[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 106 (Thursday, July 9, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S4903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MANUFACTURED CRISES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we hear the phrase ``manufactured crisis'' 
used a lot here lately. Why? The Republican leader gives people plenty 
of reason to use the term. He has singlehandedly turned the entire 
appropriations process into a charade designed to manufacture yet 
another crisis.
  Look no further than what Republicans are doing in the interior, 
environment appropriations bill. The Republican leader bragged 
yesterday--today is Thursday, so on Wednesday--that he and his 
colleagues have ``lined the interior appropriations bill with every 
rider you can think of to push back against them.''
  They have filled that legislation with so-called riders. What is a 
rider? It is an extraneous provision that has nothing to do with the 
purpose of the bill--in this instance, a funding bill. So they have 
filled that legislation, the interior appropriations bill, and other 
bills that have nothing to do with funding the government with things 
that are harmful to our country.
  For example, in the appropriations bill dealing with the interior, 
Republicans have included language to permanently dismantle efforts to 
address climate change by blocking Federal enforcement of a nationwide 
policy to reduce carbon pollution from existing powerplants.
  Climate change is very hurtful to our economy and hurtful to our 
country.
  I was at an event at the White House two nights ago. The President 
said that if we don't do something about climate change by the year 
2100, the seas will have increased by 16 feet. The State of Florida 
will basically be half underwater.
  Prior to 2100, it is already getting bad. Talk to the two Senators 
from Virginia. Areas that are military installations are now covered 
with water most of the time. Talk to my friend the senior Senator from 
Florida, and he will tell you what is happening in Florida now. Talk to 
the Governor of New York, and he will tell you what happened with 
Sandy, the hurricane. It is going to happen again because we are doing 
nothing to prevent climate change from devastating our country. The 
Presiding Officer is from the State of Nevada, as am I. He knows that 
bears--not all bears but many bears are not even hibernating in the 
Sierras anymore because it is not cold enough. Talk to one of the 
Senators from New Hampshire. The moose are being devastated. Why? 
Because the cold weather is not killing the gnats, the fleas on the 
moose, and they are dying. About a third of them are dead.
  So climate change is not serious? It is a serious issue. Of course it 
is.
  Republicans have riders in this bill dealing with clean water. They 
have stuck in language to permanently block implementation of 
protections for streams and wetlands that have the greatest impact on 
our Nation's water quality.
  Ozone pollution is another rider they slipped in there. They slipped 
in language to delay efforts to protect people from lung diseases and 
asthma, among other things.
  Hazardous waste cleanup--now, this is unique. They stuck language in 
this bill affecting Superfund sites. This has been a great program. It 
has been a great program because people who devastate and pollute the 
land are asked to pay to clean it up. Republicans have stuck language 
in here to have the taxpayers clean this up and pay for it. That is 
stunning to me.
  This is a perfect example of Republicans manufacturing a crisis. They 
have loaded up a necessary funding measure with dangerous provisions 
that have doomed these bills. Then when Democrats oppose it, the 
Republican leader will feign outrage and blame Democrats for its 
failure, hoping to score some type of political victory.
  Republicans know an appropriations bill full of riders that roll back 
environmental protections will be stopped by us and vetoed by the 
President. This scripted performance is the definition of a 
manufactured crisis. And the Republican leader said as much last year 
in an interview with the Hill newspaper Politico. Here is what he said:

       Obama needs to be challenged, and the best way to do that 
     is through the funding process. He would have to make a 
     decision on a given bill, whether there's more in it that he 
     likes than dislikes. A good example is adding restrictions to 
     regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. Adding 
     riders to spending bills would change the behavior of the 
     bureaucracy.

  He promised that last year, and he is a man of his word. He is 
ruining every one of these appropriations bills with these riders, in 
spite of more asthma, more heart disease, more cancer.
  Instead of passing appropriations bills that keep our government open 
and funded, the Republican leader is more interested in making 
Democrats and Republicans not work together and having the President 
and Democrats very uncomfortable. Sadly, this is how Republicans are 
governing. This is how they pretend to lead our country. It is 
embarrassing. I believe it is. Look at the poll numbers to see what is 
happening. The Republican leader's numbers are the lowest they have 
ever been recorded.
  It doesn't have to be this way. With the help of a handful of 
reasonable Republicans, we can sidestep this sham and pass meaningful 
legislation that averts another government shutdown. The first one was 
promoted and engineered by the Republicans.
  I said yesterday and I repeat, Mr. President, to show how shameful 
that was, two-thirds of the Republicans in the House voted to keep the 
government closed. I mentioned yesterday how the Republican chairman of 
the House Committee on Appropriations, Congressman Hal Rogers--whom 
people call the Dean of the Kentucky delegation--is calling on his 
party to work with us Democrats on a long-term solution that avoids a 
government shutdown. We need Republicans like him here in the Senate.
  In just a few months, the government will run out of money. It will 
have no more money on October 1. Unless we can reach a bipartisan 
budget agreement, our Nation will face another ridiculous and damaging 
government shutdown. So I urge my Republican friends--especially 
Republican leaders in both Houses--to listen to Chairman Rogers and 
those other members of the Committee on Appropriations and work 
together. Put aside these nonserious games and get serious about 
keeping our government open. It is the only way Congress will avoid 
another manufactured crisis the Republican leader seems so desperately 
to desire.

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