[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4992]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Infrastructure

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today, the Democratic leader appears to 
be intent on calling a vote he knows will fail. For several weeks now, 
Republican and Democratic Senators have been working together, trying 
to assemble a bipartisan package for our Nation's infrastructure.
  It is an important and a complex subject. They are talking about big 
projects and big sums of money. They are still talking, still working, 
still negotiating in good faith across the aisle. But these discussions 
have yet to conclude. There is no outcome yet, no bipartisan agreement, 
no text, nothing for the Congressional Budget Office to evaluate, and, 
certainly, nothing on which to vote, not yet.
  So, obviously, if the Democratic leader tries to force a cloture vote 
on a bill that does not exist, it will fail.
  Around here, we typically write the bills before we vote on them. 
That is the custom. Of course, here in the Senate, a failed cloture 
vote does not mean no forever.
  In the middle of the early COVID crisis, back in March of 2020, with 
Americans under stay-home orders and financial markets plummeting, 
Senate Democrats withheld cloture on the CARES Act multiple times so 
they could continue haggling behind the scenes.
  Now, this was during a real emergency. Every day, every hour, was 
crucial. But Senate Democrats blocked cloture multiple times until 
various details were fine-tuned to their liking.
  Here is what the Democratic leader said while his side tanked those 
cloture votes last March--March of 2020:

       The Majority Leader was well aware of how this vote would 
     go before it happened, but he chose to move forward with it 
     anyway, even though negotiations are continuing. So who is 
     playing games?

  That was the Democratic leader in March of 2020, in the middle of a 
national emergency.
  That, of course, was a fast-moving global crisis, with bipartisan 
text already in hand. There was a bill. Yet Senate Democrats insisted 
on taking their time in the middle of this national 100-year pandemic. 
Now, we are talking about long-term infrastructure investments that 
will play out over many years, but he wants to vote before any 
agreement even exists.
  So this stunt is set to fail. The Democratic leader will be free to 
change his vote and move to reconsider whenever a bipartisan product 
actually exists.