[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6368]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 SBIR/STTR REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2011

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, what is the pending business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. S. 493, which the clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 493) to reauthorize and improve the SBIR and 
     STTR programs, and for other purposes.

  Pending:

       Vitter amendment No. 178, to require the Federal Government 
     to sell off unused Federal real property.
       Cornyn amendment No. 186, to establish a bipartisan 
     commission for the purpose of improving oversight and 
     eliminating wasteful government spending.
       Paul amendment No. 199, to cut $200,000,000,000 in spending 
     in fiscal year 2011.
       Sanders modified amendment No. 207, to express the sense of 
     the Senate that Social Security benefits for current and 
     future beneficiaries should not be cut and that the Social 
     Security program should not be privatized as part of any 
     legislation to reduce the Federal deficit.
       Hutchison amendment No. 197, to delay the implementation of 
     the health reform law in the United States until there is 
     final resolution in pending lawsuits.
       Pryor amendment No. 229, to establish the Patriot Express 
     Loan Program under which the Small Business Administration 
     may make loans to members of the military community wanting 
     to start or expand small business concerns.
       Landrieu (for Cardin) amendment No. 240, to reinstate the 
     increase in the surety bond guarantee limits for the Small 
     Business Administration.
       Landrieu (for Snowe) amendment No. 253, to prevent fraud in 
     small business contracting.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, at the beginning of this Congress, we 
entered into an agreement with the minority. One of the things we 
wanted to do was to make sure there was a process for allowing 
amendments to bills. We have had the small business jobs bill on the 
calendar for weeks. I believe this is the fifth week this bill has been 
around. We have had votes on a lot of amendments. But each time we 
think we can see the way to closure, my friends on the other side of 
the aisle come forward with other amendments, making it impossible for 
us to move forward on this bill that creates jobs. It is a jobs bill.
  I do not know how much more good faith we can show than what we have 
shown. Before the recess, we had, I think, nine amendments. We said: 
OK, let's vote on these. Senator Snowe from Maine objected because she 
wanted to have a vote on a bill on which the chairman of the Small 
Business Committee said there had not even been a hearing.
  We spent days working on an agreement to have votes on amendments to 
the small business bill to get us closer to passage. Included in this 
agreement was a Cornyn amendment having absolutely nothing--no 
relevance--nothing being germane to this bill. We had one from Senator 
Hutchison--same thing--dealing with health care. It has nothing to do 
with this legislation that is before the Senate.
  We had all kinds of amendments. Very few had anything to do with the 
subject matter of the legislation. During the course of many weeks of 
debating the bill, we made efforts to accommodate Senator Snowe and the 
rest of the Republicans on amendments, but there has been no way of 
ending this, so we are going to file cloture tonight.
  We had a vote on another amendment offered by Senator Snowe. She has 
already had one vote on this amendment, as well as multiple Republican 
amendments, nearly all of which, I repeat, have nothing to do with this 
underlying bill.
  In light of the accommodation of extraneous amendments, it is 
difficult for me to understand why we cannot finish debate on this 
bill. But, obviously, the Republicans feel differently. We have been 
more than fair. We should be able to reach agreement on considering the 
remaining amendments and voting on final passage, but that is not what 
the Republican leader said is going to happen. I am sure he will tell 
his Senators we need more amendments and will vote to not allow cloture 
to take place.
  There is only a limited amount of time we can spend on this 
legislation. We believe jobs is the key to what we do in the Senate. 
That is why I worked hard to get the FAA bill done and a bill dealing 
with patents, to get that bill done, because they create about 750,000, 
800,000 jobs. This bill would create thousands of jobs. But I guess my 
friends on the other side of the aisle are more interested in messages 
than they are trying to get something done that will be good for the 
American people. So I have to file cloture on this bill.
  I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. 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 Calendar No. 17, S. 
     493, the SBIR and STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011.
         Harry Reid, Mary L. Landrieu, John F. Kerry, Robert P. 
           Casey, Jr., Michael F. Bennet, Al Franken, Jon Tester, 
           Patrick J. Leahy, Carl Levin, Tom Harkin, Charles E. 
           Schumer, Jack Reed, Maria Cantwell, Kirsten E. 
           Gillibrand, Benjamin L. Cardin, Bill Nelson, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Ron Wyden.

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