[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15890-15900]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           DEFAULT PREVENTION ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. I move to proceed to Calendar No. 211, S. 1569, the debt 
limit bill.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 211, S. 1569, a bill to 
     ensure the complete and timely payment of the obligations of 
     the United States Government until December 31, 2014.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 to 
allow for weekly caucus meetings.
  There are productive negotiations going on with the Republican 
leader. I am confident we will be able to reach a compromise agreement 
this week in time to avert a catastrophic default on the Nation's 
bills. The Republican leader and I will keep our Members informed as to 
how negotiations are going.
  I express my appreciation to everyone for their patience.


                       Reservation of Leader Time

  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the leadership 
time is reserved. Under the previous order, Senators are permitted to 
speak for up to 10 minutes each.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the distinguished Presiding Officer is, 
like myself, a New Englander and knows what fall is like in our part of 
the country. Late last month, I was fortunate to enjoy the most lovely 
settings I think can be found anywhere at any time, as Vermont's 
hillsides are painted orange, yellow, and red by peak fall colors set 
against powder blue skies. Vermonters love these sublime few weeks. We 
happily welcome visitors around the United States. Actually, we welcome 
visitors from around the world. It is interesting to walk down the 
streets in some of our cities and hear several different languages 
being spoken as visitors come here. They share the experience, and they 
hike and bike and fish, and they hunt in our extensive preserved 
natural areas.
  But these best of times have become the worst of times, as Vermonters 
and visitors alike have found closed signs on their favorite natural 
areas due to the tea party shutdown of the Federal Government. The 
window is quickly closing in Vermont for the Fish and Wildlife 
biologists and national forest rangers who have work that must be done 
before the first snow falls. We know how Washington can close down for 
an inch or two of snow. In Vermont, we are talking about 10, 15, or 20 
inches of snow. These Fish and Wildlife biologists and national forest 
rangers' schedules are dictated by the changing seasons and the 
biological clocks of nature. The House Republican leadership has been 
no more able to undo the law of the land--which is the Affordable Care 
Act--than they would be able to slow or stop Vermont's changing 
seasons.
  Insisting on tying a repeal or a defunding of the Affordable Care Act 
to reopening the government is doing real and lasting damage to 
Vermont's economy and natural resources as fall quickly becomes winter.
  The 26,000-acre Nulhegan national wildlife refuge in Vermont's 
Northeast Kingdom is among the best upland bird hunting areas in New 
England. There is plenty of room for everyone, but just days after the 
opening of grouse season, the refuge has been forced to hang up a 
closed sign and lock its gates. This has dealt a blow to the tourism 
economy of the small towns around the refuge that depend on these 
annual visitors and hunters.
  The Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge on the shores of Lake 
Champlain is, without a doubt, the best and most extensive freshwater 
duck habitat in New England. Huge meadows of wild rice attract 
thousands of migrating waterfowl and legions of bird watchers and 
hunters. Even with the fall migrations in full swing, the Missisquoi 
National Wildlife Refuge has hung up a closed sign and locked its gates 
for the start of the fall hunting season.
  Hikers looking for the best panoramic views of Vermont's fall colors 
flock to the Appalachian Trail and Vermont's Long Trail which run 
together up the spine of the Green Mountains, through the 400,000-acre 
Green Mountain National Forest. Through-hikers, weekenders, and day 
trippers spread out to enjoy hundreds of miles of trails. But only a 
skeleton crew of forest rangers and fire crew remain on the job. 
Visitors centers and restrooms are closed; even volunteer workers have 
been pulled from the trail and forced to stop shelter work and trash 
collection at trailheads because of the tea party shutdown.
  These may not seem like huge matters in the national scheme of 
things, but in a State of 600,000 people they are major. Not only are 
the livelihoods of Vermonters being devastated, but the things that we 
cherish the most about our State are being denied to people who want to 
come and see them.
  Woodstock, VT, is the quintessential New England village and host to 
the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. The 
centerpiece of the park is the oldest sustainably managed forest in the 
United States. It is a beautiful forest. But visitors are denied access 
to this forest in all of its fall glory. Long-planned events at the 
park have been canceled and the gates have been locked.
  Certainly there are many more places for visitors to enjoy--this has 
been a wonderful picture-perfect season. I am told by my friends and 
neighbors who live near our home in Vermont that it has been absolutely 
gorgeous. As much as I love all my colleagues and enjoy being with 
them, I

[[Page 15891]]

would much rather be up there seeing the same view as Vermonters are. 
But the closing of our Federal lands, just as hunting seasons begin and 
the hillsides shine, is depriving Americans from experiencing the 
country's natural heritage and causing serious economic damage to the 
small towns, and the innkeepers and guides who depend upon these areas 
for their living. Foreign tourists, increasingly important to our 
economy, and their tour operators, are confused and disappointed by 
these outcomes. They say: this sort of thing has never happened in our 
country and yet you are the wealthiest and most powerful country on the 
earth; why are you doing this?
  Other conservation work is being curtailed, as well, in ways likely 
to do lasting damage. Control of parasitic sea lamprey in Lake 
Champlain has to be accomplished each fall to protect the game fish and 
threatened species. There is a very short window when the sea lamprey 
treatments can be applied before these parasites migrate from the 
rivers to the lake. That window is fast closing. It is going to be 
missed if U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists remain on furlough. 
If these fall treatments do not take place, thousands of young sea 
lamprey will be allowed to reach the lake, where they are immune to 
treatment, live for years, and devastate the fishery. This will undo 
years of work, and taxpayer dollars invested in this program will be 
wasted by a small group of radical obstructionists who jump in front of 
the cameras and say things that make no sense at all.
  In Vermont and across the country, there is a lot of work that needs 
to take place on Federal lands before winter snows sweep in. 
Snowmobiling is very popular among my constituents. It is a mainstay of 
our winter economy. But fall is the time the trails are graded and 
bridges repaired. Our most important trail networks are on Federal 
lands, and important maintenance is being delayed--deferred in some 
cases--due to the tea party shutdown. If trails are not opened before 
the snow flies, the devastating impact on tourism and local communities 
is going to last all winter long and impact people who want to go to 
work every day, who are hard-working, honest, good people who can't 
understand what is happening here in Washington.
  Fall in Vermont is the most glorious season. It is my favorite one. 
We welcome visitors. We get outdoors more ourselves, and are busy 
preparing for the long winter to come. Our hard-working Federal 
partners are proud of the work they do on these Federal lands, and they 
know this manufactured tea party crisis is causing real and lasting 
damage to our natural resources and the Vermont economy.
  National parks and refuges in Vermont are not the only places closed 
for business. According to the Coalition of National Park Service 
Retirees, every day the Federal Government is shuttered costs the 
National Park Service nearly $\1/2\ million in lost fee collections 
nationwide. And the impacts are even greater for the surrounding 
communities that are losing $76 million per day in visitor spending. 
While some in the tea party actually have the arrogance to go on 
television and argue that shutting down the Federal Government is 
saving us money, the truth is just the opposite. It is costing every 
one of us taxpayers money, and it is costing everybody in the private 
sector huge amounts of money. And now, as we reach day 15 of the tea 
party shutdown, the National Park Service has been denied over $6 
million in lost revenues, and local communities--not government 
workers, but local communities--honest, hard-working men and women have 
lost over $1 billion. This is why several States have chosen to foot 
the bill to reopen a handful of national parks to stop further losses 
to local economies. The cost of shutting down the government, paying 
the lost revenue--that is what is keeping us in the red.
  So I say to the small group of obstructionists, stop wasting time. 
Put our government back to work. Show the rest of the world that we 
really are the great country we know we are. I want to get back to work 
for Vermonters; we owe it to our constituents to resolve this now and 
start making real decisions about our future.
  Speaker Boehner should call up the Senate continuing resolution for a 
vote. It would receive bipartisan support, and we could put an end to 
this pointless tea party shutdown. We would reopen our Federal lands. 
We would be supporting our local economy.
  There is more I can say, Mr. President, and I will, but I applaud 
Majority Leader Reid for working with the Republican leader, Senator 
McConnell. I applaud them for being what grownups should be, trying to 
bring us back and trying to bring our government back, showing what a 
great country we are so we do not have countries such as China saying: 
Oh, we should not rely on American currency. They are not reliable 
people.
  We are getting this all over the world--Americans are not reliable. 
What damage these tea party obstructionists are doing to our great 
country. We ask our military to serve around the world and protect us--
and maybe they will get paid, but a lot of the support for them, the VA 
and whatnot, is being closed down. It is shameful. The same people who 
shut down the government are saying it is terrible that the government 
is shut down. I think the American people can see through this.
  I don't care what party you belong to or who you are, with the 
exemption of a small group, people know this country has to be open so 
it can work--can work for all of us--and can project an image of 
strength and stability throughout the world, can do the things that 
made us great in the past and that will keep making us great in the 
future, not this shabby exercise.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, for 2 weeks the government has been shut 
down. It is hard to imagine. It seems a lot longer if you have been 
sitting here in the midst of this maelstrom--2 weeks since the junior 
Senator from Texas took the floor and for 21 hours held the floor, 
giving a speech calling for the end of ObamaCare as we know it.
  In that period of time we have learned a lot about ourselves. We 
learned a lot about this country. I think about the 800,000 Federal 
employees furloughed, many of whom struggle to get by and now have no 
paycheck coming in. It is a hardship that is totally unnecessary, a 
hardship that was imposed on them because there was a strategy, a 
political strategy, political gamesmanship that said: We can sacrifice 
the well-being of those Federal employees and their families to make 
our political point.
  It turns out they went further. They went further in suggesting they 
were going to cut off the benefits these government agencies offered. 
At this point in time, we have come to learn what that means. People 
who were turned away from the National Institutes of Health, children--
some 30 children with cancer were turned away because that agency is 
closed. Families who were notified they had lost a loved one in battle 
were denied the basic benefits we provide to all families facing that 
terrible grief. There was a lack of food safety inspections when 
salmonella outbreaks were being reported around the country. The list 
goes on and on.
  John F. Kennedy wrote a book called ``Profiles in Courage'' that 
talked about those in public service who showed extraordinary courage. 
I suggest it takes no courage whatsoever to hurt 800,000 innocent 
Federal employees. It takes no courage whatsoever to deny the basic 
benefits of government to thousands, maybe even millions, of American 
people. I think it is political cowardice.
  Sadly, it has gone on for 2 straight weeks. The House did some 
curious thing there, where they voted to say: But we will pay these 
employees.
  A friend of mine back in Edwardsville, IL, sent me an e-mail.


[[Page 15892]]

       Let me get this straight. They closed down the Government, 
     they turned the employees away, they said they don't have to 
     come to work but they promised they were going to pay them? 
     What is going on in Washington? What are you people thinking?

  I couldn't defend it. I wouldn't even try. It is evidence of the kind 
of abandonment of reason which has become the hallmark of some Members 
of Congress.
  What do the American people think? They are not happy with any of us, 
let's get it straight, but when it comes to the responsibility for this 
madness, they have said it is on the other side of the aisle. It is 
their idea--not just the tea party but many who were complicit in this 
strategy.
  As if this were not enough, now in just 2 days, for the first time in 
the history of the United States of America, we face a default on our 
debt.
  You might say: So what. Who cares. What difference would it make.
  Listen to what Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary 
Fund, said:

       The failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause not only 
     serious damage to the U.S. economy but also to the global 
     economy as a result of spillover effects. . . .

  In response to a question about debt prioritization proposals, she 
said:

       When you are the largest economy in the world, when you are 
     the safe haven in all circumstances, as has been the case, 
     you can't go into that creative accounting business.

  Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund.
  It is an interesting thing in politics: you can always find somebody 
who is going to agree with almost any point of view. Tea party 
Republicans have rounded up some flat Earth economists who say default 
on the debt is really not a big deal. In fact, I have heard some of my 
colleagues on the floor argue that we just have to pick and choose who 
is going to get paid, that everything will work out and you really will 
not even notice.
  It reminds me of the time--Mr. President, you were in the House when 
I was--when there was the Gingrich shutdown, Rush Limbaugh and others 
announced they would shut down the government and no one would notice. 
You don't really need a government. They noticed in a hurry. In less 
than 2 weeks they opened the government.
  This, sadly, is much more grievous and will have terrible 
consequences for innocent people. If we default on our debt in 2 days, 
for first time in history we will destroy a global confidence in the 
U.S. dollar that we built up since World War II, since 1945. Right now 
the U.S. dollar is the most respected and strongest economy in the 
world, period, bar none. Countries far and wide that want to invest in 
the safest possible investment invest in U.S. Treasurys because they 
trust our government and its word that it will pay its debts. Those who 
are toying with this possibility of default are putting that at risk.
  It is not just a matter of the views of the world. It is bad enough 
that we are being lectured to by Vladimir Putin about responsible 
governance--Vladimir Putin lectures to us about being a responsible 
government. That is bad. What is even worse is the impact on ordinary 
people and their lives. We know what happened when we went through the 
last recession. People who had carefully saved for their futures saw 
the bottom fall out of their savings accounts and their retirement 
accounts. We run that very same risk if we default on this debt again. 
We run that very same risk. And many hard-working families, people who 
have scrimped and saved for college education for their kids, for their 
own retirement, for their next home, will find that they are devastated 
by this default on our national debt. That is the most reckless and 
irresponsible single act we could undertake.
  They asked a Member of the House, a Republican Member of the House, 
if yours was the deciding vote on extending the debt ceiling--if it was 
up to you, one person, to decide to extend the debt ceiling, would you 
vote for it? He said: Not unless there were some strings attached. You 
think to yourself: Still bargaining, right up to the edge of the cliff. 
Sadly, if we go over, the pain will be felt as much by that Congressman 
as it will by working families in Massachusetts and Illinois. That is 
what this is all about.
  Paul Schott Stevens is president and CEO of the Investment Company 
Institute. At a banking committee hearing on October 10, he said:

       I also will avoid parsing the differences among ``technical 
     default, ``selective default,'' and ``actual default,'' or 
     whether missing a Social Security payment is equivalent to 
     missing an interest payment or failing to redeem a maturing 
     Treasury bill. All such discussion misses the point. The 
     United States, like any other major debtor, must maintain the 
     confidence of its creditors--or risk the consequences. . . .
       Once Treasury has exercised the option to delay payments, 
     investors will learn a lesson that cannot and will not be 
     unlearned--even after all missed or delayed payments have 
     been made good. That lesson is simple: Treasury securities 
     are no longer as good as cash--they carry a future risk of 
     further missed payments.

  That future risk is a political creation. It is a bargaining tool by 
the Republicans, and it goes too far.
  At a banking committee hearing, Gary Thomas, president of the 
National Association of Realtors, said:

       [A]n increase in U.S. Treasury rates would result in higher 
     mortgage rates. In the event of a default, U.S. Treasury 
     prices would fall and yields, which move inversely to prices, 
     would rise. . . . Historically, an increase in mortgage rates 
     of 1 percentage point reduces home sales by roughly 350,000 
     to 450,000 units . . . [and] roughly 700,000 to 900,000 fewer 
     jobs would be created. . . .

  This is a job-killing strategy. Default on our national debt is a 
job-killing strategy.
  Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., president of the Securities Industry and 
Financial Markets Association, said:

       It is important to note that Treasury securities are a key 
     factor in the daily financing of market operations, with the 
     U.S. Treasury repo market totaling between $1.2 and $1.9 
     trillion daily. Undermining that market could have a 
     deleterious effect on every major market participant.

  If that were not bad enough, I have received some e-mails from some 
friends. The one that sticks in my mind is from a friend who does not 
live in my State. He is a man I have come to know. I am not going to 
use his name on the floor--I didn't ask his permission to--but I can 
certainly tell his story.
  He sent his son off to war in Iraq. He and his wife took care of his 
son's wife and little baby while his son went off to fight in a war. 
Sadly, his son was the victim of an IED. As a result of that terrible 
incident, his son is quadriplegic and cannot speak.
  People had given up on the son in his midtwenties; they recommended 
putting him in a nursing home. And his father said: I just won't let it 
happen. His father took him to a hospital in Chicago, a renowned 
hospital, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. His son made 
dramatic progress. Eventually, he was able to return home with some 
limited function but was able to enjoy the things in life that make a 
difference to him. He loves to go hunting. His father picked up a 
mechanism whereby his son could actually go out, sit in a blind, and 
fire at those ducks and feel as if he was back where he was before he 
went to war.
  I cannot tell you the love that the mother and father have given to 
their son, daughter-in-law, and now their two children. They basically 
gave up their life and their business and, with the help of a lot of 
good people in the community, built a special home for their son so 
that he could get around in his motorized wheelchair. I have been down 
there. The outpouring of generosity and charity in North Carolina for 
this family is just amazing, and they continue to give their entire 
lives to their son and his wife and kids.
  He wrote me an email and said:

       I hope you are doing well. We see you on C-SPAN. Thank you 
     for taking a moment to read about our concern. This concern 
     is about my son. It affects him and thousands of other 
     wounded veterans. We are quite concerned about what we are 
     hearing coming out of the VA. The thought of the VA check not 
     arriving in November has all of us nervous. We are sure this 
     is a feeling in households across the country. We are praying 
     that all the parties in Washington will soon come to terms. 
     After years of war, a sagging economy, and now the shutdown, 
     nerves are stretched. I am writing to you to see if there is 
     a light at the end of this dark tunnel. My

[[Page 15893]]

     son and wife, after years of working to establish a near-
     normal life, have to start worrying about losing what they 
     worked to return to and enjoy as a near-normal life.

  In writing he said:

       My mood does not mean to be so down, but as a parent of a 
     family that has been through so much, the thought of this 
     threat is very heart-wrenching.
       Thank you for listening to me.

  I think of that letter, and I think of that family worried about that 
VA check.
  I received an e-mail yesterday from a family that is worried about 
whether they will receive their Social Security check. Why do we put 
the American people through this? Why do we put families through this? 
This is totally unnecessary.
  We need to open this government. We should do it tomorrow morning, 
period. Just open it. We need to bring these people back to work to 
perform the services they need to perform for this great Nation, and we 
need to make certain we don't default come Thursday. The default would 
have a negative impact that would have far-reaching consequences beyond 
this political battle.
  In years to come nobody may remember the names of the people involved 
in this political fight that goes on day after day on Capitol Hill, but 
they will remember the failure of the Congress to pay the Nation's 
debts, to stand for the full faith and credit of the United States, and 
to maintain our reputation as a leader in the world.
  That is what is at stake. There is no political victory worth that. I 
hope Members on both sides will come to their senses.
  I wish to salute our leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. I have 
been standing by him through this. He has been stalwart and courageous. 
I know he has been exhausted at times, but he keeps on fighting.
  I also wish to salute Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the 
Republican leader, who, over the last several days, has played a very 
active and positive role in trying to resolve this issue.
  It is time for the Senate to show leadership. It is time for the 
Senate to come together on a bipartisan basis and show the path that 
takes us out of this political crisis.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, in the midst of the current crisis there 
have been some who have questioned the relevance of the Federal 
Government to our overall economy. Some have even called the current 
shutdown just a slimdown. But in my home State of New Mexico, there is 
no question that this government shutdown has been irresponsible, it 
has been reckless, and it has been absolutely devastating to our 
economy.
  New Mexico serves the Nation in many ways, through our national labs 
and our military bases, with Federal lands and monuments that host 
Americans from every corner of the Nation. As a result, Federal dollars 
in 2010 were nearly 36 percent of our State's gross domestic product. 
This figure includes veterans' benefits, Social Security, and student 
financial aid.
  Federal dollars go toward grants to help fund State and local health 
care, transportation, education, and housing. Many of us who have 
served as either city councilors or mayors, legislators or Governors 
realize the role Federal passthrough dollars play in keeping our States 
and municipalities solvent.
  In New Mexico, Federal contracts are also critical for our small 
business community. Defense purchases account for almost two-thirds of 
total procurement spending. We are home to nearly 27,000 Federal 
workers--workers who want to go back to work, workers who just want to 
do their job.
  Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory 
employ an additional 18,000 New Mexicans as contractors, and the U.S. 
Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad employs 
1,000 more. That is out of 2 million people. So it is an understatement 
to say that shutting down the Federal Government strikes at the heart 
of my State's economy.
  Between sequestration furloughs, the shutdown, and the current 
impasse over averting a catastrophic default on the Nation's debt, 
hard-working, middle-class families across New Mexico are the ones who 
are saddled with uncertainty and hardship. These manufactured crises 
have very real consequences for these families.
  Since the shutdown began, I have heard time and again from 
constituents who are paying the price for this reckless debacle. They 
say they feel like the collateral damage in the ongoing ideological 
battles in Washington, DC. Hard-working civil servants dedicated to 
their jobs and their country have been sent home without pay, while 
many others have to work through the shutdown without a paycheck.
  Yesterday I spoke with a Rio Rancho resident named Chad Didier, a 
former marine who is now an air traffic controller in Albuquerque. 
During the shutdown he has been reporting to work every day to help 
keep our airspace safe, but he does not know when he will start getting 
a paycheck again. This comes on the heels of forgoing pay earlier this 
year due to sequestration.
  As the father of four young children and the sole breadwinner in his 
family, he is worried about making rent next month and making his car 
payments on time. He is frustrated because he is doing everything he 
has been asked of him, everything he is supposed to do to take care of 
his family, to serve his country, but he feels his government has 
failed him.
  Last week, because of the shutdown, the National Nuclear Security 
Administration ordered that Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs should 
be ready to shut down by October 21.
  Katy Korkos with the Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce told the Los 
Alamos Monitor that the impact of the shutdown at LANL could hit 
subcontractors twice as hard as other entities because they will never 
be able to recover the income they are currently losing.
  EnergySolutions, a subcontractor that processes and ships transuranic 
waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, has already had 
to lay off 154 workers.
  The general manager at a department store in Los Alamos was quoted in 
the newspaper as saying: ``Anytime the lab sneezes, we catch cold.''
  In southern New Mexico, Crysta Quintero told the Las Cruces Sun-News 
that she was immediately worried for her 3-year-old son after hearing 
about the Federal Government shutdown. That is because she relies on 
the Federal WIC Program to supply a prescription baby formula for her 
son who has a disability. Unfortunately, Crysta is not alone. Tens of 
thousands of women and children in New Mexico who receive assistance 
from this program every month could be left without vital nutritional 
support if the shutdown continues to drag on.
  What is also at stake is the incredible work being done at New 
Mexico's colleges and universities. These first-rate research 
institutions rely heavily on Federal grants to fund staff, training, 
and projects, including clinical trials for cancer treatment. I am told 
those trials--and years of hard work--will have to pause or even stop 
if the government stays closed. Scientists will see their salaries 
reduced, and research students who want to dedicate their lives to 
finding the next cure will have to wait even longer just to earn their 
degree.
  Because of the shutdown, important job-creating investments in small 
business--the very engine of our economy--are delayed. On average, over 
$300,000 in Federal loans are approved for small businesses in New 
Mexico each and every day--but not today. Because of this reckless and 
irresponsible shutdown, those small businesses are not getting the 
loans to grow their business. They are not hiring new workers.

[[Page 15894]]

  New Mexico is home to many of the Nation's most treasured public 
conservation lands, including national parks such as Carlsbad Caverns, 
BLM monuments such as the newly created Rio Grande del Norte, and 
national forests such as the Gila and Carson that are unstaffed during 
the fall hunting seasons. More than 4,000 men and women work on these 
public lands, and they are being forced to stay home.
  Andrew Graves is an entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service in 
Albuquerque. Specifically, Andrew is in a program called Forest Health 
Protection that works across agency lines providing expertise and 
assistance to Federal and tribal land managers, foresters throughout 
New Mexico so they can deal with outbreaks of disease or insect 
infestations. Andrew says they have already canceled or postponed 
meetings and training because of the shutdown.
  Each day the government remains closed, thousands of people who 
planned to visit our national parks and our wildlife refuges will be 
turned away. That does not just hurt the government. Restaurants and 
hotels, tire shops, and grocery stores feel this pain in towns such as 
Socorro, Taos, Grants, Alamogordo, and Las Cruces.
  Because of the shutdown, the Bureau of Land Management has stopped 
processing energy leases on Federal land. A lengthy delay in the 
permitting process will not only take its toll on New Mexico's oil and 
gas industry but also on the revenues generated for New Mexico's public 
schools. The 8,000 New Mexican children enrolled in Head Start are 
feeling the impact of the shutdown on top of the cuts sequestration has 
already imposed on that critical program.
  The shutdown also endangers the benefits that we owe over 170,000 
veterans in New Mexico, people who served this country with 
distinction. The VA will run out of money to pay mandatory benefits by 
the end of October if we do not act.
  Americans are fed up. Other debates in recent years have been just as 
heated, just as partisan, but this crisis is far more dangerous for our 
country. The American people--my constituents in New Mexico--want their 
Federal Government to function again. The Federal workers in my State 
want to go back to work. Our constituents want us to move past the 
gridlock and actually govern. They want economic security and to be 
able to take care of their families.
  It is time to reopen the government, it is time to take the threat of 
default off the table, and it is time to stop playing games with the 
livelihoods of hard-working Americans.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MURPHY. We are now going into week three of a government 
shutdown, a totally unnecessary, totally avoidable, totally 
manufactured government shutdown that is now morphing together with a 
potential failure on behalf of the U.S. Government to pay its debts, 
the first time we have ever intentionally done that in our entire 
country's history.
  This is not theoretical any longer. This is now right on top of us. 
On Thursday of this week we will no longer have enough money to pay all 
of the bills that come in to the government. We only have about 65 
percent of the funds necessary to pay out all of the bills that come 
due to us, whether it is to our creditors or to the thousands of small 
businesses that rely on contracts with the Federal Government every 
week to pay their bills as well.
  I appreciate all of my colleagues coming down here and talking about 
the real-world consequences of what this shutdown has meant and what a 
failure to pay our debts will mean. I come down and want to share a 
handful of stories from my State of Connecticut to tell you what is 
going on out there beyond the talking heads on the cable news networks. 
They are simple stories, but they are impactful because for hundreds of 
thousands of people in my State of Connecticut, there was no margin 
with which to operate when this shutdown hit and the consequential 
economic impact that has come to so many families. There was not any 
money stuffed under their mattress they could pull out and try to pay 
the bills they could not, now that their paycheck or their business had 
been lost.
  This is a big deal to people in Connecticut, and in Hawaii, and to 
States all across our land because there was so much economic hurt that 
had already piled up for months and years that people had no wiggle 
room when the tea party decided to stick a knife into the backs of 
already hurting families.
  That is why this makes no sense. It is not as though we had the 
cushion as an economy, it is not as though families had the ability to 
take on a little extra hurt when the tea party decided to shut down our 
government--not that it would make sense even if we were living in 
heady economic times. But today, right now, for families who are 
getting killed by an economy that has recovered for the top 5 or 10 
percent of America but certainly has not recovered for the bottom 80 
percent, this is no time to be playing around with people's lives.
  Every single year at the start of the home heating season, I go to a 
nonprofit in Waterbury, CT, which dispenses home heating assistance to 
the thousands of families in the Greater Waterbury, CT, area who know 
that without a little bit of help from this agency they will literally 
not be able to heat their home, that their children will go cold that 
winter, because even though they are making money, they cannot keep up 
with the mounting bills.
  Every single year, as I watch the sort of macroeconomic numbers get 
better for the economy, I keep on thinking that when I go to that 
agency in August or September or October, they are going to tell me: 
Guess what, Chris. Less people are coming in this year than last year 
to ask for home heating assistance.
  We are in year five of this recession now. Every single year of those 
five, the number has gotten bigger--every single year. Even as 
unemployment goes down, demand for home heating assistance in 
Connecticut goes up. Why? Because the top echelon of our country has 
recovered but nobody else has. So that is why when this shutdown hit, 
it hurt so badly for someone such as Rich Martin in New London, CT. 
Rich did something heroic during this recession. He started a new 
business. Frankly, even more heroic, he started a bookstore and a 
record store in New London, CT called the Telegraph.
  He said that business has been growing for the last 12 months. Every 
month he has been doing a little bit better. Then guess what. The 
shutdown. Rich wrote me and said: After growth in my business over the 
last 12 months, people have stopped coming in these last weeks. Because 
in New London, CT, where we make submarines for the U.S. Navy, where we 
have submariners at our base there, we have a whole lot of people who 
depend on the Federal Government or contracts from the Federal 
Government to be able to pay their employees. Nobody is coming into the 
Telegraph any more. His business is getting hurt. A business, a small 
businessman who did something great, is now wondering whether he can 
make it through the next couple of days and weeks.
  Here is how the trickledown of this happens: Kathi Sanborn in 
Hartford is paying the bills right now by babysitting. She is 
babysitting for a couple. But the husband is a defense contractor. 
Guess what. He has been furloughed, so he cannot pay her to babysit. 
Frankly, he is home anyway, so he can look after the kids. So she does 
not have her babysitting gig any longer. He is out of work and she is 
out of work. Guess what. That is not where it ends. Because now that 
Kathi does not have her babysitting job, she is going to stop buying 
what she used to buy. She is going to have her groceries. She is not

[[Page 15895]]

going to go to the store down the street for a purchase for herself. It 
just keeps on going.
  Don Spaeth in Putnam, small business owner, runs a little restaurant 
there. Small town, Putnam. He says his business has dried up the last 
couple of weeks. People are not coming in.
  Rich from Fairfield has a severely autistic son. He is an adult, so 
he was on Social Security disability. But he had his disability 
benefits cut off because they wanted to review his eligibility. Well, 
guess what. The reviewer has been furloughed for 2 weeks. So his son, 
who was hoping to be able to have his benefits turned back on, or at 
least have resolution so the family would know what to do, now cannot 
get a resolution to his disability claim. His son cannot pay the bills 
to the provider who gives him housing. He is potentially going to be 
out on the streets because he does not have a reviewer in the Social 
Security office. That hurts economically, but that hurts 
psychologically as well.
  Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers in New Haven gets Federal money to do 
something really simple: Provide frail seniors with rides to their 
doctors' appointments. They lost their Federal funding for 2 weeks, so 
they cannot give rides any longer. So seniors are sitting home not able 
to get to their doctors' appointments. Think about that. You have an 
85-year-old widow who has to worry every day if she is going to get 
sick because she lost her ride to the doctor's office.
  Then let me read you this quote from Michael in Hartford. I do not 
even have to embellish it:

       I am an attorney and work for the IRS.
       I have 3 children, a 16 year old girl and 8 year old twins. 
     My wife is pregnant with my fourth child. My 16 year old is 
     taking driver's education and wants her license. I cannot now 
     pay for the insurance necessary for her. She also wanted to 
     take a PSAT prep course, another $1,200 that I don't have. 
     She needs to start visiting college campuses. More money that 
     I don't have. One of my twins, Sofia, had some learning 
     disabilities and had private tutors and other professionals 
     to assist her in staying on grade level in reading and math. 
     I will soon run out of savings to pay for Sofia's support 
     system because November 1st means that there is a mortgage 
     payment, car payment, car insurance payments and the other 
     dozen or so monthly bills that keep our household up and 
     running. I do hope that the shutdown ends soon so that I can 
     get back to work.

  These stories can be repeated, frankly, hundreds of thousands of 
times over all across this country. While to some people they may sound 
like small stories--a babysitter losing a job, the inability to get 
your disabled daughter a little bit of help for a couple months--they 
add up to $1.6 billion in economic activity coming out of our country 
every single week.
  They add up to unemployment claims jumping to their highest level 
last week in 6 months. They add up to consumer confidence being the 
lowest in this country since the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008.
  This doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is not as if we can tread water 
or move backwards economically while the rest of the world waits for us 
to resume our mantle of economic leadership.
  China says they are looking to take their $1.3 trillion in U.S. 
Treasurys and find someplace else for it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. MURPHY. I ask unanimous consent for 5 more minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. MURPHY. Last month Japan announced its machinery sales were the 
best since 2008. The rest of the world is moving on.
  If we are doing this much damage to the economy, why are we here? We 
are here mainly because tea party Republicans in the House see this 
misery as a bargaining chip. They couldn't get their way any other way. 
They couldn't win the legislative argument on the health care bill, a 
bill that passed the House and the Senate and was signed by the 
President. They couldn't win the judicial argument. It came before the 
Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court upheld the health care law. It 
couldn't win the electoral argument.
  The health care bill was on the ballot in 2012. The President who ran 
on it and signed it was reelected by a wide margin. Every single 
Senator in this Chamber who supported it was returned to their seat.
  Tea party Republicans have lost the argument on health care in all 
three of the traditional forums by which one would get their way in the 
legislative process--the legislative forum, judicial forum, and the 
electoral forum.
  Just as a criminal fleeing the scene of a crime, they have been 
confronted with a last desperate option, which is to grab hold of the 
economy, put a gun to its head, and hope then that Democrats and 
President Obama will relent simply because of our compassion for people 
like Rich in New London, Kathi in New Hartford, Don in Putnam, the 
seniors who rely on Interfaith Caregivers in New Haven, and the young 
IRS attorney with a disabled daughter. They hope it will be our passion 
for those people which will cause us to do something other than what 
the people sent us to do and repeal, delay, or displace the health care 
law.
  The good news is cooler heads are prevailing, that people do see--in 
this Chamber at least--the need to let go of the hostage. Two weeks 
into the shutdown, the cumulative economic effects on the economy are 
real. Those stories I told from Connecticut can now be multiplied 
thousands of times, tens of thousands of times.
  The House looks as if they are going to try to pass another partisan 
political bill loaded with add-ons as conditions to restart the 
government and pay our bills. The Senate is working on a different 
solution, a solution that could bring together Republicans and 
Democrats to at least temporarily end this crisis. On behalf of my 
constituents in Connecticut, we certainly hope that is the result.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I am very pleased to follow my colleague from 
Connecticut in recounting to this body some of the voices we have been 
hearing from across our State, some of the individuals whose stories 
make very compelling evidence for the need of this body to heed the 
bipartisan spirit--indeed, nonpartisan spirit that so animates and 
moves this country--to demand that we get the job done yesterday. I 
used exactly that expression to tell this body how important action is 
to move forward.
  I am on the floor today with thanks to our majority leader Senator 
Reid, who has come to the floor and has so ably and courageously led 
us, not only on the Democratic side but also on the minority side as 
well. I hope we will demonstrate in this body the profile in courage 
the country expects and needs from us at this time.
  I yield to the majority leader at this time if he has a message to 
bring to us.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. I appreciate my friend's always courteous attitude. I 
appreciate it very much.
  The House Republican leadership plan that is now out--and people may 
look at it--is a plan to advance an extreme piece of legislation and is 
nothing more than a blatant attack on bipartisanship.
  The past several days we have been engaged in productive bipartisan 
negotiations in the Senate. Everyone knows this. We have been working 
across party lines and making steady progress to achieve an agreement 
that reopens the government, protects the full faith and credit of our 
country, and opens talks to put this country on a firm fiscal footing. 
Everyone needs to know that the measure under discussion in the House 
is no part of what we have negotiated in the Senate.
  The debt is here. The deadline is looming. Rating agencies are 
talking about downgrading us as early as tonight, again.
  I know I speak for many of us. We have been working in good faith 
when I say that we felt blindsided by news from the House, but this 
isn't the first time. Extremist Republicans in the House of 
Representatives are attempting to torpedo the Senate's bipartisan 
progress with a bill that can't pass the Senate--can't pass the Senate 
and won't pass the Senate.

[[Page 15896]]

  The House measure would take away the President's fundamental 
authority that has been in existence for as long as political science 
can remember. It has been in place for decade after decade after decade 
to prevent a catastrophic default on the Nation's bills. Out of spite, 
tea party Republicans are trying to take authority away from President 
Obama. They would never, ever consider doing this if it were President 
Romney, President Bush, President Bush, or President Reagan. Never.
  As they have said--and they have cheered on the other side--the 
government is closed. We don't mind defaulting on the debt. It is good 
for the country. That is what they have said.
  Their legislation would also make unacceptable major changes to 
ObamaCare. The House legislation doesn't even include a process for 
bipartisan negotiation on a sensible long-term budget. They throw out 
these numbers, think magic is going to happen, and somehow when January 
15 arrives, everything will be hunky-dory. There are still processes we 
have to follow. They set no pattern, no schedule, no routine to do 
that.
  For weeks Republicans have claimed they want to negotiate, but their 
legislation completely ignores the need to work together, craft a 
budget, and put our country on a fiscally sustainable path.
  For years they have complained about why don't we have regular order 
here. They complained about lack of a budget. Now they don't even want 
us to negotiate a budget. It is hard to comprehend this logic, but the 
tea-party-driven part of the Republican Party doesn't follow logic. Why 
would they want to close the government for 15 days, have us default on 
our debt?
  Introduction of this measure by House Republican leadership is 
unproductive and a waste of time. Let us be clear: The House 
legislation will not pass the Senate.
  This is what the White House said only a few minutes ago:

       The President has said repeatedly that members of Congress 
     don't get to demand ransom for fulfilling their basic 
     responsibilities to pass a budget and pay the nation's bills. 
     Unfortunately, the latest proposal from House Republicans 
     does just that in a partisan attempt to appease a small group 
     of Tea Party Republicans who forced the government shutdown 
     in the first place.

  I am very disappointed with John Boehner, who once again would try to 
preserve his role at the expense of the country.
  I have worked hard to rise above bipartisanship and find common 
ground in the Senate. We have done that together for the good of the 
Nation. This is much bigger than the presiding Senator, who is from the 
State of Hawaii, or the assistant leader, who is at my side. This is 
much bigger than that. It is much bigger than me, it is much bigger 
than the two Senators on the floor who are from Connecticut. We have 
Senator Murray, who is chairman of the Budget Committee. It is bigger 
than her. It is bigger than the senior Senator from New York, Senator 
Schumer, who is on the floor.
  We have to start working together as a country. This is what we have 
been trying to do. This is so disappointing. On the eve of financial 
destruction for this great country, this is what it is--to appease a 
small group of people over there. I am so disappointed.
  Mr. DURBIN. Would the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I yield to the Senator.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask the majority leader, through the Chair, one of the 
key elements in this new proposal from Speaker Boehner is to diminish 
this President's authority to deal with a default on our national debt. 
This authority, so-called extraordinary measures or emergency measures, 
gives to Presidents, going back to President Kennedy, the wherewithal 
through the Treasury Department to try to avoid an economic disaster 
which could impact families, businesses, jobs, and the reputation of 
the United States in the world.
  I ask of the majority leader, through the Chair, now that we have 
seen the Republican Party bring us so close to the precipice on a 
default, it is unimaginable to me that any President, including 
President Obama, would surrender this authority to keep America safe in 
light of this type of threat. Is this one of the key elements in terms 
of the problems associated with the Boehner proposal?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, to my friend, the senior Senator from 
Illinois, we have seen what has gone on these last few months, through 
this whole year, with a group of people who are giving press 
conferences, holding demonstrations. They want the government to stay 
closed. They wanted it closed in the first place.
  The hardship we have over this country is awful. If that is not good 
enough, they are boasting they want the country to fail its obligations 
to pay its bills.
  These are not new programs. These are obligations we have. That is 
one of the problems. The proposal they have would not allow--for 
example, my friend is the chair of what some say is the most important 
part of the Federal Government, to protect the safety and security of 
the United States, the subcommittee dealing with defense that was led 
many decades by Senator Dan Inouye. The proposal they have sent gives 
the President of the United States, the Chairman of the Chiefs of 
Staff, no flexibility whatsoever when sequestration kicks in on the 
15th.
  We are not asking to change those numbers. We agreed to those 
numbers. We voted to approve those numbers, but they won't even allow 
flexibility to allow the Department of Defense to shift that money 
around. I do not know how the defense of this country can go forward if 
they don't have flexibility with losing $22 billion beginning January 
15. They don't even give authority for that.
  The bill they are sending over is doomed to failure. It is doomed to 
failure legislatively and it is so awful for our country.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I would like to underscore for a brief 
moment what our leader has said: Default would be devastating to this 
country. Closing the government is awful for our country. Yesterday we 
all saw for the first time, after the government has been closed for 
too many days, when we are on the eve of default, some real progress--
Leader Reid and Leader McConnell coming together on the outlines of a 
plan which made a great deal of sense, where each side had to give but 
could accept. And all of a sudden at the last minute, as the locomotive 
to avoid default is heading down the tracks and getting some steam, 
Speaker Boehner throws a log on the path. This is wrong.
  He knows his proposal--we don't even know what it is yet. They have 
to tweak it probably to try to appease the hard right. But he knows his 
proposal with the measures in it already that have leaked out would not 
be signed by the President or pass the Senate. So instead of doing the 
right thing, looking at the Senate bipartisan proposal and moving 
forward on that, Speaker Boehner decides to light a match and throw it 
on the gasoline that is already all over the place. I hope he will 
desist.
  We all have seen that the House can't lead in this regard. They can 
pass a lot of one-House bills, but they can't get anything done. Let 
him desist. Let him defer to the Democratic and Republican leaders here 
in this body so we can avoid default, open the government, and get back 
to America's business.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, let me add my voice to the eloquent 
and powerful remarks made by our majority leader and the Senator from 
New York, who have rightly deemed this House proposal an obstacle--
indeed, an obstructionist move--designed to perpetuate and not end the 
shutdown, and to block and not enable our efforts to reach a bipartisan 
compromise which would allow America to continue paying its bills on 
time.
  Those two goals--ending the shutdown and enabling America to pay its 
bills on time--are the predominant objectives we must have as a 
bipartisan effort goes forward here in the Senate.

[[Page 15897]]

This House proposal is doomed to failure. It would be a failure not 
just for the legislative process, not for the political actors here, 
but a failure for America.
  I am reminded of the remarks so well made more than 10 days ago by 
the majority leader about one aspect of the effects of this shutdown on 
an industry very important to his State of Nevada and very important to 
the Presiding Officer's State of Hawaii--the tourism, lodging, and 
hotel industry. That impact is devastating.
  As their Senator, I have heard this morning from staff and employees 
of the Starwood Hotels based in Stamford, CT, who have written to 
Members of Congress about the effects they see to their company and to 
others like theirs in this industry--hotel and tourism--which is vital 
to the State of Connecticut. In fact, we invest constructively and 
positively in promoting our State's tourism industry.
  I will read from a letter from Amy Kilbury, associate director of IT 
finance at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide:

       The current impasse, now in its third week, is having a 
     negative impact both on the economy in general, and 
     specifically on the travel and tourism industry, which 
     depends on the confidence of business and individuals on the 
     future stability of the economy. The shutdown is having 
     ripple effects; as federal agencies have reduced their 
     operations so have private government contractors, and in 
     turn, this is affecting both business and leisure travel.

  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this letter, 
and a letter written by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                 Starwood Hotels &


                                      Resorts Worldwide, Inc.,

                                                     Stamford, CT.
       Dear Representative Himes, Senator Murphy, and Senator 
     Blumenthal: I am the Associate Director of IT Finance at 
     Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which has its headquarters in 
     Stamford, CT. I wish to express my concern over the impasse 
     in government funding and the impending risk that the United 
     States could default on its obligations, and to urge you to 
     work with your colleagues to forge a bipartisan compromise to 
     reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.
       The current impasse, now in its third week, is having a 
     negative impact both on the economy in general, and 
     specifically on the travel and tourism industry, which 
     depends on the confidence of business and individuals on the 
     future stability of the economy. The shutdown is having 
     ripple effects; as federal agencies have reduced their 
     operations so have private government contractors, and in 
     turn, this is affecting both business and leisure travel.
       There is no question that the future health of the American 
     economy depends on policies that will restore robust economic 
     growth and job creation while gradually reducing debt, and I 
     know that you are committed to those objectives. The 
     government shutdown, however, and even the threat of default, 
     will only slow the economy down and jeopardize efforts to 
     achieve a lasting economic recovery.
       The next few days are very important and I hope that you 
     will make a major contribution towards reaching a positive 
     compromise that will move this Nation forward. You have my 
     best wishes as you deal with the awesome challenges ahead.
           Regards,
                                                      Amy Kilbury,
     Assoc. Director, IT Finance.
                                  ____

                                                  American Hotel &


                                          Lodging Association,

                                 Washington, DC, October 10, 2013.
     President Barack Obama,
     Members of the U.S. House of Representatives,
     Members of the U.S. Senate.
       The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and our 
     members in every state and congressional district 
     respectfully urge Congress and the President to reach an 
     immediate agreement to fund the government and establish a 
     degree of economic certainty to allow for continued growth.
       Equally important is the looming breach of the debt limit 
     and the need to come together on a plan to address our long-
     term fiscal challenges. Current fiscal uncertainty and the 
     increasing lack of consumer confidence are disrupting recent 
     economic progress and job creation, in which the lodging 
     industry has played a significant role.
       Analysts say that for each day the federal government is 
     shut down, collective American income is reduced 
     approximately $200 million, and our nation's hotels are 
     losing more than $8 million in economic activity--putting 
     jobs at risk and causing repercussions across many other 
     related sectors. Communities near national parks are expected 
     to lose $76 million a day in visitor spending. In Yosemite 
     National Park, for example, lodges and cabins scheduled to be 
     filled to near capacity are instead giving thousands of 
     visitors 48 hours to leave. Additionally, thousands who had 
     planned to visit national parks are cancelling their trips 
     and hotel reservations. Stories continue to pour in from 
     AH&LA members about how their businesses are being negatively 
     affected.
       The impacts extend far beyond our national treasures. 
     Hoteliers with international travelers have experienced a 
     significant increase in cancellations because these visitors 
     are confused on whether they will be able to enter and leave 
     normally. Our members in northern states receive calls daily 
     from Canadians checking to see if the border is open.
       Current fiscal conditions are leading to increased consumer 
     uncertainty, all to the detriment of economic growth. In 
     short, the government shutdown is increasingly impairing the 
     lodging industry's ability to hire, grow, and contribute to 
     the economy.
       It is imperative that Congress and the President act now to 
     address the fast-approaching deadline to raise the U.S. debt 
     limit, or else risk default and further economic damage. 
     Acting to put the debt on a downward path into the future and 
     addressing our long-term fiscal challenges are imperative to 
     stronger consumer confidence, future job growth, and our 
     nation's standing throughout the world. The lodging industry 
     will continue to be a leader in U.S. economic growth if our 
     leaders can provide fiscal certainty.
       AH&LA and our members thank you for your efforts to address 
     these critically important issues.
       American Hotel & Lodging Association; America's Best 
     Franchising, Inc.; Arizona Lodging & Tourism Association; 
     Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA); Association 
     of Starwood Franchisees & Owners--North America (ASFONA); 
     Best Western International; Bev Kaftan, American Payment 
     Solutions, Mesa, AZ; Brian Latture, The Hotel Group, 
     Franklin, TN; California Hotel & Lodging Association; Carlson 
     Rezidor Hotel Group; Catherine DeVane, The Hotel Group, 
     Franklin, TN; Chandler Wiens-Thayer, RHW Management, Overland 
     Park, KS; Choice Hotels International; Chuck Donnelly, The 
     Lodge at Mountaineer Square and The Grand Lodge, Gunnison 
     County, CO; Colette Wear, Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, 
     Lincoln, NE; Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association; Cortney 
     Damiano, Best Western Plus, Olive Branch, MS; Delaware Hotel 
     & Lodging Association; Douglas Dreher, The Hotel Group, 
     Edmonds, WA; Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association; 
     Georgia Hotel & Lodging Association; Hilton Worldwide; Host 
     Hotels & Resorts.
       Hotel Association of Washington, D.C.; Hyatt Hotels and 
     Resorts; IHG Owners Association; InterContinental Hotels 
     Group; Jeff Gouge, The Arctic Club Seattle, Seattle, WA 
     98104; Jeffrey T. Kmiec, The Greenbrier, White Sulphur 
     Springs, WV; Jim Abrahamson, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, 
     Arlington, VA; Joe Martin, Stillwater Hospitality, 
     Stillwater, OK; John Shingler, President, Association of 
     Starwood Franchisees & Owners; Josh Messer, Hilton Garden 
     Inn--Eugene / Springfield, Springfield, OR; La Quinta Inns & 
     Suites; Lara Latture, The Hotel Group, Franklin, TN; LaSalle 
     Hotel Properties; Laurel Gaylor, La Quinta Inn & Suites Red 
     Rock/Summerlin, Las Vegas, NV; Liban Abdi, Holiday Inn 
     Express on the River, Corvallis, OR; Loews Hotels; Maine 
     Innkeepers Association; Mark G. Carrier, B.F. Saul Company 
     Hospitality Group, Bethesda, MD; Marriott International, 
     Inc.; Massachusetts Lodging Association; Michigan Lodging and 
     Tourism Association; Montana Lodging & Hospitality 
     Association; New York State Hospitality & Tourism 
     Association.
       NewcrestImage; Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association; Oklahoma 
     Hotel & Lodging Association; Opal Wedgewood, The Hotel Group, 
     Franklin, TN; Paresh (Perry) Patel, MRPC Hotels, Newark, DE; 
     Pedro Mandoki, Mandoki Hospitality Group, Gulf Shores, AL; 
     Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association; Rhode Island 
     Hospitality Association; Robert A. Alter, Seaview Investors, 
     Corona Del Mar, CA; Ruby Goodwin, Pacific Palms Resort, City 
     of Industry, CA; Sam Patel, Best Western Mountain View Inn, 
     Springville, Utah; Shannon E. Johnson, Plaza Inn and Suites 
     at Ashland Creek, Ashland, OR; Sonny Sailesh Babu, Atlantic 
     Hotels Management, Carrollton, TX; South Carolina Restaurant 
     & Lodging Association; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide; 
     Steven Cooke, American Public University, Charles Town, WV; 
     Tabitha Caldwell, The Hotel Group, Edmonds, WA; Tennessee 
     Hospitality Association; Texas Hotel & Lodging Association; 
     Toma G Brashear, Lanier Parking Solutions, Atlanta, GA; 
     Warren Klug, Aspen Square Hotel, Aspen, CO; William Folkerts, 
     Quality Inn & Suites, Watertown, SD; Wisconsin Hotel & 
     Lodging Association.

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. These Starwood employees are writing to their 
Senators and Members of Congress because they see firsthand the effects 
on their livelihood and their lives. The stories recounted earlier by 
my colleague from

[[Page 15898]]

Connecticut and those I recited yesterday on the floor are real effects 
in the lives of real people, negative and painful--indeed, devastating 
effects on people who depend on the economic flow of certain and stable 
work by the government, contractors, and small and large businesses 
like Starwood that are affected.
  There is no question the future health of the American economy 
depends on the policies we need to adopt and advance to sustain 
economic growth--indeed, to make it more robust to preserve job 
creation and, in fact, heighten and enhance it, and to make sure that 
these employees of Starwood are well served, not impeded, by the 
government they supported with their taxes and they elected with their 
votes. We have an obligation to them to do better than we have.
  I was deeply moved by the story recounted by Senator Durbin a short 
time ago on the floor about a young Iraq veteran more severely wounded 
than the ones I recounted yesterday. But he is a veteran like the 
individuals whose stories I told yesterday. They deserve better from 
our government. Indeed, they deserve an end to the kind of 
obstructionism we saw just a short time ago on the other side of this 
Congress, in the other branch of this legislative body, from Members of 
the House of Representatives who know the proposal they are making has 
no chance of adoption by the deadline we need to meet to make sure that 
the greatest Nation in the history of the world avoids default and 
continues to pay its bills on time.
  The CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which 
represents Starwood, Katherine Lugar, said: Hotels are a major economic 
driver and job creator across the country, and the industry's ability 
to continue its growth is hamstrung by inaction from our policy 
members. The administration, the House of Representatives, and the 
Senate need to act swiftly in the best interests of the entire Nation 
and end this shutdown. Pay our bills on time.
  That has been the objective of my colleagues on this side of the 
aisle and on the other side, like Senator McCain who has just come to 
the floor. That bipartisan effort has to be our objective. We need to 
do better for the American people and meet the obligations we now have.
  As chairman of the subcommittee which has jurisdiction over the hotel 
and lodging industry, the commerce committee, we are hearing about how 
States such as Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada, as well as Connecticut, are 
losing millions of dollars every day in economic activity. In fact, the 
Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut is harmed, along with 
the Grand Canyon, and all the communities and industries associated 
with it. These issues are real and tangible. The harm is now and 
urgent.
  I urge my colleagues to come together and resist the pressures and 
demonstrate the kinds of profiles of courage we have seen on both sides 
of the aisle--standing strong, speaking out, resisting partisanship--
and coming together for the good of the country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Connecticut.
  In the last 24 hours a lot has been taking place. A tentative 
agreement has been reached between both Republican and Democratic 
leaders. The Speaker of the House has come forward with what we believe 
is a plan which would reopen the government, extend the debt limit, and 
has several other provisions in it.
  The reaction to that has been immediate automatic condemnation by the 
majority leader, by the White House, and by Democrats in the House, 
absolutely rejecting this proposal.
  I don't understand that. I don't understand that visceral reaction in 
a most negative fashion. Why don't we try something like we used to do 
around this place? Why don't we say: You have a proposal to open the 
government; we have a proposal to open the government. Let's both pass; 
let's go to conference--which we could do in 24 hours--and resolve our 
differences.
  I understand what the polling data says, that 74 percent of the 
American people disapprove of the Republican handling of this issue. 
And I agree. Some of us at the beginning said we are going on a fool's 
errand to believe we will be able to defund ObamaCare. We got ourselves 
in a ditch, and we have to stop digging. That is well understood here 
by certainly the overwhelming majority of my Republican colleagues. But 
for the majority leader and the Democrats in the House and the White 
House to say absolutely, categorically, we will not consider what the 
Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing, in my view is 
piling on. It is piling on and it is not right.
  I urge my Democrat colleagues: Let's sit down and work this out. We 
have a proposal from the House. We have a proposal between the two 
leaders. Let's get this resolved. To categorically reject what the 
House of Representatives and the Speaker is doing--and I think he is 
pretty courageous in what he is doing--in my view is not serving the 
American people.
  So let's stop this. Let's stop it, sit down, consider the Speaker's 
proposal, get our proposal done, and then get this resolved, which we 
could do in the next 24 hours.
  I came to the floor to express my disappointment in the categorical 
rejection of a good-faith effort by the Speaker of the House--which 
doesn't contain all the provisions I want. I am sure the agreement made 
by both the Senate majority and Republican leaders will not be 
everything I want. Let's stop the condemnation. Let's consider the 
Republican House proposal as a serious proposal, as a way to end this 
gridlock, and then let's sit down together and get this thing done.
  I again urge my Democratic colleagues. We know you have the upper 
hand. Isn't it time we help find a way out of this--which is what the 
American people want--rather than who won and who lost. The only people 
losing right now are the people of this country. As I have mentioned a 
couple times before, Al Qaeda is not in shutdown.
  I urge my Democratic colleagues and the White House to reconsider 
their categorical rejection of any proposal from the House of 
Representatives.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Heitkamp). The Senator from Florida.


                                  Iran

  Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, clearly the issue we are facing with 
regard to the budget, ObamaCare, the debt ceiling is a very important 
issue. In the hours and days to come I will have a lot more to say 
about it. I waited over the last few days, because of the urgency that 
confronts us domestically, to reserve my comments on the issue of Iran. 
At this point I believed I could no longer wait to speak out on it, so 
if my colleagues can indulge me for a few moments, I wish to talk about 
it because, as serious as the domestic challenge may be with regard to 
the budget, the spending, the debt limit, ObamaCare, we have another 
crisis brewing, one that goes to our national security interests, one 
that quite frankly for the most part unites us across the aisle; that 
is, the issue and the threat Iran's nuclear ambitions pose to the 
world.
  The reason I believed I could no longer wait to address this is 
because I believe, as many of you do, that the world is entering a 
crucial time in the international efforts to stop Iran's nuclear 
program. On September 24 of this year, I, along with a group of other 
Senators, wrote to the President and we expressed our concerns about 
reports that the administration was contemplating making a fresh, new 
offer, fresh new series of offers to Iran. In that letter, we said Iran 
must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon; that is, if, God 
forbid, it becomes necessary, we could support the use of military 
force to prevent an Iranian bomb and that Iran must not be allowed to 
maintain any indigenous enrichment capability; and that now is not the 
time to suspend sanctions but to increase them on the Iranian regime.
  All of us would like to wake tomorrow to the news that the Ayatollah 
has

[[Page 15899]]

decided to abandon his nuclear weapons ambitions, but it is especially 
imperative on matters of national security that we not be guided simply 
by our hopes. We must be guided by reality. This is true in life in 
general, but it is especially true and important on issues of national 
security that we be guided by reality. That reality is that no matter 
how much Iran's political leaders say they do not have plans for a 
nuclear weapon, their actions say something else. They have 
dramatically increased their ability to enrich uranium and they 
continue to spend millions of dollars to expand their nuclear program 
and to develop long-range missiles which threaten not just Israel and 
Europe but eventually the United States.
  The only reason you put so much money and time into developing long-
range missiles is to put a nuclear weapon on them. That is what they 
have been doing. They have been developing this missile capability.
  Recently, we heard all this new talk about there is a new President 
in Iran and he might be a reformer. We hope so. But this is also the 
same person who in the past has bragged about how he has fooled the 
world before and bought time for Iran's enrichment capacity to 
increase. In the end, by the way, even if he is a reformer, he is not 
the ultimate decisionmaker, nor is the Foreign Minister or any of these 
other civilians in their government. The ultimate decisionmaker is 
Iran's so-called Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. So far no one has accused 
him of being a reformer.
  Iran's leaders are making noises about negotiating with the world now 
because over the last few years the United States and the European 
Union have imposed very significant sanctions on Iran and these 
sanctions are starting to hurt the Iranian regime. It is hurting, 
although it has not stopped, their ability to export terrorism around 
the world. It is hurting, although it has not stopped, their ability to 
buy parts for their nuclear program and for their missile program.
  Do you want to understand why they are doing all this now, what their 
plan is? It is not that hard to understand. What they are trying to do, 
they are trying to get us and the world to agree to weaken the 
sanctions without them having to agree to any concessions that are 
irreversible, to any concessions that irreversibly block their ability 
to one day build that weapon. This ambition of theirs, this plan they 
have is clear as day. They are trying to figure out if they can get 
these sanctions suspended or lifted without giving up too much. Then at 
some point in the future, when the world has moved on, when we are 
focused on other things, they can then make their move to build their 
bomb.
  By the way, this is the model North Korea employed over a decade ago. 
They used a combination of belligerence and pretended negotiations to 
buy the time and the space. Now they are a nuclear power and they 
continue to develop their rocket technology--which does not just 
threaten South Korea and Japan but the west coast of the United States 
and potentially one day the entire country, our entire country.
  This is why, as these talks between the so-called P5+1 group of 
nations and Iran restarted, we are at a critical juncture. We should 
talk to Iran. We should see if they are serious. But we cannot, under 
any circumstances, put at risk the hard-earned leverage that took so 
long to put in place and assemble.
  First, we need to remember whom we are dealing with. We are talking 
about a regime that has earned the distrust of the entire world through 
its secret nuclear program, a regime that admits foul play only when 
they are caught red-handed, a regime that supports terrorism, killing 
of Americans, and has an active hand in fueling conflicts that 
destabilize its neighbors. This is a regime that brutalizes its own 
people and denies them their basic freedoms. This is the regime, by the 
way, that plotted to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in this city, in 
Washington DC.
  Given this record, the erosion of trust in Tehran is simply too 
great, so the United States must look long and hard at what Iranian 
actions could qualify as what the administration likes to call credible 
confidence-building measures.
  I say this because of whom we are dealing with. Sanctions on Iran 
should not be lifted or suspended until they agree to completely 
abandon any capability for enrichment or reprocessing. Iran has a right 
to a peaceful civilian nuclear energy program. But they do not have the 
right to enrich or reprocess. Holding this line is especially important 
in light of Iran's repeated and blatant disregard for international 
obligations in the past and even to this day.
  Even a limited enrichment program and possession of sensitive 
reprocessing technologies is unacceptable because of the risk that such 
a program would once again be abused by Iran in the future for 
nefarious and dangerous purposes. Suspending sanctions before Iran not 
just suspends but abandons enrichment would give the Iranian regime 
exactly what they want, an eventual path to a nuclear weapon. Sanctions 
relief at this time would allow them to make advances on their broader 
strategic objectives in their region such as propping up the Assad 
regime in Syria, such as continuing to destabilize Iraq, such as 
supporting terrorist groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
  We cannot allow the No. 1 exporter of terrorism in the world this 
opportunity. Until Iran agrees to abandon enrichment and reprocessing, 
not only should we keep the current sanctions but the Congress should 
move to implement a new round of additional sanctions without delay. I 
would say that at some point Congress should consider making it very 
clear that if it becomes necessary, the President of the United States 
should reserve the right to take military action to prevent Iran from 
continuing to advance its nuclear weapons program.
  The United States and the international community have succeeded in 
bringing Iran to the negotiating table through firm action, not through 
half measures. Personally, I hope, as do all of my colleagues, that 
there is a diplomatic solution to this problem. But Iran does not have 
forever to prove they are serious. We cannot allow them to use these 
talks to continue to buy time and space as they have for the last 
decade, as North Korea did before them, to buy time and space so they 
can continue to develop their nuclear weapons capability. We cannot 
allow them to use these talks to continue to spread terror, to 
undermine their neighbors, and to threaten our country or our allies in 
Israel and around the world.
  We cannot fall into their trap. Yes, we should be willing to talk. 
But talk alone should not slow down our actions. Until they act, we 
should continue to increase pressure and speak forcefully about what 
these people sitting across from us have done internationally and to 
their own people; otherwise, I truly believe at some point in the 
future we are going to awake to the news that Iran has tested a nuclear 
weapon and we may find ourselves stuck with the reality that they have 
the ability to put that weapon on a missile that can reach the United 
States. If that day should ever come, God help us all.
  I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, you know when you are driving along and 
your children keep asking you, are we there yet? Are we there yet? That 
is an appropriate question. I would have thought we were there--until 
now. We heard about the agreement that was hammered out between the two 
leaders in the Senate and now all kinds of changes wanting to be made 
in the House of Representatives. The countdown clock is ticking. The 
ominous sounds of default are being heard. The stock market, the New 
York Exchange, has reacted accordingly. Up on Friday,

[[Page 15900]]

up again a little bit yesterday on the hopes, but today with the new 
news, down--not a huge amount but a significant amount.
  It is reflective of this emotional roller coaster of what is at 
stake, which is the financial integrity of this country.
  Enough is enough. The ridiculousness ought to stop. Let's go back and 
look where we have been over the course of the last 2 weeks.
  All of this started with a shutdown of the Federal Government, of 
which there are untold stories of hardship and deprivation that are 
going on. That ought to be enough to spur people to action to stop the 
shutdown. What did the shutdown start with? It started because a small 
group in the House, maybe folks who would affiliate with the tea party, 
decided they want to take away the funding for the health care reform 
act, the Affordable Care Act. As a result, they forced this shutdown.
  In the course of the last 2 weeks, about 1 week goes by and that 
crowd sees this is not working and so they shift then their attacks to 
one of overall spending. But still today, with the two leaders in the 
Senate having basically come to an agreement, the House of 
Representatives is going back to the Affordable Care Act and wanting to 
extract additional things. And all the time the clock is ticking toward 
not only not being able to bring government back so it can function--
stopping the shutdown--but also the potential default that is looming.
  I really believe and I understand what the people in my State of 
Florida feel. They are fed up with this. It is so ridiculous. Yet that 
is what our politics has come to. The small group in the House of 
Representatives better start understanding that.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection and so ordered.

                          ____________________