[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11099-11101]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         BIPARTISAN SPORTSMEN'S ACT OF 2014--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 384, 
S. 2363, the Hagan Sportsmen's legislation.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 384, S. 2363, a bill to 
     protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, 
     fishing, and shooting, and for other purposes.


                                Schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the 
Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business 
until noon, with the time equally divided and controlled between the 
two leaders or their designees.


                           Order of Procedure

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the previous order with 
respect to the Krause nomination be modified so that the Senate will 
proceed to executive session at 11:45 a.m. and vote on the motion to 
invoke cloture on the Krause nomination, with all previous provisions 
remaining in effect.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. At 11:45 a.m., the Senate will vote on the nomination of 
Cheryl Ann Krause to be U.S. circuit judge, and that will be a cloture 
vote. She has been nominated by the President for the Third Circuit.
  At 1:45 p.m., we will confirm several additional nominations, but we 
expect to have only one rollcall vote at that time.


                     Measure Placed on the Calendar

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, H.R. 3301, I am told, is due for a second 
reading; is that true?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is correct.
  The clerk will read the bill by title for the second time.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 3301) to require approval for the 
     construction, connection, operation, or maintenance of oil or 
     natural gas pipelines or electric transmission facilities at 
     the national boundary of the United States for the import or 
     export of oil, natural gas, or electricity to or from Canada 
     or Mexico, and for other purposes.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I object to any other proceedings at this 
time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard. The bill will 
be placed on the calendar.


                           Immigration Reform

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the late comedian Leslie Nielsen said: 
``Doing nothing is very hard to do . . . you never know when you're 
finished.'' Perhaps that is the case with the Republican-controlled 
House of Representatives. They just don't know when to finish doing 
nothing on immigration reform.
  Today marks the 365th day that the tea party-driven House of 
Representatives has sat on their hands refusing to fix our broken 
immigration system. The Senate was able to pass immigration reform 52 
weeks ago because both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate 
understood the urgent need to amend our Nation's immigration laws. Yet 
for 12 months--52 weeks--radical Republicans in the House have refused 
to address the real issues affecting the American immigration system. 
Instead of obsessing over the President's deportation policies, they 
should pass this legislation. They have made it clear they will not act 
on immigration reform until they can trust the President--whatever that 
means--to enforce the law.
  The bill that passed the Senate 52 weeks ago has the most stringent 
border security measures in the history of the world. What we have 
agreed to do with the border is unbelievable. So any complaint about 
border security is just not well taken.
  It appears to me the Republicans want more deportations and more 
families torn apart. Do they also want more debt? Immigration reform 
will reduce the debt by $1 trillion. Is the immigration platform by the 
extremists in the Republican Party to deport first and find solutions 
later or never? I guess that is what it is.
  Recently, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa circulated a letter 
demanding that President Obama end a program that prevents young people 
with longstanding ties to America from being deported. He offers no 
plan to solve our Nation's immigration quandary or to keep families 
together--just more deportations.
  There is not anyone who believes this country can fiscally or 
physically deport 11 million people. The bill Congress passed many 
years ago in 1985--I guess is when it was--didn't work. It allowed 
people to come here without proper documentation. We tried a program, 
and it simply hasn't worked--employer sanctions. It doesn't matter how 
we got to where we are; we have to change things. We must have 
comprehensive immigration reform. Again, Congressman Issa offers no 
plan to solve our Nation's immigration quandary or keep families 
together--just more deportations. They are running

[[Page 11100]]

out of excuses. Congressman Issa and Republicans have gone so far as to 
turn a humanitarian crisis at our Nation's southern border into a 
political game.
  The people coming from Central America to America are trying to 
escape a war-torn and poverty-ridden country. Yesterday, the 
Republicans reached a new low by accusing these kids--some of them 3 
years old--of lying about the reason they have come to the United 
States. They are fleeing violence, extreme poverty, and they are coming 
because they are scared. They are afraid. These children are vulnerable 
and need to be reunited with their parents, and that is what we are 
trying to do.
  Our Nation cannot deport our way out of this problem. Immigration 
reform is about families, and we are not the Republican-dominated House 
of Representatives. We, as a nation, value families and see the family 
structure as a cornerstone of our communities.
  Undocumented immigrants, regardless of how they got here and why they 
lack the proper documentation, are our neighbors and our classmates. As 
I have just explained, there are 11 million people, and they play a 
crucial part in our economy and the communities where they live. I 
don't know why the House Republicans don't realize that. If they did, 
they would be working to fix our immigration system.
  Waiting 52 weeks? They have done nothing for 365 days. They claim to 
be working on jobs bills and legislation to reduce the debt. If that is 
the case, why don't they do something about raising the minimum wage? 
Why don't they do something about extended unemployment benefits? Why 
don't they do something about making it so my daughter, my wife, and 
daughters and wives and mothers all over America get paid for doing the 
same work men do? That would be good for the economy. How about student 
debt. Why don't they do something about the debt students have--$1.3 
trillion.
  Yesterday or the day before Senator Durbin spoke about a company that 
went bankrupt. They have one school in Nevada. It is a for-profit 
school that has been ripping off young men and women--some not so 
young--for years. Senator Durbin said more than 90 percent of all the 
income that institution got came from Federal loans, and the default 
rate is extremely high. Why don't we do something about student debt?
  The fact is the Senate-passed immigration bill reduces the deficit 
and spurs the economy more than all the House bills currently awaiting 
Senate action combined.
  I urge my Republican friends and the Republican leadership in the 
House to stop doing nothing and bring immigration reform to a vote.
  As the comedian said: ``Doing nothing is very hard to do . . . you 
never know when you're finished.'' Maybe that is the problem with them. 
Perhaps now is the time for newly appointed House majority leader Kevin 
McCarthy, who comes from Bakersfield, in the State of California, where 
comprehensive immigration reform is certainly necessary, to take a 
position on immigration reform. Will he bring the Senate-passed bill to 
a vote? If not, what does he propose?
  Republicans in the House have a choice of allowing a vote on 
commonsense immigration reform in July or certainly be the ones to 
blame for not doing it. There is certainly a lot of blame to go around, 
and it is all focused in one direction.
  The Republicans in the House have wasted enough time already. Bring 
this legislation before the House for a vote. It would pass 
overwhelmingly. I would bet we could get a majority of the Republican 
votes, and of course it would get 90 percent of the Democratic votes 
over there. It has enough bipartisan support to pass. So let it come up 
for consideration. This is a democracy. Let them have a vote. Americans 
want us to fix this Nation's broken immigration system. So let's do it 
and do it now.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

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


                           Middle-Class Jobs

  Mr. McCONNELL. Yesterday I talked about how supposedly moderate 
Senate Democrats are supposedly incapable of advancing important 
policies they claim to support, policies such as approving the Keystone 
Pipeline. These Senate Democrats just can't stop talking about how much 
they love Keystone. Yet they will not stop enabling their own 
Democratic leadership to block approval of this shovel-ready, job-
creation project. They have been doing so for years now. So it is hard 
to take what they say very seriously.
  That is true when it comes to the Obama administration's war on coal 
jobs too. Some of our friends on the other side want their constituents 
to think they will stand up to this elitist war on middle-class jobs. 
These Senators want everyone to believe they are opposed to this 
administration's waves of job-killing energy regulations.
  The truth is it is just the opposite. These Democratic Senators say 
they are ready to stand and fight, but when push comes to shove we 
can't find them anywhere. Instead, we continually see them supporting 
the majority leader and the Democratic Senate leadership that dutifully 
does the bidding of President Obama and the far left.
  On this issue the Democratic leadership has gotten ever more extreme 
in its defense of the war-on-coal jobs. Multiple times I have tried to 
offer legislation that would ease the pain for Kentucky's coal 
families--hard-working Americans who just want to work and put food on 
the table.
  I pushed for Senate approval of commonsense bills, such as the Saving 
Coal Jobs Act and the Coal Country Protection Act, but the majority 
leader blocks those efforts at every turn, and none of the so-called 
moderate Senate Democrats ever come to the floor to assist me in my 
efforts. Every time they choose to follow a party line instead--the 
party line of the majority leader they support.
  The most troubling is the majority leader whom these Democrats 
support is so determined to stamp out opposition to the President's 
job-killing regulations he has taken to shutting down the legislative 
process altogether. His efforts have even begun to affect our committee 
work.
  Case in point. Just last week Senate Democratic leadership pulled the 
Energy and Water appropriations bill from committee consideration 
because it feared a procoal jobs amendment I wanted to offer that might 
actually pass. We saw yet another example of that this week when Senate 
Democrats pulled the Financial Services appropriations bill from 
committee consideration for the same reason. The Senate Democratic 
leadership apparently doesn't want Members of the Senate, even in 
committee--even in committee--to have any real say in the contours of 
the President's energy regulations--regulations that will affect 
millions of our constituents in profound ways.
  Appropriations bills are exactly what the Senate should be voting on. 
Our constituents sent us here to debate big issues, to amend and 
improve policies that work, and to repeal the ones that don't. That is 
our job description. But the Democratic majority won't allow us to 
fulfill it.
  The extremism here is really worrying. But the majority leader 
couldn't get away with it if the Democrats in his conference who claim 
to be ``moderate'' would actually stand up to him for once. The so-
called moderates could stand up to him when he tries to shut down the 
legislative process, but they don't. The so-called moderates could 
stand up to him when he blocks every reform of the President's job-
killing regulations or when he blocks every effort to approve the 
Keystone Pipeline, but they don't. They won't even stand up to 
President Obama when he jets off to speak to partisan groups and 
friendly audiences that rarely have the best interests of coal country 
at heart.
  I know the President will also be trying out a new PR campaign today 
to see what life is really like for the middle class--for those beyond 
the White House gates. But he won't see the consequences of his EPA 
regulations at a political rally. He won't see what his IRS has done to 
grassroots organizations. He won't hear from the families

[[Page 11101]]

of veterans who died while waiting for a bureaucrat to hand out a 
doctor appointment. And he won't see the damage ObamaCare has caused 
for working families.
  Well, if he is actually serious about this initiative, then he will 
come to Kentucky to see the tragic effects of his policies firsthand. I 
invite him to visit with local coal families in my State and hear the 
other side of the story they won't hear from California billionaires. I 
invite him to meet with the veterans I hear from every day, and I 
invite him to meet with families such as the Whitehead family from 
Allen County, who write to me about the damage his ObamaCare law has 
already done to them. But I doubt he will, and I doubt the so-called 
moderate Senators will push him to do so anyway.
  So perhaps it is time these Senators stop referring to themselves as 
moderate at all. If they are not willing to stand up to the majority 
leader or the President when it counts, then they are just another 
party-line Democrat. It is really too bad, because we Republicans on 
this side of the aisle want to come to bipartisan solutions on the 
issues affecting so many of our constituents. We want to pass 
commonsense energy legislation that can create well-paying jobs, 
increase North American energy independence, and lower utility prices 
for struggling middle class families. We want to give Congress a say on 
extreme policies from the administration that take aim at middle class 
jobs in each of our States. But we can't do any of that without dance 
partners on the Democratic side. And there is hardly a true moderate in 
sight anymore. I can remember when we used to have moderates over on 
the Democratic side, but we can't find them today. It is a shame for 
our country.
  I and my party are going to keep fighting for the middle class either 
way, even if we have to continue carrying on the battle for sensible, 
commonsense solutions all by ourselves.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________