[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4779-4782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     SAFE COMMUNITIES, SAFE SCHOOLS ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. I move to proceed to Calendar No. 32, S. 649.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 32, S. 649, a bill to 
     ensure that all individuals who should be prohibited from 
     buying a firearm are listed in the national instant criminal 
     background check system and require a background check for 
     every firearm sale, and for other purposes.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the time until 11:30 today will be equally 
divided between the majority and the minority. The Democrats will 
control the first 30 minutes and the Republicans the final 30 minutes. 
At 11:30 the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the 
nomination of Patty Shwartz to be a circuit judge for the Third 
Circuit. At noon there will be a rollcall vote on her nomination. The 
Senate will then recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to allow for our weekly 
caucus meetings.


                Congratulating the Louisville Cardinals

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I first wish to extend my congratulations to 
Senator McConnell and the Louisville Cardinals for their successful 
NCAA championship. It was remarkable how they were always coming from 
behind to wind up winning. They did it not with offense but with 
defense. I was very impressed with the team but most of all impressed 
with their coach Rick Pitino. Rick Pitino on yesterday was also 
selected, with Jerry Tarkanian, to be a member of the Basketball Hall 
of Fame, and certainly they deserve that--both of them.
  In addition to congratulating my friend Senator McConnell, it is also 
important to recognize my deputy chief of staff Dave McCallum, who is a 
rabid Louisville fan. When I went down to participate in a program 
Senator McConnell set up, I took David McCallum with me. He loves those 
Louisville Cardinals, and today he has more reason to like them and 
tonight even more reason because in the championship game tonight we 
have the University of Connecticut playing the Louisville Cardinals for 
the women's championship. So I am very mindful of how strongly Senator 
McConnell feels about his Louisville Cardinals.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Would my friend yield for an observation?
  Mr. REID. Yes. I just wanted to say I won't get into the politics of 
sports in Kentucky because I don't understand them, but I know how much 
Senator McConnell cares about the Louisville Cardinals.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would say to my good friend from 
Nevada that one of the things we enjoy talking about is sports, and he 
is a big UNLV fan as well. I would like to report to my friend through 
the Chair that it was a fun evening. It was absolutely exciting to be 
there. I was also grateful to the majority leader for coming down to 
the University of Louisville a few years ago. I was glad I had a chance 
to be there and to see it in person.
  Basketball in a football facility is a little odd. There were 75,000 
people there. I am not sure many people up at the top even saw the 
players. But we were a little closer to the floor, and it was a 
wonderful experience.
  I thank the majority leader for his comments.


                            Jerry Tarkanian

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I mentioned the Basketball Hall of Fame. 
Jerry Tarkanian made it into the hall of fame--20 years too late, but 
he made it. Why didn't he get in earlier? Because this courageous man 
took on the NCAA, which has absolute control over college athletes. I 
hope that as the years go by, we as a Congress will take a look at that 
more closely.
  But I don't want to move away from the important day it is in Jerry 
Tarkanian's life. Jerry is now over 80. He doesn't get around like he 
used to, and he doesn't chew on the towels like he is famous for. Here 
is a man who was held out of the hall of fame for far too long. This 
man won 990 games as a coach. He had more than an 80-percent winning 
record. He is a very fine man with a good family. His wife is a member 
of the Las Vegas City Council. He brought such excitement to Las Vegas. 
He coached the Runnin' Rebels into four final fours, won the 
championship once, and but for some politics within the university 
system, he would probably still be coaching there. Some things came up 
so that he no longer was able to coach at UNLV. But I admire him as a 
person and certainly send my congratulations to all of those Runnin' 
Rebel fans today because we have something to celebrate.
  Finally, he took on the NCAA and won. He won a large money judgment 
against them as a result of how they treated him--it was so unfair--him 
and his players. People throughout the State of Nevada who played for 
him and who are now successful businesspeople--they are teaching 
professionals around the State, they are doing all kinds of good things 
in the State and around the country because of Jerry Tarkanian and the 
team he had and mainly his wife. She was so good with those young men 
who came to UNLV. She was, among other things, a speech therapist. She 
understood these young men, and they cared about her as much as they 
did about Jerry.


                              Gun Control

  Mr. President, as do most Americans, I believe the second amendment 
guarantees the right to bear arms. As a young boy--12 years old--on my 
birthday I got a gun, but it wasn't some little pea shooter, it was a 
blunderbuss, a 12 gauge shotgun, bolt action. Boy, that is a big gun. I 
still have it. I have had it reblued. I had the stock reworked. It is a 
beautiful gun. My parents sent away through the Sears catalog for that 
present for me. That gun was a real extravagance for them. It cost $28, 
but, oh, did I have fun with that great big gun that was bigger than I, 
and it kicked so much then, but I could handle it. I didn't get to 
shoot it

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a lot because shotgun shells were expensive.
  So, like most Americans, I also believe the right to bear arms must 
be balanced with the rights of all little boys and girls in this 
country, whether they live in inner-city Chicago or sleepy Newtown, CT, 
to grow up safe from the threat of gun violence. Most gun owners are 
good. The vast majority of gun owners are good, responsible people who 
love target shooting and hunting and want to protect their homes and 
their families. But we have a responsibility to do everything in our 
power to keep guns out of the hands of convicted criminals and those 
who suffer from mental illnesses that make them a danger to themselves 
and to others. We understand that now more than ever with the terrible 
slaughters in Aurora, CO, and Newtown, CT. We have a responsibility as 
a body to safeguard the most vulnerable and our most precious 
resource--the kids, our children, our babies.
  The terrible tragedy at Newtown was a wake-up call. We are really 
failing, and we need to do more. Newtown will always remember those 
little boys and girls, some of them shot multiple times, little 
children--5-year-old kids, 6-year-old children.
  These are just names to us, but to the people of Newtown, Olivia 
isn't just a name; Olivia is a little girl who had a family who loved 
her. Newtown is a little town, relatively speaking. They know Jack. We 
have a responsibility to safeguard these little kids, and unless we do 
something, more than what is the law today, we have failed.
  It is long past time for a thoughtful examination of the lax laws and 
culture of violence that put Newtown and Aurora, Oak Creek and Carson 
City, NV, on the map for such a devastating reason. I only hope my 
Republican colleagues will allow us to have that conversation. I hope 
Republicans will stop trying to shut down debate and start engaging on 
the tough issues we were sent to Washington to tackle.
  There has been a huge cry in this body--for 2 years plus the months 
of this Congress--of people saying: Let's have regular order. Let's 
have amendments. So I was relatively kind of stunned when I got a 
letter during our break from 13 Republican Senators. They are the same 
Senators who yell and scream the most about regular order and 
amendments, but in this letter to me--short, direct, and to the point--
they say: You are going to have no ability to go to the gun legislation 
because we are going to stop it. We don't think there should be a 
discussion or debate on guns.
  Now, how would I describe these 13 Senators who sent me this letter? 
I want to do this respectfully because they have a right to their 
opinions even if they are illogical and even if they are speaking out 
of both sides of their mouths. What does that mean, speaking out of 
both sides of their mouths? It is very succinct what it means. It 
means--and it is described as a verb, looking it up on the Internet--to 
say different things to different people about the same subject. That 
is what they have done. They have been yelling and screaming: We want 
regular order.
  The other night when we were doing the budget that went on until 5 
o'clock in the morning, one of the Senators who signed this letter 
stood and said: We want to offer all the amendments we want to offer. 
No one has the right to stop us from offering amendments. So that is 
what we did. But today he feels differently. Today he is speaking out 
of both sides of his mouth, saying different things to different people 
on the same subject.
  A former Republican Congressman from Florida is now a talk show host, 
and he is very popular. He has a program called ``Morning Joe.'' Here 
is what ``Morning Joe'' is reported as having said: Scarborough tears 
into GOP filibuster on gun bill and says, ``Is anybody awake in my 
party?'' Here is what he said:

       With 92 percent of Americans supporting background checks, 
     Scarborough noted, it is really hard to figure out what the 
     political calculation is. It is a 90-10 issue that involves 
     the massacre of 20 children. Is anybody awake in my party on 
     the Hill?

  That is what former Congressman Joe Scarborough said.
  As President Obama has said, it is impossible to prevent every 
senseless tragedy, but we owe it to our children to at least try.
  It is only common sense that felons who couldn't pass a background 
check in a gun store should not be able to walk into a gun show and buy 
a deadly weapon.
  This is not hyperbole. Forty percent of the guns sold in the United 
States each year--including many used to commit crimes--are sold 
legally at gun shows or through private sales without even the most 
basic background check.
  Three years ago, one of those guns--a shotgun purchased legally 
without a background check during a 2008 gun show in Kingman, AZ; about 
90 miles from Las Vegas--was used to devastate the largest courthouse 
we have in Nevada, the brand new Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in 
Las Vegas. It happened just as prospective jurors were arriving for the 
day.
  This man walked in and started shooting. He blasted at every place 
that only a gunshot can do. He killed Stanley Cooper of Sandy Valley, 
who was a security guard. He was killed instantly in this hail of 
buckshot going around the courthouse. He ran after his gun became empty 
to reload, and he was eventually killed; that is, the man who caused 
all this carnage.
  But Stanley Cooper, this good man who was there, left behind a 
brother, four sons, a daughter, seven grandchildren, and two great-
grandchildren. He loved to spend time with his grandchildren and great-
grandchildren. He loved horses and spending time outdoors. That is why 
he lived in Sandy Valley.
  He was no stranger to guns. He spent 26 years serving his community 
as a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer. The man who shot 
him, on the other hand, was a convicted felon with no right to carry a 
firearm. He certainly could not have passed a criminal background 
check. But the shooter never had to get one. He just went to one of 
these gun shows and bought this shotgun--the same basic shotgun I got 
when I was a 12-year-old.
  Requiring a simple background check every time a gun is sold is 
common sense.
  As a brand new member of the Nevada State legislature, I was a kid, 
but Sheriff Lamb, who was the sheriff of Clark County at the time--and 
now they have a TV program running; Dennis Quaid is playing Ralph 
Lamb--he came to me and said: I need to do something because we need 
people to wait a little while before they purchase a handgun.
  I went to the legislature not understanding the process totally, but 
I introduced legislation that passed and became the law, that in Nevada 
if someone purchases a handgun, they have to wait 3 days to pick it up. 
It is believed that alone has saved the lives of many people. Sometimes 
people, in a fit of passion, will purchase a handgun to do bad things 
with it--even as my dad did--kill themselves. Waiting a few days helps.
  Requiring a simple background check every time a gun is sold is 
common sense. We are not asking for a 3-day waiting period. We have 
technology now. That does not take that long. But it is common sense. 
That is why more than 90 percent of Americans--including the vast 
majority of gun owners, the majority of people who belong to the NRA--
support our proposal to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and 
those with mental illnesses. That is what a universal background check 
is all about.
  This legislation would also crack down on anyone who buys a gun as 
part of a scheme to funnel it to criminals--reducing violent crime and 
protecting police officers. The three things that are in the bill that 
is now before this body all were reported out of the Judiciary 
Committee, led by Pat Leahy. If anyone thinks that Pat Leahy is a wimp 
on guns, they have another thought coming. He is from the State of 
Vermont. He boasts about a gun he has. He has a .50 caliber gun. I do 
not know why he wants one, but he has one. He is a man who loves to 
shoot his guns. So this bill is reported out of the Judiciary 
Committee, led by one of the

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people who knows as much about guns as many people in this body--and 
more, I should say.
  This bill that came out of that committee gives schools across the 
country the resources to improve security and keep kids safe. It is 
called school safety. It has Federal trafficking in it.
  This legislation will not prevent every crime, especially those awful 
crimes, and background checks will not keep guns out of the hands of 
every violent madman, and we all know that. But we owe it to the 
American people to act as if there is a chance to save even one life--
whether that life belongs to a great-grandfather such as Stanley Cooper 
or these babies who barely began to live in Newtown, CT.
  They deserve a vote.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cowan). The Republican leader is 
recognized.


                Congratulating the Louisville Cardinals

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I am going to take another opportunity 
to congratulate the Louisville Cardinals for an incredible championship 
win last night. It was a truly exciting game. I know my colleagues from 
Michigan take great pride in the fact that not just one but two of 
their schools were in the Sweet 16.
  But you know we Americans love a story about somebody getting knocked 
down and picking themselves up again. That is why it was such a great 
moment to see Kevin Ware cut the net last night. They had to lower the 
rim a bit, as I am sure it is difficult to climb a ladder with a cast 
on your right leg, but let me just say to him and to the entire 
University of Louisville, my undergraduate alma mater: Well done. You 
have truly made our State proud.


                     Remembering Margaret Thatcher

  Today, Mr. President, I plan to talk about the President's budget, 
but first I also wish to say a word about Margaret Thatcher.
  Margaret Thatcher was one of the most transformative political 
figures of the 20th century. She was a revolutionary, a tireless 
tribune for what she called ``popular capitalism''--her ``crusade to 
enfranchise the many.'' Thatcher's methods were razor-sharp wit and the 
force of her will, which had toughened through decades of literally 
plowing through obstacles.
  A woman of humble beginnings, she charged headfirst against a cross-
partisan ruling class that had become calcified in office, an elite 
clique that had grown impotent in the face of the sort of postwar 
economic challenges that have long since drained the vitality from 
Western democracies that never had a leader like her.
  The starched dukes and faceless union men who traditionally 
alternated the reins of British power sneered at ``that woman,'' as 
they called her--the ``grocer's daughter'' who knew nothing of their 
ways, whose middle-class instincts were unsuited to the business of 
governing. Yet she outmaneuvered them all.
  When Margaret Thatcher finally wrested the keys of office from those 
who had made peace with Britain's decline in a way she never could and 
never would, she set in motion a whirlwind of reforms.
  None of those were easy. The vested interests opposed her every move. 
But in the teeth of fierce opposition, she ignited what could best be 
described as a political and economic earthquake--one with a tide of 
global reverberations.
  The kind of policies and ideas she inspired saw dictatorships and 
entrenched bureaucracies come crashing down, grinding poverty lose its 
grip, and the fossils of socialism recede into the surf. In the wake of 
this wave of reform stood freer people with a greater say over their 
own lives and a greater hope for the future.
  That is Margaret Thatcher's legacy. In some ways, the parallels to 
our own day are hard to escape.
  When Margaret Thatcher took office, Britain was gripped by wrenching 
economic turmoil--turmoil of a somewhat different kind than, but not 
entirely dissimilar to, our own. But through unbending confidence in 
the power of free markets and in the power of free people to order 
their lives more intelligently than centralized elites, she literally 
turned the tide.
  So we mourn her passing, but we still have much to learn from her 
courage and example. Because in the years ahead, we will need to draw 
from it as conservatives look to turn the tide in the United States and 
to set about a renewal of our own.


                         The President's Budget

  Tomorrow the President is set to unveil his budget--the details of 
his plan for America's future. Is it going to be a visionary blueprint 
that focuses on growing the economy instead of the government, a budget 
that can help, rather than continue to hurt, job creation? Is it going 
to be a budget that balances 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 
ever? Is it going to be a reformist document that makes bold choices? 
Will he finally drop the tax hike fanaticism that is, frankly, starting 
to enter the realm of the absurd?
  From what we have heard so far, the prospects do not look all that 
great. We hear that, just like the Senate Democratic budget, it will 
never balance--ever. We hear it contains only about $600 billion or 
less in deficit savings over 10 years, which is roughly the level of 
the deficit in the first 6 months of this fiscal year. We hear it 
contains new spending proposals and does little to address the drivers 
of our debt. We hear it contains tax hike upon tax hike upon tax hike--
and, in fact, all the deficit reduction I just mentioned would be 
derived from myriad tax increases rather than spending reductions.
  So apart from reports of a modest entitlement change--and we will 
need to see the details on that--it sounds as if the White House just 
tossed last year's budget in the microwave.
  Look, this budget is already 2 months late, so I sincerely hope it is 
not the case that it is just a warmed-over version of last year. 
Because if it is, what a colossal waste of time and what a 
disappointment. The American people deserve a lot better than that.
  In a statement released yesterday, President Obama said Margaret 
Thatcher taught us that ``we are not simply carried along by the 
currents of history . . . [that] we can shape them with moral 
conviction, unyielding courage and iron will.''
  What I am saying this morning is that this is your moment to do just 
that, Mr. President--your moment.
  Lady Thatcher did not save her country from the abyss by taking half-
measures or tiptoeing around special interest groups. She pushed 
through groundbreaking reform after groundbreaking reform, usually 
under heavy fire from all sides, and often over the objections of 
powerful leaders in her own party and Cabinet.
  Had she governed by opinion poll, I am sure she would have been a lot 
more popular while in office, and Britain would have never recovered 
from the abysmal state in which she found it.
  So, Mr. President, if you are ready to embrace bold reform, to take 
the steps that are needed to make our entitlement programs permanently 
solvent and grow the economy, then Republicans are ready to work with 
you because the time for pretending America's challenges can be solved 
with more of the same is over--over. The time has come to summon the 
political courage to move beyond the status quo, to put the tax hikes 
and the poll-tested gimmicks aside, and to do finally what must be 
done.
  I yield the floor.


                       Reservation of Leader Time

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time 
is reserved.
  Under the previous order, the time until 11:30 a.m. will be equally 
divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with 
Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the 
majority controlling the first 30 minutes and the Republicans 
controlling the second 30 minutes.
  Mr. McCONNELL. 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. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.

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  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________