[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 42 (Thursday, March 13, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1644-S1645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             FILING CLOTURE

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, the majority leader, the Senator from 
Nevada, came to the floor last night to take exception to my criticisms 
of how the Senate operates these days.
  I have criticized the actions of the current majority leadership, of 
which he is the head.
  However, I would like to point out that I have tried to avoid 
singling him out personally because it is not my intention to engage in 
personal attacks or name calling.
  Still, the fact that he takes my criticisms of the Senate's 
dysfunction so personally should tell us something.
  Yesterday, I criticized the abuse of same-day cloture motions.
  In response, Senator Reid said, ``He claims that I file too many 
cloture motions.''
  Well, it often is the majority leader who files the cloture motions, 
but sometimes it is other members of the majority leadership, and on 
rare occasions, other Senators.

[[Page S1645]]

  The fact is, this majority leader has instigated more of the cloture 
motions than any leader in recent times.
  Senator Frist filed about 72 percent of all cloture motions when he 
was Majority Leader, Senator Daschle filed about 32 percent during his 
leadership, Senator Lott about 69 percent, and Senator Dole about 50 
percent.
  Senator Reid has personally filed 94 percent of all the cloture 
motions since he became majority leader.
  And, that is 94 percent of a much bigger number since cloture filings 
have more than doubled under this majority leadership.
  So if the Senator from Nevada takes my criticism of cloture abuse 
personally, perhaps there is a reason he does.
  He also blames Republicans for the fact that he has abused the 
cloture process, just as I predicted in my speech, which struck such a 
nerve.
  However, I want to be absolutely clear that my criticisms were 
focused on same-day cloture filings related to legislative business.
  In other words, I was specifically criticizing the practice of moving 
to end consideration of a legislative matter that is subject to 
amendment before there has been an opportunity for any debate or 
amendments.
  The majority leader went off on a tangent complaining about how many 
nominees are waiting for confirmation. I don't need to remind anybody 
that the ability of the minority party to block nominees was eliminated 
using the nuclear option. Besides, the focus of my speech was on the 
legislative process.
  We can argue about how much debate is too much and how many 
amendments are too many. But no one can claim that same-day cloture 
motions were in response to Republican obstruction when there hasn't 
been any deliberation whatsoever before they are filed.
  The majority leader can criticize me and stoop to petty name-calling, 
but the data I cited was from the non-partisan Congressional Research 
Service.
  This data on same-day cloture speaks for itself. His excuse, ``The 
Republicans made me do it'' won't fly. In fact, Senator Reid has been 
caught before trying to blame Republicans for his cloture motions.
  The Washington Post Fact Checker gave him two Pinocchios for his 
claim that Republicans were to blame for a record number of cloture 
motions.
  He tried to claim that every cloture motion represented a Republican 
filibuster. However, the source he cited was a report by the 
Congressional Research Service containing a long section under the 
heading ``Cloture Motions Do Not Correspond With Filibusters.''
  That heading pretty much says it all, but it contains about a page 
and a half of explanation as to why it is erroneous to claim that all 
cloture motions are in response to filibusters.
  Certainly, cloture motions which are filed before there has been one 
word of debate cannot possibly be in response to a filibuster. Those 
are the cloture motions my criticism was directed at yesterday.
  This is also the problem addressed by the Stop Cloture Abuse 
Resolution which I introduced yesterday with 25 of my colleagues.
  The majority leader did not even attempt to defend the practice of 
same-day cloture, and understandably so. There is no justification for 
it.
  The majority leader's refusal to acknowledge such a blatant problem, 
much less put a stop to it, just confirms the need for the Stop Cloture 
Abuse Resolution.
  I should add that the deliberative process can work if it is allowed 
to, and the bill we have been debating yesterday and today is evidence 
of that.
  It isn't just Republicans who would prefer to go back to the way we 
did things when the Senate functioned as a deliberative body as it was 
designed to.
  The manager of S. 1086, Senator Mikulski, said earlier today, ``This 
is one of the first times in a couple of years where we have had an 
open amendment process, and in some ways we're getting adjusted to how 
that actually works. This is terrific.''
  So even prominent Members of the majority party acknowledge an open 
amendment process is the way things should work. I have offered a 
constructive idea along with 25 colleagues to make that the norm again.
  Instead of criticizing me, the majority leader should join me and 
become part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

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