[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13789-13790]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   EXTENDING THE GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 166, 
H.R. 2832.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to the bill (H.R. 2832) to extend the 
     Generalized System of Preferences, and for other purposes.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion at the desk.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The cloture motion having been 
presented under rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the 
motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 166, H.R. 2832, an act to extend the 
     Generalized System of Preferences, and for other purposes.
         Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Robert P. Casey, Jr., Mark Udall, 
           Debbie Stabenow, Jeff Bingaman, Daniel K. Inouye, Maria 
           Cantwell, Patty Murray, Richard Blumenthal, Michael F. 
           Bennet, Patrick J. Leahy, Tom Harkin, Barbara Boxer, 
           Kent Conrad, Sherrod Brown, Carl Levin.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory 
quorum required under rule XXII be waived and at 5:30 p.m., Monday, 
September 19, the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke 
cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 2832.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, first of all, I want everyone within the 
sound of my voice to understand that I do not like the Colombia Free 
Trade Agreement, the Korea Free Trade Agreement, or the Panama Free 
Trade Agreement. I will vote against them. But I have been asked on 
numerous occasions to move these trade matters to the floor.
  That is what I have agreed to do, and I am going to do that. But it 
is very difficult for me to understand, when my Republican colleagues, 
the Chamber of Commerce, and others support these trade agreements, and 
they want them done, and now when I want to move to them, I cannot do 
it. It is hard to comprehend that we have to file cloture on a motion 
to proceed to an agreement we have. The agreement we have is that we 
are going to do trade adjustment assistance, and a few other

[[Page 13790]]

stops in the middle, and then we are going to do the free trade 
agreements. Again, this is the pattern we have experienced for the last 
8 months. It doesn't matter what it is.
  This is something they agreed with. We are attempting to move to the 
free trade agreements and they are stopping us from doing that.
  I hope the American people get the picture, and I am confident they 
are getting the picture more clearly every day. There isn't a thing we 
can bring up here that they don't stall to the very limit of the 
procedures here. Again, we are going to move to the free trade 
agreements. The first part of the deal is trade adjustment assistance. 
We have to invoke cloture to do this. I think that is a travesty and it 
is too bad.

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