[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 16060]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am glad that for a few minutes the 
President pro tem is here in this body and presiding over the Senate.
  For years I have heard from Senate Republicans that they simply 
wanted to do some legislating; they were tired of being shut out of the 
legislative process; they were not able to debate legislation and 
amendments. They have assured the American people they want to be 
wholly dedicated to open and robust debate on legislation on the Senate 
floor.
  Yesterday a bill that was bipartisan in nature and came out under the 
auspices of the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, after actually 
years of consternation, debate, and work by so many different people, 
came to the floor. That was blocked yesterday, blocked from even having 
a hearing here on the Senate floor. That is wrong. This is a very 
important piece of legislation. It protects Americans' rights to 
privacy without sacrificing the U.S. intelligence community's ability 
to gather information.
  I also say through the Chair to my friend the President pro tem of 
the Senate that it does not matter if you agree with the statement I 
just made. Maybe some people disagree with this legislation. Certainly 
there are people who disagree with it. But shouldn't we at least be 
able to debate the issue here on the floor? Doesn't legislation of this 
magnitude merit the Senate's consideration? Yet yesterday we were shut 
down once again--this has been going on for years--before we even got 
started. They would not even let the Senate debate this very important 
piece of legislation. We were ready to legislate in good faith. We have 
been ready to legislate for the last 4 years. We have been prevented 
numerous times from doing that.
  The Republican leader and his caucus will have to do more than just 
pay lipservice to an open, bipartisan legislative process. At some 
point they must practice what they preach. Maybe that will be the case 
come January.
  Last night, just after the vote on Keystone, I heard the Republican 
leader say he will bring this same legislation to the Senate floor 
early next year. So we look forward to coming to the floor early next 
year. I would hope we can have an open amendment process and ample 
debate on that legislation that the Republican leader for months on 
record has wholeheartedly endorsed.
  I feel very bad that the chairman of our Judiciary Committee has 
worked so hard during the time--when we were in recess, we talked 
several times about the importance of this legislation and how we were 
going to try to move it forward. We determined yesterday we are not 
going to move forward even without a debate or a vote on anything. That 
is really too bad.

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