[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 142 (Wednesday, September 30, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7012-S7013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have never been a sentimental person--I 
have never tried to be one--but today I can't help but think back to a 
time when keeping the government open and funded wasn't a last-minute 
exercise. Looking at the clock now, we are almost 14 hours away from 
what could have been another Republican shutdown of the Federal 
Government. This kind of brinkmanship is totally unnecessary. Although 
we will likely avert a shutdown tonight, Republicans brought us 
dangerously close to a shutdown.
  This continuing resolution only funds our government through December 
11, as I said earlier. That means that within the coming weeks, we need 
to negotiate with Republicans to keep our government open.
  Yesterday Senator McConnell finally took Democrats up on our call to 
begin budget negotiations. I welcome that, and I welcome Senator 
McConnell to the table. We should have started this process months ago, 
but better late than never, so I am pleased he has come around.
  Lifting the sequester has been one of my top priorities for years, 
and I am hopeful that we can finally achieve this key Democratic goal. 
Just take what it has done in the past--just take one entity. The 
National Institutes of Health lost almost $2 billion and they have 
never gotten it back. It has been devastating to the most prestigious, 
important medical research facility in the world. That is what 
sequestration did.
  This time around, we have to do better than just keeping the Federal 
Government operating by a continuing resolution. We have to stop 
devastating sequester cuts from hitting our military and our middle 
class. Even the Republican leader agrees, it appears, because a week or 
10 days ago he said: ``We are inevitably going to end up in 
negotiations that will crack the Budget Control Act once again.'' And I 
say hallelujah.
  Here we are, ready to negotiate months before the December 11 
deadline. After all, that was the original intent of sequestration--to 
force Democrats and Republicans to the negotiating table. That should 
be easy to do. We hate sequestration, and I know there are a 
significant number of Republicans who don't like it. I have heard 
Senator Graham, and I have heard Senator McCain give speeches in 
committees and publicly about how terrible it is. So let's get rid of 
it for the good of the country. This is a so-called no-brainer.

  Let's work together--not in December--to repeal the sequester caps, 
but let's work now to repeal the caps and build a long-term, bipartisan 
funding bill. Then we can turn our attention to the other matters that 
deserve our immediate attention, such as the debt ceiling.
  We can't put off the debt ceiling much longer. I don't know the exact 
date when we are going to run out of money, but I am sure it is going 
to be sometime before Thanksgiving. We all know that in a matter of 
weeks, unless we act, the United States will lose its ability to pay 
its bills. And if you think shutting the government down is bad, which 
I do, that pales in comparison to the government of the United States 
defaulting on all of our debts. The consequences would be dire and the 
fallout would be felt around the world.

[[Page S7013]]

  We also need to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. It is closed. 
Republicans made a terrible mistake by allowing the Bank's charter to 
expire, jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Congress 
must also craft a long-term highway bill to ensure the highway trust 
fund will be solvent for years to come.
  We have a lot to do in the coming weeks and months, and we certainly 
don't have time for any more manufactured crises. So I sincerely hope 
the Republican leadership will instead choose to do what is right to 
meet our country's obligations.
  Would the Chair tell us what we are going to do the rest of the day.

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