[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 29, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6091-S6093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HIRE MORE HEROES ACT OF 2015
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of H.R. 22, which the clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 22) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
to exempt employees with health coverage under TRICARE or the
Veterans Administration from being taken into account for
purposes of determining the employers to which the employer
mandate applies under the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act.
Pending:
McConnell modified amendment No. 2266, in the nature of a
substitute.
McConnell amendment No. 2421 (to amendment No. 2266), of a
perfecting nature.
McConnell (for Inhofe) amendment No. 2533 (to amendment No.
2421), relating to Federal-aid highways and highway safety
construction programs.
McConnell amendment No. 2417 (to the language proposed to
be stricken by amendment No. 2266), to change the enactment
date.
McConnell amendment No. 2418 (to amendment No. 2417), of a
perfecting nature.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 10
a.m. will be divided in the usual form.
Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I had some time reserved, and I am halfway
through that time now. So I will talk a little faster than usual
because we have an Armed Services meeting right now, and we are trying
get to the bottom of this side agreement that was apparently made with
Iran.
I wish to applaud the Senate for taking another step, and that is
what we are going to be doing in just a few minutes with the DRIVE Act
in Congress with these votes, and tomorrow we expect to see a final
vote for passage so we can send it to the House. This will be my sixth
reauthorization over the past number of years. These bills are all
about compromise. It is hard to do. There are a lot of Members of this
body who didn't think they got what they wanted in this bill, and I
have to say that I didn't get what I wanted. I suspect that the
occupier of the chair didn't get what he wanted, and Senator Boxer
didn't get what she wanted. That is not the way this works because this
is a bill to get us away from the short-term extensions.
It has been obvious that Members of this body are opposed to moving
to a 6-year reauthorization bill and are willing to use any procedural
means to slow it down, and that is what happened. If we had not dragged
on yesterday, and if we had yielded back some of the time, we could
have had these votes that we are about to have now yesterday. If we had
done that, we could have final passage today, and it would be sent over
to the House before they leave. They are going to leave. That doesn't
mean that this is not important. What we are doing today and tomorrow
is passing this bill. Even though the House is going home, they all
agree that we need a good, long-term bill as soon as they get back.
That is why we have a motion before us for a short-term delay--so they
will have time to do it.
We will have a good bill for them. We have worked on it for several
months. It passed out of committee unanimously. Every Republican and
every Democrat voted for it. We will have a chance to do that.
Also, I have State sheets on every State. I can read off how every
State benefits from this 6-year reauthorization bill. All you have to
do is talk to the Governors, mayors, and the departments of
transportation across the country. They fully expected Congress only to
deliver piecemeal extensions, as we have in the past.
We have to keep in mind that the last reauthorization bill that we
had was in 2005. I remember that vividly because I was the author of
the bill. When we passed it, everyone rejoiced. Yesterday the Senator
from Minnesota was talking about the tragedy of the fallen bridge in
Minnesota, where 13 people died. I told the story about how a bridge in
Oklahoma City had a chunk of concrete fall off of it and hit a mother
of three children and kill her. You don't want to wait until this
happens.
We have bridges in this country--and we have talked about each one of
them on the Senate floor during the discussion on this bill--that are
deteriorating, and we have to do something about it.
If any Member or the staff of any Member--I know the staffs are all
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watching right now. We have every State listed on these sheets, and it
shows what they will have and how they will benefit from the DRIVE Act,
which will be before us in a moment. If we don't do it, there are
consequences, and I have to remind everyone of that today as we
approach a shutdown of the transit programs. I urge my colleagues to
join in voting yes on this procedural hurdle today. If you vote no, you
are reinforcing current laws and extensions, which is the worst
possible outcome.
One area deals with big projects. We cannot do big projects with 3-
month, 4-month or even 1-year extensions. We have gone through 33
short-term extensions since the SAFETEA-LU bill was passed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be given 5
additional minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. INHOFE. We have the problem of not having any of the big
projects, and everyone knows that is a problem. The reason big projects
can't be done is due to the costs. But a study has been done by Gary
Ridley, who is one of the foremost authorities nationwide on this
subject, and in that study he came to the conclusion that it costs an
additional 30 percent off the top to do short-term extensions.
If there is anyone who is a conservative and wants to take the
conservative position on this issue, the conservative position is to
vote for a long-term reauthorization bill, and that is what is before
us now. The current funding has no growth--not even for inflation. The
DRIVE Act provides growth in the highway and transit systems in each
State. For those who are interested, we have all of this listed State
by State. The current law gives States and local governments no
certainty. However, the certainty is there in the DRIVE Act. So we have
every reason to do this.
Project delivery. We are going to be able to deliver the projects. We
can't even start the projects on short-term extensions.
Freight. We have a freight section. We have never had a freight
section before for moving freight across the country.
Transparency. Everything is there so that everyone can see every
nickel that is used. This is the most transparent of all of the
reauthorizations we have had.
Lastly, innovation. The DRIVE Act prepares our transportation system
for the future. That is why it is so important that we get to it today.
I compliment the leaders for moving us forward and making every
effort to get this done before the House goes home.
This will give them a good start on what to do during the recess.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Vote on Amendment No. 2417
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to table amendment No. 2417.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to
table.
The motion was agreed to.
Vote on Amendment No. 2533
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the Inhofe
amendment No. 2533.
The amendment (No. 2533) was agreed to.
Vote on Amendment No. 2421, as Amended
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to vitiate the
yeas and nays on amendment No. 2421.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 2421, as amended.
The amendment (No. 2421), as amended, was agreed to.
Vote on Amendment No. 2266, as Modified, as Amended
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to amendment No.
2266, as modified, as amended.
The yeas and nays were previously ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
The result was announced--yeas 62, nays 38, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 258 Leg.]
YEAS--62
Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blunt
Boozman
Boxer
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cassidy
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Cornyn
Daines
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Franken
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Hatch
Heitkamp
Heller
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Leahy
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Moran
Murray
Nelson
Peters
Portman
Roberts
Rounds
Sanders
Schatz
Sessions
Shaheen
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Vitter
Whitehouse
Wicker
NAYS--38
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Corker
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Donnelly
Flake
Gillibrand
Heinrich
Hirono
Lankford
Lee
Markey
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murphy
Paul
Perdue
Reed
Reid
Risch
Rubio
Sasse
Schumer
Scott
Shelby
Toomey
Udall
Warner
Warren
Wyden
The amendment (No. 2266), as modified, as amended, was agreed to.
Cloture Motion
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory
quorum call be waived.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending
cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The legislative clerk read as follows.
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on H.R. 22, an act
to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt
employees with health coverage under TRICARE or the Veterans
Administration from being taken into account for purposes of
determining the employers to which the employer mandate
applies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Orrin G. Hatch, John
Barrasso, Pat Roberts, Richard Burr, Thom Tillis, David
Vitter, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte, Lamar Alexander,
Daniel Coats, John Hoeven, James M. Inhofe, Roger F.
Wicker, Susan M. Collins, John Thune.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on H.R.
22, an act to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt
employees with health coverage under TRICARE or the Veterans
Administration from being taken into account for purposes of
determining the employers to which the employer mandate applies under
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended, shall be
brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 65, nays 35, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 259 Leg.]
YEAS--65
Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blunt
Boozman
Boxer
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cassidy
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Cornyn
Daines
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Hatch
Heitkamp
Heller
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Moran
Murray
Nelson
Peters
Portman
Roberts
Rounds
Sanders
Schatz
Scott
Sessions
Shaheen
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Vitter
Whitehouse
Wicker
NAYS--35
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Corker
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Donnelly
Gillibrand
Heinrich
Hirono
Lee
Markey
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murphy
Paul
Perdue
Reed
Reid
Risch
Rubio
Sasse
Schumer
Shelby
Toomey
Udall
Warner
Warren
Wyden
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 65, the nays are
35.
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
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