[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5597-5600]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, it is my understanding we are now in 
morning business. I ask if there is a time constraint when making 
speeches.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Senators are limited, under morning business, 
to 10 minutes each.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Thank you, Mr. President. We are facing a moment in 
the issue that all Americans are looking at and wondering: What is 
happening here? What is going to come about? What are we going to do?
  But I wish to remind everyone, in 1773, a tea party was held in 
Boston Harbor. It was to protest a yoke of oppression that hobbled the 
start of freedom in our new Nation and that new

[[Page 5598]]

Americans wanted removed. Those here then wanted the liberty to choose 
their own customs and their way of life.
  While that was 238 years ago, we again struggle to keep a fringe 
group from taking away the rights of a majority of American citizens 
who treasure choices they are free to make in our democracy. Although 
these attacks are marked in the cloak of fiscal responsibility, it is 
very clear that this group, unlike our forebears, is determined to 
restrict the freedoms most Americans choose to protect.
  So while we are not latter-day Paul Reveres, we sound the alarm for 
the American people to beware. I come to the floor to warn every parent 
and grandparent to beware for the well-being of your loved ones. If you 
want your children and your grandchildren to have the best health care 
American research can produce, beware.
  If your chest swells with pride when your 2-year-old repeats numbers 
or words learned at a Federal Head Start schoolhouse, beware.
  If your child suffers when toxic air overwhelms them and they are 
gasping for a breath of fresh air, beware. Look at your family, and if 
you have a son or a daughter anxious, ready, and able to go to college 
and you cannot afford to help, beware.
  If you are a woman dependent on Planned Parenthood, where every year 
women receive tests for breast or cervical cancer that could endanger 
their health and maybe their lives, beware.
  If you are a retiree who believes Medicare is freely available to 
help you live longer or function better, beware. Watch out. Tea party 
Republicans have seized control of the House of Representatives and 
will use their power to eliminate current services to children, adults, 
and retirees from the government, as promised.
  They are continuing to brew a toxic tea, a sleight of hand trick to 
push pain on America's most vulnerable citizens, as we look at this 
placard: ``House GOP Brewing a Toxic Tea for Americans.''
  Across our country, millions are worried sick about losing jobs, 
losing homes, and losing an established way of life for their 
children's futures. What do the tea party Republicans propose? Cut 
their programs to protect the wealth of the richest among us. But tea 
party Republicans do not want to solve problems. Instead, they are 
trying to use the budget process to push an extreme ideology that they 
believe is the only way others should live their lives. Do it their way 
or no way.
  They are willing to shut down the government to prove a point, to 
change the condition we have operated so well under for many years. 
They are willing to sacrifice America's financial standing to impose 
their extreme views on millions who do not agree with these radical 
extremists.
  They refuse to step up, compromise, and move ahead, so America can 
continue leading the world as it has been. The President and the Senate 
Democrats have come to the negotiating table with a responsible plan 
that protects our country's fragile economy, economic recovery, and 
invests in our future.
  But the toxic tea Republicans in the House would rather recklessly 
shut down the government than budge off their foul scheme. Last week, 
they stood outside the Capitol and chanted: ``Shut it down. Shut it 
down.'' That was their mantra, shut down the government.
  When Speaker Boehner told them to prepare for a shutdown, they gave 
him an ovation. That is where they stand: Cut it off. Cut off the 
health America needs to maintain some financial leadership. These are 
elected lawmakers who are supposed to guard our government, not kill 
it.
  They want to deceive our people, talking about arithmetic and 
accounting, but that is not their real aim. Their aim is to have the 
government decide what is right or wrong in people's homes and families 
so they can govern others' behavior. Make no mistake. They do not care 
if their cuts hurt children. They have shown that all along. They want 
to chase more than 200,000 children out of Head Start, where children 
learn how to learn, and modest-income families have no other way to 
provide that education.
  We see it on this placard: ``House Republicans Hold Back 218,000 Head 
Start Kids.'' That is not going to help our country in the future. Tea 
party Republicans ignore the fact that children who attend Head Start 
have higher test scores and are more likely to graduate from high 
school and go on to college.
  They should visit Head Start classrooms to see those little ones. 
Maybe their tough hearts will mellow instead of just saying: No. Sorry. 
With American wealth, we cannot help you.
  But Head Start is only a beginning. Look at what tea party 
Republicans want to do to higher education. They want to reduce Pell 
grants, which help millions of Americans go to college. Do they not 
understand they are not just saying no to hard-working young students, 
they are also saying no to American employers, telling them: Too bad 
our country does not have the skilled workers. Ship those jobs overseas 
or bring foreigners here. They will work for much less anyway.
  They are saying no to the millions of hard-working parents who dream 
of seeing their kids living better than their parents because they 
received a college education. This chart tells a tragic story about the 
opportunities for smart kids who depend on Pell grants to afford 
college. Look at what it says: ``As College Costs Rise, House GOP Slash 
Pell Grants.'' We can see it here. Rising tuition and less help is the 
way they would like to see America go.
  Do we want to force students to take on more debt in order to attend 
college or kick them off our country's campuses altogether?
  I learned the value of a government investment in college education 
firsthand. I attended Columbia University on the GI bill after serving 
in the Army during 1944 and 1945. Later, I cofounded ADP. That is one 
of America's most successful companies, now employing 45,000 people. 
America built the ``Greatest Generation'' by enabling 8 million 
veterans to attend college free for their service in wartime.
  Even as we currently continue losing lives in wars that have also 
injured thousands, they are willing to shut down the government, no 
matter what, if it takes away a payday for soldiers on the battlefield.
  The assault on our children's future does not end there. The tea 
party Republicans want to cripple our ability to provide the clean air 
our people need to breathe without fear by eliminating the Clean Air 
Act, putting polluter's profits ahead of our children's health.
  It is an outrageous assault on a landmark law that the Supreme Court 
ruled on in 2007, that it is the government's responsibility to protect 
children from toxic chemicals in the air and illnesses such as asthma, 
lung cancer, among other life-threatening diseases.
  I wish our GOP colleagues would be straight with the millions of 
parents who are concerned about their children's health and explain why 
tea partiers are asking families to be patient and maybe their children 
will outgrow asthma.
  One of my grandsons suffers from this disease. He is an athletic 
child, and every time he goes to a soccer game, my daughter first 
checks to see where the closest emergency room is. No parent should 
have to worry about their children playing outside.
  Look at this picture. Soot is ugly when it is pouring from a 
smokestack, but it is even uglier inside a child's lungs.
  Tea party Republicans say you can not restrict polluters with 
regulations because it is too cumbersome.
  By their logic, we should rid ourselves of traffic signals, too. 
Those red lights are a real inconvenience.
  And while we are at it, maybe our Republican colleagues would like us 
to get government bureaucrats out of the air traffic control towers.
  Can anyone believe the Republicans are going after medical research, 
at the same time?
  The National Institutes of Health are making strides in fighting 
childhood diseases. But the Republicans want to reduce NIH's ability to 
do research by taking $1 billion of their budget.
  That is funding that could find a cure for childhood cancer or just 
maybe

[[Page 5599]]

identify the cause of autism or other autoimmune diseases.
  If the government shuts down, NIH will have to stop admitting new 
patients for 640 clinical trials, 60 of which involve children with 
cancer.
  And what about the toxic tea Republicans are trying to serve to 
women? Willing to put women at risk with their health.
  They want to wipe out Planned Parenthood, one of the Nation's leading 
providers of health services for women.
  Disadvantaged women turn to Planned Parenthood for family planning 
services, breast exams and cervical cancer screenings.
  And make no mistake: Cancer screenings save lives.
  Since the 1950s, cervical cancer screenings have cut mortality rates 
by more than 70 percent.
  So why would we want to take cancer screenings away from women?
  But it is not just women's health at risk, health care for America's 
seniors and retirees is also on the tea party Republicans' chopping 
block.
  They just revealed a scheme to end Medicare as we know it by turning 
it into a voucher program.
  The problem is, when your voucher runs out, you will have to dig into 
your own pocket to pay for health care.
  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office could not have been 
clearer this week when it reported ``Under [this] proposal, most 
elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay 
under the current Medicare system.''
  Is this what America wants, forcing seniors to spend more on medicine 
and treatment, and get less in return?
  The bottom line is the Republican leaders in the House should stop 
the toxic tea lawmakers from hijacking the deficit debate.
  We cannot allow them to ``ransom'' Head Start, the Clean Air Act, 
Planned Parenthood and Medicare.
  We cannot negotiate away the health and well-being of America's 
children, women and seniors.
  This is not how we solve our financial problems.
  I was a CEO for many years, and I know that you cannot run a company, 
or a country, without sufficient revenues.
  I voted last year to end the Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent of 
wage earners because I know windfalls for the wealthy will not 
guarantee jobs, reduce the deficit or help us invest in our future.
  I am one of the most fortunate people on Earth, and it is time for 
those of us who have been fortunate to pay our fair share.
  So I call on every Member of Congress to reject the toxic tea that 
the House Republicans want to serve America's most vulnerable citizens.
  Let's protect the future of our country, not poison it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I rise today, as the Federal Government 
is on the verge of a government shutdown, in the hope that both sides 
will come together and pass a resolution which not only keeps the 
government functioning but also fully funds our troops for the 
remainder of the fiscal year and enables the troops to have the support 
they deserve. It is not sensible--it is not practical; it is not 
morally defensible--to send our troops to fight for us in Afghanistan 
and Iraq and now in Libya without giving them the resources they 
deserve. They should not have to worry about their loved ones back 
home, whether they will be able to meet their rent payments, make their 
mortgage payments, put food on their tables, while they are fighting 
for our country.
  I find it extraordinary that our President, the Commander in Chief, 
has issued a veto threat on the troop funding bill passed in the House 
yesterday and on the calendar in the Senate today. Looking at the 
Statement of Administration Policy, the President doesn't talk about 
concerns over the legislation, doesn't talk about concerns over the 
spending or the riders, he simply says:

       This bill is a distraction from the real work that would 
     bring us closer to a reasonable compromise.

  I am not quite sure what that means except by not stating any 
objections to the legislation other than saying it is a distraction, it 
is not responsible for our troops and our military. To be honest, I am 
far less concerned that passing this bill will be a distraction to the 
Congress and to the President than I am concerned that not passing the 
bill will be a distraction to those troops who are putting their lives 
on the line for us overseas every day.
  As we all know, we should not be having this discussion. We are 
talking about funding for this fiscal year only because the Senate and 
the House of Representatives last year didn't get their work done. In 
fact, for the first time since 1974, when the Budget Act was made law, 
the Congress did not pass a budget in either House. That is why we are 
here. That is why the continuing resolutions are necessary, these so-
called short-term measures. It is too bad, because Congress not getting 
their work done last year means we have to clean up the mess this year 
when we should be focused on a much bigger issue.
  My colleague just talked about some of his concerns about the 
spending reductions in H.R. 1. I remind us that not having gotten our 
work done last year, we are also facing the biggest deficit in the 
history of the country and a debt that is unprecedented, over $14 
trillion. If we are truly worried about our kids and grandkids and the 
next generation, we have to focus on that.
  For today, what we are talking about is something very simple. It is 
just to pass a short-term measure to keep government in operation and 
to provide funding for the troops. I hope we can do that today. We are 
talking about actually a relatively small part of the bigger problem. 
Even adding up all of the spending reductions in H.R. 1, it is less 
than 2 percent of our Federal budget at a time when our Federal budget 
deficit is over 40 percent.
  So what we are debating today in the Senate and what is being 
negotiated behind closed doors in the Congress and at the White House 
is such a small part of the issue.
  But here we are. So what do we do to make things better, not make 
them worse? The short-term measure the House has already passed 
yesterday is unfortunately the only thing we can agree on today 
because, given the process of this place, the House and the Senate, it 
is the only option we have to move things forward. We need to send it 
to the President while we are working on longer term legislation. 
Again, it does provide for our troops, which is incredibly important to 
us at this time with three wars and so much concern and anxiety among 
the military. This measure would reduce nondefense discretionary budget 
authority by about $13 billion, again while funding the military fully 
for the rest of the year.
  Many of these reductions were included in the President's budget and 
are not particularly controversial. In terms of actual outlays, it 
reduces nondefense spending by $3.9 billion. In the context of our 
overall Federal budget, that is .1 percent. So we are talking about a 
.1-percent spending adjustment for the rest of the fiscal year. Yet we 
still can't seem to get together to fund our troops and keep the 
government open. Some call that .1 percent extreme. We just heard some 
of that. I don't think it is extreme. I think it is only a very small 
step we have to take, if we are truly concerned about the future for 
the next generation and concerned about our economy. If we don't get 
this record deficit and this debt that is growing out of control under 
control, it will continue to harm the economy today and our prospects 
for getting this economy back on track in the future.
  Let's allow these negotiations to continue. In the meantime, let's 
fund the troops and avoid the unnecessary disruption of a government 
shutdown. We can do that right now as a body by passing the legislation 
the House passed yesterday, send it to the President for signature, and 
take care of our fighting men and women for the rest of this year and 
keep the government from shutting down.
  I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

[[Page 5600]]


  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I have long believed we have to be 
serious about the deficit, and I was 1 of about 14 Senators who held 
back their vote on the debt ceiling last year to make sure we actually 
created the fiscal commission, which did very good work this year. That 
work is being taken by a small group of Democratic and Republican 
Senators to come up with long-term solutions for the debt. I strongly 
believe that is what we have to do. I also believe we have a 
responsibility to govern.
  Allowing a shutdown when we are this close in negotiations, when a 
number has been agreed upon and all it comes down to is a disagreement 
on politics, is just wrong. What makes this situation so troubling is 
that we have reached this standstill not over dollars at its essence 
but over politics that I don't believe have a place in the debate.
  With a bipartisan deal within reach, it would be irresponsible to 
shut down the government and punish our constituents solely to score 
political points. This impending shutdown has broad consequences. While 
we have now seen 13 straight months of private sector job growth, 
adding 1.8 million jobs in that time, the economy is still fragile. 
Everyone knows that in their own States. Too many Americans continue to 
struggle.
  According to an analysis from Goldman Sachs, a government shutdown 
will cost the economy around $8 billion per year or nearly .2 percent 
of GDP for each week of the shutdown, all because of a disagreement 
over social issues not over dollars--because last night there was 
actually agreement on the dollars.
  Economists and business leaders agree that a government shutdown at 
this time will hurt our recovery, hurt businesses, and slow economic 
growth. Even Speaker Boehner has admitted it will cost more than it 
saves.
  If a shutdown were to occur, the Small Business Administration would 
cease to process applications for business loan guarantees, curtailing 
lending to small businesses already squeezed by tight credit markets. 
Last year the Small Business Administration supported more than $212 
billion in lending to small businesses through its two largest loan 
programs. At these levels we would see over $400 million a week in 
small business lending put on hold because of a shutdown.
  Our government also provides vital support for businesses seeking to 
export their products and services and conducting business abroad. The 
U.S. Commercial Service, a part of the Department of Commerce's 
International Trade Administration, has offices and embassies and 
consulates in over 80 countries worldwide and utilizes its global 
network of trade professionals to connect U.S. companies with 
international buyers. Every year they help thousands of U.S. companies 
export goods and services worth billions of dollars.
  If the Federal Government shuts down, these services will end and 
sales and contracts will be lost. If we look at the shutdown in 1995, 
we can see evidence of how damaging a disruption of services like these 
can be. During that shutdown, approximately $2.2 billion in U.S. 
exports couldn't leave the country because the Department of State and 
the Bureau of Export Administration were unable to issue export 
licenses.
  Finally, I wish to make a point about visas since I chair the 
Subcommittee on Export Promotion, Competitiveness and Innovation, which 
includes tourism. During the last shutdown, approximately 20,000 to 
30,000 applications by foreigners for foreign tourist visas were 
unprocessed each day, and the U.S. tourist industries and airlines 
reportedly sustained millions of dollars in losses. With the average 
foreign visitor spending over $4,000 per visit, it is easy to see how 
fast these losses add up for businesses. These are just a few examples, 
but the sum total will be much greater.
  I am on a bill with Senator Casey and Senator Hutchison to continue 
funding our troops. Of course, we will do that; of course, they should 
get their paychecks. But let's look at what this shutdown would do on a 
day-to-day basis to provide some perspective.
  In northwestern Minnesota, volunteers are taking time off from their 
jobs and from school to help fill sand bags and build temporary levees 
as we watch the Red River of the north rise to its eventual crest. The 
flood fight takes all hands on deck in North Dakota and Minnesota, with 
local, State, and Federal Government working together to protect these 
communities. Earlier this week, to help in this fight, Governor Dayton 
declared a state of emergency for 46 Minnesota counties. North Dakota 
has also been declared a state of emergency.
  FEMA has said it will have all the resources it would need to 
maintain its capabilities during a shutdown. However, if the Federal 
Government closes its doors, FEMA will not be able to process in a 
timely manner paperwork and applications that Minnesotans will be 
submitting for assistance once the waters recede. I have been through 
these flood fights before. The whole community comes together. The 
whole community fights that flood. They take days and days and days. 
Some of them have lost their houses, and they are still out there 
helping their fellow citizens. I see that and I wonder to myself: And 
we in this body and in this Congress can't come together when we are 
this close, when there actually was agreement on a number last night. 
We can't come together while these volunteers across the Red River are 
coming together on a flood fight? That is absurd.
  I urge my colleagues who are holding this up to reconsider their all-
or-nothing stance so we can move forward with the real work that must 
be done. A setback now would simply prevent the growth needed to 
address our country's long-term fiscal imbalances.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to add 4 
additional minutes to my 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________