[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19822-19823]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    HOLDING UP APPROPRIATIONS BILLS

  Mr. REID. Madam President, today is the fifth anniversary--that is, 
weekly anniversary--of the attacks our Nation sustained on September 
11. These attacks fundamentally changed the legislative priorities of 
the 107th Congress. The sense of urgency which fell upon the Congress 
has required all of us--every Senator, all the leadership, committee 
chairmen--to reorder their priorities to deal with the new war-related 
demands. The necessary sacrifices have been for a greater cause.
  In addition to the war-related measures we had to undertake, the 
administration, of course, is expecting us to pass all the annual 
spending bills necessary to keep the Government operating. Regrettably, 
in the past several weeks there has been a concerted effort by some to 
prevent us from considering these measures. In fact, there are no basic 
policy differences or disagreements in these measures. They are driven 
by a desire to increase the number of judicial nominations.
  Let me say in response, the statement made yesterday by a number of 
people on the other side that the majority leader and I, when we were 
in the minority, held up legislation because of judges is simply not 
true. We made statements. The only time there was ever an effort, as I 
recall--and they talked about it yesterday--was an authorization bill, 
not an appropriations bill. In fact, we worked very hard to move 
appropriations bills. We were in the minority, but we worked very hard 
to have our Members take off holds on bills so we could move the 
appropriations bills through the process.
  We did a good job. We worked with them to pass virtually every 
appropriations bill. Senator Daschle did nothing to hold up 
appropriations bills. In fact, he worked very hard to pass them. One of 
the assignments I had from Senator Daschle was to get rid of amendments 
on appropriations bills. I worked hard to do that.
  Now, in an effort to get judicial confirmations, appropriations bills 
are being held up. I had someone tell me yesterday: We could whip right 
through these. When the time comes to complete these bills, we will do 
them quickly.
  We can't do appropriations bills quickly. It is the nature of these 
bills that they are hard. Foreign operations is always a contentious 
bill. Labor-HHS is a contentious bill. Defense appropriations is a 
contentious bill. D.C. appropriations is difficult legislation. We are 
not going to be able to whip through these bills. The time we have 
taken in these last several days waiting on motions to proceed, using 
up 30 hours, is time we could have spent on appropriations.

[[Page 19823]]

  Senator Murkowski said he will come in every day and talk about ANWR 
and the need for an energy policy. More power to him. There is a lot of 
time to come and talk because we are not doing anything that is 
constructive in nature. If he wants us to move to an energy bill, then 
he should talk to the people on his side of the aisle so that we can 
complete these appropriations bills.
  I think the President should be concerned about what is taking place. 
We have bent over backwards to be fair to the President. We are going 
to continue to be fair to the President. We are going to continue to 
move judicial nominations as quickly as we can. There is a hearing set 
this week where we are going to move five. Senator Leahy is going to 
have hearings next week, even though when the majority was on the other 
side of the aisle, they never held confirmation hearings 2 weeks in a 
row. We are going to do that because we are not going to treat them the 
way they treated us. We are going to move these nominations as quickly 
as we can.
  They believe it is a greater priority to move some judges than it is 
to do other matters now before the Senate; namely, appropriations 
bills.
  These tactics are not simply dilatory; they are obstructionist. They 
demonstrated last week that they were even willing to hold up an 
aviation security bill. We worked our way through that timewise, but it 
took a lot of extra time.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to speak 
for an additional 5 minutes and the Republicans have 5 additional 
minutes after the morning hour has terminated.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. I am wondering if we are going to be prevented from 
considering the Defense appropriations bill. I assume so. Are we going 
to be prevented from considering a Labor-HHS bill to provide funding to 
deal with, for example, bioterrorism threats? I assume so. The question 
confronting the minority is whether these tactics are worth 
confirmation of a few additional judges. I assume that is a decision 
they have made.
  People of Nevada are concerned about what we are doing to fight the 
war. They are not concerned about judges. We are going to do everything 
we can to take care of these judges. Senator Leahy has worked extremely 
hard. He will continue to do so. We are going to do all the judges we 
can.
  I am concerned. When you recognize there are no major disagreements 
on the spending bills, we have worked with the President to get the 
numbers up where we can move them out of conference. On my bill, energy 
and water, we will have a meeting at 3 o'clock today. That will 
basically be wrapped up. I am wondering if they are going to allow us 
to do the conference reports on the appropriations bills we have 
completed. I have been told no.
  These bills are important. The appropriators, the administration, and 
the budgeteers are all in agreement on the remaining bills. Holding 
them up hurts the country. It is not hurting the Democratic Senators; 
it is hurting the country.
  I am sure if we asked the Attorney General whether he wanted the bill 
funding his ability to maintain and enlarge his efforts to combat 
terrorism, he would choose that over some more judges. We could ask 
Secretary Powell whether he would want funding to improve our embassy 
security and the many other things the foreign operations bill 
addresses. Secretary Powell is now in Pakistan. I will bet there hasn't 
been a single word spoken between Secretary Powell and President 
Musharraf about how many judges we are confirming. I bet there are a 
lot of questions on what we are going to do to aid India and Pakistan 
with the problems they have.
  Would Secretary Thompson prefer a commitment for faster consideration 
of nominees over funding to allow him to better respond to the growing 
number of anthrax cases? That answer is obvious. The administration 
rightfully expects us to pass annual appropriations bills. The efforts 
by the minority to block consideration of these and other important 
measures are not only self-serving, they are self-defeating.
  We hear daily demands for consideration of an energy bill. We should 
have an energy bill. I don't know how in the world we are going to have 
the time. We have lost 2 weeks of doing anything by their holding 
things up because of judges. We cannot consider energy until the other 
measures are disposed of, and we can't dispose of those because the 
minority won't allow us.
  So it seems to me that we should be for this legislation. The fact 
that we are not moving forward with it is an answer to a question that 
has already been asked. We have a limited amount of time. We have a 
number of pieces of legislation that we must complete, and we are not 
going to be able to do them. We can only do so much. The committee can 
only do so much. We can get into all the numbers that we want. We 
believe we are treating them much better than we were treated.
  As I said yesterday, at the time we took control of the Senate, half 
of the first year was gone. Not a single confirmation hearing was held 
and not a single confirmation was considered by the majority at that 
time. We have done much better. We are going to continue to do 
everything we can to move these judges.
  I am a lawyer. I believe judges are important. I am going to do 
everything I can to move the nominations along. We can't do it with 
this hammer to our head. We are doing the best we can.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming is recognized.
  Mr. THOMAS. Madam President, what is our status?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in morning business, and 9\1/2\ 
minutes are remaining under the Senator's control.

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