[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 175 (Wednesday, December 11, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8608-S8609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 243, 
S. 1356.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 243, S. 1356, a bill to 
     amend the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 to strengthen the 
     United States workforce development system through innovation 
     in, and alignment and improvement of, employment, training, 
     and education programs in the United States, and to promote 
     individual and national economic growth, and for other 
     purposes.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the 
Republican leader, the Senate will resume consideration of the 
nomination of Nina Pillard to be U.S. circuit judge for the DC Circuit, 
postcloture.


                Measure Placed On The Calendar--S. 1797

  Mr. President, I am told S. 1797 is due for a second reading. Is that 
valid?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will read the bill by 
title for the second time.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1797) to provide for the extension of certain 
     unemployment benefits, and for other purposes.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with 
respect to this bill at this time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard.
  The bill will be placed on the calendar under rule XIV.


                             Senate Agenda

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I congratulate the budget negotiators on 
reaching an agreement last night to roll back the painful and arbitrary 
cuts of sequestration and prevent another dangerous government shutdown 
in the new year. Their bargain also protects Medicare and Social 
Security benefits and reduces the deficit. That is a good package.
  I commend Budget Chairman Murray and her House Republican counterpart 
Congressman Paul Ryan for their diligence and cooperative spirit which 
made this agreement possible.
  The process that led to this accord was long and very difficult. The 
Republican government shutdown--the first in 17 years--took a toll on 
our economy, on American families, and on our reputation around the 
world. It was also costly for the Federal Government in many different 
ways.
  So when Congress reached a temporary settlement that ended the 
shortsighted shutdown, Democrats were committed to ending the terrible 
cycle of lurching from crisis to crisis. But understand this: When this 
measure went to the House of Representatives--it passed here to keep 
open the government, after 16 days; to stop the government from 
defaulting on its debt for the first time in history--about 75 percent 
of the Republicans in the House voted to keep the government closed and 
to default on the debt. Think about that. So this agreement is really a 
breath of fresh air--as we have been committed to setting sound fiscal 
policy through the regular order of the budget process and not through 
hostage taking or crisis making.
  In this new agreement neither side got everything it wanted, but that 
is how it used to work around here. That is how it worked. Each side 
would move forward on what they wanted, and they would recognize--
sometimes it was soon; sometimes it was not so soon--that the only way 
to work something out was to work together. That is what happened here.
  So this is, I repeat, a breath of fresh air for the country. But I 
also hope it is a view of the future. I hope it is a view of the 
future. For example, I believe, as many Democrats do, that an extension 
of emergency unemployment insurance should be included in this package. 
I am very disappointed that the bills posted by the House last night do 
not include that. About 20,000 Nevadans who have been unemployed for 
more than 6 months--and more than a million people nationwide--will 
lose their earned unemployment benefits at the end of this year unless 
Congress acts.

  I will stand for those Americans who want to get back to work as soon 
as possible but face a market where there is only one job opening for 
every three unemployed workers. That is why we are going to push here, 
after the first of the year, for an extension of unemployment insurance 
when the Senate convenes after the New Year, as I will also work very 
hard to raise the minimum wage.
  It was stunning, Mr. President, the reports all over the national 
media today--radio, television, all the print media--that the vast 
majority of Americans believe the minimum wage should be raised to $10 
an hour. The American people believe that if someone works for 40 
hours, they should not be on the rating as being poor. They should be 
able to support themselves and their family. But that is not the way it 
is now. We need to raise the minimum wage, and there will be a 
sustained effort to do that when we come back.
  Democrats, led by Senator Murray, stood for our party's priorities--
protecting the middle class and growing the economy--but we were also 
ready and willing to compromise with our Republican counterparts. I 
admire Senator Murray for having proceeded forward along this line.
  But while both sides made concessions and sacrifices, I repeat, that 
is the nature of negotiation and the point of a conference committee: 
to work together to work out our differences. So to their credit, 
members of the conference committee considered every option, no matter 
how painful to their own political party. They rejected many. They 
rejected most. They were able to come together on enough revenue and 
enough cuts to come up with this pact that they have.
  Under the leadership of Chairman Murray, the committee crafted a 2-
year bargain that charts a course for economic growth, maintains fiscal 
responsibility, and, perhaps most importantly, averts another 
manufactured crisis that would undercut the economic progress we have 
made these last 4 years.
  So I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle and both sides of the Capitol to pass this agreement.
  Last night, we also filed--I should not say ``we''--last night, the 
House filed a bill to ensure physicians are fairly compensated so 
Medicare patients can continue to see their doctors. It would be a 
shame if Medicare patients did not have the ability to have a doctor. 
But unless we did this agreement--short term as it is--physicians would 
receive a 27-percent cut in pay. So again in the new year we are going 
to work very hard to get rid of this so-called doc fix once and for 
all. We need to fix it once and for all.
  Unfortunately, instead of beginning work on either of these things I 
have talked about, the two agreements--that is, the fix for doctors for 
Medicare patients, the budget; and the Defense bill, which I have not 
talked about, which also was posted last night in the House--
Republicans are not facing reality. They are not. You are seeing, the 
American people are seeing before their eyes the face of obstruction. 
That is what is going on right now. We are eating up days of time--
wasting hours, weeks, and days.
  We could be voting on all this stuff now, all these nominations that 
are appearing before this body now, and move on to the substantive 
issues. This is why the rules were changed, Mr. President. You can see 
it right now. We are wasting hour after hour doing nothing.
  The filibuster rule was established to get legislation passed. As it 
relates to nominations, the same thing applied: to get nominations 
processed. Our predecessors in the Senate set some rules saying that if 
cloture is invoked, the parties are entitled to some time to make their 
case before final passage or final vote on the nomination.
  So now we have a number of nominations we are processing. To show how 
shallow the Republicans' obstructionism is, they have no objections to

[[Page S8609]]

any of these nominations. Nobody comes and gives these fire-and-
brimstone speeches about how bad these people are. Why? Because they 
are not. They have just been stalling and stalling. I repeat, this is 
the face of obstruction which we have been facing for 5 years during 
the Obama administration. Is it any wonder that the rule was changed 
that relates to nominations? We were spending all of our time trying to 
get the President to have a team rather than doing work on substantive 
legislation.
  So we will see how late we have to work tonight. Whatever it is, we 
are going to do it. We are going to finish these nominations this week. 
If it goes into Friday, if it goes into Saturday, that is what we are 
going to do. We have to get this done.
  Christmas is approaching, and I understand that. We all understand 
that. But this session of Congress does not end at Christmastime. We 
have work to do. We have to pass this budget. We have to do something 
for those Medicare patients. We have to do something for the military 
of this country with this Defense agreement that has been reached 
between the leaders of those two important committees--Armed Services 
and their counterpart in the House, whatever it is called.
  So why waste this time? There is no reason to do this. Republicans 
are stalling. For what? To stop these nominations from going forward? 
They are going to go forward with a simple majority vote. I understand 
one of them may not go forward because some Democrats do not like the 
nominee, but that is the way it should be.
  So we could confirm Nina Pillard right now. No one is saying a single 
word contrary to her being the quality candidate that we have said she 
is. She is nominated to sit on the District of Columbia Appeals Court, 
I repeat, some say the most important court in America; most say second 
only to the Supreme Court.
  But instead, Republicans are insisting that we vote on her nomination 
many hours from now, after they have frittered away 30 hours of the 
Senate's time. There are no objections to her qualifications. The 
outcome of her vote is a foregone conclusion. So when people around 
here complain that they are not home with their families at 
Christmastime, here is the reason: Republicans' obstruction.
  It is hard to imagine a more pointless exercise than spending hour 
after hour waiting for a vote on an outcome we already know. 
Republicans insist on wasting time simply for the sake of wasting time. 
Is it any wonder, I repeat, that the rule was changed? Here is why. It 
is no wonder Americans overwhelmingly support the changes made to the 
rules last month in order to make the Senate work again.
  The Republican's partisan sideshow is another example of the kind of 
blatant obstruction that has ground the Senate to a halt. The work of 
the Senate has come to a standstill over the last 5 years. Members 
should be aware if Republicans stop squandering the Senate's precious 
time, rollcall votes are possible at any time this afternoon or this 
evening. It does not have to be like this.
  With just a little bit of cooperation, we could hold votes in a 
timely manner so we can move on with the business before us. 
Unfortunately, we can not schedule votes without cooperation; that is 
part of the Senate rules. Cooperation is in short supply at the moment.


                       Reservation of Leader Time

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

                          ____________________