[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 160 (Tuesday, November 12, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7937-S7939]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DRUG QUALITY AND SECURITY ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 236, H.R. 
3204, the drug compounding legislation.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to the bill (H.R. 3204) to amend the 
     Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to human 
     drug compounding and drug supply chain security, and for 
     other purposes.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader remarks the Senate will be 
in a period of morning business until 4:30 p.m. At 4:30 p.m. the Senate 
will proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of 
Cornelia Pillard to be U.S. circuit judge for the District of Columbia 
Circuit. At 5:30 p.m. there will be a cloture vote on the Pillard 
nomination. If cloture is not invoked, there will be a second cloture 
vote on the motion to proceed to the drug compounding bill.


                Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 1661

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am told S. 1661 is due for a second 
reading.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will read the bill by title for 
the second time.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1661) to require the Secretary of State to offer 
     rewards of up to $5,000,000 for information regarding the 
     attacks on the United States diplomatic mission at Benghazi, 
     Libya that began on September 11, 2012.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would object to any further proceedings 
with respect to this legislation.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard. The bill will be 
placed on the calendar.


                    Condolences to the Inhofe Family

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I extend my condolences to Jim Inhofe, the 
senior Senator from Oklahoma, and his wife Kay on the loss of their son 
Perry. The entire Senate family was saddened to hear of Dr. Inhofe's 
death. He was a young man, 52 years of age, killed in a plane crash 
early Sunday.
  Flying airplanes is in the blood of Jim Inhofe and his family. I 
truly care a lot about Jim Inhofe. He and I are unquestionably friends. 
We may not agree on all political issues, but we agree we are friends.
  I have had the good fortune of working to get to know this good man. 
I have helped him when I could, and he has helped me when he could. We 
are able to put all the disagreements to one side and look at each 
other for what we are outside of our politics.
  I have confidence that he is going to do well. He is a man of great 
faith, and I feel comfortable that he will be able to work his way 
through this loss.
  (Ms. BALDWIN assumed the Chair.)


                            Filipino Typhoon

  Madam President, my heart also goes out to the residents of the 
Philippines who were drastically affected by this terrible storm that 
hit one or two or three of their islands over the weekend. The 
Philippines has 7,000 islands.
  The heavily populated area of Manila was not hit--at least not very 
badly. We know there are thousands of Filipinos dead and missing. 
Relief and construction efforts will be long and difficult. My thoughts 
are with the approximately 3\1/2\ million Filipino Americans who are 
living with us--including in Nevada about 100,000 Filipino Americans. 
They are involved in so many important endeavors, such as the health 
care field, business field, and hotel business.
  They may not have lost family members, but they are a community that 
is concerned with what is going on in the Philippines. I was happy to 
hear the administration has already moved in with support and aid for 
this beleaguered nation.


                            DC Circuit Court

  Madam President, later today we are going to again attempt to break a 
filibuster on the highly qualified person who has been asked by the 
President to serve on the DC Circuit. It is often said the DC Circuit 
is the second highest court in the land after the Supreme Court, and 
that is true. It is unfortunate the Republicans have chosen to 
filibuster a nomination of yet another talented female jurist and 
dedicated public servant to fill a vacant seat on this court.
  The nominee, Georgetown law professor Nina Pillard, has argued nine

[[Page S7938]]

cases before the Supreme Court and briefed more than a score of cases. 
In one case she argued before the Supreme Court, it involved a male 
employee of the State of Nevada who was fired after taking unpaid leave 
to care for his wife who was sick. It was an important case, a landmark 
case. The Court ruled 6 to 3 in favor of her client, upholding an 
important protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
  Support for Professor Pillard's nomination is bipartisan--at least 
outside the Senate. Yet Senate Republicans seem poised to block 
confirmation of this eminently qualified woman for a blatantly 
political reason: deny President Obama his constitutional right to 
appoint judges.
  The DC Circuit is currently operating with a very bad ratio. We have 
three vacancies on this very important court. For the Republicans to 
now claim we don't need 11 judges is a little strange because that is 
not what they said when President Bush was President. When he needed 
these vacancies filled, they were filled. They happily filled the 9th, 
10th, and 11th seats on the DC Circuit--the same three seats President 
Obama seeks to fill--even though the court had a significantly smaller 
caseload at the time. The Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was 
one of the judges confirmed to the DC Circuit during George Bush's 
Presidency.
  Since a Democrat was elected to the White House, Republicans have 
blocked two exceedingly qualified female nominees to the DC Circuit, 
Caitlin Halligan and Patricia Millett. In the last 19 years, five men 
have been confirmed to the DC Circuit and one woman.
  Today the Senate has an opportunity to help shape a court that better 
reflects our country, so I hope they will not block another qualified 
female nominee for nakedly partisan reasons. The least Senate 
Republicans owe Professor Pillard is the same fair confirmation process 
Chief Justice Roberts enjoyed when he was nominated to the DC Circuit.


                            Drug Compounding

  Madam President, should Republicans block her confirmation, as I fear 
they will, the Senate will then vote on cloture on the motion to 
proceed to a bill to enhance safeguards at compounding pharmacies which 
create custom-tailored medication for patients with unique health 
needs.
  This bipartisan legislation will ensure drugs manufactured in 
factories and mixed in pharmacies across the country are safe for 
consumers. The measure will also implement tracking of medicines from 
the factory to the drug store itself.
  Last year unsanitary conditions at a compounding pharmacy led to a 
fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people and very badly 
sickened more than 750 others. Contaminated medicine mixed at that 
pharmacy was sent to 75 medical facilities in 23 States and given to 
14,000 patients. The facility in question was actually skirting 
existing law and acting as a large-scale drug manufacturer rather than 
creating custom medications for individuals using products manufactured 
by other companies.
  By avoiding stricter regulations on drug manufacturers, companies 
such as this one boost their profits by putting patients at risk. This 
legislation will end this dangerous practice and ensure that drugs 
manufactured and mixed in America are completely safe from the assembly 
line to the drug store.
  This bill could pass the Senate right now, but it has been stalled by 
Republicans for more than 1 month. This legislation truly is a matter 
of life and death.


                         Defense Authorization

  Madam President, we must finish this legislation quickly so we can 
wrap up consideration of the crucial Defense authorization bill before 
Thanksgiving.
  I put Senators on notice last week and the week before that we are 
going to do whatever it takes to accomplish exactly that in order to 
finish this bill--even if it means working this coming weekend and 
hopefully not the next weekend but possibly that too.
  Further, we must ensure that debate on the Defense authorization bill 
is about our Nation's defense and not extraneous issues. No Senators 
should be allowed to jump the line and get a vote on his or her own 
amendment by threatening delay action on the underlying bill, nor 
should the Senate waste time debating amendments that are not relevant 
to defense.
  This measure ensures the safety of this Nation and is dedicated to 
servicemembers, and it is more important than any one Senator's or 
Senators' parochial or political pet issues.
  I note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader is recognized.


                   Heartfelt Sympathy to the Inhofes

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I will start with a word of sympathy 
about the heartbreaking loss of Perry Inhofe, the son of our colleague, 
Jim Inhofe, killed in a plane crash on Sunday. Of course, we are all 
thinking of Jim and Kay, and the heartfelt prayers of the entire Senate 
family are with them and the entire Inhofe family at this very, very 
difficult time.


                               DC Circuit

  Madam President, despite the repeated promises of President Obama, 
millions of people are losing their health insurance--health insurance 
they very much liked and were assured they could keep. It has been 
reported that so far 3.5 million Americans have lost their health 
insurance under ObamaCare. That includes over a quarter of a million in 
my State of Kentucky, a third of a million in Florida, and almost a 
million people in California.
  This is a serious problem the President and congressional Democrats 
need to do something about. The obvious answer is repeal, but in the 
meantime the legislation offered by Senator Ron Johnson would help 
Americans keep the plans they have and like. If the President and 
Senate Democrats are serious about helping the millions of Americans 
who have unexpectedly lost their insurance over the past several weeks, 
then they should support it.
  Unfortunately, they appear ready to ignore the problem. Rather than 
focusing on keeping their commitment to the American people, they are 
focusing on issues that appeal to their base. Rather than change the 
law that is causing so many problems for so many, they want to change 
the subject.
  According to a recent press report, our Democratic friends want to 
divert as much attention as possible away from the problem-plagued 
ObamaCare rollout at this formative stage of the 2014 campaign, which 
brings us to the vote we are going to have later today.
  We will not be voting on legislation to allow Americans to keep their 
health insurance if they like it, as they were promised again and 
again; rather, we will be voting on a nominee to a court that doesn't 
have enough work to do. A court that is so underworked, it regularly 
cancels oral argument days. It is a court whose judges tell us that if 
any more judges were put on the court, there wouldn't be enough work to 
go around. It is a court that is less busy now than it was when Senate 
Democrats pocket-filibustered President Bush's nominee to the court, 
Peter Keisler, for 2 whole years--2 long years. And it is less busy 
based upon the very standards Democrats themselves set forth when they 
blocked Mr. Keisler's nomination for 2 years. By the way, it is also 
less busy now than it was then, according to an analysis provided by 
the chief judge of that court.
  The Senate ought to be spending its time dealing with a real crisis, 
not a manufactured one. We ought to be dealing with an ill-conceived 
law that is causing millions of Americans to lose their health 
insurance. Instead, we will spend our time today on a political 
exercise designed to distract the American people from the mess that is 
ObamaCare rather than trying to fix it.
  If our Democratic colleagues are going to ignore the fact that 
millions of people are losing their health insurance plans, they should 
at least be working with us to fill judicial emergencies that actually 
exist rather than complaining about fake ones. There are nominees on 
the Executive Calendar who would fill actual judicial emergencies, 
unlike the Pillard nomination.

[[Page S7939]]

Some of them, in fact, have been pending on the calendar longer than 
the Pillard nomination. But rather than work with us to schedule votes 
on those nominations in an orderly manner, as we have been doing all 
year long, the majority prefers to concoct a crisis on the DC Circuit 
so it can try to distract the American people from the failings of 
ObamaCare.
  Unfortunately, our friends appear to be more concerned with playing 
politics than actually solving real problems. So I will be voting no on 
this afternoon's political exercise. I hope the Senate in the future 
will focus on what the American people care about rather than spend its 
time trying to distract them.


                 Congratulating Archbishop Joseph Kurtz

  Finally, I congratulate Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the Catholic 
archbishop of Louisville, on his election as president of the U.S. 
Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop Kurtz is not a native 
Kentuckian--he is originally from Pennsylvania--but we have adopted him 
as one of our own since he was appointed head of the Louisville 
Archdiocese in June 2007. I wish him all the best as he seeks to 
promote the church's mission in the United States.
  Congratulations.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.


                       Reservation of Leader Time

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time 
is reserved.

                          ____________________