[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2632-2633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 REPEALING SECTION 403 OF THE BIPARTISAN BUDGET ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO 
                                PROCEED

  Mr. REID. I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 298, S. 1963.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A motion to proceed to Calendar No. 298, S. 1963, a bill to 
     repeal section 403 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the 
Republican leader, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 1845, 
which is the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act. The 
filing deadline for first-degree amendments to that is 9:45 a.m. today, 
just a few minutes from now. The deadline for second-degree amendments 
to the Reed amendment and to the bill is 10:45 a.m.


                           Order of Procedure

  I ask unanimous consent the cloture vote on the Reed substitute, 
which is now scheduled for 11 a.m., be at 2 p.m. There will be two 
votes at that time, and there could be another one. We will see what 
happens on the cloture vote.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. As I said, Mr. President, there will be two rollcall votes. 
The first vote is on cloture of the Reed amendment. If cloture is not 
invoked, there will be a second cloture on the underlying bill.
  We hope to be able to work something out for Senator Baucus's 
nomination to be ambassador to China this afternoon.


                Measure Placed On The Calendar--S. 1996

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am told that there is a bill, S. 1996, due 
for a second reading.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will read the bill by 
title for the second time.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1996) to protect and enhance opportunities for 
     recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting, and for other 
     purposes.

  Mr. REID. I object to any further proceedings with regard to this 
matter.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection having been heard, the 
bill will be placed on the calendar.


                         Tribute to Max Baucus

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have had the good fortune of serving in 
Congress for more than three decades with a good man, the senior 
Senator from Montana Max Baucus. We hope to schedule a vote sometime 
this afternoon on his confirmation to be our Nation's Ambassador to 
China.
  Senator Baucus has served in the Senate for a long time. At the end 
of this year, he will have served 36 years. Prior to that, he served in 
the House of Representatives for 4 years. Prior to that, he served a 
term in the Montana State legislature.
  He has his undergraduate and law degree from Stanford. He is an 
extremely smart person and is certainly versed on what goes on in the 
Congress.
  After he received his law degree from Stanford, he worked as an 
attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission and entered private 
practice in Missoula after that.
  His mentor, and the person who got him interested in politics, was 
Mike Mansfield. I didn't know him--I shouldn't say I didn't know him. 
He attended the prayer breakfast, and I met him on a number of 
occasions at our Wednesday prayer breakfast. He was a very quiet man, 
and that is what everybody says about him. He was the worst guest in 
the world to interview on a Sunday show because he wouldn't say 
anything. He would just answer yes or no. He was well respected in the 
Senate by Democrats and Republicans.
  I heard Senator Baucus tell the story many times about how Mike 
Mansfield suggested that he go into politics. Well, he did do that.
  Senator Baucus served 2 years in the Montana State legislature before 
he was elected in 1974 to the House of Representatives. He served, as I 
indicated earlier, 4 years in the House before coming to the Senate. He 
has been elected and reelected to the Senate 5 times. As I said, at the 
end of this year, he will have served for 36 years in the Senate.
  He has been chairman of the Finance Committee. He has been chairman 
of the Environment and Public Works Committee. He has been a member of 
the Agriculture Committee for a long time. By the way, he was appointed 
to that committee on a temporary basis many decades ago and never left.
  As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, he was instrumental in 
developing lots of landmark legislation, but the most significant law 
he helped

[[Page 2633]]

to pass in this body was the landmark health care reform bill, the 
Affordable Care Act, which is saving lives and a lot of money for 
American taxpayers.
  He has been a long-time advocate for the Children's Health Insurance 
Program. He worked on that with a number of people--not the least of 
which is Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah.
  While Senator Baucus is well-known nationally for his tireless work 
on health care, tax reform, and as a member of the Environment and 
Public Works Committee, he was also involved in public works projects.
  I think the most important thing that Montanans will remember about 
him is that he always put Montanans first. He is an avid hunter. He 
authored one of the largest public land grant bills in American history 
which preserved 310,000 acres of forest land in northwestern Montana.
  It is a testament to his love of the outdoors that Max Baucus walked 
almost 1,000 miles across Montana in 1995 and 1996.
  Max and I have an ongoing dialogue about running. I have run a number 
of marathons, but Max Baucus is a better runner than I am. He is 
faster, and he has run--I ran one 31-mile race, but Max has run 50-mile 
races, and he has trained for 100-mile races. During one of those, he 
fell and hurt himself quite significantly. He hit his head because of a 
fall.
  We have exchanged news articles and stories about runners. We enjoy 
focusing on our athletic skills. It was just the two of us, so we could 
say whatever we wanted because there was no one there to listen.
  He is someone who loves running. He is still an avid runner, and I 
have admired him for his athletic skills in addition to his legislative 
skills.
  Senator Baucus's independent spirit has made him a powerful advocate 
for Montana and for the issues he cares about. He is a respected member 
of the Democratic caucus and has great respect from the Republican 
caucus.
  During the time that Senator Grassley was the ranking member--I can't 
vouch for this, but I think I am right--and Senator Baucus was chairman 
of the Finance Committee, they met every week for lunch. Every week we 
were in session, they had lunch together.
  His passion is well known to all of us. He has decades of experience 
in Congress. President Obama made an excellent choice in appointing 
Senator Baucus to represent America's interests in China, a growing 
power in our global economy.
  He has never shied away from difficult issues of the day, and I have 
no doubt that his fearlessness will serve him well in his new role as a 
representative for our country in China.
  Although Senator Baucus will be missed by the entire Democratic 
caucus and the Senate family, our loss will be the Nation's gain.
  I wish the senior Senator from Montana the very best.
  I hope we will vote this afternoon on Senator Baucus's nomination to 
be Ambassador to China. We have not locked that in yet.


                    Emergency Unemployment Insurance

  We will also vote at 2 p.m. to advance a 3-month extension of 
emergency unemployment insurance that will not add a penny to the 
deficit. We originally said 3 months and that it should not be paid 
for, but the Republicans said it had to be paid for.
  We have had two, I thought, really uncontroversial issues that paid 
for it. The first one didn't work. I think that is wrong, but it didn't 
work. No one complained about the second one, so certainly any ``no'' 
vote on extending unemployment benefits is a ``no'' vote because they 
don't want to extend unemployment benefits.
  For a number of years the junior Senator from Oklahoma has talked 
about how millionaires should not draw unemployment benefits. I agree 
with him. That is in Jack Reed's amendment, which we are going to vote 
on later today. Under this legislation, we have accepted the suggestion 
of the junior Senator from Oklahoma that millionaires should not draw 
unemployment benefits.
  We have virtually done everything that the Republicans asked. They 
will come up with excuses about why we can't do this and how they want 
amendments, but that is just a loss leader. We offered them 20 
amendments before, but it wasn't good enough.
  I hope that we could have a few valiant Republicans vote to help the 
people who are in desperate need of help. I am sorry to say that it 
appears Senate Republicans appear ready to filibuster this important 
legislation a second time despite the fact that we have compromised on 
every one of their demands. Republicans complained that the bill wasn't 
paid for, so we found an offset that was minimal to just about 
everything--at least certainly for those people who were originally on 
the bill--Heller, Murkowski, Collins. It is my understanding they 
accepted that. I hope more do. We need five Republican votes.
  The Republicans have complained after the first vote that they 
wouldn't vote on an extension of unemployment insurance without reforms 
to the program, so we did that also.
  I am beginning to believe there is nothing that will get Republicans 
to yes. With the exception of a few Republicans who have taken the 
human toll of obstruction into consideration, Republicans simply don't 
want to extend these benefits.
  Their obstruction has already cost the Nation $2.2 billion in 
economic activity--a body blow to small businesses around the country. 
Every week they delay, another 73,000 Americans lose these crucial 
benefits, benefits that help them keep food on the table and a roof 
over their heads while they search for a job.
  I shared the story about a 57-year-old Nevada woman who is couch 
surfing--I had never heard that term before, but I understand it--who 
is sleeping on friends' couches because she doesn't have a home 
anymore. She sold all her belongings so she could put gas in her car if 
she gets a job interview. This woman has worked all her life. She 
doesn't want a handout; she wants a job.
  So I have had some good conversations with Republican Senators. I 
hope they will go ahead and let this important piece of legislation 
pass. We are going to move as quickly as we can to some bills that have 
been reported on a bipartisan basis out of committees. We are looking 
closely at the HELP Committee, the Energy Committee, and there are 
other committees we are going to look at to see if we can bring a 
bipartisan bill here to the floor, have an agreement on amendments, and 
try to move forward on that basis.
  So as we vote today, I hope my Republican colleagues will keep in 
mind that we need to move forward--it is so important--to help people 
who are desperately in need of help such as this 57-year-old woman from 
Nevada. I hope they will work with us to advance this bill and 
legislation in the future more expeditiously than we have in the past.

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