it, and to
make sure that these employees of Starwood are well served, not
impeded, by the government they supported with their taxes and they
elected with their votes. We have an obligation to them to do better
than we have.
I was deeply moved by the story recounted by Senator Durbin a short
time ago on the floor about a young Iraq veteran more severely wounded
than the ones I recounted yesterday. But he is a veteran like the
individuals whose stories I told yesterday. They deserve better from
our government. Indeed, they deserve an end to the kind of
obstructionism we saw just a short time ago on the other side of this
Congress, in the other branch of this legislative body, from Members of
the House of Representatives who know the proposal they are making has
no chance of adoption by the deadline we need to meet to make sure that
the greatest Nation in the history of the world avoids default and
continues to pay its bills on time.
The CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which
represents Starwood, Katherine Lugar, said: Hotels are a major economic
driver and job creator across the country, and the industry's ability
to continue its growth is hamstrung by inaction from our policy
members. The administration, the House of Representatives, and the
Senate need to act swiftly in the best interests of the entire Nation
and end this shutdown. Pay our bills on time.
That has been the objective of my colleagues on this side of the
aisle and on the other side, like Senator McCain who has just come to
the floor. That bipartisan effort has to be our objective. We need to
do better for the American people and meet the obligations we now have.
As chairman of the subcommittee which has jurisdiction over the hotel
and lodging industry, the commerce committee, we are hearing about how
States such as Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada, as well as Connecticut, are
losing millions of dollars every day in economic activity. In fact, the
Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut is harmed, along with
the Grand Canyon, and all the communities and industries associated
with it. These issues are real and tangible. The harm is now and
urgent.
I urge my colleagues to come together and resist the pressures and
demonstrate the kinds of profiles of courage we have seen on both sides
of the aisle--standing strong, speaking out, resisting partisanship--
and coming together for the good of the country.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Connecticut.
In the last 24 hours a lot has been taking place. A tentative
agreement has been reached between both Republican and Democratic
leaders. The Speaker of the House has come forward with what we believe
is a plan which would reopen the government, extend the debt limit, and
has several other provisions in it.
The reaction to that has been immediate automatic condemnation by the
majority leader, by the White House, and by Democrats in the House,
absolutely rejecting this proposal.
I don't understand that. I don't understand that visceral reaction in
a most negative fashion. Why don't we try something like we used to do
around this place? Why don't we say: You have a proposal to open the
government; we have a proposal to open the government. Let's both pass;
let's go to conference--which we could do in 24 hours--and resolve our
differences.
I understand what the polling data says, that 74 percent of the
American people disapprove of the Republican handling of this issue.
And I agree. Some of us at the beginning said we are going on a fool's
errand to believe we will be able to defund ObamaCare. We got ourselves
in a ditch, and we have to stop digging. That is well understood here
by certainly the overwhelming majority of my Republican colleagues. But
for the majority leader and the Democrats in the House and the White
House to say absolutely, categorically, we will not consider what the
Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing, in my view is
piling on. It is piling on and it is not right.
I urge my Democrat colleagues: Let's sit down and work this out. We
have a proposal from the House. We have a proposal between the two
leaders. Let's get this resolved. To categorically reject what the
House of Representatives and the Speaker is doing--and I think he is
pretty courageous in what he is doing--in my view is not serving the
American people.
So let's stop this. Let's stop it, sit down, consider the Speaker's
proposal, get our proposal done, and then get this resolved, which we
could do in the next 24 hours.
I came to the floor to express my disappointment in the categorical
rejection of a good-faith effort by the Speaker of the House--which
doesn't contain all the provisions I want. I am sure the agreement made
by both the Senate majority and Republican leaders will not be
everything I want. Let's stop the condemnation. Let's consider the
Republican House proposal as a serious proposal, as a way to end this
gridlock, and then let's sit down together and get this thing done.
I again urge my Democratic colleagues. We know you have the upper
hand. Isn't it time we help find a way out of this--which is what the
American people want--rather than who won and who lost. The only people
losing right now are the people of this country. As I have mentioned a
couple times before, Al Qaeda is not in shutdown.
I urge my Democratic colleagues and the White House to reconsider
their categorical rejection of any proposal from the House of
Representatives.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Heitkamp). The Senator from Florida.
Iran
Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, clearly the issue we are facing with
regard to the budget, ObamaCare, the debt ceiling is a very important
issue. In the hours and days to come I will have a lot more to say
about it. I waited over the last few days, because of the urgency that
confronts us domestically, to reserve my comments on the issue of Iran.
At this point I believed I could no longer wait to speak out on it, so
if my colleagues can indulge me for a few moments, I wish to talk about
it because, as serious as the domestic challenge may be with regard to
the budget, the spending, the debt limit, ObamaCare, we have another
crisis brewing, one that goes to our national security interests, one
that quite frankly for the most part unites us across the aisle; that
is, the issue and the threat Iran's nuclear ambitions pose to the
world.
The reason I believed I could no longer wait to address this is
because I believe, as many of you do, that the world is entering a
crucial time in the international efforts to stop Iran's nuclear
program. On September 24 of this year, I, along with a group of other
Senators, wrote to the President and we expressed our concerns about
reports that the administration was contemplating making a fresh, new
offer, fresh new series of offers to Iran. In that letter, we said Iran
must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon; that is, if, God
forbid, it becomes necessary, we could support the use of military
force to prevent an Iranian bomb and that Iran must not be allowed to
maintain any indigenous enrichment capability; and that now is not the
time to suspend sanctions but to increase them on the Iranian regime.
All of us would like to wake tomorrow to the news that the Ayatollah
has decided to abandon his nuclear weapons ambitions, but it is
especially imperative on matters of national security that we not be
guided simply by our hopes. We must be guided by reality. This is true
in life in general, but it is especially true and important on issues
of national security that we be guided by reality. That reality is that
no matter how much Iran's political leaders say they do not have plans
for a nuclear weapon, their actions say something else. They have
dramatically increased their ability to enrich uranium and they
continue to spend millions of dollars to expand their nuclear program
and to develop long-range missiles which threaten not just Israel and
Europe but eventually the United States.
[[Page S7484]]
The only reason you put so much money and time into developing long-
range missiles is to put a nuclear weapon on them. That is what they
have been doing. They have been developing this missile capability.
Recently, we heard all this new talk about there is a new President
in Iran and he might be a reformer. We hope so. But this is also the
same person who in the past has bragged about how he has fooled the
world before and bought time for Iran's enrichment capacity to
increase. In the end, by the way, even if he is a reformer, he is not
the ultimate decisionmaker, nor is the Foreign Minister or any of these
other civilians in their government. The ultimate decisionmaker is
Iran's so-called Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. So far no one has accused
him of being a reformer.
Iran's leaders are making noises about negotiating with the world now
because over the last few years the United States and the European
Union have imposed very significant sanctions on Iran and these
sanctions are starting to hurt the Iranian regime. It is hurting,
although it has not stopped, their ability to export terrorism around
the world. It is hurting, although it has not stopped, their ability to
buy parts for their nuclear program and for their missile program.
Do you want to understand why they are doing all this now, what their
plan is? It is not that hard to understand. What they are trying to do,
they are trying to get us and the world to agree to weaken the
sanctions without them having to agree to any concessions that are
irreversible, to any concessions that irreversibly block their ability
to one day build that weapon. This ambition of theirs, this plan they
have is clear as day. They are trying to figure out if they can get
these sanctions suspended or lifted without giving up too much. Then at
some point in the future, when the world has moved on, when we are
focused on other things, they can then make their move to build their
bomb.
By the way, this is the model North Korea employed over a decade ago.
They used a combination of belligerence and pretended negotiations to
buy the time and the space. Now they are a nuclear power and they
continue to develop their rocket technology--which does not just
threaten South Korea and Japan but the west coast of the United States
and potentially one day the entire country, our entire country.
This is why, as these talks between the so-called P5+1 group of
nations and Iran restarted, we are at a critical juncture. We should
talk to Iran. We should see if they are serious. But we cannot, under
any circumstances, put at risk the hard-earned leverage that took so
long to put in place and assemble.
First, we need to remember whom we are dealing with. We are talking
about a regime that has earned the distrust of the entire world through
its secret nuclear program, a regime that admits foul play only when
they are caught red-handed, a regime that supports terrorism, killing
of Americans, and has an active hand in fueling conflicts that
destabilize its neighbors. This is a regime that brutalizes its own
people and denies them their basic freedoms. This is the regime, by the
way, that plotted to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in this city, in
Washington DC.
Given this record, the erosion of trust in Tehran is simply too
great, so the United States must look long and hard at what Iranian
actions could qualify as what the administration likes to call credible
confidence-building measures.
I say this because of whom we are dealing with. Sanctions on Iran
should not be lifted or suspended until they agree to completely
abandon any capability for enrichment or reprocessing. Iran has a right
to a peaceful civilian nuclear energy program. But they do not have the
right to enrich or reprocess. Holding this line is especially important
in light of Iran's repeated and blatant disregard for international
obligations in the past and even to this day.
Even a limited enrichment program and possession of sensitive
reprocessing technologies is unacceptable because of the risk that such
a program would once again be abused by Iran in the future for
nefarious and dangerous purposes. Suspending sanctions before Iran not
just suspends but abandons enrichment would give the Iranian regime
exactly what they want, an eventual path to a nuclear weapon. Sanctions
relief at this time would allow them to make advances on their broader
strategic objectives in their region such as propping up the Assad
regime in Syria, such as continuing to destabilize Iraq, such as
supporting terrorist groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
We cannot allow the No. 1 exporter of terrorism in the world this
opportunity. Until Iran agrees to abandon enrichment and reprocessing,
not only should we keep the current sanctions but the Congress should
move to implement a new round of additional sanctions without delay. I
would say that at some point Congress should consider making it very
clear that if it becomes necessary, the President of the United States
should reserve the right to take military action to prevent Iran from
continuing to advance its nuclear weapons program.
The United States and the international community have succeeded in
bringing Iran to the negotiating table through firm action, not through
half measures. Personally, I hope, as do all of my colleagues, that
there is a diplomatic solution to this problem. But Iran does not have
forever to prove they are serious. We cannot allow them to use these
talks to continue to buy time and space as they have for the last
decade, as North Korea did before them, to buy time and space so they
can continue to develop their nuclear weapons capability. We cannot
allow them to use these talks to continue to spread terror, to
undermine their neighbors, and to threaten our country or our allies in
Israel and around the world.
We cannot fall into their trap. Yes, we should be willing to talk.
But talk alone should not slow down our actions. Until they act, we
should continue to increase pressure and speak forcefully about what
these people sitting across from us have done internationally and to
their own people; otherwise, I truly believe at some point in the
future we are going to awake to the news that Iran has tested a nuclear
weapon and we may find ourselves stuck with the reality that they have
the ability to put that weapon on a missile that can reach the United
States. If that day should ever come, God help us all.
I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. NELSON. Madam President, you know when you are driving along and
your children keep asking you, are we there yet? Are we there yet? That
is an appropriate question. I would have thought we were there--until
now. We heard about the agreement that was hammered out between the two
leaders in the Senate and now all kinds of changes wanting to be made
in the House of Representatives. The countdown clock is ticking. The
ominous sounds of default are being heard. The stock market, the New
York Exchange, has reacted accordingly. Up on Friday, up again a little
bit yesterday on the hopes, but today with the new news, down--not a
huge amount but a significant amount.
It is reflective of this emotional roller coaster of what is at
stake, which is the financial integrity of this country.
Enough is enough. The ridiculousness ought to stop. Let's go back and
look where we have been over the course of the last 2 weeks.
All of this started with a shutdown of the Federal Government, of
which there are untold stories of hardship and deprivation that are
going on. That ought to be enough to spur people to action to stop the
shutdown. What did the shutdown start with? It started because a small
group in the House, maybe folks who would affiliate with the tea party,
decided they want to take away the funding for the health care reform
act, the Affordable Care Act. As a result, they forced this shutdown.
In the course of the last 2 weeks, about 1 week goes by and that
crowd sees this is not working and so they
[[Page S7485]]
shift then their attacks to one of overall spending. But still today,
with the two leaders in the Senate having basically come to an
agreement, the House of Representatives is going back to the Affordable
Care Act and wanting to extract additional things. And all the time the
clock is ticking toward not only not being able to bring government
back so it can function--stopping the shutdown--but also the potential
default that is looming.
I really believe and I understand what the people in my State of
Florida feel. They are fed up with this. It is so ridiculous. Yet that
is what our politics has come to. The small group in the House of
Representatives better start understanding that.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HEINRICH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection and so ordered.
____________________