[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 107 (Thursday, July 10, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4367-S4369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TERRORISM RISK INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2014--MOTION TO
PROCEED
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 438, S.
2244, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 438, S. 2244, a bill to
extend the termination date of the Terrorism Insurance
Program established under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of
2002, and for other purposes.
Order Of Procedure
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11:45 a.m.,
the Senate resume consideration of S. 2363, the Bipartisan Sportsmen's
Act, and the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on
the bill; further, that notwithstanding rule XXII, following the
cloture vote, the Senate proceed to executive session, as provided
under the previous order.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Schedule
Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the
Republican leader, there will be a period of morning business until
11:45 a.m. today, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes
each during that time, with the time equally divided and controlled
between the two leaders or their designees. At 11:45 a.m. there will be
a cloture vote on the Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act, as we just had
approved by the Chair. The filing deadline for all first-degree
amendments to S. 2363 is 10:30 a.m. this morning and the deadline for
second-degree amendments is 11:30 a.m. this morning.
Following the vote, the Senate will turn to executive session to
consider the nominations of Shaun Donovan to be Director of the Office
of Management and Budget, Douglas Silliman to be Ambassador to the
State of Kuwait, and Dana Smith to be Ambassador to the State of Qatar.
At 2 p.m. the Senate will proceed to vote on confirmation of the
nominations in the order listed. I expect a rollcall vote on the
Donovan nomination and voice votes on the Silliman and Smith
nominations.
Nominations
Mr. President, I was late coming in here today because I just
completed a conversation with John Kerry, the Secretary of State of our
country. Because of his travel schedule and my schedule and the time
difference, it has been difficult for us to talk the last 24 hours, but
we were able to speak as he was rushing to an airplane, going from
China to Afghanistan. He called me to lament what is going on in the
U.S. Senate about these nominations. He has 53 State Department
nominations pending--53.
We have problems all over the world. We have the Afghan war. We have
the problems with Pakistan. We have the Middle East, which every
country there is in some form of difficulty. We have a problem in the
Far East--all kinds of problems there. It is all over the news today.
We have the situation in Israel. The Palestinians--rocket fire coming
from Palestine; nondirected missiles, similar to the Fourth of July.
They set them off. They don't know or care where they go. And we are
being held up here as a country from doing the
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country's work as a result of this stalling, this obstruction, the
constant filibusters we have in the Senate.
We have these Ambassadors who have worked their entire lives. They
are brilliant. It is hard to be a Foreign Service officer, but these
men and women work very hard all over the world. They dignify our
country. Then they work their way up to make it to this ``Super Bowl.''
They are selected to be an ambassador, and do you know what happens?
They get stalled here--stalled. Who are the Republicans hurting? They
are not hurting me. Is this some payback for me? What about the
President? He has a country to run, a world to take care of, and we are
being held up here. I truly appreciate today. We get two ambassadors.
We only have 27 more to go, plus all the other State Department people.
The Secretary of State is a very busy man. He has been trying for 24
hours to tell me how bad the situation is around the world. He does not
have people to do this country's work. Twenty-five percent of the
Ambassadors in Africa are not there.
So I do not understand this. They want to hold up some of the
President's nominations to be Assistant Secretary of this or Deputy
Secretary of that. It is unfair. But that is fine. What they are doing
to these Ambassadors is outrageous.
Measures Placed On The Calendar--S. 2578 and S. 2579
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk
due for a second reading.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will read the bills by
title for the second time.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 2578) to ensure that employers cannot interfere
in their employees' birth control and other health care
decisions.
A bill (S. 2579) to require the Secretary of State to offer
rewards totaling up to $5,000,000 for information on the
kidnapping and murder of Naftali Fraenkel, a dual United
States-Israeli citizen, that began on June 12, 2014.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, what is the name of the legislation S. 2578?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. ``To ensure that employers cannot
interfere in their employees' birth control and other health care
decisions.''
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with
respect to both of these bills.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard.
The bills will be placed on the Calendar.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is
recognized.
Helping The Middle Class
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the
border seems to be getting worse by the day. Large numbers of foreign
nationals are unlawfully entering our country, and it is mainly due to
the administration's failure to enforce immigration laws and secure the
border.
This is a real crisis. So we are taking a hard look at the proposal
the President sent over, but we want to make sure we actually get the
right tools to fix the problem, and that is not what we have seen so
far from the President. What he appears to be asking for is a blank
check--one that would allow him to sustain his current failed policy.
Last night in a speech that attempted to shift the blame from his
failed approach, he doubled down on a blank check, which is what he has
asked for. He led Americans to believe that the problem could be solved
if only Congress would pass his last-minute request, but it is not that
simple. Much more needs to be done, and the President certainly knows
it. His original letter to Congress called for reforms we all know are
needed to address the crisis. Under pressure from the left, he has
since backed away from these critical reforms, but lawmakers in both
parties have not. So he needs to work with us to get the right policy
into effect, not just throw money at the problem--get the right policy
into effect.
He needs to halt this endless campaigning, at least for a moment.
With the President actually in the region right now, one would think he
would be able to carve out just a few minutes to view the situation on
the border for himself. Apparently, though, he has decided there are
more important things to do--such as campaigning with Gary Hart and
practicing his bank shot.
All this continues to make the President look detached from the
ongoing crisis on the border. Even a Democratic Congressman has called
it ``bizarre.'' Honestly, this is just the latest example of a much
broader pattern he has displayed, a pattern that makes him appear
disconnected from the day-to-day concerns of most Americans.
The fact is on issue after issue--but especially on issues affecting
the middle class--instead of addressing the huge problems his policies
have created, the President keeps retreating into the bubble with his
favorite leftwing pals--the kind of folks who always tell him what a
great job he is doing, and of course that is what they do. Unlike most
Americans, these are not generally the kinds of people who worry about
car payments or utility bills or tuition or medical costs.
When the President does try to prove he is willing to listen to the
concerns of average Americans--as he did this week--it is usually
little more than a photo-op. But if the President is truly serious
about helping the middle class, he will stop trying to convince
everyone of that. He will join Republicans to actually do something
about it because we have been asking him to join us for a long time
now. It is about time he took us up on the offer.
We have already introduced a number of bills aimed squarely at
addressing the squeeze our constituents are feeling. One of our bills
would restore the 40-hour workweek and reverse a pay cut that is built
into ObamaCare. Others would do things such as increase educational
opportunities and put an end to policies that prevent women from
getting pay raises when they outperform their male colleagues.
One bill I introduced with Senator Ayotte--the Family Friendly and
Workplace Flexibility Act--would allow workers to take time off as a
form of overtime compensation. It is an idea that is tailored to the
needs of our modern workforce. It is something a lot of working men and
women say they want, and there is no reason not to provide a little
more flexibility to working families.
Another bill I introduced would reduce the cost and hassle of
childcare for working parents by allowing them to write off a home
office, even if they happen to have a crib in the room. Current law
prevents working moms and dads from taking that deduction if they care
for a child while working at home. This is simply unfair.
Making that change is just common sense, and so are all of the bills
we have introduced.
Our middle-class agenda is not built around creating massive
government bureaucracies or taking from one struggling neighbor to give
to another. It is about identifying smart, commonsense fixes that can
have a significant impact on the lives of the people we represent--
middle-class Americans who have never felt more squeezed.
There is no reason the President and his Democratic allies should not
be able to embrace such commonsense ideas too. Unfortunately, President
Obama's Democratic majority in the Senate has blocked just about
everything we have proposed--just as they blocked the dozens of bills
that have already passed the House of Representatives.
As just about everyone acknowledges at this point, the Democratic-run
Senate has become the place where good ideas go to die. The Democratic
leadership will not even listen to its own Members anymore. So it is no
wonder that one Democratic Senator remarked that he has never
experienced a less productive time in his life than right now in the
Senate. That was a Democratic Senator saying that--never experienced a
less productive time in his life than right now in the Senate.
Well, it is time for Washington Democrats to stop obstructing jobs
and opportunity for the middle class. They need to understand that
their powerful pals on the left will continue doing just fine in the
Obama economy. It is time to stop worrying so much about them and to
start paying more attention to the vast American middle class, to the
people who feel Washington has not been listening to them over the past
few years.
I am talking about people whose wages are stagnant, people who are
either unemployed or cannot find work
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to match their skills, and people who feel the burden of outdated
policies that are diminishing opportunities in the workplace and
leaving them torn between the demands of work and family.
Republicans are committed to doing everything we can to deliver
relief and innovative new ideas to help these Americans. I hope
President Obama and Washington Democrats will at some point here
finally join us in the effort.
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