[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 70 (Tuesday, April 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2503-S2504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Senate Legislative Agenda

  Madam President, Leg Graveyard. Now, on another and related matter, 
the three items I just mentioned are examples of the things that the 
Senate could--could--be doing in a bipartisan way to address a serious 
challenge. I hope the Republican leader sees the value in pursuing them 
because so far this year the Republican leader has shown little 
interest in pursuing meaningful bipartisan legislation.
  With over a year and a half left in Congress, Leader McConnell has 
turned this Chamber into a legislative graveyard, and without a shred 
of irony, he has proudly bragged that he is the Senate's Grim Reaper. 
Is that what the American people want? They urge us to work together in 
a bipartisan way, but Leader McConnell takes all the bills that have 
passed the House, puts them in his drawer, and spends his time simply 
doing nominations.
  We are one-quarter of the way through the year, so let's do a quick

[[Page S2504]]

quarterly review. Our colleagues in the House have been busy. In 4 
months, over 100 pieces of legislation passed their Chamber. Here are 
some of them: Legislation to oppose the lawsuit that would eliminate 
protections for Americans with preexisting conditions. Who is opposed 
to that? Leader McConnell is. Legislation to reform our democracy and 
improve elections, restore voting rights, and get the money out of 
politics; legislation on paycheck fairness so women are treated equally 
to men; commonsense background checks for which 98 percent of Americans 
support; upgrades to the Violence Against Women Act; legislation to 
restore net neutrality; and despite the fact that the President shut 
down the government for over a month, these bills have passed the 
House, most every one of them, with bipartisan support. These aren't 
partisan bills. They are commonsense proposals to help the middle class 
solve our country's basic problems.
  The Republican leader told the American people that under his 
leadership, the Senate would debate and vote on issues of the day no 
matter if his party supported them. Yet not one, not one of these bills 
has come to the floor of the Senate--not one. Not one has been debated 
in the Chamber. These are the bills. If the Republican leader doesn't 
love every aspect of one of these House bills, fine, we are not saying 
take them or leave them. Let's have a debate. Let's have amendments. At 
least let's try to compromise on language that can get through both 
Chambers.
  What has the Senate been doing instead? Leader McConnell has wasted 
precious time on basically two issues, ``gotcha'' votes like a stunt on 
climate change and Republicans' cynical attempts to limit women's 
reproductive health choices. The remainder has been spent on approval 
of alarmingly unqualified nominees to executive agencies in the 
judiciary.
  What are we doing this week on the calendar? Not one piece of 
legislation, just nominees. Next week could probably be more of the 
same. So over the next 2 years, the Republican Senate is in danger of 
becoming little more than a staffing agency to the administration's 
radical nominees. That is a tragedy because at the start of this 
Congress, the American people sent a clear message. They wanted us to 
work together on legislation in a bipartisan way. The American people 
voted for action: action on healthcare, action on prescription drugs, 
action on climate change, and gun safety. Poll after poll shows that 
these issues are on the minds of Americans. Substantial majorities, 
Democrats and Republicans, supported them. We cannot, simply because we 
have a divided government, allow this entire Congress to go by without 
making meaningful progress on these issues. This is not good for the 
country, certainly not good for the Senate or the Republican Party and 
the incumbents in those Chambers. The American people cannot afford to 
have Leader McConnell turn one Chamber of their government into a 
legislative graveyard for 2 full years. We hope he will realize the 
folly of this both substantively and politically, and maybe we will 
start doing some real work.