[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 17, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5658-S5660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE EROSION OF THE SENATE

  Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, it brings me no pleasure to make the 
remarks I feel compelled to make today. I think it is important for us 
to understand how we, the Senate of the United States, are operating.
  The Senate--the legislative body heralded by the late Senator Robert 
C. Byrd as the second great senate in history, the first being the 
Roman Senate--is being eroded beyond recognition by the tactics 
utilized by Senate Majority Leader Reid and those who support him in 
that process.
  Today is Constitution Day. It was Senator Byrd who moved legislation 
to declare today Constitution Day. Under that Constitution, there are 
two bodies in the Congress, the House and the Senate, and the Senate 
has always been known as the body where great debates are held, with an 
open ability to amend and discuss, and the great issues of the day are 
laid out. That is what we are about.
  But the Senate has changed dramatically since I have been in the 
Senate, some 18 years, and not for the better--not for the better of 
the American people. It might be good for politicians, but it is not 
good for the American people and it is not good for the public 
interest, in my view.
  As has been happening time and again, we are once again today, at 
nigh on the eleventh hour, being asked to vote for a spending bill 
before we recess. We have to recess, you see. Why? So Senators can go 
home to campaign, but we are being paid, whether we are here or back 
home or vacationing or whatever. Why don't we stay a few days longer if 
necessary? Oh, no. We have to get out of Washington and go back home 
and campaign.
  This continuing resolution, covering a massive amount of spending 
that no Member can fully comprehend at this late hour and nobody can 
meaningfully analyze, scrutinize or investigate--once again, we are 
being asked to fund the entire government of the United States in one 
catch-all bill, with no opportunity for a single amendment. There is no 
way to improve the legislation or to engage in meaningful consideration 
of our financial status.
  Aren't we facing a crisis financially? Hasn't the Congressional 
Budget Office told us we are on an unsustainable financial path? Yes. 
Are we going to discuss that at all? No. We are going to bring up this 
bill, vote it through, and go home and campaign.
  This denies the American people the opportunity to know what is being 
passed and to analyze and hold their elected representatives 
accountable for their actions. So the American people can't comprehend 
or study what is behind this massive bill either.
  Once again, as a tactic, this bill is being rushed through under the 
threat of a government shutdown. Without a funding mechanism, the 
government would shut down October 1 if we don't pass an appropriations 
bill to fund it because the Government of the United States cannot 
operate and spend a dime Congress hasn't appropriated. That is a 
fundamental constitutional power.
  Yes, there is a problem out there. How did it happen that we are 
getting toward the end of the session and nothing has been done? I will 
talk about that.
  Why is this happening? Is it because we don't have time? No, it is 
not because we don't have time. The reality--and I will say this, and I 
have not been contradicted on it by any Member of this Senate, to my 
knowledge. It is not a lack of time. We haven't done anything this week 
or last week, and we have next week and the next week if need be. We 
can vote 20 times a day. It doesn't take a lot of time to vote. People 
can have their ideas to improve legislation and bring them up and argue 
for them and get an up-or-down vote, yes or no.
  So why is this happening? The purpose is to protect Members from 
having to cast votes that their constituents might disagree with, to 
protect them from being placed on record one way or the other on 
important issues facing the Nation. That is the problem. It is politics 
first, sad to say. It just is.
  We have not voted on a single appropriations bill in the Senate this 
year, not one. Not 1 of the 12 appropriations bills that are required 
to fund our government each year has come before the Senate. Committees 
are being bypassed, secret deals rule the day, and millions of 
Americans are thereby robbed of their ability to observe and 
participate in the legislative process. They are denied the ability to 
write their Senators and say: I hear you have an amendment coming up on 
thus and so. Vote for it or vote against it. That is all being 
eliminated in this process.
  It has been so long since we followed the regular order, I think it 
is necessary for me to share with the people and our colleagues what is 
supposed to happen and what is not happening.
  Each year Congress is supposed to pass a budget resolution which 
outlines the spending goals and limits for the upcoming year. Then, 
based on the spending levels contained in the budget resolution, the 
individual authorization committees are to report out authorization 
bills. For example, they are to review the Defense Department. We don't 
do that anymore. They are to review the Defense Department. We normally 
do a Defense authorization bill--but it hasn't been done this year--to 
authorize certain spending and policy changes, utilizing the expertise 
of the members of the committees to shape where the spending is 
supposed to go, laying out priorities, setting and making decisions 
about what we can afford and what we can't afford, evaluating whether 
programs are effective, to serve the citizens of the United States.
  Isn't that what we are supposed to do? This is the way we eliminate 
waste, fraud, and abuse. This is the way we stop it.
  After the authorization committees do their work, the Appropriations 
Committee actually is the one to fund the government. The subcommittees 
of the Appropriations Committee are tasked with producing 
appropriations bills for

[[Page S5659]]

each area of the budget, which are to be individually brought to the 
floor of the Senate, debated, and amended on the floor in the light of 
day before the American people. Each year the Senate is supposed to 
consider individually 12 appropriations bills. This gives each Member 
and their constituents a chance to review and analyze every line of the 
bill and to offer suggestions for saving money, improving efficiency, 
and better serving taxpayers--which we are failing to do and we need to 
do. We don't have a dime to waste, and we are wasting money regularly 
throughout our government, as anybody who has studied it knows.
  Under the tenure of Senator Reid, the budgeting process has been 
dismantled. We have only passed one budget in the last 5 years, 
although the Budget Act says we should pass a budget by April 15 every 
year. Our committees stand idle, and the floor is one run not for the 
high purpose of legislative debate but frankly as an extension of a 
Democratic political campaign committee.
  So the Senate has ceased consideration of appropriations bills 
altogether, relying more and more on autopilot resolutions and catch-
all continuing resolutions and omnibus spending packages.
  When I first came to the Senate, almost every single Senate spending 
bill was debated. It was brought to the floor. A Senator was 
embarrassed if they didn't bring every bill to the floor. Sometimes 
they had two or three that couldn't be completed. They would be 
completed at the end and passed as an omnibus bill, and people would 
complain. Now none of them are passed--zero. We go year by year without 
debating a single stand-alone spending bill on the Senate floor. So a 
Senator has to ask, what are we here for?
  One of the worst tactics the majority leader has used to suppress 
Senators' rights and block open debate is a technique called filling 
the tree. Under that tactic he uses his majority rights to keep 
Senators from offering amendments as representatives of their States 
and the American people.
  Senator, a bill is coming on the floor, and you can't stand and give 
an amendment? Right, you cannot. He fills the amendment tree, we can't 
file another amendment, and he refuses to allow amendments to occur. 
His majority, having written the bill with President Obama--they move 
the legislation, and there is no real ability to challenge it.
  It is not the way the Senate was supposed to be set up. The Senate 
was always to be set up to allow individual Senators and the minority 
rights to be able to influence legislation and to highlight what is in 
it.
  Blocking amendments prevents this body from working its will, 
prohibits legislation from being improved, and protects Senators from 
being held accountable by the voters on the great issues of the day. I 
don't think there is any doubt about that. And that is the reason it is 
being done.

  But we can do things the right way. It absolutely can be done. 
Members ought to be able to offer amendments. It just turns into a real 
debate, and people get to push for the agendas they believe in and 
advocate for their position. Who knows, 10 years from today an agenda 
not popular today will be popular then. That is the way we are supposed 
to do it. Senators being prohibited from offering amendments keeps the 
Senate from being a critical sounding board for the issues of the day.
  Our majority leader has used this tactic, filling the tree, 90 times 
during his tenure. To put this in perspective, the 6 previous majority 
leaders filled the tree only 49 times, all total. Mr. Reid has filled 
the tree on 40 more occasions than all 6 previous majority leaders. 
This stops amendments from being voted on, from being offered, and that 
is what is happening.
  The majority leader has shut down one of the most important functions 
that Senators exercise to defend and advance the interests of their 
constituents.
  It doesn't stop there. The Senate is supposed to be Washington's 
cooling saucer. That is why on many important and controversial matters 
60 votes are required to adopt a measure or to confirm a nominee, and, 
importantly, to change the rules of the Senate requires a two-thirds 
vote to move such a question towards final passage.
  That is, a two-thirds vote is required to change the rules of the 
Senate. Thus the two-thirds vote threshold is critical because it 
ensures the rules have meaning, they have power, they apply, and in 
years to come will not be likely changed, and protect minority rights 
in the Senate. The rules will apply when parties are in power and when 
they are out of power. To change Senate rules requires a broad 
consensus across the body. This protects the rights of individual 
Senators to be heard on the issues of the day. It is a key component of 
the Senate's heritage of discussion and debate and openness.
  Yet Mr. Reid, in an exercise of brute political force, last year 
changed the Senate rules by a simple majority vote. He ignored the 
counsel of the Senate Parliamentarian who ruled his tactic was contrary 
to the rules of the Senate. The Parliamentarian is our preeminent 
protector of Senate practices, and over the years different 
Parliamentarians have done a good job. In one stroke the majority 
leader changed the nature of this august body, perhaps forever.
  So today the Democratic Senators who empower Mr. Reid and the 
Senators who give him power and support him are not even allowed to 
consider important legislation either, effectively. Republicans or 
Democrats cannot offer amendments. They cannot even fully debate the 
issues. Huge bills are rushed through in the waning hours of a session. 
Systematically the rights of Senators to provide equal representation 
to each State are being dismantled.
  But it gets worse still. As we know, President Obama has promised 
that after the midterms he would issue executive amnesty to 5 to 6 
million people--immigrants who are unlawfully here, unlawfully entering 
the United States. This Executive order, Presidential order--fiat--
amnesty--would include work permits for millions of illegal workers 
along with photo IDs and Social Security numbers, and it would include 
more guest workers. So businesses can bring in even more guest workers 
at a time of high unemployment and falling wages.
  The President and the immigration lobbyists and business groups and 
activist groups are meeting secretly in the White House trying to 
implement through executive action the same disastrous, wrong policies 
that were rejected by Congress through the House of Representatives. 
The House said no to this. Once the public learned what was in the 
Senate amnesty and guest worker bill, they declared, no, no, no, and 
the House heard it. So the President is now conspiring to go around the 
Congress.
  What did Mr. Reid say? His duty is to represent the Congress, and we 
are a coequal branch with the executive branch and the executive branch 
doesn't have the power to change the immigration law that is in a law, 
in effect. The United States law says you cannot work in the United 
States--flat out, you cannot be hired if you are in the country 
illegally.
  The President doesn't have any power to change that. The President 
can come back to the Senate and advocate it and see if he can pass 
that. But the Senate hasn't changed the law. You shouldn't be able to 
work in America if you are not lawfully here. Taking a job from a 
lawful immigrant? This is fundamentally wrong.
  What does Mr. Reid say about this? Does he defend the prerogative of 
Congress, the Senate? No, he doesn't. Instead, he has told the 
President to ``go real big'' and bypass Congress. Do the biggest 
amnesty you can do.
  Majority Leader Reid has blocked this Senate from considering the 
House-passed legislation that is sitting at the desk in this Senate 
that would stop the President from doing this. He would use legitimate 
congressional power to deny funding to execute any such bogus, unlawful 
amnesty plan. The Constitution and the American people's interests are 
at stake here. But Mr. Reid is determined completely to ensure this 
executive amnesty happens anyway, and he is determined to do whatever 
he can to see that it does happen. The principles that govern our 
political system, separation of powers, and public debate are not 
important here at this time.

[[Page S5660]]

  But, colleagues, I would note that we have to recognize Mr. Reid does 
not operate all on his own. He operates with the support and 
empowerment of a Democratic Caucus that allows this to occur. We saw 
this vividly when I made a motion some weeks ago that would allow us to 
take action to stop the executive amnesty. I moved that we strike his 
filling the tree, remove it, clear the amendment tree, and allow new 
amendments to be brought up to stop executive amnesty. That would have 
been to bar the executive action, and every Senate Democrat voted with 
Mr. Reid--except the Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Manchin--that 
would enable the President to go forward with his unlawful amnesty 
decree. It is unbelievable.
  The posture we are in is the House has passed a bill that would stop 
the President from going forward, clearly. It has already passed the 
House of Representatives. It is sitting on our desk and the majority 
leader will not allow it to be brought up. Why?
  He has the votes. Why doesn't he bring it up and vote it down? The 
reason is he wants to protect his Members. He believes in this policy. 
He is advocating this policy. But he thinks if he brings it up for a 
vote, his Members might find out that the people back home are not 
happy.
  More than three-fourths of the American people believe the President 
is exceeding his authority if he goes forward with this executive 
amnesty. So why can't we have a vote on it? Because of politics. 
Protect our Members. They don't need to take tough votes. Let's get out 
of Washington and go home and play politics in our home State.
  Nobody in the Senate Democratic Congress has spoken up to support the 
House bill. Some pretend or hope the President won't do it. What does 
that mean? Nothing.
  But a vote means something. So let's vote. You are either for it or 
not.
  Every Member who supports Mr. Reid--and we will have another vote on 
this--is as much a supporter of President Obama's unlawful amnesty as 
if they were sitting in a room helping him sign the order.
  This is the time. It is either stop now or it may never be stopped. 
We need to vote on it. People need to be held accountable. Every 
American needs to know where their Senator stands on the President's 
unlawful assumption of power to violate plain law of the United States 
to carry out a political agenda he has that the American people reject. 
It is that simple. It is about power and it is about politics and it is 
not about what is best for America.
  All of us owe our constituents a full, open, and deliberative process 
where the great issues of the day are debated with their scrutiny and 
the people's scrutiny. We receive their input with our rights 
respected, our responsibilities honored, and our Senate strengthened in 
the process and respected in the process. The democratic process is 
messy sometimes, sometimes contentious, and often difficult, but it is 
precisely this legislative tug of war, this back-and-forth, which 
forges a national consensus. People have to stick their necks out and 
say what they believe on important issues facing America.
  It is a process our Founders utilized, men of the Enlightenment they 
were, to find what truth is. Truth, they believe and I believe, is an 
objective reality. Words have meaning. Principles are valid. Things are 
true and things are false. Their theory was you have a full and open, 
robust debate and everybody says more through that process. It is the 
best way for you to tell what the truth is, and based on what the truth 
is you can make a good judgment for what is best for America. It is the 
same theory we use in jury trials: cross-examination of witnesses, 
bring in evidence, 12 good men and women judge the evidence in an 
attempt to find what the truth is.
  Some of this crowd today, this post-modern group, they don't even 
believe in truth, if you want to know the truth. While secret deals may 
appear to keep the trains running on time, they also keep them running 
too often in the wrong direction. Only through a renewed, open 
legislative process carried out in the full light of day can we clean 
up this government, forge a real national consensus, confront the 
difficult choices we face, achieve accountability in Washington, allow 
our Senators and Congressmen to be there on the front lines and sink or 
swim on how they perform.
  We are not guaranteed office. The American people don't work for us, 
we work for them, and to act as we have in the past returns power 
thereby to the everyday citizen.
  It is time for us to restore once again the great Senate of the 
United States.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  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. TESTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quroum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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