[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5632]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             REGULAR ORDER

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, my Republican colleagues often demand a 
return to regular order. We have heard speeches, and the House is also 
talking about regular order. They have done this many different places 
but especially where the budget process is concerned. They complained 
for 2 years that we did not pass a budget, even though there was a law 
we passed that gave us those budget numbers.
  But they still came and talked about our needing to do a budget 
resolution. I repeat, we did not need a budget resolution because we 
had enacted a budget with the force of law, a bill the President 
signed. A resolution, the President does not have to sign that. This 
year, I repeat, the Republicans again requested we take up a budget 
resolution.
  Until 5 in the morning we took vote after vote on amendment after 
amendment, more than 100 votes. In the end, we passed a budget 
resolution without a single Republican vote in the affirmative. After 
giving the Republicans what they wanted or what they said they wanted, 
regular order, countless amendment votes, the passage of a budget 
resolution, a strange thing happened. House Republicans did a complete 
180. They flipped. They are no longer insisting on regular order, even 
though they preached that for years. They do not want to go to 
conference and work things out. They did not even want to name 
conferees.
  It seems House Republicans do not want to be seen discussing even the 
possibility of compromise with Democrats for fear there will be a tea 
party revolt, but that is not a good reason to run away from budget 
negotiations. In fact, it is ridiculous. So today I am going to ask 
unanimous consent to name conferees so we can have a budget conference 
to try to work things out.
  I hope, even though I doubt, my Republican colleagues in the Senate 
will not object for the sole purpose of giving cover to the House 
Republican colleagues who are certainly directed and guided by the tea 
party folks over there. If the Republicans are serious about reducing 
the deficit, we need to get to work, get to work sooner rather than 
later.
  What is regular order? It means we do things the way they are 
supposed to be done--by the book, so to speak. So I am going to ask 
that consent soon.

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