[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6947-6967]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 ENERGY SAVINGS AND INDUSTRIAL COMPETITIVENESS ACT OF 2014--MOTION TO 
                                PROCEED

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion to 
proceed.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 368, S. 2262, a bill to 
     promote energy savings in residential buildings and industry, 
     and for other purposes.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, my staff just told me we are now at more 
than 500 filibusters--500.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the majority leader has brought to the 
attention of the Senate today the headline news across America. This 
report by our government about what we are facing with environmental 
changes in America is a call to action.
  I came to the floor yesterday and I made a challenge, which I have 
made before. I will make it again. I am asking any Republican Senator 
to come to the floor today and dispute the following claim: The 
Republican Party of the United States of America is the only major 
party in the world--the only major political party in the world--that 
is in denial of what is happening to our environment when it comes to 
climate change and global warming.
  I have said it repeatedly. No one has disputed it. One political 
party is in denial about a change on this Earth that could literally 
affect generations to come. As a result, we are, I guess, stopped in 
our tracks. There is nothing we can do.
  This bill before us today--the energy efficiency bill, which is on 
the calendar--if there were ever anything we should agree on, it is 
this. If your motive in energy efficiency is to save money for a 
business or a family, it is in this bill. If your motive in energy 
efficiency is to create jobs in America, it is in this bill--190,000 
maybe 200,000 American jobs. If your motive is to do something for the 
environment, energy efficiency is the right bill. But here we are stuck 
in another Republican filibuster. Why? Because they insist on a series 
of amendments.
  The sponsors of this legislation--Senator Shaheen from New Hampshire; 
Senator Portman, a Republican from Ohio--basically came to an agreement 
on a bill that is bipartisan in nature, and there are 10 or more 
bipartisan amendments included in this bill.
  Has the minority had an opportunity to be part of this process? 
Absolutely. Yet it is never enough. They want more and more, and they 
are prepared to slow down or stop the passage of a bill which in 
ordinary times would have passed by a voice vote. That is not going to 
happen. Unfortunately, we are going to be mired down in more procedural 
votes until some of these Senators get the amendments they want.
  We wasted a week last week, a week in the Senate when nothing 
happened, when this bill could have passed. Why? One Republican Senator 
wanted to offer an amendment on the Affordable Care Act. They have 
flogged the Affordable Care Act in every imaginable direction, and now 
this Senator wants to deny health insurance coverage or at least make 
it more expensive for the staff of Members of the Senate and the House 
of Representatives, as well as Members themselves. That is his idea of 
a good idea to debate on the floor of the Senate at the expense of this 
bill.
  Well, shame on the Senate. Shame on those who are obstructing us. We 
have had enough, have we not, of these filibusters and this 
obstruction? It is time that we roll up our sleeves and get down to the 
work of the people of this country.


                            Health Research

  While I am on the subject, I am leaving to go to a committee meeting 
of the Appropriations Committee to talk about Federal funding for 
health research. This is another issue which troubles me, because of 
the lack of commitment by this Congress to one of the most fundamental 
responsibilities we have as a government.
  We are blessed with the best biomedical research agency in the world 
today--the National Institutes of Health--one of the most 
extraordinarily public health agencies--the Centers for Disease 
Control--and we continue year after year to underfund these agencies at 
the expense of America's health and at the expense of creating good-
paying jobs in our country.
  For the last 10 years or more we have failed to give the National 
Institutes of Health protection from inflation, and as a result their 
spending power to award research grants has declined by 22 percent over 
the last 10 years. As to the researchers at the National Institutes of 
Health, there are fewer and fewer younger researchers. They have lost 
hope that there is a commitment by this government, by this Nation, to 
medical research. What is the net result? The net result is that we, at 
our peril, fail to do the research, to find the cures for diseases that 
make a difference in the lives of Americans and American families.
  The Republicans argue that it is just too darn much money, that we 
cannot afford medical research. Well, let me give you one statistic to 
think about. Last year Medicare and Medicaid spent $203 billion of 
taxpayers' money--$203 billion--on the victims of Alzheimer's--$203 
billion. If research at the National Institutes of Health could get to 
the heart of this disease and find a way to cure it--that would be a 
miracle--or delay its onset--it seems within the realm of possibility 
maybe--we could save dramatic amounts of money. Medical research pays 
for itself.
  Listen to what is happening in the House of Representatives. We have 
a proposal for an extension of a Tax Code provision that will give a 
break to businesses to invest in research projects. There is nothing 
wrong with that. I have supported it. Throughout my time in the House 
and Senate, I have supported it. But listen--listen--to the logic. The 
Republicans in the House argue that if it is an R&D tax credit that 
goes to the private sector for research so they can develop new 
products and services and be more profitable and create more 
employment, it does not have to be paid for. Over 10 years, it would 
cost us $140 billion for the extension of this credit, on a 10-year 
basis, to the private sector, and the Republicans have argued, yes, 
this may nominally add to the deficit. But, in fact, it does not. The 
research and development leads to more businesses, more jobs, more tax 
revenue to the government, and so they argue we do not have to pay for 
it.
  Now let me step over here. What about the research and development 
done, the medical research done by government agencies? Is that worth 
some money to taxpayers? Absolutely. Finding cures for diseases at 
NIH--Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer; I could go on--each and every one 
of them would be a savings to the taxpayers. Yet they argue: No, that 
is government spending; that adds to the deficit.
  That is such upside-down thinking. It is such a denial of reality. 
Basic fundamental medical research and biomedical research by these 
agencies relieves suffering, finds cures for diseases, and reduces the 
expenditures of our government on health care. I would argue it is just 
as justifiable, if not more so, for us to be making the same investment 
in increasing biomedical research over a 10-year period of time--
incidentally, at the same cost.
  A 5-percent increase--real increase--in spending in biomedical 
research each year for the next 10 years at the National Institutes of 
Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Defense 
medical research, the Veterans' Administration medical research--those 
four agencies--5 percent real growth comes out to almost identically 
the same cost as extending the R&D tax credit for private companies.
  Do them both. Do them both and I guarantee you America will get more 
than a $140 billion return for each one of them. Thinking ahead in an 
innovative way, with some vision toward the future, investing in 
research is really buying for the next generation a better life in 
America and a stronger economy for our country.
  I want to make that appeal to my colleagues. If we bring the R&D tax

[[Page 6948]]

credit to the floor and the argument is made: Well, we do not have to 
pay for that because it is going to private companies, the same 
argument should be made when it comes to increasing our investment in 
biomedical research at the most fundamental agencies that promote 
health in America and the world.
  Back to this bill for a moment, I hope that by the end of the day the 
Republicans will end this filibuster, that we can start moving toward 
passing this bill. It should have been done last year. It should be 
done now. These excuses that we need a litany of amendments before we 
can even consider the bill are just delaying something that is very 
important for this country.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is 
recognized.


                           Energy Amendments

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, earlier this morning it was suggested 
that Republicans are creating a problem on the Portman-Shaheen bill 
because we are insisting on amendments. I am stunned that anybody would 
think that insisting on amendments would be unusual or out of order. 
That is what we used to do in the Senate. We had amendments offered and 
we had votes on them by both sides.
  One Senator, it was suggested, insisted on an ObamaCare amendment. 
That was dropped 5 days ago. Nobody is insisting on an ObamaCare 
amendment on the Portman-Shaheen bill. Senator Vitter had suggested 
that earlier but decided that was not a good idea on this particular 
bill because it was the opportunity, we hoped, to get four or five 
votes on important energy-related amendments. Senator Durbin actually 
objected.
  So I think it is important to set the record straight this morning. 
What Senate Republicans are asking for is four or five amendments 
related to the subject of energy. I would remind our colleagues that 
the minority in the Senate has had eight rollcall votes on amendments 
it was interested in since last July--since last July.
  During that same period the House of Representatives, where it is 
often thought the minority has no influence at all, has had 125 
rollcall amendment votes. So what is going on is the Senate is being 
run in a way that only the majority leader gets to decide who gets to 
offer amendments. He says: Maybe I will pick one for you.
  That is not the way the Senate used to operate, not the way the 
Senate should operate, and I hope not the way the Senate will operate 
starting next year.
  The majority leader, as I indicated, is basically shutting down the 
voice of the people here in the Senate; that is, the people who are 
represented by 45 of us. For 7 long years he has refused to allow truly 
comprehensive debate on energy in this Chamber. We have not had a 
comprehensive debate since 2007. He had a chance to change that 
yesterday. Dozens of Senators asked him to do that. We know the 
American people want us to do it. But he refused. Apparently he does 
not think the American people deserve a vote on a single energy 
amendment. Apparently he does not think the American middle class, 
which is being squeezed by rising energy costs and over-the-top 
government regulations, needs the kind of relief Republicans are 
proposing. He clearly must not think the people of eastern Kentucky 
deserve our help either. Kentuckians in the eastern part of my State 
are experiencing a depression--that is a depression with a ``D''--that 
the President's energy policies actually created and are making worse.
  The administration has proposed new rules that would make life even 
harder for those folks, rules that would make it effectively impossible 
to build another coal plant anywhere in the country. Coal is a vital 
industry to the livelihood of literally thousands of people in my 
State. We should be allowed to help them, but the majority leader said 
no.
  Let's be honest. He does not seem to think the people we represent 
deserve a say on much of anything anymore. Democrats over in the 
Republican-controlled House, as I indicated earlier, have had 125 
amendment votes since last July, but here in the Senate the Democratic 
majority has allowed us nine. I said eight earlier. It is actually nine 
amendments since last July, that is, rollcall votes. It is shameful. 
But it says a lot about which party is serious these days and which one 
is literally playing games. It says a lot about the complete lack of 
confidence Washington Democrats have in an open debate. What is wrong 
with having an open debate? They are completely out of ideas, and 
apparently they do not want anybody to know that Republicans have 
suggestions to be made. So they are attempting to muzzle us at a time 
when middle-class Americans are in need of some relief. Do they really 
think that Americans who have had to cope with rising electricity 
prices, stagnant wages, and growing hopelessness in the Obama economy--
do they really believe the Senate should not even be debating ideas 
that might help them?
  It is hard to think otherwise. So I think middle-class Americans, 
looking at the Senate these days, are left to draw an obvious 
conclusion: That their concerns matter far less to today's Senate 
Democrats than the political imperatives of the far left. We know the 
President's political team must be pleased. One White House aide said 
they plan to lean on Senate Democrats to ``get the right outcome'' this 
week; in other words, to stop the American people from having a real 
debate on energy policies.
  For the President and his political pals, it must feel like ``mission 
accomplished.'' This means he can avoid having to sign or veto 
legislation that might be good for the middle class but offensive to 
the furthest orbit of the left. It also means he can continue to impose 
energy regulations such as the one I mentioned earlier, through the 
back door, to govern by executive fiat, without having to worry about 
niceties such as Democratic accountability.
  After all, far-left activists presumably demand that the President 
impose those regulations because they do not want the American people 
getting in the way again. They know what happened the last time they 
let that happen, when a fully Democratic-controlled Congress could not 
even pass a national energy tax.
  As long as it has a Senate Democratic majority on its side, the far 
left knows it will not have to worry about the American people messing 
up its plans again. The majority leader proved that again this very 
week. The far left will not have to worry about the representatives of 
the American people voting through the Keystone XL Pipeline either.
  Here you have a project the American people support overwhelmingly 
that would create thousands of jobs when we have rarely, rarely needed 
them more, and that would pass Congress easily if the majority leader 
would allow a vote, but he will not because the far left will not let 
him. If we do get a vote, the Democratic leadership will be sure to 
filibuster against the jobs the Keystone XL Pipeline will create.
  Activists on the left positively hate this energy jobs initiative. 
They rail against it constantly, even though they cannot seem to 
explain in a serious way why it is a bad idea. But it is a symbol in 
their minds, so they demand Senate Democrats block its approval and 
Senate Democrats dutifully do just that.
  Again and again we see the needs of the middle class subsumed to the 
whims of the left. That has become the legacy of today's Democratic 
majority. They have diminished the vital role the Senate plays in our 
democracy. We do not seem to debate or address the most serious issues 
anymore, even with significant events at home and abroad

[[Page 6949]]

that deserve our attention, because for the Senate Democrats who run 
this place, the priority is not on policy, it is on show votes and 
political posturing 24/7. This reflects a party that has simply run out 
of ideas, that has failed to fix the economy after 5\1/2\ years of 
trying, and now sees its political salvation not in making good policy 
for the middle class but in exciting the left enough to save the day 
come November.
  I guess we will see if this strategy pays off. But that is not what 
truly matters around here. What matters is that millions in our country 
are hurting and that Senate Democrats do not seem to want to act. Look, 
they should be joining with us to help our constituents because the 
American people did not send us here to play games or to serve the far 
left. Our constituents sent us here to have serious debates on issues 
that matter to them, such as energy security, national security, 
economic security. All three can be addressed if the majority leader 
would simply allow Republican amendments to be considered.
  Our constituents want Congress to make good policy. The fact that we 
do not seem to do that under the current majority is quite tragic. The 
American people deserve better. They deserve a debate and they deserve 
to be heard.


                       Honoring Our Armed Forces

                      Specialist Russell E. Madden

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to pay tribute to a brave and 
honorable young man from Kentucky who was tragically lost in the 
performance of his military service. SPC Russell E. Madden, of 
Bellevue, KY, was killed on June 23, 2010, in Afghanistan in support of 
Operation Enduring Freedom.
  Specialist Madden volunteered for his final mission and was in the 
lead vehicle in a convoy that was attacked by the enemy. His vehicle 
was struck by a rocket shell. He was 29 years old.
  For his service in uniform, he received the Bronze Star Medal, the 
Purple Heart Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense 
Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Bronze Service Star, 
the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the 
Overseas Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal, and the Combat Action Badge.
  Russell Madden joined the Army just under 2 years before his death. 
His father Martin Madden reflects on his son's time in service by 
saying:

       Nineteen months is not a long military career. But 19 
     months was long enough to graduate basic training at Fort 
     Sill, Oklahoma, with honors.

  His dad continues:

       Nineteen months is long enough to be running and gunning as 
     a lead convoy gunner on convoys that sometimes took 16 hours 
     to move 40 miles to replenish forward operating bases, 
     completing over 85 missions outside the wire in nine months . 
     . .
       Nineteen months may not represent a prolonged period of 
     time in the minds of most Americans; however, it is just long 
     enough to create a patriot, to define heroism, and accept a 
     place of honor among those who stand in silent testimonial to 
     the strength of this great nation.

  The bond between father and son that moves Martin to speak these 
words was forged, of course, not just over 19 months but over Russell's 
entire lifetime. Like so many of the extraordinary heroes who hail from 
Kentucky, Russell's childhood is full of examples of a young man 
devoted to a cause greater than himself.
  He was the oldest of three children, along with his younger sister 
Lindsey and younger brother Martin. Like most young siblings, at times 
the kids would fight. Russell's parents had a unique way to defuse 
family tussles. Martin said:

       In order to settle [disagreements], we placed both [Russell 
     and Lindsey] in the middle of the living room and told them 
     to stand there hugging each other. After about 20 minutes of 
     standing there hugging, we would begin to hear them laughing 
     and having a good time, and we would go in and tell them if 
     they could get along they could stop.

  Little sister Lindsey remembers childhood stories like these, just as 
she remembers her brother's dedication to service. She said:

       All he ever told me, every time I talked to him, was that 
     he wanted to make me proud. And he has. He always made me 
     proud.

  Russell attended Bellevue High School, where he displayed his 
dedication to serving on a team as a star athlete in football, 
baseball, and track. During his senior year, the track team was 1 week 
away from the State meet when the top hurdler was injured. The whole 
team was in danger of not qualifying unless someone stepped in. Russell 
volunteered to run the hurdles, even though he had never run a hurdle 
event in his life.
  Martin Madden recalls:

       Russell took off running at full sprint, stopped when he 
     got to the hurdle and jumped over it, then took off running 
     at full speed until he reached the next hurdle and stopped 
     and jumped over that one, throughout the track. It was the 
     most unorthodox style the coach had ever observed, but with 
     the state qualifier taking place next week, the coach allowed 
     Russell to represent the team.

  As a result, Russell's first-ever hurdle event was the State-
qualifying match. Even using what his father calls his ``God-awful ugly 
style,'' Russell qualified and ran in the final State competition, 
where he placed sixth.
  Russell was a winner on the football field just as he was in track 
and field. Every Friday night, during the 1999 season, fans packed 
Gilligan Stadium to watch Bellevue High play out what would be an 
undefeated season. Russell played running back and was such a talented 
athlete that he could also kick field goals and extra points, return 
kickoffs, punt, quarterback, and play wide receiver--and that is only 
on the offensive side of the ball. He also played linebacker on 
defense.
  As a result of his all-around athletic success, volunteer work, and 
coaching of youth football teams, Russell was inducted into both the 
Bellevue High School Sports Hall of Fame and the Northern Kentucky 
Youth League Football Hall of Fame. He was also recognized by the 
Northern Kentucky High School Football Coaches Association for his 
sportsmanship. Russell graduated from Bellevue High School in 2000.
  In 2008 Russell and his wife Michelle learned that their son Parker 
had a preliminary diagnosis indicating a high potential for cystic 
fibrosis. Martin said:

       Russell joined the Army to fight for his country and 
     provide the medical treatment necessary for his young son.

  Russell enlisted in 2008, and during his deployment to Afghanistan 
was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Infantry 
Brigade Combat Team based out of the Conn Barracks in Germany.
  Russell's father Martin recalls how Russell's fellow soldiers felt 
about Russell's dedication to them and their team--a dedication that 
echoed the drive of the young man who volunteered for the hurdles and 
excelled on the gridiron.
  ``This . . . is what the soldiers in his platoon told me,'' Martin 
said.
  Russell said to them:

       Guys, I will not let you down. We will get there. . . .

  If ever there was going to be a problem, they wanted to be with 
Russell because they knew he would never let them down.
  Respect and admiration for Russell's dedication to a cause greater 
than himself even reached the halls of the Kentucky General Assembly, 
which passed a joint resolution to designate Kentucky Route 1120, 
within the city limits of his hometown of Bellevue, as the ``SPC 
Russell Madden Memorial Parkway.'' Russell's family was present as the 
new street sign was unveiled for the first time.
  Russell's wife Michelle said:

       It is an awesome tribute to my husband. He deserves it. I 
     want this sign for my son to say, ``Hey, that's my dad's 
     sign. That's what my dad's done for us.'' This is what is 
     going to carry on his legacy.

  We are thinking of SPC Russell E. Madden's family today, including 
his wife Michelle, his son Parker, his stepson Jared, his parents 
Martin Madden and Peggy Davitt, his sister Lindsey, his brother Martin, 
and many other beloved family members and friends.
  It is important that Russell's family knows that no matter how long 
or how short his time in uniform may have been, Martin Madden is 
absolutely right that his son will and must be forever remembered and 
revered for the sacrifice he has made on behalf of our country.

[[Page 6950]]

  I know SPC Russell E. Madden certainly will be remembered by this 
Senate. I ask all of my colleagues to join me in expressing the utmost 
respect for his life and his service.
  We extend our greatest condolences to his family for a loss on behalf 
of our Nation that can never truly be erased.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Heitkamp). The Republican whip.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I was on the floor, as was the Presiding 
Officer, listening to the distinguished Republican leader's glowing 
tribute to this fallen warrior. We were moved, certainly, by it.
  He preceded his comments by talking about what is happening to the 
Senate and the fact that even though we are debating, supposedly, the 
first energy legislation to come to the Senate floor since 2007, the 
majority leader's--Majority Leader Reid, who has the power under the 
Senate rules to basically be the traffic cop, to decide which 
amendments get heard and voted on and which ones do not--comment was to 
the effect that the majority leader has essentially shut the Senate 
down and denied the minority an opportunity to offer their amendments 
and to get votes on amendments.
  I know people listening must say: Well, here they go again talking 
about the prerogatives and rights of Senators. But that is not what I 
am talking about. I am talking about the rights and prerogatives of the 
people I represent, 26 million Texans who are being shut out of a 
debate on--of all topics--energy.
  We take great pride in the fact that Texas is an energy-producing 
State, and it is one of the reasons why our economy has been doing 
better than much of the rest of the country, because we have 
responsibly, and with the right kind of environmental stewardship, 
taken advantage of this gift of the natural resources that we have in 
our State.
  Thanks to the innovation, and thanks to the investment and the hard 
work of a lot of people, we are doing better--thank you--than the rest 
of the country when it comes to job creation.
  It really offended me when the majority leader this morning said:

       Mr. President, during today people will be watching 
     [presumably in the gallery, on 
     C-SPAN, maybe on the evening news] and they will see a quorum 
     call, nothing on the screen. Why? Because we are in the midst 
     again of one of these never-ending filibusters of the 
     Republicans--hundreds of them, hundreds of them. Let me 
     remind everyone, Lyndon Johnson was majority leader for 6 
     years.

  Well, I would just interject Lyndon Johnson didn't run the Senate the 
way Senator Reid does, when he was majority leader. Senator Reid 
continues:

       During that period of time he had to overcome one 
     filibuster.
       Mr. President, I have lost track. It is hundreds and 
     hundreds of filibusters that we have had to overcome, and we 
     have the Republicans coming here saying today: Well, all we 
     want are a few amendments. They do everything they can to 
     stop us from progressing on legislation and things that are 
     good for this country.

  He is talking about the 45 Senators on this side of the aisle--that 
we will do everything we can to stop from progressing on legislation 
and on things that are good for the country. How insulting can you be?
  We are going to have differences of opinion, sure. That is why are 
here. That is why they used to call the Senate the world's greatest 
deliberative body, because on the floor, not even Majority Leader Reid 
can shut me down or any other Senator who stands and is recognized by 
the Chair to speak on a matter of importance to their State or to the 
country.
  But to have the majority leader come to the floor and say that what 
we are trying to do is stop progress on legislation and things that are 
good for the country--he goes on. Senator Reid accuses us of trying to 
stop:

       Anything that is good for Barack Obama they think is bad 
     for the country, and they, for 5\1/2\ years, have opposed 
     everything that this good man has tried to do. It is a shame.
       So anyone out there wondering what is going on, it is 
     another of the hundreds of filibusters they have conducted.

  Majority Leader Reid has been a Member of the Senate for a long, long 
time. He knows this is not true.
  So why he would come to the floor of the Senate and say it is 
puzzling to me.
  We had 2 years when President Obama and Senator Reid's party could do 
anything they wanted. How is that? Well, because they had 60 votes in 
the Senate, which is sort of the magic number, when you can basically 
do anything you want in the Senate because the minority doesn't have 
enough numbers to stop the majority or to check their power.
  So Democrats had the House of Representatives, with Nancy Pelosi as 
Speaker. They had the Senate, with 60 votes, Harry Reid as the majority 
leader, and they had Barack Obama in the White House.
  What did we get in those 2 years? Well, one of the things we got was 
ObamaCare. We know it was sold on the basis of: If you like what you 
have you can keep it, your premiums would go down $2,500 and, yes, you 
could keep your doctor too. But none of that proved to be true--none of 
it.
  We got Dodd-Frank. Do you remember Dodd-Frank? That was the 
legislation following the financial crisis of 2008 and the meltdown on 
Wall Street that was very damaging to the economy of this country; 
there is no doubt about it. What we got with unrestrained and unchecked 
single-party efforts during the time when they controlled both branches 
of government--the executive and the legislative branches--was 
legislation that targeted Wall Street, but Main Street was actually the 
collateral damage. I hear that from my credit unions and community 
bankers in Texas all the time, that the regulations are strangling them 
and keeping them on the sidelines, hurting the economy and hurting job 
creation.
  My point is the Framers of our Constitution understood it is 
important to have vigorous debate on the differences of opinion each of 
us bring in representing our various States. The Constitution makes the 
point, in Article I, Section 1, that ``all legislative Powers herein 
granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall 
consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.''
  I ask the majority leader, if the Constitution vests all legislative 
authority in the Senate and the House, what happens when half of the 
Senate is shut down and denied an opportunity to participate in the 
legislative process?
  The Constitution goes on to state what kind of legislative power is 
vested in the Senate and the House. Section 8, Article I of the 
Constitution lays out a laundry list of powers the Congress has--the 
sorts of things Congress is intended to legislate on. It contains 
everything from the ``Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts 
and Excises . . . To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; 
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization . . . To coin Money . . 
. To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and 
current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post 
Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts . . . To 
constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court.''
  The list goes on and on. Of course, finally, the last phrase in 
Article I, Section 8 is laying out the power of the Congress to 
legislate, where it says, ``To make all Laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all 
other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the 
United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.''
  So I ask the majority leader: If the Constitution grants the Congress 
the power to legislate and specifies all of the things we are supposed 
to legislate on and do as the elected representatives of our various 
States, what happens when we are shut out of the process, when we are 
denied an opportunity to represent the people who elected us to office, 
who have entrusted us with a sacred responsibility and a stewardship?
  It is beyond outrageous. It is beyond outrageous for the majority 
leader to make the remarks he made this morning that I previously 
quoted because he knows they are not true. He knows they are not 
factual. The Constitution itself guarantees my constituents, all

[[Page 6951]]

26 million of them, the rights laid out in the Constitution in Article 
I. When they vote for a U.S. Senator, they are entitled to have their 
Senator participate in the legislative process. We are not guaranteed 
the right to win these votes, but we are given the responsibility and 
the privilege of representing them in this place, and we cannot do it 
when the majority leader runs this place like a dictator.
  We are debating--supposedly--an energy efficiency bill. As I said, it 
is the first time we have had an energy debate on the floor since 2007. 
There are a lot of very good ideas that have been offered to improve 
the underlying piece of legislation. I have no doubt the underlying 
legislation would pass. It will pass, if the majority leader allows us 
an opportunity to offer and debate our proposals for improving the 
underlying bill, but if he is going to shut us out of the process and 
deny the people I represent a voice and an opportunity to improve this 
piece of legislation, we are not going to cooperate.
  The majority leader keeps saying no to amendments, and he denigrates 
our right on behalf of our constituents to offer amendments and to get 
votes on those amendments. I know I have come to the floor before, as 
other Members have come to the floor, and tried to speak on this topic. 
I know sometimes this sounds as though it is all just about process. It 
is about process. How boring could that be. It is important because in 
essence the majority leader has imposed a gag rule on the minority in 
the Senate, a gag rule in the world's greatest deliberative body--no 
more.
  I don't know what the majority leader is afraid of. Is he afraid of a 
vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline? I think I saw a poll the other day 
that said roughly 61 percent of the respondents to that poll thought 
this was a good idea, that we get more of our energy from a friendly 
source, such as the nation of Canada, and rather than having to 
transport all of it in tank cars on trains that occasionally crash and 
cause a lot of damage, it might be better to build this pipeline so we 
could safely transport that oil from Canada down to refineries in my 
State, where it could be converted into gasoline, aviation fuel, and 
the like, and in the process create an awful lot of jobs.
  Sixty-one percent, according to that poll I read, said they thought 
that was a pretty good idea. Yet the majority leader will not even 
allow a vote on that amendment. He will not allow a vote on minority 
amendments. He will not allow a vote on Democratic amendments. I bet my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle must be frustrated, indeed, 
because they have been denied an opportunity to participate in this 
process, too, thanks to the autocratic powers being exercised by the 
majority leader.
  Here is another idea this side of the aisle had for an amendment we 
would like to get some debate and a vote on. We are not asking to win. 
We can do the math. We know we are in the minority. But these are 
important topics. Vladimir Putin invades Crimea, the Russian Army is 
building up in the Ukraine and causing havoc in that country, and it 
looks like he is not going to stop. The President said we are going to 
make sure there is a cost imposed as a result of Vladimir Putin's 
invasion of Ukraine, so we are going to impose a number of sanctions. 
The fact is, as my colleague from Arizona, the senior Senator from 
Arizona, has said, Russia is a gas station posing as a country. I think 
that is a pretty humorous way of saying the energy Russia produces and 
transmits to Ukraine and Europe is its main source of economic power 
and revenue. If we could undermine that by exporting more energy from 
the United States to Europe, that would dissuade Vladimir Putin, 
perhaps, in addition to other things we might do, but the majority 
leader will not even allow us an opportunity to vote on that issue. By 
the way, it will also continue to create more jobs in America.
  Here is what the majority leader has done. Since he has been majority 
leader, he has basically blocked any opportunity for Republicans to 
offer amendments on legislation 84 times--84 times--including 14 times 
just this year. He has shut us out. He has imposed the Reid gag rule 
and said: I don't care what the Constitution says. I don't care that 
you were elected by the people in your State to come here and be their 
voice and to offer their ideas on legislation. I don't care. We are not 
going to allow it, is what Majority Leader Reid has said 84 times.
  Then he has the audacity to impugn our motives this morning, to 
insult the job we are trying to do to represent our constituents. He 
calls that a filibuster. George Orwell wrote a book called ``Nineteen 
Eighty-Four,'' where he talked about how people can twist the ordinary 
understanding of the English language in a way that is very dangerous. 
But I would suggest that no definition of filibuster could be derived 
from the fact the majority leader has imposed his gag rule, has shut us 
out of the legislative process, and denied us the opportunity to do 
what the Constitution guarantees. He calls that a filibuster? Give me a 
break.
  So the majority leader comes to the floor this morning and says: If 
you are watching C-SPAN or if you happen to be visiting the Capitol and 
are in the gallery, all you are going to see are quorum calls. You are 
going to hear nothing but crickets on the Senate floor because there is 
not going to be anything happening there.
  The reason that is true, in large part, is because he has shut down 
the process. He has denied us a voice. He has denied us an opportunity 
to participate in the legislative process the Constitution talks about 
in the provisions I just read.
  I am probably not going to persuade Majority Leader Reid about the 
error of his ways because I don't think he cares. I don't think he 
cares. It is not going to affect whether he is reelected in Nevada, 
perhaps, and there is nothing the minority can do, given the fact the 
majority leader has extraordinary power under the Senate rules and 
under the precedent of the Senate. He can get away with it, if the 
Senate allows it, if the public allows it. But that is why it is 
important to come to the Senate floor and expose this fraud for what it 
is. It is a fraud.
  The majority leader is trying to deceive the American people into 
thinking that by speaking out against this gag rule we somehow are an 
obstacle to passing legislation. We have certain responsibilities to 
the people who sent us, and that responsibility does not include 
sitting down and shutting up when we are being run over by a freight 
train by the name of Senator Harry Reid. It is outrageous. It is 
outrageous.
  Thanks to the majority leader we likely will not have any amendments 
on this piece of legislation. I think at last count there were roughly 
30 ideas we had that we would like to offer amendments on. We have even 
proposed to Majority Leader Reid that we would take those 30 or 40 
amendments and talk among ourselves and maybe we can reduce those to 5 
or so relevant amendments--items that have to do with energy, with 
jobs, with national security. His answer is, no, forget it.
  Instead of accepting responsibility for his decision, he blames us 
for filibustering. What does he expect us to do? To be quiet? To sit in 
our offices while he runs this railroad that used to be known as the 
world's greatest deliberative body, runs over our rights and the rights 
of the people we represent? Well, we are not going to sit down and shut 
up. We are not.
  Back in my younger days I used to be a practicing lawyer. I would be 
hired by a client to come into court and make an argument on their 
behalf, to give them the representation they were entitled to under our 
system of justice. I had my argument and the opposing party had their 
argument and their lawyers and their witnesses, and they came in and 
presented it before a jury of either 6 people or 12 people, depending 
on the court you were in, and we would ultimately settle that dispute 
between the parties, kind of like the difference of opinion we have 
here on how the Senate ought to operate and what business we ought to 
be conducting.
  In court, when you have a dispute between opposing parties, the judge 
and the jury who are impartial will listen to the facts, and the judge 
will decide what the law is that applies in that

[[Page 6952]]

kind of case, and then you will have a verdict. And that law, with the 
judgment the judge signs incorporating those findings of fact by the 
jury, is how the case is decided.
  How does that work here in the Senate? What is the analogy? The best 
analogy I can think of is that we will indeed have a verdict, but it is 
going to be by the voters in the midterm elections come November.
  My only conclusion is that the majority leader must be afraid of 
having this sort of robust debate because he knows it will expose some 
of his members to votes they may have a hard time explaining back home. 
There actually may be some accountability, Heaven forbid. So his answer 
is to shut down the Senate. It is very sad.


                        Veterans Administration

  Mr. President, with each passing week we are finding out more and 
more about institutional failures within the Department of Veterans 
Affairs. We recently learned that the Phoenix VA system had a secret 
waiting list designed to conceal a massive backlog of delayed 
appointments, and that some of the veterans who were put on this secret 
waiting list actually died while waiting to get the treatment they 
deserved.
  Now we are learning that staffers at a VA outpatient clinic in Fort 
Collins, CO, were deliberately showing their clerks how to create 
fraudulent appointment records. In the meantime, there are still more 
than 589,000 VA pension and compensation claims pending nationwide, and 
a majority of them are backlogged according to the VA's own criteria, 
which is more than 4 months.
  Every day it seems as though we learn of a new part of this scandal 
because whistleblowers stepped forward and said: Yes, that was 
happening where I worked too.
  Yesterday, the Austin American-Statesman published a story entitled 
``VA employee: Wait list data was manipulated in Austin, San Antonio.'' 
The story says:

       A Department of Veterans Affairs scheduling clerk has 
     accused VA officials in Austin and San Antonio of 
     manipulating medical appointment data in an attempt to hide 
     long wait times to see doctors and psychiatrists, the 
     American-Statesman has learned.
       . . . the 40-year-old VA employee said he and others were 
     ``verbally directed by lead clerks, supervisors, and during 
     training'' to ensure that wait times at the Austin VA 
     Outpatient Clinic and the North Central Federal Clinic in San 
     Antonio were ``as close to zero days as possible.''
       The medical support assistant . . . said he and other 
     clerks achieved that by falsely logging patients' desired 
     appointment dates to synch with appointment openings. That 
     made it appear there was little to no wait time, and ideally 
     less than the department's goal of three months.

  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

           [From the Austin American-Statesman, May 6, 2014]

   VA Employee: Wait List Data Was Manipulated in Austin, San Antonio

                          (By Jeremy Schwartz)

       A Department of Veterans Affairs scheduling clerk has 
     accused VA officials in Austin and San Antonio of 
     manipulating medical appointment data in an attempt to hide 
     long wait times to see doctors and psychiatrists, the 
     American-Statesman has learned.
       In communications with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, 
     a federal investigative body that protects government 
     whistleblowers, the 40-year-old VA employee said he and 
     others were ``verbally directed by lead clerks, supervisors, 
     and during training'' to ensure that wait times at the Austin 
     VA Outpatient Clinic and the North Central Federal Clinic in 
     San Antonio were ``as close to zero days as possible.''
       The medical support assistant, who is seeking whistleblower 
     protection and has been advised to remain anonymous by 
     federal investigators, said he and other clerks achieved that 
     by falsely logging patients' desired appointment dates to 
     sync with appointment openings. That made it appear there was 
     little to no wait time, and ideally less than the 
     department's goal of 14 days. In reality, the clerk said, 
     wait times for appointments could be as long as three months.
       The claims echo recent allegations that VA officials in 
     Arizona and Colorado similarly manipulated wait time data or 
     maintained secret lists to obscure lengthy wait times for 
     medical care. Three top administrators at the VA medical 
     center in Phoenix have since been put on leave and the VA's 
     inspector general is conducting an investigation into an 
     alleged secret wait list at the facility. A retired doctor at 
     the Phoenix facility told CNN that more than 40 veterans 
     there died while waiting for an appointment.
       This week, the American Legion, the nation's largest 
     veterans service organization, called for the resignation of 
     VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, citing several issues, including 
     wait times for medical care.
       When asked to respond to the allegations, local VA 
     officials said in a statement they would review their 
     scheduling practices, but didn't directly address the claims.
       ``In light of the charges recently made against the Phoenix 
     VA, (director of the Central Texas Veterans Health Care 
     System Sallie) Houser-Hanfelder has made it clear she does 
     not endorse hidden lists of any kind,'' the statement reads. 
     ``To ensure the integrity of the health care system, she has 
     directed each service chief to certify they have reviewed 
     each of their sections and scheduling practices to ensure VA 
     scheduling policies are being followed. All staff who 
     schedule appointments have also been instructed to have 
     refresher training to make sure policies are clear and being 
     followed accurately.''
       U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called for emergency 
     hearings after learning of the Texas allegations.
       ``This is yet another deeply troubling account, and I'm 
     afraid we have not heard the last of gross mismanagement 
     within the VA and deception by VA bureaucrats,'' Cornyn said 
     in a statement. ``It is time for urgent steps to be taken 
     that match the gravity of this situation.''
       He also called for Shinseki to step down.
       ``It is absolutely disgusting to think that another VA 
     facility would be cooking the books like this, especially in 
     our own community. The House of Representatives is digging 
     into these allegations against the VA from every direction 
     possible and we will get to the bottom of this,'' said U.S. 
     Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock.
       The Texas clerk said he saw the scheduling manipulation 
     when he worked at the Austin VA Outpatient Clinic from 
     December 2012 to December 2013 and when he transferred to the 
     San Antonio clinic, where he still works. He said he also saw 
     similar maneuvers at the Waco medical center earlier in 2012.
       ``If you had any appointments showing over a 14-day waiting 
     period you were given a report the next day to fix it 
     immediately,'' said the clerk, a disabled veteran who served 
     in the Army from 2002 to 2011. Fixing it meant recording the 
     requested appointment date closer to the available opening, 
     he added.
       The clerk said that scheduling clerks in Austin were also 
     instructed specifically not to use a VA tool called the 
     Electronic Waiting List, which is designed to help veterans 
     waiting for appointments get slots created when other 
     veterans cancel their appointments.
       ``The failure to use (the electronic waiting list) may also 
     pose a substantial and specific danger to public health, 
     because patients who should be included on the EWL are not 
     receiving more timely appointments when they become 
     available,'' according to the clerk's communications with the 
     Office of Special Counsel.
       While the VA's massive backlogs of disability benefits 
     claims have garnered much attention in recent years, 
     investigators have also increasingly discovered problems with 
     access to VA medical care.
       In 2012, the VA inspector general found that the department 
     had vastly overcounted how many veterans were waiting 14 days 
     or less for a mental health evaluation. While the VA claimed 
     a 95 percent rate in meeting the two-week target, 
     investigators found that the real number was 49 percent, with 
     the remaining 51 percent of patients waiting about 50 days 
     for an evaluation.
       That same year, a scheduling clerk at a VA medical center 
     in New Hampshire told a Senate committee that staffers there 
     were instructed to obscure wait times for mental health help 
     by using a method similar to that described by the Texas 
     clerk.
       ``The overriding objective at our facility from top 
     management on down was to meet our numbers,'' Nick Tolentino 
     told the committee. ``Performance measures are well intended, 
     but are linked to executive pay and bonuses and as a result 
     create incentive to find loopholes that allow facilities to 
     meet its numbers without actually providing services.''
       Last week, the House voted to ban bonuses for VA 
     executives, a move opposed by VA leadership. Shinseki has 
     defended the bonus system, saying it is necessary to 
     ``attract and retain the best leaders.''
       Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee 
     on Veterans' Affairs, which is also investigating delays in 
     VA medical care, blasted the VA on Tuesday for not taking 
     better advantage of its authority to send patients who are 
     waiting months for appointments to private medical providers.
       ``Whether we're talking about allegations of secret lists, 
     data manipulation or actual lists of interminable waits, the 
     question VA leaders must answer is `Why isn't the department 
     using the tools it has been given--fee-based care being one 
     of them--to ensure veterans receive timely medical care?''' 
     he said.


[[Page 6953]]

  Mr. CORNYN. Scandals such as these confirm the VA lacks safeguards 
against official abuses, and it also lacks accountability--the kind of 
accountability that would ensure American veterans get the care and 
support they need in a timely fashion.
  In the wake of the Phoenix revelations--and now, more urgently after 
what happened at Fort Collins and now reports of abuses at San Antonio 
and Austin, perhaps--I have called on the majority leader to hold 
hearings on these scandals, and I reiterate that call today.
  I also reiterate my call for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign his 
position and to let someone else take on the reforms necessary to get 
the VA back on track.
  As I said yesterday, and as the American Legion noted, Secretary 
Shinseki is an American patriot who did multiple combat tours in 
Vietnam and has devoted his life to serving his Nation. He deserves 
nothing but our respect for that service. But, unfortunately, the VA 
scandals on his watch have been so numerous and so outrageous that they 
demand immediate accountability, and it has become clear to me that 
Secretary Shinseki is not the right person for the job.
  He has been in charge of the Department more than 5 years. Under his 
watch, many of the VA's problems have gotten worse, not better. These 
problems call for new leadership and a new direction.
  As Dan Dellinger of the American Legion said on Monday:

       There needs to be a change, and that change needs to occur 
     at the top.

  I emphasize again the urgency of the situation.
  I know the President yesterday was talking about the urgency of 
dealing with climate change. I hope the President and Congress would 
act with at least the same kind of urgency the President was arguing 
for when it comes to climate change, when it comes to our veterans--
some of whom are dying, waiting to get the treatment they are entitled 
to.
  What the VA needs is full-scale institutional reforms which introduce 
much stronger safeguards against administrative abuses and much greater 
accountability for senior officials. Because, let's face it, the VA's 
problems go well beyond a few rogue health care personnel and 
administrators in Phoenix and Fort Collins, CO.
  At a time when American veterans are facing enormous physical and 
psychological and financial challenges, the Federal Government is 
letting them down. Don't take my word for it. According to a recent 
survey of war vets from Afghanistan and Iraq:

       Nearly 1.5 million of those who served in the wars believe 
     the needs of their fellow vets are not being met by the 
     government.

  One Iraq veteran--a former Army staff sergeant named Christopher 
Steavens--told the survey group he had been trying to get health care 
and financial relief for more than a half year, and had yet to hear 
back from the VA. They hadn't even gotten back to him and responded. He 
said:

       When I raised my right hand and said, ``I will support and 
     defend the Constitution of the United States of America,'' 
     when I gave them everything I could, I expect the same in 
     return. . . . It's ridiculous that I've been waiting seven 
     months just to be examined by a doctor--absolutely 
     ridiculous.

  Sergeant Steavens is right. It is ridiculous. But it is more than 
that. It is disgraceful, and it dishonors the brave service our men and 
women in uniform have given on our behalf. It is past time for us to 
get serious about fixing the problem.
  Again, to underscore the urgency of these issues, the survey I 
mentioned a moment ago found that one out of every two Afghanistan and 
Iraq war veterans says they know a fellow servicemember who has 
attempted or committed suicide. One out of two knows somebody who has 
tried or has successfully committed suicide, and our message to the 
veterans is: Just wait. Be quiet. Sit down. Shut up.
  It is unacceptable. As I said earlier, Secretary Shinseki is an 
American patriot. But after 5 years as head of the Veterans' 
Administration, it is time for him to step down and make way for new 
leadership.
  More important, it is past time for the Veterans' Administration to 
start honoring its promise to America's heroes. The status quo is 
unacceptable and no one disputes that. The only question is: Are we 
going to do something about it? Appointing a new Secretary would be a 
good start.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.


                           Talwani Nomination

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, I rise today in support of the 
nomination of Indira Talwani to the United States District Court for 
the District of Massachusetts. Ms. Talwani is a brilliant and 
accomplished attorney who will make an outstanding addition to our 
district court.
  She is an American success story. Her parents were immigrants from 
India and Germany. If confirmed, she will be the first Asian-American 
district court judge in Massachusetts.
  She has received honors throughout her career, and her background and 
experience unquestionably qualify her for the bench. She will be 
someone the people of Massachusetts, of New England, and our whole 
country can be proud of.
  I believe she will be an objective, unbiased decisionmaker, and that 
is exactly what we need for our district court judges. I recommend her 
wholeheartedly to the Members of this body.
  The Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill is going to be considered 
here today, and I recommend it to all of the Members of this body 
because it is a bill that has been developed across parties in a 
bipartisan way--across industries, across labor, across consumer 
groups.
  This is a bill which on a bipartisan basis is going to lead to 
improvement in the building codes of the United States to reduce energy 
consumption, increases in the efficiency of industrial equipment to 
reduce energy consumption, to increase the energy efficiency of Federal 
buildings in our country to reduce energy consumption. None of it is 
being done on a mandatory basis. It is all done on a voluntary basis. 
That is why we have a consensus here today.
  The consensus includes an understanding that this is going to create 
190,000 new jobs in our country--from the Shaheen-Portman bill. It will 
save consumers $16 billion per year. And it will cut carbon dioxide 
going into the atmosphere, polluting our country and our world by the 
equivalent of 22 million automobiles per year by the year 2030.
  These are benefits that are going to be maximized because we are 
going to start working smarter, not harder, just reducing the amount of 
energy we consume, reducing the amount of CO2 we send into 
the atmosphere, and doing it on a voluntary basis--voluntary.
  So let's have a vote here on the Senate floor. Let's just get it 
done. Let's agree on what it is that we know is going to help our 
country. We know it is going to create more jobs. But the Republicans 
say: No, we need a vote on the Keystone Pipeline. We need a vote on 
something that is highly controversial, and we demand that vote.
  Majority Leader Reid agrees to have a vote on the Keystone Pipeline--
agrees to have a vote on the Keystone Pipeline. How controversial is 
that? Well, you are going to take the dirtiest oil in the world, coming 
down from Canada, build a pipeline through the United States, bring it 
down to Port Arthur, TX, which is a tax-free export zone, and then that 
oil is going to be exported out of the United States. Where are the 
benefits for the United States in this scenario? We take the 
environmental risk, the Canadians get the benefit of having the 
dirtiest oil in the world come through that pipeline, and then it is 
going to be exported out of the United States.
  How do I know it is going to be exported out of the United States? 
Because I, as a member of the House of Representatives, had this 
amendment over and over brought to the floor of the U.S. House of 
Representatives, and every time the American Petroleum Institute 
opposed it. Even though they say it is all about North American energy 
independence--ha-ha--when you have a vote, every Republican votes to 
keep that provision out of the bill so the oil can go out of the United 
States.

[[Page 6954]]

So just stop this about ``energy independence for North America'' if 
you don't, as a part of the Keystone Pipeline, accept a provision where 
the oil has to stay here. Otherwise, what is the point? I will tell you 
what the point is. It is maximizing profit for the oil industry because 
they make more money when they sell the oil outside the United States. 
American consumers don't get the benefit of it, no. The world is going 
to get the benefit of it; the oil industry is; the Canadians are.
  Majority Leader Reid said: We will have a vote on that. We will have 
a vote on it.
  And then what happens? We come back this week, and the Republicans 
say that is not enough. This nice energy efficiency bill is going to be 
the vehicle for even more highly controversial issues, which at the end 
of the day is all meant to do what? To kill the energy efficiency bill 
because it reduces the amount of CO2 that goes into the 
atmosphere on a voluntary basis.
  How do we know that? Well, we know it because their amendments go 
right to the heart of what it is that we should all now finally accept. 
They want to have a vote and a big debate here that would prevent the 
Environmental Protection Agency of the United States of America from 
regulating greenhouse gases, from regulating global warming. That is 
the debate they want to have. They are saying: No energy efficiency 
bill--which everyone agrees on--unless we have a debate on whether our 
Environmental Protection Agency can regulate greenhouse gases.
  It is 2014. It is 100 degrees in Kansas today. There are hurricanes, 
cyclones, the tides are rising, the water is warmer, and the storms are 
more intense. It is not just here, it is all across the planet. The 
scientists agree that there is global warming. Their amendment would 
prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating global 
warming pollution. That is what they call something that is reasonable.
  We have a bill everyone agrees should pass, but after getting an 
agreement that the Keystone Pipeline would be debated, they just 
continue on down the pathway.
  Yesterday the Obama administration released a third U.S. National 
Climate Assessment. From droughts in the West to deluges in the East, 
this new report shows that we are becoming the United States of climate 
change and that we must act in order to keep our Nation safe and 
strong.
  Second, they want to attach a provision to massively expand our 
exports of natural gas. They want to take the natural gas that is being 
drilled for here in the United States and put it on ships and send it 
out of our country. The more natural gas we export out of our country, 
the higher the prices are going to be for natural gas in our country. 
It will be more expensive to generate electricity. It will be more 
expensive for manufacturers to make their products in our country. It 
will be more expensive for those who want to build natural gas buses 
and natural gas trucks to be able to do so.
  That is something they want to do--export the natural gas of the 
United States to other countries. Does that make any sense? Is that the 
kind of noncontroversial discussion we should have at the time we have 
an energy efficiency bill that should go through? No, not at all. This 
is meant to dynamite the energy efficiency bill. That is what that 
amendment is all about.
  Then they want to add a rider to the bill as well that will prohibit 
the EPA from even considering at any time in the future a price on 
carbon--or, for that matter, prohibiting anyone.
  These are loaded, highly controversial amendments, all at their heart 
denying the reality of how much harm they will do to the United States. 
Meanwhile, the Koch brothers smile. They smile because they know it is 
all going to accomplish their principal goal: making sure no energy 
efficiency bill passes in the Senate this year, no reduction in the 
amount of greenhouse gasses we are sending up. That is the agenda. It 
is going to be the agenda into the future for the Republican Party. It 
has been the agenda.
  I look out and I see Republicans who have worked hard to put together 
this energy efficiency bill. I praise them for their willingness to 
come together on commonsense, reasonable provisions that reduce the 
amount of carbon going into the atmosphere on a voluntary basis by 
encouraging the creation of 190,000 new jobs in our country that 
Democrats and Republicans agree on. And I see this whole process 
getting hijacked by the Koch brothers, by the oil industry, by the 
natural gas industry that wants us to devolve into a big debate over 
science that is now completely and totally consensus not only here but 
around the planet.
  The planet is running a fever. There are no emergency rooms for 
planets. We have to engage in preventive care to avoid the worst, most 
catastrophic impact of climate change on this watch we have here in the 
Senate. But, no, the process is being hijacked. You can see it here. 
They want to torpedo this process so that more oil, more coal, and more 
profits for the coal and oil companies become the agenda.
  So all I can say, ladies and gentlemen, is that we are at a historic 
turning point. The headlines in the newspapers across this country and 
across this planet tell the story today: Climate risk growing. That is 
the consensus. That is the reality. That is what this energy efficiency 
bill is meant to deal with. And what will happen--and we are going to 
see it over and over--is we are going to have Member after Member on 
the Republican side get up and demand that we have a debate on 
something unrelated to this energy efficiency bill where there is a 
consensus. They want to take climate science that is a consensus around 
the planet and have another huge debate here on it. That is the tragedy 
of this.
  The green generation, the young people in our country, they know this 
is the challenge of this generation. We as a nation have to stand up. A 
high percentage of that CO2 in the atmosphere is red, white, 
and blue. We cannot preach temperance from a barstool. We cannot tell 
the rest of the world ``you must do something'' if we are not doing 
something. That is what the bill we should be debating here today would 
do on a bipartisan basis: reduce greenhouse gases, create 190,000 jobs, 
and do it all on a voluntary basis--too simple, too good, too clearly 
consistent with these two objectives of job creation and greenhouse gas 
reduction.
  So I think what we are seeing is that the conserve in conservative no 
longer exists--not with the Koch brothers around. So this is now just 
going to be something that short-circuits the legislative process. It 
ensures that the energy efficiency bill is collateral damage because of 
their insistence on these amendments, when instead we have a chance 
this week to say that we are going to move forward on a smart energy 
policy; that we will work smarter, not harder; that we should come 
together to pass this bill without these giveaways to the oil industry 
and to the coal industry so that we can create jobs and save energy. 
And I would recommend to my colleagues that is the correct historical 
position this Chamber should be in right now.
  At this point, Madam President, I yield the back the remainder of my 
time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  (The remarks of Mr. Hatch pertaining to the introduction of [S. 2301] 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. HATCH. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, it is my understanding that the Senator 
from Missouri Mr. Blunt will be recognized next for 10 minutes or so.
  I ask unanimous consent that following the remarks by Senator Blunt, 
I be recognized for up to 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[[Page 6955]]


  Mr. INHOFE. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, I thank my good friend from Oklahoma for 
ensuring that I have the time to talk for a few minutes about an issue 
he and I feel very strongly about; that is, the best use of American 
energy and what American energy means to American families.
  It seems to me the request our side of the aisle is making is not at 
all unreasonable. It has been 7 years since the Senate had a real 
debate on energy. The Shaheen-Portman bill creates that opportunity, 
but suddenly we were told: This bill is so good already. Why do you 
want to continue to talk about ways to make it even better? There are 
very few things beyond energy and health care which I can talk about 
for a substantial period of time--and I hope to talk about health care 
sometime between now and the end of the week. Energy has the same kind 
of impact on families that health care has.
  The majority leader wants to control every debate every week in the 
Senate, which means nothing happens. That is not the way the Senate 
works. Traditionally, any Member of the Senate can introduce any 
amendment they want on any bill at any time. However, that is not the 
way the House works. I served in the House. The majority runs the 
House, and the Rules Committee in the House is nine in the majority and 
four in the minority. It is pretty hard to lose a vote in a 9-to-4 
committee. I think that is why the committee was established that way.
  The Senate has never been run that way. Now we have a one-man rules 
committee that wants to decide on every bill and every rule which comes 
up. This gag rule where Senators can't talk about the topics they want 
to discuss is something that didn't used to happen in the Senate, but 
it is now a daily and weekly part of the Senate.
  We are now at the point where we go to the majority leader and ask: 
On the energy bill, could we have five amendments that deal with 
energy? That is so far from how the Senate and the Constitution was 
designed to be or the Senate practice has been. It is pretty hard to 
believe that Senators on the minority are reduced to the point that we 
have to go to the majority leader and ask: Mr. Leader, could we have 
five amendments that deal with energy?
  When the Energy bill was on the floor of the Senate 7 years ago--the 
last time the Senate dealt with energy--every Senator could have every 
amendment they wanted on anything they wanted to talk about because 
that was the Senate. One of the prices we paid for that 6-year term was 
we might have to vote on some things we would rather not vote on. Now 
we have the 6-year term, but the majority leader doesn't want us to 
vote on things that the majority may not want to vote on, and there are 
probably people in the minority who don't want to vote either. Not 
voting is a pretty safe route apparently politically, but it is not the 
best route for the country.
  I would like to see a real debate on energy, and one of the issues I 
would like to see debated is the amendment I offered to this bill to 
have a point of order to be sure that at least 60 Senators would have 
to approve a carbon tax.
  I offered a similar amendment to the budget last year, in 2013, and 
52 of my colleagues agreed with me, and we had a majority vote of 53 
who said we don't want to have a carbon tax, but if we do have a carbon 
tax, it needs to be extraordinary because it affects everybody's 
utility bill. It affects everybody's ability to pay that bill. It 
affects whether a person has a job with a paycheck that allows them to 
pay that bill. Fifty-three of my colleagues, including myself, said we 
don't want to do that.
  Several people who voted against that amendment in 2013 have had a 
hard time explaining why they were against it, so I thought maybe we 
would vote on it again. I think we would have more than 53 votes this 
time. If we don't vote this time, we are more likely to have a lot more 
than 53 votes next time because the American people get it.
  For the vast majority of the country, half of the utilities come from 
coal. Rules that create a carbon tax--the simple focus of that is coal, 
and the focus is fossil fuels generally. The Germans are buying 
resources from us because they are abandoning their nuclear facilities 
and converting to coal-fired powerplants.
  We have a lot of coal and, more importantly, we have a lot of coal-
powered plants. If we could say, let's not use coal, but our utility 
facilities work just like they work without having to take millions of 
dollars for new investments, that would have a different kind of impact 
on families than saying, let's not only not use coal, let's build a new 
powerplant everywhere they have a coal powerplant because otherwise the 
utility bills will double when we build a new powerplant. When we build 
a new powerplant, the utility bill is going to double.
  Also, why would we want to have even the access to a policy that 
would allow people's utility bills to double? Middle-income families, 
low-income families are the hardest impacted by that, especially in 
States such as my State, where 80 percent of the utilities come from 
coal; but, again, a majority of the utilities come from coal in a 
majority of the landmass of the country. Our rates would rise 19 
percent in the first year with a carbon tax or the kinds of rules the 
regulators are trying to put in place that would have a carbon tax-like 
impact, and in the decade after that first year they would double.
  One doesn't have to be very smart to multiply a utility bill by two. 
If the boss showed someone the utility bill at work, they wouldn't have 
to be a genius to multiply that by two, and they wouldn't have to be a 
genius to figure out that if the utility bill doubles, the job that 
helps them pay their utility bill at home might go away as well.
  It would cause significant job loss. It would cause households to pay 
more for all of the energy they have. They already pay a lot for 
energy. For the 40 million American households that earn less than 
$30,000 a year, they already spend more than 20 percent of their income 
on energy. Do we want those families to continue to see that bill go up 
and every month wonder what they could have less of so they can pay 
more for the same utilities, and not because it had to be that way but 
because the government decided it wanted it to be that way? The 
households that will be the last households to get the new energy-
efficient appliances, the last families to get the new windows and the 
better doors and more insulation in the ceiling, those are the families 
impacted in a dramatic way. Those are the families who live in houses 
where they have to think: Which room can we no longer afford to heat or 
no longer afford to cool in the heating and cooling months of the year, 
when we will have to close that door and roll up the throw rug and put 
it at the base of the door so the heat and cooling no longer impacts 
that room? Do we want families to do that so we can have a carbon tax, 
so we can have bad energy policies?
  We can do a better job by making American energy more affordable and 
more accessible, not making it less so.
  What is wrong with having that? I heard my friend from Massachusetts 
say earlier that we are insisting on a controversial amendment on the 
Keystone Pipeline. So what. What is controversial about it? A majority 
of us say we are for it. Controversy would mean people must feel 
strongly the other way, so they can vote against it.
  Let's let the American people know where we stand on these issues. 
Are we going to do smart things about more American energy or not? The 
energy future of the country is so good that in spite of everything the 
government has done to slow it down, it still has been a major economic 
driver.
  I would like to see us vote on the Keystone Pipeline. I would like to 
see us vote on the carbon tax, whether that is a good idea or not. I 
would like to

[[Page 6956]]

see us vote on what kinds of facilities we need to secure our energy 
position in the world economy.
  There shouldn't be anything wrong with these amendments. Senators 
shouldn't be stopped with a gag rule from the majority leader's office 
of what we can and cannot talk about. The idea that we can't have 
energy amendments on an energy bill should embarrass every single 
Senator here and concern everybody we work for. Hopefully, we will be 
able to move forward with debate on an energy bill that is actually 
about energy.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, let me first say to my good friend from 
Missouri, I plan to talk about energy, the very thing he is talking 
about. If we go back and look logically, if we are dependent upon 
fossil fuels for 75 percent of our ability to run this machine called 
America, and we extract that, what is going to happen? I think we all 
know what is going to happen and I think people need to be forewarned.
  I am going to tee this up by talking a little bit about President 
Obama's climate assessment meeting he had yesterday. All of these 
people were talking about the world coming to an end, the report he 
came out with--let me, first of all, ask unanimous consent that at the 
conclusion of my remarks, the Senator from Delaware be recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. The whole idea in this report by design is to spark fear 
in the American people so they will go along with the administration in 
implementing their policies that will kill fossil fuels and leave us 
with nothing but a broken economy. When I say broken economy, if, in 
fact--and no one would refute this--we are dependent upon fossil 
fuels--coal, oil, and gas--for 75 percent of the energy to run America, 
then what is going to happen to our economy if we extract 75 percent? I 
think we all know logically what is going to happen.
  In the words of White House counselor John Podesta this morning: 
``The American public doesn't feel that sense of urgency about the 
impacts of climate change and I think this report will help influence 
that.'' That is nothing but an admission. The whole reason for this 
report is to try to resurrect the issue of global warming. We heard my 
good friend from Massachusetts talking about that. He is very 
knowledgeable, and I will refer to some of his activities in a minute.
  But keep in mind, this is John Podesta. It is the same John Podesta 
who is representing some of the terrorist regime from Sri Lanka that is 
no longer in effect. He is the same one who ran the White House during 
the Clinton years. So he comes from a very partisan perspective. But 
nonetheless, I appreciate the fact that he is admitting this is the 
reason for the climate assessment President Obama did yesterday, 
because he wants to try to bring this up again.
  I can remember back when the polling showed that global warming was 
either the No. 1 or No. 2 of the environmental issues in America. Do we 
know where it is now? It is No. 10, according to the last Gallup poll. 
So people have forgotten about it. People have caught on. They have 
seen the scientists come in and refute all this IPCC stuff that the 
United Nations has been putting forth for a long period of time. I 
think it is a recognition that people have caught on to this and it is 
no longer the issue they want it to be.
  Whether it is a drought or a flood, high temperatures, low 
temperatures, you can't find a job, you are finding more allergic 
reactions, then the White House blames it on global warming. Fear has 
always been a tactic the administration and other global warming 
alarmists have used to spur people into action. Time and time again, 
when the American people learn the details and the costs of the 
solutions to global warming that they contend exist, they don't want 
anything to do with it--and the costs are enormous.
  Congress last debated global warming when my good friend, now Senator 
Markey, was in the House of Representatives. It was the Waxman-Markey 
cap-and-trade bill. This bill would have cost, according to Charles 
River Associates--and I think people recognize them as authentic--
between $300 billion and $400 billion a year. That is the cost. I would 
contend this would be the largest tax increase in the history of this 
country. That is consistent with other analyses. One was the Wharton 
Group and many of the scientists there who were making evaluations came 
out with the same thing: between $300 billion and $400 billion a year. 
MIT came out with about the same amount of between $300 billion to $400 
billion a year. The cost estimate has been the same over the last 15 
years since we first started debating this issue. I don't think anyone 
is challenging that.
  But what is important--and this is kind of in the weeds, but we have 
to talk about this: I applaud Senator Markey for at least the levels of 
pollution--of emissions, I should say--that come from different sources 
that he was wanting to regulate, and that was those with 25,000 tons of 
CO2 emissions or more. That would be, quite frankly, the 
major emitters, the refineries and all of that. Here is the problem we 
have today. It is far worse than the Waxman-Markey bill would have 
been, because it wouldn't call for the regulation of just those 
entities that emit 25,000 tons or more, but the same as the Clean Air 
Act.
  The Clean Air Act has a threshold of 250 tons of greenhouse gases a 
year. Stop and think about that: If it costs between $300 billion to 
$400 billion to regulate the emitters who emit 25,000 tons of 
CO2 a year, how much more if we regulate everyone with 250 
tons? It has never been calculated. It would be very difficult. But we 
are talking about billions and billions of dollars more. So the 
regulations are far worse.
  The first of these regulations now being developed is the New Source 
Performance Standards for newly constructed powerplants. The rule would 
essentially make it illegal to build new coal-fired powerplants. That 
is what it was designed to do.
  The next step would be to take the existing powerplants--those that 
are employing hundreds of thousands of people in America today--and 
they would be out of a job. So that would go to the refining industry, 
and so forth, and establish new regulations for each and every 
industry. These greenhouse gas regulations mark the latest attempt by 
the EPA to destroy affordable and reliable electricity and energy 
supplies that have been the hallmark of our economy for a long period 
of time. They are already doing it in other areas too. It is not just 
regulating the greenhouse gas emissions or CO2 emissions; it 
is other regulations that are unbearable.
  This one right here--they are talking about changing the ocean 
regulation. This chart is an interesting one because this shows that 
virtually every county in America would be out of attainment with their 
new goals. In my State of Oklahoma, we have 77 counties. All 77 
counties would be out of attainment if they are able to do that.
  In 2011, the EPA finalized its utility MACT. By the way, that stands 
for maximum achievable control technology. That is what we are talking 
about. So they passed this. Now it is passed. It is history now. They 
finalized utility MACT with a rule that costs over $100 million and 
would result in 1.65 million lost jobs.
  The EPA put this rule out without even considering the cost of it, 
saying it wasn't required to do so. In other words, the law does not 
say they are required to say what it costs. I take issue with that. 
They estimated the rule would result in the retirement of less than 
10,000 megawatts of electricity generation, but today we know the power 
companies around the country have announced the retirements totaling 
more than 50,000. So they are off by 500 percent. Fifty thousand 
megawatts in direct response to the EPA regulation.
  By the way, when we had the utility MACT, I filed a CRA, and this is 
something I want to make sure people are aware of, and certainly my 
colleagues and friends on the other side of the aisle. On all of these 
regulations, when

[[Page 6957]]

they reach the point where the regulation is final--and we know for a 
fact it is going to cost dollars and it is going to cost jobs--I am 
going to file a CRA. A CRA is a Congressional Review Act. A CRA 
provides that if there is a regulation--and I hear so often my 
colleagues in the Senate will say to their constituents, Don't blame me 
for these regulations because that is the regulatory--that is the EPA 
and other regulators doing it. But a CRA forces them to take an issue. 
So all one has to do is find 30 people in the Senate, have them sign a 
CRA, file the CRA, and then it is simply a simple majority--51. In the 
case of this utility MACT, I only lacked three votes for stopping that 
rule. So we anticipate that we are going to be able to stop a lot of 
these rules.
  In about 10 days, the EPA is poised to propose another new rule, the 
316(b) cooling water intake rule. This rule is designed to protect fish 
from being caught and killed in nets designed to prevent them from 
entering powerplant systems. While the rule doesn't have any human 
health benefits, it is expected to cost industry over $100 billion in 
compliance costs, which, of course, will be passed on to everyone in 
America who ends up paying these bills.
  The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which is called 
NERC, has warned that this rule will have a far worse impact on 
electricity affordability and reliability than the utility MACT did. We 
know it will.
  In fact, the FERC Commissioner recently said that because of EPA's 
rules, the United States is likely to see rolling electricity blackouts 
over the summer months in the next few years as demand for electricity 
outstrips the supply remaining after all of the powerplant shutdowns 
that are slated to occur in response to EPA's rules.
  The EPA has been systematically distorting the true cost of its 
regulations for years, and I have been raising this as an issue for 
some time now, but it has been very difficult to air them out before 
the entire Senate simply because at this point the sole goal of the 
Democrats seems to be to protect their majority.
  If we look at this chart, this was prior to the 2012 election. What 
we found they were doing, prior to the 2012 election, was postponing 
many of these very onerous regulations because they knew we would be 
doing a CRA and the public would know who is responsible for these. 
They had postponed this. This is a report I put out in October 2012, 
and that was to try to force the administration to not wait until after 
the election to come out with their rules. That is what they did.
  They are doing it again. Last week I released documents revealing 
that the EPA intentionally delayed the release of its greenhouse gas 
new source performance standards--that is the NSPS--by 66 days in order 
to avoid it being finalized before the midterm elections--the same 
thing as 2012.
  I also sent a letter to Gina McCarthy, who is the Director of the 
Environmental Protection Agency, asking why the rule was delayed, 
especially when she had previously told me it was the result of a 
blacklog in the Federal Register. In other words, she was saying: The 
Federal Register did not post this rule until 66 days after we gave it 
to them. We checked with the Federal Register, and they said that is 
absolutely false. They have an immediate turnaround for these rules.
  So now I am waiting for a response to that letter. I do not want to 
use the ``L'' word. I know there is a lot of pressure put on the 
employees and certainly the Director of the EPA to try to minimize what 
the public feels is going to be the cost of these regulations.
  Had the EPA stuck with its original timeline of finalizing this rule 
by September 20 of this year, then I would have been able to work with 
my colleagues to force a Congressional Review Act vote to overturn the 
rule just weeks before the election. Then people would know the cost of 
these things.
  But what we could do right now is vote on a few of the amendments. 
Our Senator from Missouri was talking about these amendments. We have a 
bill that is coming up. We have amendments that should be considered--
all having to do with energy, so they are all appropriate amendments to 
offer, as he articulated for about 10 minutes a few minutes ago.
  I have some amendments that would do this. He mentioned one of them 
that he and I are together on. But one of my amendments is amendment 
No. 2977, entitled the ``Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2014.'' It simply 
prohibits the EPA from promulgating any greenhouse gas emissions 
regulations to combat climate change because they are denying this is 
the reason they are doing it. Of course we know what has happened to 
the science they are relying on through the United Nations that has now 
been refuted.
  The second amendment I have is amendment No. 2979. It would prevent 
the EPA from issuing any new Clean Air Act regulations--such as those 
on climate change--until it complies with section 321(a) of the Clean 
Air Act. Let's keep in mind, this is the Clean Air Act, as shown on 
this chart. We are talking about decades ago. This is what the 
Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to do:

       The Administrator shall conduct continuing evaluations of 
     potential loss or shifts of employment which may result from 
     the administration or enforcement of the provision of this 
     chapter. . . .

  It is saying they are supposed to already tell the public what the 
cost is in terms of jobs and money. That is the law, but they are not 
obeying the law. So I have an amendment that puts teeth in it and says 
you cannot have any new rules until you comply with section 321(a) of 
the Clean Air Act. Very reasonable, and it is the law today.
  Unfortunately, the EPA is not interested in doing this. With the 
Utility MACT rule, it completely dismissed the rule's cost and did not 
consider it when putting out the rule.
  The EPA acted in contradiction to Supreme Court precedents that 
decisionmakers are required to ``weigh advantages against 
disadvantages, and disadvantages can be seen in terms of costs.'' That 
is the U.S. Supreme Court.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has consumed 15 minutes.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be given 
5 more minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. I have to get to the last part. Rather than to face these 
issues head-on, I am going to share something that happened last year 
and then again this year. There is a very wealthy person named Tom 
Steyer. Tom Steyer has a mansion that overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge. 
He had a fundraiser for Barack Obama last year, raising a lot of money, 
but the one I am more concerned about is the fundraiser he had when he 
announced--this is just within the last month--Tom Steyer, a very 
wealthy person, said he was going to personally donate $50 million and 
raise an additional $50 million to try to do two things. One is to 
resurrect this whole idea on global warming since the people do not 
care about it anymore. As a result of that, we had an all-night vigil. 
Remember that? That was right after Tom Steyer made his announcement.
  The second thing he is mandating is to kill the Keystone Pipeline. 
There is a lot of money out there. The regulatory burdens already being 
placed on this country are enormous, and the cost of regulations are, 
perhaps arguably, the worst problem facing this country.
  Last week the Competitive Enterprise Institute published a major 
report calculating the cost of the President's regulations at $1.86 
trillion. To put that in perspective, Canada's entire GDP is $1.82 
trillion. India's is the same amount. So that is what the cost would 
be, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
  People know what has happened to the military with this 
administration, they know what has happened to energy, but the cost of 
these regulations is something that is going to have to be addressed.
  Lastly, I would say this. I know there are people out there who 
legitimately

[[Page 6958]]

believe greenhouse gas is causing global warming and the world is going 
to come to an end, but I would suggest this: Lisa Jackson was the 
Administrator--chosen by Barack Obama--the first Administrator we had 
for the EPA. I asked her this question, on the record, live on TV. I 
said: Madam Administrator, if we were to pass bills like the Markey-
Waxman bill or regulate by regulation the CO2 in the United 
States of America, would this have the effect of lowering the 
CO2 emissions worldwide? She said: No, because that is not 
where the problem is. It is in China. It is in India. It is in Mexico.
  In other words, if you believe--as I do not believe--but if you 
believe CO2 is going to bring about the end of the world, 
then even if we do something in this country, it is not going to solve 
the problem. Arguably, it would make the problem worse because as we 
lose our manufacturing base, they are out seeking electricity and 
energy from countries where they do not have any of these regulations, 
and that would have the effect of increasing, not decreasing, emissions 
of CO2.
  With that, I yield the floor and thank my friend for not objecting to 
my additional time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.


                      Bulletproof Vest Partnership

  Mr. COONS. Madam President, our Nation's police officers work 
fearlessly and tirelessly every day to protect our families and to keep 
our communities safe. As we get ready to honor their service during 
National Police Week, the least we can do is stand by them and ensure, 
as they are doing their job, they are able to do it as safely as 
possible.
  Every day more than 1 million law enforcement officers across this 
country accept risks to their personal safety. As they leave their 
families at dawn and head off to their jobs, they know and their 
families know they accept, as a part of their mission of public safety 
service, the risk that they may not come home that night.
  We owe it to them to do what we can to make that service just a 
little bit safer, to ensure that more of them come home safely, week in 
and week out, year in and year out. Providing officers with bulletproof 
vests is one of the most effective ways we can contribute to that 
desired outcome.
  I have come to the floor because I share the deep frustration of my 
good friend Chairman Patrick Leahy over the continued inability of this 
body to overcome the objection of one Senator and move forward to 
renew, on a bipartisan basis, the Federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership.
  Yesterday, Chairman Leahy gave the Senate another opportunity to take 
up and reauthorize this partnership through a unanimous consent 
request. He is trying to move forward a bill we have already voted out 
of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan basis. Yet it was 
blocked again by objections raised by a colleague, the Senator from 
Oklahoma.
  For 14 years the Federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership has been an 
important way for our Nation to equip local police departments with one 
of the most effective ways to keep our officers safe, but this needs to 
be a lasting commitment. This needs to be an enduring partnership. As 
new officers join, they need to be fitted for new vests. Because vests 
wear out and do not last forever, we need to ensure they can be 
replaced.
  We know bulletproof vests work. Since 1987 bulletproof vests have 
saved the lives of more than 3,000 police officers across this country. 
I am proud to continue in the tradition of my predecessor, now-Vice 
President Joe Biden, in supporting local law enforcement and in 
supporting this initiative.
  In my home State of Delaware, this partnership has provided our 
officers with thousands of vests over the last 14 years, including more 
than 3,800 over just the last 5 years.
  The Delaware community has, unfortunately, seen up close why these 
vests are so important. It was 13 years ago that Dover Police Sergeant 
David Spicer was trying to make an arrest--an arrest he successfully 
completed--when the suspect with whom he was wrestling pulled out a gun 
from a hidden pocket and shot him at close range four times.
  As Sergeant Spicer bled out--he lost nearly half the blood in his 
body before effecting the arrest--because he was wearing a vest 
provided to him through the Federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership his 
life was saved.
  I was honored to welcome Dover Police Sergeant David Spicer here 2 
years ago on a previous effort at reauthorizing this long bipartisan 
bill.
  More recently--just last February of 2013--at the New Castle County 
Courthouse, in my hometown of Wilmington, a gunman unleashed a stream 
of bullets into the courthouse lobby, tragically killing two. On what 
was a devastating morning in the courthouse lobby, two lives were also 
saved--those of Sergeant Michael Manley and Corporal Steve Rinehart--
Capitol Police officers who were wearing bulletproof vests funded in 
part through this Federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership.
  The very real results of this Federal-State partnership, of this 
investment in keeping the men and women of law enforcement safe in the 
line of duty, are hard to ignore.
  With many police departments at the local level facing shrinking 
budgets, this bulletproof vest partnership makes vests, which cost more 
than $500 apiece, more affordable, ensuring officers are outfitted with 
the most current and effective and appropriate protection possible.
  In fact, the program specifically prioritizes smaller departments 
that often struggle to afford vests and do not provide vests or require 
vests for their officers. It is exactly in these smaller and more rural 
agencies and departments where line-of-duty deaths due to gunfire had 
historically been high.
  This is critical. As a county executive in my previous role in local 
government in Delaware, I saw firsthand how officers in smaller 
agencies often struggle to have current, up-to-date, and effective 
bulletproof vests.
  In addition, this is a program that is a 50-50 match with Federal and 
local money. How could anyone oppose this program that saves thousands 
of police officers' lives, that extends the reach of the Federal-State 
partnership in keeping our communities safer, and that is such a wise 
investment in saving lives that matters so much to our communities?
  A colleague objected yesterday, has objected before, and will object 
again. I am reminded of so many times when a bipartisan bill comes to 
this floor and dies due to objection after objection after objection, 
and at times I struggle to understand the rationale. In his objection 
yesterday, my colleague raised an argument that somehow this program, 
which promotes public safety, does not fit within the authority granted 
to Congress under the Constitution, that it is not part of the 
enumerated powers of Congress.
  I disagree. Whether you ascribe to the narrow Madisonian view of the 
general welfare clause in the Constitution or follow an expansive or 
Hamiltonian view--as our Supreme Court has done since 1937, when they 
affirmed the constitutionality of the Social Security Act in Helvering 
v. Davis--this is not a close call.
  If providing Federal-State partnership money for bulletproof vests 
goes beyond the enumerated powers of this Congress, what does that mean 
for public health, for investments in partnerships with State public 
health agencies to prevent pandemics and flus? What does this mean for 
the Interstate Highway System? What does this mean for hundreds of 
different partnerships where, in a cost-effective way, we work together 
with communities and States all over this country to extend and improve 
the general welfare of the people of the United States?
  To my colleague's argument today on this floor that this is solely a 
State or local responsibility, the reality is that the Bulletproof Vest 
Partnership does not replace local action with Federal action. It 
ensures a Federal partnership, an investment, to help police 
departments struggling to meet the safety needs, the equipment needs of 
their officers, to act when they otherwise cannot.

[[Page 6959]]

  In my view, the partnership is even more important because it is 
about more than just handing out dollars and vests. It ensures all 
vests are compliant with National Institute of Justice safety 
standards. Only the Federal Government has the resources to do that 
level of analytical work. It is no more reasonable for us to expect 
every State to have their own National Institutes of Health to do 
cancer research or for every State to have a National Highway Traffic 
Safety Administration.
  Having one coordinated national program to ensure that these 
bulletproof vests are as effective as possible at saving the lives of 
the men and women of law enforcement just makes sense. In my view, the 
denial of the Federal role where it is necessary and efficient would 
take us back to the Articles of Confederation, a very cramped and 
narrow view of the appropriate role of our national government, one 
which our forefathers found unworkable two centuries ago.
  The truth is plain. Without this program, we leave police officers 
without lifesaving vests in the line of fire, in the line of duty. For 
us to fail to stand up for them, when they stand up for us each and 
every day, I find outrageous. This is the way the world looked before 
Chairman Leahy and Republican Senator Campbell created this program 
jointly back in 1999.
  In that world, before there was a Federal Bulletproof Vest 
Partnership, there would today be two more Delaware families without a 
hero at their dinner table tonight. Not on my watch. That will not 
happen as long as I am here to stand for the men and women of law 
enforcement and to promote the Federal role, an appropriate Federal 
role, in standing side by side with State and local governments to 
provide the equipment the men and women of law enforcement need.
  This partnership expired back in 2012. Fortunately, we have been able 
to fund it through short-term appropriations. This is a tiny program in 
the scope of this Federal Government: $22 million a year. The entire 
Federal investment in local law enforcement is less than one-tenth of 1 
percent of the entire Federal Government. Yet it enables standards and 
leveraging of the type I described that extends the reach of law 
enforcement and improves the safety of the men and women who put their 
lives on the line for us. Without authorization, this program becomes 
unsustainable short term and does not allow us to improve the program 
year in and year out. The reauthorization bill that was passed by the 
Judiciary Committee this Congress extends the program another 5 years, 
ensures its consistency, but makes important reforms to save money, as 
well.
  It prevents localities from using other Federal grants as their 
matching funds. It takes action to eliminate the Justice Department's 
backlogs. The bill would require agencies using the program to have 
mandatory wear policies, and would, for the first time, ensure these 
lifesaving vests are fitted appropriately for women, at a time when 
there are more and more women in law enforcement and more often at the 
very front line of protecting our communities.
  This bill is fiscally responsible. Enacting this bill is a moral 
responsibility. Police officers work to keep us safe every day. 
Congress can and should do the same for them. Congress should be 
standing with our law enforcement officers, not standing in their way. 
I applaud the persistent leadership of Chairman Leahy and will stand 
with him as long as it takes to get this program back on track and 
ensure its long-term survival.
  While this program had a long history of bipartisan support and 
passed out of the Judiciary Committee with a number of Republicans 
voting for it, a few of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
now do not seem to think this investment in officer safety is an 
appropriate one for this body and this government to make.
  Last year our Nation lost 33 police officers in the line of duty 
killed by gunshots. According to the National Law Enforcement Officer's 
Memorial Fund, there is some reason to be cheered because this is the 
smallest number lost in a year since the 1800s. Those 33 deaths--line-
of-duty deaths of men and women shot to death while protecting their 
communities--is 33 too many. We have an opportunity to continue to 
provide to State and local law enforcement vests that can save these 
and other lives.
  We should continue working tirelessly until those numbers come down 
to zero. In recent months, I have been proud as this body has come 
together across the partisan divide, has passed a budget bill, an 
appropriations bill, a farm bill, has begun to deal with some of our 
Nation's most urgent needs. But I am distressed by this particular 
action, to block even consideration of so small a program with such 
important consequences, and it is to me profoundly disheartening. I 
call on my colleagues to stop blocking this bill and to allow this body 
to debate and to pass this reauthorization that will save lives in law 
enforcement this year and every year going forward. We owe them no 
less.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent to be able to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                              Health Care

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor to talk once more 
about the negative side effects of the President's health care law.
  President Obama has been spiking the football over the number of 
people who he says have actually signed up for insurance through his 
exchanges. He also said that Democrats should forcefully defend and be 
proud of the health care law.
  He has had nothing to say to the Americans who are seeing their 
premiums increase.
  This Washington mandate insurance is loaded up with so many specific 
mandates that unless you get a massive taxpayer subsidy, it is just not 
affordable for many families across this country.
  For some people the insurance gets even more expensive, even less 
affordable, depending specifically on where you live.
  Insurance companies used to base your premiums on a lot of different 
factors, like how likely you were to use insurance, and different 
things specific to how you would use medical services.
  The Obama health care law took away some of that and replaced it with 
what they call a community rating. Now there are only a few factors 
that can be used to set people's premiums, and where you actually live 
is one of those. Your premiums used to be based on you, but now they 
are based on your neighbors and how likely your neighbors are to use 
their own health insurance. What we are seeing is all across the 
country people are paying more specifically because of where they live.
  The Associated Press ran a story on this last month. The headline was 
``Rural residents confront higher health care costs.''
  The Associated Press quoted a rancher in Colorado whose premiums had 
jumped 50 percent--to about $1,800 a month. The rancher said:

       We've gone from letting the insurance companies use a pre-
     existing medical condition to jack up rates, to having a pre-
     existing ZIP code being the reason health insurance is 
     unaffordable.

  As this rancher said, ``It's just wrong.''
  I agree, so I looked into this, and here is what I found. Some of the 
lines are drawn so that people just down the road or even people on 
different sides of the street can pay wildly different premiums. These 
are people of exactly the same age, and these are people who are buying 
the lowest-cost silver plan.
  The President likes to talk about income inequality, but the 
President has created a new kind of insurance inequality. It is not 
only rural areas like where that rancher lives in Colorado.

[[Page 6960]]

  In Louisiana in one community the premium for the lowest-cost silver 
plan in the ObamaCare exchange for a 40-year-old person who doesn't get 
a subsidy would be $255 a month. But if you live right across the 
street--right across the street--the premium for that same person, same 
age, same lowest-cost silver plan, would be $311 a month--22 percent 
higher, $56 more a month, just because you live on one side of the 
street instead of the other side of the street, under the President's 
health care law. That is $672 a year. That was Louisiana.
  Now let's take a look at North Carolina, with the same situation. If 
you live on that side of the line, if your ranch house or farm house is 
over there, it is $263 a month. Just down the road, the other side of 
the line, it is $319 a month. Again, it is $56 more a month or $672 
more a year for the same individual. All they would have to do is move 
from that side to this side and they would either save or pay that much 
more. It is 21 percent more expensive on one side than the other.
  Is this fair? The Democrats talk about fairness all the time. 
Democratic Senators have come to the floor to talk about giving 
everybody a fair shot. Do those Democrats who passed this health care 
law, who voted for the law, think that in that county in North Carolina 
they are getting a fair shot depending on which side of the line they 
live? Does the Senator from Louisiana believe that they get this fair 
shot on either side of the line? Does President Obama believe that 
these people in North Carolina or Louisiana are getting a fair shot?
  Why did the Democrats in Washington create a law that penalizes 
people based on on which side of the street they live?
  Here is another example--Arkansas. Here we have an area, one side of 
the line or the other. On this side of the line it is $263 per month 
and on this side $294 a month--same age, same situation, no matter 
which of side of the line you live on--$31 a month more expensive.
  Are those people in Arkansas getting a fair shot from the President's 
health care law? For too many people in places such as Colorado, 
Louisiana, North Carolina, and Arkansas, the costs of the President's 
health care law are unfair and are too high. Sure, there are some 
people who are being helped, but there are a lot of people who are 
being hurt by the President's health care law, people who are feeling 
the negative side effects of the law.
  Why don't Democrats admit this? Why don't they admit that the health 
care law is not giving people a fair shot?
  The President says: Forcefully defend and be proud. Why aren't the 
Democrats in this Senate who passed this law coming to the floor to 
defend the fact that for millions of people in Arkansas, Louisiana, 
North Carolina, Colorado, and all across America, the premiums are too 
high. The health care law is too expensive for families, and it is also 
too expensive for a lot of employers.
  There was an article in the Denver Post last week entitled: ``Health 
law presents options, challenges for Colorado's small businesses.'' The 
article tells the story of a small business in Denver that sells 
cardboard boxes.
  According to the article, the owner of this business has offered 
insurance to his workers for three decades. To get a policy that meets 
the new mandates of the President's health care law was going to cost 
50 percent more than they had been paying in the past.
  The article says, ``About half of small businesses in Colorado are 
seeing double-digit premium increases'' because of the law.
  Double-digit premium increases are not what Democrats promised from 
their health care law, and it is not what the American people wanted. 
People wanted something very simple from health care reform. They 
wanted better access to quality, affordable care.
  Instead, Democrats gave Americans higher costs and unequal treatment. 
It is not a fair shot. It is not what American people wanted, what they 
needed, and it isn't working.
  Americans don't need a law that Democrats voted for without ever 
reading it, and it is a law that raises their premiums, a law that 
Nancy Pelosi said: Hey, first you have to pass it before you get to 
find out what is in it.
  Republicans have offered a patient-centered approach that would solve 
the biggest problems facing families: the cost of care, access to care, 
and ownership of their policies. That means allowing small businesses 
to pool resources in order to buy health insurance for their employees. 
It means letting people shop for health insurance in other States and 
buy what is actually best for them and their families. It means 
reforming our medical liability system to give patients fair 
compensation for tragic mistakes, while ending junk lawsuits that drive 
up health care costs for everyone. It means adequately funding State 
high-risk pools that help sick people get insurance without raising 
costs for healthier individuals.
  These are just a few solutions Republicans have offered, just a few 
of the things that we will do to give Americans real health care reform 
and a real fair shot--health care reform that gives people the care 
they need from a doctor they choose at a lower cost without all the 
negative side effects.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  Mr. VITTER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 3521

  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, I come to the floor to speak about an 
issue we should all be concerned about, the State of veterans health 
care in our VA hospitals, our VA clinics, our VA system, and around the 
country.
  I have been concerned about this for some time, working very hard on 
getting outpatient clinics built in Louisiana--new ones, expanded ones, 
in particular, in Lafayette and Lake Charles.
  I am a member of a bipartisan working group on VA backlog issues, and 
we have made substantial progress through that bipartisan group. We 
have also introduced legislation to deal specifically with that VA 
backlog crisis.
  As we work on those things, unfortunately, the news out of the VA 
gets worse and worse, and the need for real progress on these fronts--
including the community-based clinics I am going to talk about in 
Louisiana and elsewhere--that need gets more and more dire.
  Think about the recent reports. CNN and others have reported that in 
Arizona at least 40 U.S. veterans died--died--waiting for appointments 
at the Phoenix VA health care system. Many of these were placed on a 
secret waiting list. The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme 
designed by the VA managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide the fact 
that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a 
doctor.
  There is an official list that is shared with officials in 
Washington. That official list shows that the VA has been providing 
timely appointments. The problem is, you don't get on that official 
list, in some cases, until you have waited months and months and months 
on the secret list that is hidden from Washington, that was hidden from 
the world, and that was hidden from outsiders until the news media 
broke the story. So 40 of those veterans died waiting for appointments 
through this abuse.
  In Colorado, USA Today and others reported that clerks at the 
Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Fort Collins were instructed 
last year about how to falsify appointment records so it appeared the 
small staff of doctors was seeing patients within the agency's goal of 
14 days--the exact same abuse, the exact same type of scheme, but 
different details. Many of the 6,300 veterans treated at the outpatient 
clinic waited months to be seen, but that was hidden through this 
scheme.
  If the clerical staff had allowed records to reflect that veterans 
waited longer than 14 days, they were punished by being placed on the 
bad boy list, the report shows. So, again, it is exactly the same fraud 
and abuse, the same scheme, designed to hide the real

[[Page 6961]]

waits that veterans in these places and in many other places around the 
country are subjected to.
  We see these horrible abuses. We see these examples with increasing 
frequency. It has gotten so bad that the head of the American Legion 
and the head of the Concerned Veterans for America on Monday called for 
Secretary Shinseki to resign and called for members of his top 
leadership to resign with him.
  The calls for his resignation came after months of reporting that I 
have been talking about--U.S. veterans who have actually died waiting 
for care at VA facilities across the country. It came after these 
reports about Phoenix. It came after these reports about Colorado.
  The heads of these organizations did not rush into a public call for 
his resignation. They did not take that lightly. That is virtually and 
perhaps completely unprecedented, but they did that on Monday. They 
called for the Secretary's resignation. They called for it publicly, 
and they called for several of his leadership team to resign with him. 
That is how bad it has gotten.
  Yet in the midst of this, rather than responding to this crisis in 
any way we can, as quickly as we can, we have important matters hung up 
on pure politics on the Senate floor. Specifically, I am talking about 
my proposal to move forward with 27 community-based clinics around the 
country, including the two vital new and expanded community-based 
clinics that we need to move on, approve, and build in Louisiana, in 
Lafayette and Lake Charles.
  These clinics around the country--and particularly the two in 
Louisiana, in Lafayette and Lake Charles--have been hung up through one 
bureaucratic screw up after another. These should have been built by 
now.
  First, in terms of our two Louisiana clinics, the VA messed up how 
they let out the contract, and that caused them to pull back. It was 
their mistake, pure and simple. They have admitted that freely, and it 
cost us 1 year in terms of moving forward with those clinics.
  After that mistake was corrected--after the loss of 1 year of 
waiting--then the CBO decided that they were going to score these 
clinics in a completely new way, something they had never done before, 
and that caused a ``scoring'' or ``fiscal issue'' with regard to all 27 
of the community-based VA clinics around the country that I am talking 
about. That further delayed progress.
  Finally, after these two major delays, leaders in the House got 
together on a bipartisan basis--and I want to commend my Louisiana 
colleagues in the House, in particular led by Congressman Boustany and 
others--to fix this scoring issue. They put together a reform bill and 
they got it approved by the House overwhelmingly, with one dissenting 
vote. In today's environment, resolutions to honor Mother Teresa don't 
pass the House of Representatives with only one dissenting vote, but 
they did that.
  So it came over here, and I worked to address some small issues and 
objections that existed on the Senate side through a perfecting 
amendment which I have at the desk. I worked very hard for weeks to 
clear up those objections so we could move forward with this 
noncontroversial measure. Because of that, we have the unanimous 
support of the Senate--not one single objection to moving forward with 
these 27 community-based VA clinics around the country. There is not 
one single objection related to the substance of that proposal--not 
one.
  The only objection now has been from the distinguished Senator from 
Vermont who objects to moving forward with this focused proposal 
because the Senate does not agree unanimously or near unanimously with 
his much larger bill that encompasses dozens of VA issues. Again, I 
have pledged to and I will work with the Senator on those broader 
issues. I have been working hard on those issues, including these 
clinics, including being an active member of the bipartisan working 
group on the VA backlog issue. I will continue to work on that. But the 
fact remains his larger bill has substantial opposition. There are 
around 46 Senators--excuse me, around 44 Senators who oppose that 
larger bill.
  In the meantime, I think we should agree on what we can agree on. We 
should make progress on what we can make progress on, starting with 
these 27 clinics. Veterans have been dying around the country because 
of these ridiculous waits and the fraud and abuse involved in hiding 
these waits. These 27 community-based clinics will directly help 
address veterans who are waiting for months and months in some cases, 
waiting for medical treatment. It will directly alleviate that issue in 
the communities in 18 States where these clinics will be located. There 
is a significant number of communities in a significant number of 
States. So let's agree on what we can agree on. Let's make that 
significant progress. Let's keep talking and working on the rest.
  Last November Senator Sanders seemed to agree with that principle and 
that way of moving forward. In talking about another Veterans' Affairs 
piece of legislation, he said, on November 19 of last year, ``I'm happy 
to tell you that I think that was a concern of his.''--talking about 
another of our colleagues--``We got that UC'ed last night.''--unanimous 
consent--``So we moved that pretty quickly, and I want to try to do 
those things. Where we have agreement, let's move it.''
  To repeat from that quote: `` . . . I want to try to do those things. 
Where we have agreement, let's move it.''
  That is all I am asking for. We are not going to agree on everything 
immediately, but we can agree on important things right today, right 
this hour, right this minute. We do agree on 27 important community-
based clinics in 18 States around the country, including 2 in 
Louisiana--Lafayette and Lake Charles, LA--that Senator Landrieu and I 
represent.
  I want to try to do those things where we have agreement. Let's move 
it. And that can start right this minute in a productive, positive way 
with these 27 community-based clinics around the country. So let's 
agree on what we can agree on. Let's move on this important clinic 
issue.
  Leaders of national groups--American Legion, American Vets, DAV, 
Paralyzed Veterans of America, and others--think the same. That is why 
they wrote a letter on June 10 of last year--June 10 of 2013--saying 
these community-based clinics are important. Let's come together, work 
together, and move specifically on these community-based clinics. They 
are important.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the letter of 
June 10 to which I just referred.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                    June 10, 2013.
     Hon. Harry Reid,
     Senate Majority Leader, Washington, DC.
     Hon. John A. Boehner,
     Speaker of the House, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Mitch McConnell,
     Senate Minority Leader, Washington, DC
     Hon. Nancy Pelosi,
     House Minority Leader, Washington, DC.
       Dear Leaders of Congress: We write you, as leaders of 
     Congress, to urge you to work together to prevent a looming 
     problem that over the next several years may harm the health 
     of more than 340,000 wounded, injured and ill veterans in 22 
     states who will be in need of care provided by the Department 
     of Veterans Affairs (VA). Without your intervention, these 
     veterans are in jeopardy of losing that important health 
     resource.
       Since the 1990s, Congress has helped improve VA health care 
     access and patient satisfaction by authorizing and funding 
     nearly 900 VA community-based outpatient clinics. These are 
     important facilities for local, convenient, and cost-
     effective primary care for millions of veterans. 
     Unfortunately, a policy shift by the Congressional Budget 
     Office (CBO); in 2012 has effectively halted Congressional 
     authorization of leases for such new clinics. Also, as old 
     leases expire and need reauthorization in future years, this 
     CBO decision jeopardizes existing VA-leased health, research 
     and other facilities.
       Last year, CBO announced it would redefine 15 VA-proposed 
     leases as ``capital'' leases and would treat them as current-
     year mandatory obligations, costing more than $1 billion 
     altogether over a 20-year period. In order to advance these 
     leases to approval, House budget rules would have forced an 
     offset to equal the cost of these leases with an unrealistic 
     Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 reduction in mandatory veterans' 
     programs. Since no such accommodation could be made in a 
     single year, and VA had not addressed such an offset in its 
     FY 2013 budget, the proposed

[[Page 6962]]

     lease authorizations were dropped from the authorizing bill. 
     These 15 proposed community facilities are now in limbo, and 
     veterans are not being served.
       This unexpected challenge will not resolve itself absent 
     action by House and Senate leadership to ensure Congress 
     continues to authorize leases of local VA community-based 
     outpatient clinics and other VA facilities when such 
     approvals are needed. Also the VA warns that over time 
     numerous existing leases will be expiring. Lack of 
     reauthorization could result in closures of current clinics. 
     Newly proposed clinics without lease authorization cannot be 
     activated. Costs of veterans' VA care will be rising while 
     they face longer travel and more waiting for needed 
     treatment, or they may be forced to go without treatment.
       Committee leaders with jurisdiction over the VA have 
     pledged to solve this problem, but no resolution has emerged 
     since CBO's determination, made nine months ago. Without 
     leadership intervention, these promised clinics and more in 
     the future cannot be activated or will be shut down, and 
     wounded, injured and ill veterans in need will be denied VA 
     health care.
       The CBO's policy must be reversed or otherwise addressed in 
     consultation with VA and the Office of Management and Budget. 
     We ask that you take action that results in Congressional 
     authorization of the 15 clinics still in limbo since 2012, 
     the additional ones proposed earlier this year in VA's budget 
     for FY 2014, and in general to find the means to allow VA's 
     leased facilities to continue to provide flexible, low-cost 
     VA care to wounded, injured and ill veterans. The current 
     situation is unacceptable and must be remedied.
       We appreciate your support for America's veterans and look 
     forward to your response.
           Sincerely,
     Peter S. Gaytan,
       Executive Director, The American Legion.
     Barry A. Jesinoski,
       Executive Director, Washington Headquarters Disabled 
     American Veterans.
     Robert E. Wallace,
       Executive Director, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United 
     States.
     Stewart M. Hickey,
       National Executive Director, AMVETS.
     Homer S. Townsend, Jr.,
       Executive Director, Paralyzed Veterans of America.

  Mr. VITTER. These groups agree with what Senator Sanders said last 
year and they agree with what I am saying today: Let us come together 
and move on those things we can agree on, and they specifically wrote 
the Senate leadership about these community-based clinics.
  That leads to my unanimous consent request, which is to adopt this 
spirit of agreeing where we agree, getting things accomplished whenever 
and wherever we can, and continuing to work on the rest.
  I ask unanimous consent the Veterans' Affairs Committee be discharged 
from further consideration of H.R. 3521 and the Senate proceed to its 
immediate consideration; that my amendment, which is at the desk, be 
agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed 
and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. SANDERS. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, let me touch on a few of the points of 
my distinguished colleague from Louisiana.
  First of all, regarding the allegations against the VA in Phoenix, as 
we know, these are very serious allegations, and it is absolutely 
appropriate the inspector general do a thorough and independent 
investigation of those allegations. As I am sure my colleague from 
Louisiana knows, the leadership at Phoenix has rejected those 
allegations, saying those are not true. The Secretary of VA has done 
what I believe, and I would hope my friend from Louisiana believes, is 
the right thing to do, which is to do an independent investigation.
  I am not a lawyer, but I did learn enough in school to know you don't 
find somebody guilty without assessing the evidence. And frankly, just 
because CNN says something doesn't always make it the case. So what we 
need is a serious independent investigation into the very serious 
allegations about Phoenix and any other facility within the VA. I have 
said I will hold hearings immediately--more than one hearing, if 
necessary--to get to the truth of the matter regarding the VA situation 
in Phoenix.
  I would also tell my friend that when we talk about the VA, when we 
talk about health care in general--and I am sure he would agree with 
me--as a nation we have a whole lot of serious problems, don't we? We 
have about 30 million people today who have no health insurance at all. 
Harvard University estimates about 45,000 people die each year because 
they do not get to a doctor when they should, because we are the only 
country in the industrialized world that doesn't guarantee health care 
to all people.
  There was a study that came out recently that indicates that some 
200,000 to 400,000 patients a year die in hospitals in America because 
of medical errors, in ways that could have been prevented--200,000 to 
400,000 people a year. So, yes, as chairman of the Senate Veterans 
Committee, I am going to do everything we can do, along with my 
colleagues, in a bipartisan way to make sure the veterans of this 
country get all of the health care they need, and get the best quality 
they can.
  This is a very serious issue, and with an independent investigation 
taking place in Phoenix now, we are going to get to the truth of that.
  When we talk about the VA, as I am sure my colleague from Louisiana 
knows, in fiscal year 2013, the VA provided 89.7 million outpatient 
visits, and the VA has 236,000 health care appointments every single 
day. Today, over 200,000 veterans in 151 medical centers in 900 
community-based outreach clinics all over this country are walking into 
the VA to get health care. I assure my colleague from Louisiana that 
every single day there are problems within the VA. When there are over 
200,000 people walking in, there are going to be problems. But I also 
assure my friend there are problems in every other medical facility in 
America today as well.
  I just mentioned the very frightening situation that, according to a 
very significant study, we are experiencing between 200,000 and 400,000 
patients dying from what are preventable deaths because of hospital 
errors all over America. My point about saying that is to say, let's 
put the VA within a broader context. If you want to criticize the VA, 
fine, I am there with you. You got problems, I will work with you. But 
let's not paint a broad brush.
  The VA has 151 medical centers, they have 300,000-plus employees--
many of them veterans themselves--and in my view, and in the view of 
the veterans community--the veterans associations--the Veterans' 
Administration is providing high quality care to the veterans across 
this country.
  It is not just me. My colleague from Louisiana may have recently read 
that an independent customer service survey, done by the American 
Customer Satisfaction Index--these are people who assess how people 
feel about medical facilities around the country--found that in 2013 an 
overall satisfaction rating for the VA was 84 percent for inpatient 
care and 82 percent for outpatient care, which in some respects was 
higher than for the hospital industry in general.
  For the past 10 years, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index has 
found a high degree of loyalty to VA among veterans of over 90 percent. 
I would suspect my colleague from Louisiana finds--as I have found when 
I talk to veterans in Vermont--and he asks them, as I am sure he does, 
what do you think about VA health care, veterans will say: You know 
what. It is pretty good health care. Is it perfect? No. Are there 
problems? Yes. In general, they think it is pretty good health care.
  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, parliamentary inquiry.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will state his inquiry.
  Mr. VITTER. I have a pending unanimous consent request and I would 
like to inquire how I proceed to have a ruling on that and, hopefully, 
have it passed through the Senate.

[[Page 6963]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the request of the 
Senator from Louisiana?
  Mr. SANDERS. What I am going to do, Madam President, is I am going to 
object, and I am going to ask for a unanimous consent request on 
legislation that I have offered, and I want to say a word about that.
  I want to ask a question of my friend from Louisiana. My colleague 
from Louisiana has indicated he wants to work with us. I think I heard 
that in his statement today, and I applaud that. I am not quite sure he 
has done that yet, but I look forward to working with him and his 
staff. I would invite my colleague from Louisiana to come to my office 
at a mutually convenient time to see how in fact we can work together.
  Will my colleague from Louisiana take me up on that offer, I ask 
through the Chair?
  Mr. VITTER. Reclaiming my time, or reclaiming the floor, since my 
unanimous consent request----
  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I just asked a brief question of my 
friend from Louisiana.
  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, a point of parliamentary inquiry.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will state his parliamentary 
inquiry.
  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, I had a unanimous consent request. It 
has been objected to. May I reclaim the floor and reclaim my time? In 
doing so, I will be happy to respond to the Senator.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The request has not yet formally been objected 
to.
  Mr. VITTER. I would again ask unanimous consent that the Veterans' 
Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 3521 
and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that my 
amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; that the bill, as 
amended, be read a third time and passed; and that the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. SANDERS. I do object. And I am going to----
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. VITTER. If I may reclaim the floor and reclaim my time, I would 
like to respond.
  I think it is really unfortunate. As we all agreed to today and in 
previous appearances on the floor, there is absolutely no objection on 
the merits of this proposal. The only objection from the distinguished 
Senator from Vermont is that a far larger bill, which does have 
significant opposition--around 44 Members, almost half of the Senate--
people have concerns about that. So if he can't play the game exactly 
his way, he is going to take his ball and go home, and he is going to 
block 27 community-based clinics on which there is no substantive 
objection, on which the leaders of national veterans organizations have 
pleaded with leaders of the Senate and House to act in a bipartisan 
way.
  I am particularly concerned that today what I hear is an even higher 
bar that we are going to have to meet to act on these clinics that are 
not objected to on their merits.
  Previously the Senator from Vermont talked about his far broader 
bill. Today he talked about all of health care. Apparently I am going 
to have to agree with Senator Sanders about all of health care reform 
before we can move forward on these 27 community-based clinics on which 
there is no substantive objection.
  The Senator from Vermont said he will do everything he can to deal 
with these issues. Well, we can do something right here, right now, to 
deal with these issues. It is not solving every problem in the world. 
It is not solving every problem in health care. It is not solving every 
problem in the VA. But it is doing something real and meaningful and 
substantial in 27 communities and 18 States. We can move forward with 
these community-based clinics. We can try to do those things on which 
we have agreement. Let's move it. We can do that. That is all I am 
asking. And I think it is really counterproductive to take the view 
that until we agree about all of the VA or about all of health care or 
whatever, we are not going to do any of that. I think that is really 
sad and counterproductive.
  I will keep coming to the floor. I will keep working on this vital 
issue. I will keep working on other vital issues. I will keep talking 
to the Senator from Vermont about his broader bill. But I have to say 
that these scandals in Phoenix and elsewhere don't alleviate my 
concerns; they only heighten my concerns about a broader bill that is 
going to push many more patients, overnight, into a system that is 
obviously broken.
  So I will continue working and talking about it all. I will continue 
working in the bipartisan working group on the VA backlog. But let's do 
what we can do now. Let's start with one step and then two and then 
five, and then maybe we can start to jog and then we can start to run. 
I think that is the productive path forward.
  I urge my colleague to reconsider and let us move forward with these 
important clinics.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, unfortunately, I didn't quite hear that 
the Senator from Louisiana wanted to work with us. So I will have my 
office call his office and see if we can sit down with our staffs and 
find out what the Senator's concerns are about the legislation.
  It is not Bernie Sanders' legislation. It is not the Veterans' 
Committee's legislation. This is legislation supported by the American 
Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, 
the Vietnam Veterans of America, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of 
America, and virtually every other veterans organization in America.
  In preparation for the discussion I look forward to having with my 
colleague from Louisiana, this is not changing the world. This is not 
legislation that is going to solve every problem in the world. But it 
does do a whole lot to improve the lives of millions of veterans and 
their families who are hurting, and I think it is appropriate that we 
do that. I want my colleague from Louisiana to be thinking about these 
issues and to come into the office and tell me: No, Senator Sanders. I 
disagree.
  Does he disagree with restoration of full COLA for military retirees? 
As he knows, for current people in the military and new people who are 
coming in, they are going to get less of a COLA than longstanding 
members of the military. Maybe he disagrees; maybe he doesn't. Let's 
talk about it.
  Does he believe the veterans community--people who go into the VA--
should be entitled to dental care? I don't know about Louisiana, but in 
Vermont that is a very serious issue. All over this country veterans 
are dealing with rotting teeth, and they can't get that care in VA 
facilities right now.
  There is widespread support for advanced appropriations for the VA. I 
think virtually all the veterans organizations understand that the VA 
could do a better job if they had advanced appropriations. I support 
it. Many people support it. I don't know if my colleague from Louisiana 
supports it. Let's work together, and I will find out.
  The next time we come down to the floor and go through this exercise, 
we can tell the people what we agree with and what we don't agree with.
  On ending the benefits backlog, the truth is that the current VA 
Administration--General Shinseki and others--inherited a paper system. 
Can you believe that? In the year 2009 the VA benefits system was on 
paper--maybe the last remaining system of its size in the world to 
still be on paper and not digital. What people at the VA have done--
General Shinseki and others--is they transformed that system from paper 
to electronic records. Guess what. The backlog is going down. But that 
is not good enough for me. We have language in this bill which will 
make sure the backlog continues to go down.
  There is an issue I am sure my colleague from Louisiana is very 
familiar

[[Page 6964]]

with: instate tuition. There are veterans from Louisiana who may want 
to go to school in Vermont or veterans from Vermont who may want to go 
to school in Louisiana, but they can't get instate tuition. It is a 
serious problem, and we address it. What does my colleague from 
Louisiana feel about that issue?
  Then there is extending health care access for recently separated 
veterans. As he knows, we have legislation now that extends free health 
care to all those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan for 5 years. I 
think it should be extended for 10 years. Does he agree or does he not 
agree? The veterans community feels very strongly about that issue.
  We have high unemployment rates for returning veterans. We want to do 
something to expand employment opportunities.
  We have the issue of sexual assault--a very serious issue, as we all 
know--and we want to make sure the VA is providing excellent-quality 
care to those victims of sexual assault.
  We have, in my mind, a really tragic problem. The good news is that a 
few years ago Congress did the right thing and said to the post-9/11 
veterans, those men and women who came home seriously injured: We are 
going to pass a caregivers act to give support to your wives or your 
sisters or your brothers who are providing often 24/7 care for you--
every single day, long hours--at great stress. We are going to help 
you.
  But what we didn't do is reach back to the Vietnam-era veterans, the 
Korean war veterans, even World War II veterans. There are families 
today in which a 70-year-old woman is taking care of her husband who 
lost his legs in Vietnam, and day after day, year after year she is 
getting virtually no support from the government.
  This legislation has the strong support of the Paralyzed Veterans of 
America and many other organizations that say we can't ignore those 
people. I don't know what my friend from Louisiana feels about this. 
Let's talk about it.
  Here is the bottom line. The bottom line is, as I have said many 
times, I do support the provision the Senator from Louisiana speaks 
about. We do need these facilities. But we need a lot more. We need 
cooperation and people coming together.
  I believe the Senator from Louisiana said there were 44 people who 
voted in opposition. He is right. He forgot to mention that there were 
56 who voted for this bill, with the support of every veterans 
organization in America. One person was absent who would have voted for 
it, so 57 voted for it and 44 voted against it. Unfortunately, in the 
rules of the Senate, when we have a Republican filibuster, we do need 
60 votes. I am looking for three more Republican votes. One of those 
votes I would very much appreciate receiving is from the Senator from 
Louisiana. That would make me two votes shy. And we think we are making 
some progress with some other Republicans who understand that we must 
address the serious needs facing the veterans community.
  I again extend my request to the Senator from Louisiana to work with 
me. But pending that, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed 
to Calendar No. 297, S. 1950, with the Sanders amendment, which is at 
the desk and is the text of S. 1982, the Comprehensive Veterans Health 
and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? The Senator from 
Louisiana.
  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, I object on behalf of myself and 43 
other Senators.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. VITTER. If not for any other reason but because of the 
substantive concerns with the bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I hear what my colleague from Louisiana 
says. I hear that he objects to passing legislation which has the 
support of virtually every veterans organization in the country that 
represents many millions of veterans. I hear him objecting to 
legislation which has the support of 57 Members of the U.S. Senate. I 
hear him objecting to what I believe is legislation which has the 
support of the vast majority of the American people, who do believe we 
should do right by our veterans. It is very easy to send people off to 
war; it is a lot harder to take care of them when they come home.
  I would simply say that I look forward to sitting down with my 
colleague from Louisiana and other Republican colleagues--and we are 
doing that right now but specifically with my colleague from Louisiana, 
Senator Vitter--and seeing where we can agree and how we can create 
some significant legislation to address the very serious problems 
facing the veterans community.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, just to briefly repeat, I did object on 
behalf of myself and 43 other Senators about major provisions in this 
bill. I am happy to talk about it. I am happy to work on it. I am happy 
to work with Senator Burr, who is the ranking member on the committee, 
who has been communicating all these concerns to Senator Sanders and 
his staff. But I think that is very different from objecting to a 
focused community-based clinic bill that has no objection on the 
merits.
  I just think it is a shame not to try to do those things where we 
have agreement--let's move forward--not to move forward. That would be 
moving forward in a substantial way. That would quickly improve the 
lives of veterans in 27 communities and in 18 States, including 
Lafayette and Lake Charles--communities that certainly Senator Landrieu 
and I very much care about and very much want to have their VA issues 
addressed in this way.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I simply reiterate my hope that Senator 
Vitter would sit down with me, his staff would sit down with my staff, 
and we can work out our differences. I have always been willing to 
compromise and make changes in the legislation.
  But for the veterans of this country who have suffered so much and 
who have been hurt so much, we owe them so much, and we have to do 
right by them.
  Madam President, I yield the floor, and 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. WARNER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                    Public Service Recognition Week

           Honoring Heidi King, Chuck Bolen, and Brian Stout

  Mr. WARNER. Madam President, this week we celebrate Public Service 
Recognition Week to honor public servants at all levels of government 
for their admirable patriotism and contributions to our country.
  We often forget that these public servants at all levels of 
government go to work every day with the sole mission to make this 
country a better and safer place to live. Day by day, they go about 
their work, often receiving little recognition for the great work they 
do.
  Since 2010, I have come to the Senate floor on occasions to honor 
exemplary Federal employees--a tradition that was begun by my friend 
Senator Ted Kaufman.
  Amongst the list of Federal employees we have honored across the 
country are some who serve here on this Senate floor.
  Today I want to celebrate Public Service Recognition Week by taking 
this opportunity to recognize three federally employed Virginians who 
are doing exemplary work behind the scenes to make our government more 
effective and keep our fellow citizens safe.
  Normally, we would have their photos here in the Chamber, but since 
we have three, we are going to recognize them all with this single 
poster. Again, these are exemplary Federal employees.

[[Page 6965]]

  The first is Heidi King, who served as the Director of the Patient 
Safety Program Office at the Department of Defense and currently leads 
the DOD's Partnership for Patients.
  While at DOD, she helped develop a patient safety program which helps 
medical professionals eliminate preventable medical errors.
  Breakdowns in communication between doctors, nurses, and special care 
providers are historically the cause of many tragic medical events such 
as surgical errors, prescription mistakes, and hospital-acquired 
infections.
  To combat this, Heidi coordinated with the Department of Health and 
Human Services to bring together more than 100 independent experts in 
the medical field. These experts developed a comprehensive training 
program for medical professionals to learn about the factors within 
their control that commonly contribute to errors.
  In 2008, DOD implemented Heidi's program in combat support units in 
Iraq. As a result, communication errors decreased 65 percent, 
medication and transfusion errors decreased 85 percent, and the rate of 
bloodstream infections from catheters also dropped dramatically. Heidi 
should be proud of her work, which is directly responsible for the 
health of many brave soldiers.
  In an effort to spread these best practices, the safety program has 
established 11 training centers across the country, where more than 
6,200 medical professionals have participated to become master trainers 
and instructors. They then return to their health care systems to lead 
implementation of the program.
  This is the kind of commonsense, cost-effective, yet also lifesaving 
program that does not get much recognition but is an example of a 
Federal employee going above and beyond the call of duty to help her 
fellow Americans and actually help the bottom line.
  I would also like to recognize two TSA employees for their heroic 
actions that helped save a passenger's life.
  While posted at Washington National Airport last month, TSA employee 
Chuck Bolen was told that a passenger was in need of immediate 
assistance.
  As soon as Bolen saw the passenger slumped in the chair, he knew he 
did not have a lot of time and was prepared to do whatever was 
necessary to keep the passenger alive.
  As the man's condition declined rapidly, Bolen sprinted to grab the 
nearest AED machine. With help from his colleague Brian Stout, a marine 
infantry sergeant who did three combat tours in Iraq and now works for 
TSA, they worked together to apply the AED machine. After a single 
attempt, the machine advised to begin CPR. Bolen initiated chest 
compressions and continued administering the lifesaving action, even 
after first responders arrived on the scene.
  Thankfully, their quick collaborative actions paid off. While in the 
ambulance on the way to the hospital, the man's heart started and 
stopped several times, but today he is alive and recovering from triple 
bypass surgery.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in honoring Heidi King, Chuck 
Bolen, and Brian Stout--truly great Virginians but also great civil 
servants--and all those who serve at the Department of Defense and the 
TSA for their hard work and dedication to our Nation.
  While today we have highlighted three, as I mentioned at the outset, 
over the last 5 years I have come many times and have highlighted folks 
from across Virginia and across the country. As I mentioned, as well, 
there are people serving right now on this Senate floor who have 
received this kind of attention for their quiet dedication to duty and 
making the Senate a more functioning institution.
  As we constantly come to the floor and debate the challenges of our 
budget and other issues, I think it is very important--while we may 
differ about which programs we support and what functions our 
government should take on--we never underestimate the enormous value 
our Federal employees contribute on a regular basis to the safety, 
security, and, quite honestly, the function of our national government.
  I hope all my colleagues will join me in recognizing the efforts of 
public servants across the country during Public Service Recognition 
Week and thank them for the very important work they do every day.
  With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. STABENOW. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                              Student Debt

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise to talk about an issue that 
impacts tens of millions of people across the country and hangs over 
our entire economy, and that is student debt.
  Borrowers have accumulated over $1.2 trillion in student debt. Think 
about that for a minute. That is more than people owe on their credit 
cards. Talk about a drag for not only the individual, for their family, 
but for the entire economy.
  Students in my home State of Michigan are among the most heavily 
indebted in the country when they graduate. Frankly, we want them to 
get degrees, not debt, when they graduate.
  Nearly two-thirds of students in Michigan who graduated in 2012 had 
student loan debt, with each student averaging nearly $29,000. So they 
walk outside the door--congratulations--take off the cap and gown and 
get a $29,000 bill.
  This growing mountain of debt represents a threat to our economy and 
to the dreams of millions of Americans.
  Today too many people are saddled with decades of debt just because 
they want a fair shot to go to college and to get ahead in life.
  Instead of saving for a house, buying a car or just buying gas or 
groceries, millions of people are simply paying student loan payments 
month after month, year after year, decade after decade.
  I hear from many of my constituents about how they are being crushed 
by the burden of student debt. I have seen it in my own extended 
family. They write about having $50,000 or $100,000 of debt. If you are 
going to medical school, if you are in specialty areas as a grad 
student, they have $200,000 or more in debt.
  Some of the reforms we have already put in place help some borrowers 
by limiting the payments on their Federal loans relative to their 
incomes. That is a good thing, but this is not enough, and it doesn't 
do anything to help people who have private loans--oftentimes on top of 
the loans through the Federal Government. Some of these private loans 
carry interest rates like credit cards and are literally driving people 
into bankruptcy.
  I have constituents who use words such as ``crippling'' or 
``catastrophic.'' They talk about anxiety attacks.
  One person wrote that because of the high interest rates on his 
private loans, ``it is getting to the point where [he] cannot eat 
because of [his] student loan payments.''
  Another constituent, Thomas, wrote to me that each of his three 
children has a combination of Federal and private loans totaling 
$75,000 to $110,000--each.
  What Thomas wrote to me really sums up the student debt crisis we are 
facing and that families across the country are facing:

       Loans are designed to give students a chance to go to 
     college and to obtain high-income jobs. Somehow the interest 
     they pay has become just another wound for college grads that 
     have a tough time finding jobs. . . . It will leave grads 
     with a high risk of default, not being able to pay for their 
     dreams and not being able to fund their retirement accounts 
     for many years.

  That is crazy. That is just not right, and that is not how it should 
work in our country. That is certainly not what we think of when we 
think of striving for the American dream. Whether it is the Federal 
Government or the big banks, we should not be making a profit off the 
backs of students, and that is exactly what is happening.
  That is why I am so proud to be fighting alongside Senator Warren and 
my other colleagues to address this very urgent and growing problem.
  Senator Warren and I fought last year to stop students from getting

[[Page 6966]]

stuck with a raw deal. Now we are back at it again this year, and we 
are going to keep fighting until we can solve this problem.
  Horace Mann once called education ``the great equalizer'' in our 
society. Everyone who wants to work hard and go to college in order to 
simply have a fair shot in life should not be denied that opportunity.
  It shouldn't be the great equalizer on debt. It has to be the great 
equalizer on opportunity.
  These folks are willing to play by the rules, work hard, and pay back 
their loans on time. We have to make sure that the system isn't rigged 
against them.
  The legislation we have introduced will not only help millions of 
Americans, it will also boost our economy by allowing borrowers to 
spend their money on a home, a car or just the needs of their families 
instead of interest payments. Nobody should have to put off getting 
married or starting a family just because of student loans.
  We are not just talking only about young people, this bill helps 
students of all ages: students in their twenties, thirties, and 
beyond--young professionals and parents who have stepped up to help 
their children. In fact, the student loan debt has gotten so out of 
hand that senior citizens in the country owe tens of billions of 
dollars on student loans.
  Our bill will help millions of responsible borrowers of all ages in 
every State across the country. The Bank On Students Emergency Loan 
Refinancing Act is a reasonable commonsense and fiscally responsible 
way to address the student loan crisis.
  This is simply about giving those who want to go to college a fair 
shot to get ahead, making sure that those who already borrowed to get 
an education are not being unfairly weighed down by debt just so the 
government or the big banks can turn a profit.
  I thank Senator Warren for her leadership on this vital issue. This 
is about allowing all of those who currently have student loan debt to 
be able to refinance--to be able to refinance at a rate actually that 
was voted on, 3.68 percent, by colleagues on both sides 1 year ago. It 
is not a number that is picked out of the a hat. It will allow people 
to exchange an 11 percent or 12 percent on a private loan or a 6 
percent, 7 percent or 8 percent interest rate on a public loan for 
something that is affordable, that will allow them to take those extra 
precious dollars, invest in their future, and the country's future.
  That is what this is about. It is very simple, and it is paid for by 
what has been commonly called the Buffett rule, which basically says 
those who have benefited by the blessings of this country and those who 
are the wealthiest among us would contribute a little bit more to make 
sure that everybody has a fair shot at getting ahead.
  We can't afford for America to be a big-shot economy. We have to make 
sure that everyone has a fair shot to make it. Nobody is asking for a 
handout; they are asking to work hard. They are asking to know that the 
system is not rigged against them.
  They are asking to know that they are going to be able to go to 
college, get out of college, pay back their student loans at a 
reasonable, fair rate, buy a house, get married, have a career, have 
children, and go on to have the American dream. That is what this is 
about. This needs to get passed as quickly as possible so people know 
they are going to have the opportunity to get ahead in America.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, more than a year ago Senators Shaheen and 
Portman worked on an energy efficiency bill--a good bill. That was more 
than a year ago. That bill was, as I have indicated, good, but during 
the past many months, through the energy committee and the work of Ron 
Wyden and others, that bill was improved greatly. Ron Wyden was 
chairman of that committee at the time, and they did so many good 
things with that piece of legislation. We had six cosponsors--three 
Democrats and three Republicans.
  This bill would create 200,000 jobs, and it would help our Nation's 
energy proficiency significantly.
  So I moved to proceed to the bill in September, this past September--
and we have been through this a number of times, but I will repeat it 
very quickly. We were held up from doing that for a number of reasons, 
not the least of which was the junior Senator from Louisiana wanting to 
take away the health care for our staffs. That threw a few roadblocks 
in the way. So without going into detail, we never got that done.
  But Senators Shaheen and Portman, as I have indicated, did not give 
up. They worked hard to incorporate 10 separate bipartisan amendments 
into this bill. So the bill was good last September, but it is terrific 
now.
  As a result of that, we improved the number of people who were 
willing to support this legislation. We went from 3 and 3 to 7 and 7--
14 cosponsors of this bill. On the Republican side are Senators 
Portman, Ayotte, Collins, Hoeven, Isakson, Murkowski, and Wicker. On 
the Democratic side are Senators Shaheen, Bennet, Coons, Franken, 
Landrieu, Manchin, and Warren. There is a good mix of Senators on both 
sides. So we worked very hard to finalize a more bipartisan bill. I 
worked with them. I didn't give up. We continued to try to move 
forward. We did that, as we did with childcare recently. It was in 
March, actually. I have looked for every bipartisan bill we could come 
to the floor on. We did it with the childcare bill, as I said, and we 
should do it on this bill. That was my anticipation. And we were able 
to do it, I thought.
  So this Shaheen-Portman bill is a very fine bill. I reached out to 
Republican Senators. To be honest, I didn't reach out to them; they 
reached out to me. They wanted to work to get this passed. Originally, 
the arrangement was, let's just pass this bill as it is.
  Right before the Easter recess, I was asked: How about a sense-of-
the-Senate resolution on Keystone?
  I said: I don't want to do that. We already have an agreement.
  Anyway, we relented and said OK. So I came back after the Easter 
recess, and that agreement we had, well, they said: Let's change it. We 
no longer want a sense-of-the-Senate resolution; we want a vote on a 
freestanding piece of legislation.
  I said: We have an agreement.
  Anyway, I relented and we had that proposal. So we had that all 
worked out. Then we were told there needs to be five more amendments.
  So, as I have said before, this has been very hard to do, this shell 
game. It can be described in other ways, but it has been very difficult 
to pin down the Republicans for anything more than a day or two because 
they keep changing their minds.
  So here we are, and my offer is this: If Shaheen-Portman passes, with 
the seven Republican cosponsors, we will have a freestanding vote 
forthwith on Keystone, with whatever time is fair. I have put 3 hours 
in the proposal I will make in just a minute, but it doesn't matter--
whatever time they want for a freestanding vote on Keystone, which they 
have been wanting to have for a long time.
  You get the picture, Mr. President. That is what I think should 
happen. It is a good bill, but it is so much better than it was a year 
ago. It is a great bill now, not a good bill.
  So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be 
determined by me after consulting with Senator McConnell, the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 368, S. 2262; that there 
be no amendments, points of order, or motions in order to the bill 
other than budget points of order and applicable motions to waive; that 
there be up to 3 hours of debate on the bill equally divided between 
the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back 
of time, the Senate proceed to vote on passage

[[Page 6967]]

of the bill; that the bill be subject to a 60 affirmative-vote 
threshold; that if the bill is passed, the Senate proceed to Calendar 
No. 371, S. 2280, at a time to be determined by me after consultation 
with the Republican leader but no later than Thursday, May 22, 2014--
and I will just enter the comment here that if they want it earlier, 
they can have it, but that is the date I have suggested--that there be 
no amendments, points of order or motions in order to the bill other 
than budget points of order and the applicable motions to waive; that 
there be up to, again, 3 hours of debate on the bill equally divided 
between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or 
yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the 
bill; that the bill be subject to a 60 affirmative-vote threshold.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, it has 
been my position since late last week that it would be appropriate for 
the minority--not having had but eight rollcall votes since July--to 
have five amendments of our choosing on this bill, and therefore I am 
going to propose a counter consent request at this time.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate 
consideration of Calendar No. 368, S. 2262; that the only amendments in 
order be five amendments to be offered by myself or my designee related 
to energy policy, with the first amendment being my amendment No. 2982 
on saving coal jobs, and with a 60-vote threshold on adoption of each 
amendment; that following the disposition of these amendments, the bill 
be read a third time and the Senate proceed to a vote on passage of the 
bill, as amended, if amended.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I incorporate 
by reference the statement I made earlier today on this bill and 
reluctantly object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard to the request of the 
Republican leader.
  Is there objection to the original request?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, earlier this morning I noted that the 
majority leader has refused for 7 years to allow a serious debate on 
energy in this Chamber. I said he has tried to stifle the voice of the 
American people again this current week as well, at a time when so many 
middle-class Americans are suffering from high energy costs, lost jobs, 
and stagnant wages in the Obama economy; at a time when global crises 
clarify not just the need but the opportunity for America to establish 
a greater energy presence overseas that would grow more jobs here at 
home; at a time when eastern Kentuckians are suffering a depression, 
made so much worse by this administration's elitist war on coal.
  Well, Republicans are going to keep fighting. Even if Senate 
Democrats would rather pander to the far left and shut down debate, 
Republicans are going to keep fighting for the middle class. That is 
why we had hoped to offer forward-leaning amendments today which aim 
not just to increase energy security but also to improve national 
security and economic security for our middle class.
  One amendment I had hoped to be able to offer would approve 
construction of the Keystone Pipeline, which everyone knows will create 
thousands of jobs right away.
  One amendment would expedite the export of American energy to our 
global allies, which would create more of the jobs we need right here 
in the United States.
  One amendment would have prevented the administration from moving 
forward with its plans to impose a national carbon tax through the back 
door, even though Congress already rejected the idea several years ago 
and even though we know it would devastate an already suffering middle 
class.
  There is another amendment too, one I had planned to offer 
personally, along with the junior Senator from Louisiana and the senior 
Senator from North Dakota. It would halt the administration from moving 
forward with new regulations on coal-fired powerplants until the 
technology required to comply with the regulations is commercially 
viable, which it currently is not.
  The Obama administration's extreme regulations would hammer existing 
coal facilities too, taking the ax to even more American coal jobs in 
the midst of an awful economy. These coal regulations are especially 
unfair to the people of my State. We know they would hit Kentuckians 
who are already suffering--constituents of mine who just want to put 
food on the table and feed their families. Congress needs to do 
something to help. That is why I would have offered that amendment 
today.
  I remind my colleagues that the amendment we had hoped to offer is 
almost identical to legislation offered by the Democratic senior 
Senator from West Virginia that already passed the House of 
Representatives on a bipartisan basis. So there is no excuse not to 
pass it here. We hope the Senator from West Virginia and his Democratic 
colleagues will stand with us to do just that.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I will be very brief.
  My friend talks about the left-leaning Senators. Three of the 
Democratic Senators who sponsored this legislation could be called 
anything but leaning left: Landrieu, Manchin, and Warner. That brings a 
smile to anyone's face.
  It is a fiction that we haven't had votes to debate energy policy. We 
have had trouble having bills because of the obstruction of the 
Republicans. But we voted on the Keystone matter before we did the 
budget debate where we had over 100 votes. That was last year. So we 
debated Keystone last year, we had a vote on it, and we are willing to 
have another vote on it.
  It is my understanding we are now going to enter into debate on 
whatever people want to talk about for the next hour, and I understand 
we are going to have a series of votes at 3:45 p.m.
  I ask unanimous consent that all remaining time postcloture on the 
motion to proceed be yielded back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The question is on agreeing to the motion to proceed.
  The motion was agreed to.

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