[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 82 (Thursday, May 11, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2893-S2894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW ACT RESOLUTIONS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, just a word on the majority's use of the 
Congressional Review Act. The window for using the CRA is closing this 
week. I heard the majority leader touting the 13 CRAs the majority 
passed this year. I want to make two points.
  First, despite what the majority leader and the President claim, 
these CRAs are not a huge accomplishment. They simply overturned rules 
passed at the very end of the Obama administration. They hardly 
constitute a legislative agenda. In fact, the use of the CRA shows just 
how little this majority and this President have been able to 
accomplish in the first 100-plus days. The fact that they are bragging 
about these highlights how little else they have accomplished 
legislatively.
  Second, the CRAs are designed to help special interests against the 
interests of working Americans, belying all the promises President 
Trump made when he campaigned. Let me give some examples. One of them 
is on foreign oil bribery. One of them is on a retirement rule. One of 
them is on stream protections. One is on mentally-ill access to guns. 
In each of these, it is a narrow special interest who pushed it, not a 
demand from the American people. Which Americans say ``Make it OK for 
our companies to bribe foreign oil companies or pollute our streams'' 
or ``Give the mentally ill access to guns''? These are narrow interests 
in each case.
  Let's be very clear about this. The CRAs Republicans passed are not 
rolling back burdensome regulations. Oh, no. They are giveaways to Big 
Oil, Big Gas, Big Coal, Big Mining, and wealthy special interests.
  The most indefensible one of many is the one on a retirement rule. If 
localities or States want to set up systems whereby working people want 
to put money away for their retirement, why not? It doesn't hurt 
anybody. It doesn't require anybody to do anything. And these days 
where fewer and fewer Americans have pensions from their companies, it 
is what is needed. But

[[Page S2894]]

some banks didn't want competition. They didn't want it shown that 
maybe the cities or the States could run these retirement systems more 
cheaply and take less money out of the average American's pocket. So we 
undid this rule. I don't think a single average constituent in any part 
of America wanted this rule undone, just the big banks--some of them, 
not all of them. That is the kind of thing my colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle and President Trump are bragging about. It is nothing 
to brag about.
  Let's be very clear about this. These are not the priorities the 
American people voted for in November, where a substantial majority of 
Americans said in exit polls that the economy was rigged against them. 
These CRAs rig the game even further for the wealthy special interests 
and are nothing to brag about or write home about.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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