[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19743-19745]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            SENATE BUSINESS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, last week the Senate continued demonstrating 
its resolve to move forward in a bipartisan manner, following on the 
footsteps of the resolution allowing force,

[[Page 19744]]

the $40 billion for New York-related matters, moneys that were made 
available, and the airline bailout, costing billions of additional 
dollars, plus legislation which allowed relief for those people who 
were injured physically and killed in that incident. Last week we moved 
even further; we passed a very strong aviation security bill and 
extremely tough antiterrorism legislation. I believe this sends a 
strong message to those who are watching our Nation's response to the 
attacks of September 11.
  Everywhere I go--and I am sure it is the same with the President pro 
tempore and my friend from Alaska who is in the Chamber--people are 
amazed and appreciative of the bipartisanship that has been shown these 
past 5 weeks. People all over America--Nevada is no exception--hope we 
can maintain this bipartisanship and pass legislation that is good for 
this country.
  If there is legislation that passes that is good, everyone can take 
credit for that, but if we do not pass legislation that is necessary 
for the well-being of this country, everyone rightfully has to take 
blame for that.
  We as Democrats are working closely with the President to provide our 
military with the support it needs to fight this war against terrorism. 
We are working with our Republican colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle. We are proceeding with the proper amount of caution and purpose, 
but we are meeting our obligation to complete our work in an orderly 
manner. I hope that can continue this week.
  The reason I say that is we are voting at 5:30 p.m. today on 
something I think is totally unnecessary. We are trying to move forward 
and complete our appropriations bills. We have an extremely important 
piece of legislation. It is the foreign operations appropriations bill 
that funds our involvement in the world. It is one of the 13 
appropriations bills. We were unable to move to that last week. We had 
to file a cloture motion on a motion to proceed to the legislation.
  That is just wrong, and to the people who are causing us to go 
through these procedural hoops to get to this legislation, I have to 
say respectfully, it is not good for this country. Why are they not 
allowing us to go forward on this most important legislation? Because 
they say we are not approving enough judges.
  Senator Leahy, who is an outstanding Member of this Senate--there is 
not a better patriot anyplace in America than Pat Leahy--working with 
the ranking member, Orrin Hatch, has been working very hard. 
Antiterrorism legislation has taken up every spare minute they have 
had, but in spite of that, they also have been able to report out some 
judges.
  Maybe it is not enough. I am willing to accept maybe it is not 
enough, but work with us and let's get some more done.
  What we could have said was we were not going to have any more judges 
until you allowed us to go forward on these appropriations bills. We 
have not done that. Whenever judges are ready to move through the 
Senate, we approve them. We approved two last week. More are going to 
be ready this week. We are going to approve those judges in spite of 
what I believe is a wrongheaded legislative tactic on behalf of some 
people in the minority.
  We have to complete action on these annual appropriations bills. 
There is no more reassuring message we can send to the American people 
than to pass these bills.
  Now, more than ever, people are turning to government, especially the 
Federal Government, for assurances that we are ready to respond to 
anything. Certainly we should be able to do the basic things this 
Government has to do every year; that is, pass these appropriations 
bills. Keeping our Government open and running can only be accomplished 
with the passage of these appropriations bills. To not act on these 
bills now is irresponsible. We are trying to be responsible.
  The Presiding Officer is the chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee. It is a distinct honor to be chairman of that Appropriations 
Committee, no question, but there is no one in the United States who 
has more knowledge of the legislative process than the President pro 
tempore. I cannot imagine how he must feel in that we are not able to 
move forward on these appropriations bills--held up over somebody 
thinking we are not approving enough judges.
  The American people have a lot of problems on their minds right now, 
but I bet there are very few who are concerned about us not having more 
judges. I have yet to have anybody from Nevada say: Could you get us 
some more judges? And Nevada is the most rapidly growing State in the 
Nation. We have two judges who are in the pipeline. They are going to 
be approved, Mr. President. I am not worried about it.
  My two friends are going to be judges: Mr. Hicks and Judge Mayhan. 
They are going to be approved. These people are not doing those two men 
any favors by holding up these appropriations bills.
  Secretary Powell, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Thompson, and 
Attorney General Ashcroft are not worrying about whether there are 
enough judges. Some believe this is our way to get us some more judges.
  Senator Daschle, the majority leader, and I have said on many 
occasions, this is not payback time as to the fact we did not get many 
judges. We are approving the judges as quickly as we can. I am sure 
there was more that could have been done in the Judiciary Committee. 
Maybe Senator Leahy and Senator Hatch should have set aside some of the 
antiterrorism work they were doing and moved on some of these judges. 
As one of my children would say: Give us a break; we are doing our 
best. This is not good government. I hope we can move forward on at 
least a motion to proceed today so we can get this legislation out of 
the way.
  I see my friend--as I have said a couple times today--from Alaska. I 
am sure, if I know him, he is going to be talking about energy policy. 
There is not a chance we can do any energy legislation until we finish 
our appropriations bills. Senator Daschle has said he will at the 
earliest possible time move to energy, but we cannot do that until we 
finish our appropriations work. We have conferences we have to 
complete. We have bills we have to pass.
  We have some complicated bills. We have the Defense appropriations 
bill, Labor-HHS. When they come to the floor, we cannot finish those in 
an hour. These are very difficult bills involving billions and billions 
of dollars. All we are saying to those who are holding this legislation 
up because of judges: Let us do our work.
  We have matched circuit judges who were approved during the first 
Clinton administration. We can prove anything with statistics. They can 
prove anything with statistics; we can prove anything with statistics.
  All I am saying is, as a matter of common sense, let us move forward 
on appropriations bills. There is a time and a place for everything. I 
do not think this is the time to hold up legislation because we are not 
moving enough judges. We are moving judges. As I said before, we are 
moving all the judges we can clear. We could have held those back, but 
we are not doing that. We are moving forward. This is not the time to 
horse trade on judges. This is the time to keep our Government open and 
running, not on a week-to-week basis, but get it done for the next 
year.
  The public deserves to see stability and responsiveness from its 
elected leaders. Passing appropriations bills in an orderly manner 
sends just that message.
  I hope we can move forward with other appropriations bills. We could 
finish foreign operations maybe tonight or tomorrow. Certainly we 
should move forward. We have to do an agricultural appropriations bill. 
We have many people coming from the heartland of this country who are 
extremely desperate to get a new agricultural bill. We cannot do that 
until we finish the appropriations bills.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator from Nevada yield for a 
question?
  Mr. REID. I will be happy to yield to my friend from North Dakota for 
a question.

[[Page 19745]]


  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, the Senator from Nevada talks about the 
importance of moving the appropriations bills. I observe the deadline 
for the appropriations bills was October 1. The deadline was October 1, 
and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee and the ranking member 
have done everything humanly possible to try to move these bills, and 
yet we discover we cannot even get past the motion to proceed on an 
appropriations bill, which is just unthinkable to me.
  Is it not the case we had to break a filibuster on the motion to 
proceed not just on appropriations bills but even on the aviation 
security bill and the bill before that?
  This is not a time to be having filibusters on motions to proceed. 
Will the Senator from Nevada agree with that?
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The time of the Senator from Nevada has 
expired.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent to have time to answer my friend's 
question.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. How much time?
  Mr. REID. Two minutes.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the Senator is 
recognized for 2 minutes.
  Mr. REID. I also express my appreciation to my friend from Alaska for 
allowing me to proceed.
  I say to my friend from North Dakota, the distinguished Senator, this 
is not the time to play legislative games. Yes, it is true that to move 
forward on airport security we had to break a filibuster. Hard to 
believe, but that is true.
  I stated, before the Senator arrived, that I believe the majority has 
set an example of bipartisanship. Senator Daschle has gone out of his 
way to work with the President of the United States. They have 
developed a very fine relationship. They talk several times a day on 
this country's business. I think the very least we could do is move 
forward on the appropriations bills.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for one additional 
question?
  Mr. REID. I will be happy to yield.
  Mr. DORGAN. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, let me say 
there is no more bipartisan committee in the Congress than the Senate 
Appropriations Committee. These are Republicans and Democrats working 
together in a very significant way. It is completely bipartisan in its 
culture, and I am proud to be a part of that.
  I am proud to be on the Appropriations Committee. It is just 
disappointing that the appropriations bills Senator Byrd and Senator 
Stevens have helped us fashion can now not be brought to the floor 
because of people blocking the motion to proceed. That does not serve 
the Senate's interests, and it does not serve the country's interests. 
My hope is those who are blocking this will decide that they should 
step aside and allow us to do the Appropriations Committee's work. It 
is very important we do that. It is important for us, and it is 
certainly important for the country.
  I appreciate the Senator from Nevada yielding.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.

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