[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 7613]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT--EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
cloture vote scheduled for Executive Calendar No. 95 be vitiated; 
further, the Senate proceed to executive session at 1 p.m. today for 
the consideration of Calendar No. 95; there be 1 hour of debate equally 
divided in the usual form, and at the use or yielding back of time, the 
Senate proceed to a vote on the confirmation of the nomination with no 
intervening action or debate, and that the President then be notified 
of Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am not going to have a long conversation 
this morning with my friend the Republican leader, other than to say 
this: My speech speaks for itself. I wrote it; no one else wrote it. It 
is my speech, and I want everyone to look at that. I want Republicans 
and Democrats to look at it.
  I also want the record to be clear: This man, on whom we are going to 
vote this afternoon at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m.--whatever time the consent 
agreement suggests--has been waiting 1 year. So the Republican leader 
can talk about how quickly it came, but this man has been waiting for a 
year. I went through the statistics, and I will not go over them again. 
I hope things work out in this Senate so we don't have to go through 
any more procedural battles, but things are not working well. I went 
through the statistics, and they are in my speech.
  I don't object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Let me make sure everybody understands where we are. 
Let's have no misunderstandings. What the majority leader is doing is 
trying to get 51 votes to break the rules of the Senate and change the 
rules of the Senate. We know what he is doing, and let's make no 
mistake what the stakes are: He is threatening this institution, which 
he elected, in part, to protect, by manufacturing a crisis that does 
not exist. As we all know, in the Senate every Senator has the ability 
to impact how we do business. Unanimous consent means exactly what it 
says, unanimous consent.
  I hope the majority leader will think long and hard, and I hope my 
friends in the majority, who may some day be in the minority--I know 
there are a lot of new Democratic Senators who think that will never 
happen, but amazingly enough the American people do, from time to time, 
change their minds about who they want running the country. The shoe 
could be on the other foot, and we never know when. I could have the 
job the majority leader currently has.
  I think we need to think long and hard about protecting this 
institution and its traditions, particularly manufacturing crises when 
they don't exist.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, prior to coming to Congress, I was a trial 
lawyer. I tried more than 100 cases to a jury. The jury decided what 
was right or wrong in the particular conflict, and I have the American 
people on my side with this conflict. They don't like what is going on 
in the Senate, and I have an obligation to protect the Senate. I know 
that, and my friend reminds me of that, and I think of it very often. I 
think of it every day and when I have my weekly caucus with my 54 
Democratic Senators. I represent them to represent the people they 
represent. I represent, because the people they represent are 
Republicans, Democrats and Independents, and I understand that.
  So I am willing to take this case to the American people. I hope we 
can resolve any problems we have, but it is not right what is going on. 
I submit my case to the American people. I submit my case to the 
American people.
  I don't know what he is talking about. I had a very early meeting 
this morning. I haven't read the newspaper. Maybe there is something in 
there I will have to deny. I don't know anything about the 51 votes. I 
look for 51 votes all the time on many different issues.
  As I said, I don't want to have any animosity between me and my 
friend. He is a lawyer. I am a lawyer. He represents Kentucky. I 
represent Nevada. We both represent our respective caucuses and we both 
have an obligation to make this place work better.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader.

                          ____________________