[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12280-12281]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT--EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding 
rule XXII, at 2 p.m. today the Senate vote on cloture on Executive 
Calendar No. 849, Carnes; further, that if cloture is invoked, at 5:30 
p.m. on Monday, July 21, 2014, the Senate resume executive session and 
all postcloture time be expired and the Senate proceed to vote on 
confirmation of the nomination; further, that following the 2 p.m. 
cloture vote, the Senate proceed to the consideration and vote on 
Executive Calendar Nos. 709, Shear, and 834, Mader; further, that if 
confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon 
the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further 
motions be in order to the nominations; that any statements related to 
the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President be 
immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume 
legislative session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, with this agreement, we expect one rollcall 
vote beginning at 2 p.m. and two additional voice votes as I have 
mentioned. I apologize to the Republican leader for taking so much 
time.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.


                           Citizen Victories

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday the American people actually 
scored a victory in the ongoing battle against government overreach. 
They literally rose, spoke out, and they forced the Obama 
administration to withdraw the latest gem from the ``department of 
terrible ideas'' over at the Environmental Protection Agency.
  They showed two things in the process; first, the need for constant 
vigilance when it comes to protecting our liberties, especially with 
the current crowd down at the White House; and, second, the impact 
ordinary citizens can actually have.
  The proposal in question was a uniquely awful idea. The goal was for 
the EPA to grant itself the authority to garnish the wages of private 
citizens without even giving them a day in court. Imagine. You received 
a letter from the government accusing you of violating some obscure 
regulation, a regulation most likely you never heard of and did not 
even know you were violating. The government then hits you with massive 
fines, sometimes on the

[[Page 12281]]

order of tens of thousands of dollars a day, as you weigh your legal 
options and whether to fight it in court.
  If you cannot or will not pay these fines in the meantime, too bad. 
Bureaucrats in Washington will take them out of your paycheck anyway--
out of our paycheck anyway--without even the option of contesting the 
government's actions in court for it. This is certainly government 
overreach at its very worst. That is why I joined Senators Thune, 
Vitter, and Barrasso in speaking out against it. That is why we 
developed a resolution of disapproval to block it.
  But the real key to our success was the action of the American people 
themselves. They got our help, but they did not sit back and wait. They 
let their outrage be known. They fought back against this brazen power 
grab. Thanks to all of those efforts, the administration finally 
literally threw in the towel yesterday. Certainly we were glad to see 
it.
  But look, the fact that the Obama administration's EPA even 
introduced this rule in the first place should concern all of us. It 
was truly outrageous, but it is also not surprising because this is the 
same administration that just proposed a so-called waters of the U.S. 
regulation that would expand the government's authority so broadly that 
the Agency could regulate and fine almost every pothole and ditch in 
our backyards.
  This is the same administration that has been waging a costly war on 
coal jobs in my State through similarly onerous and arbitrary 
regulations aimed at pleasing hard-core activists in Washington without 
any regard for real-world consequences.
  It is as though these distant elites in Washington view their mission 
as ideological warfare. They do not seem the least bit concerned about 
the casualties they leave behind in the process. I have tried to get 
some of these bureaucratic foot soldiers down to Kentucky to see the 
impact of their efforts firsthand, but of course they are not 
interested. They are not interested in people such as the 32-year-old 
unemployed miner who walked into a Pikeville pregnancy center to ask 
for baby clothes. An employee at the center wrote to tell me what this 
miner had to say.
  Here is what he said:

       I don't come from a family that has ever had to ask for 
     help. I feel humiliated, but my baby is suffering.

  That pregnancy center employee wrote that the look on his face broke 
her heart. She wrote: ``[But] this is the plight of many of our 
families in Eastern Kentucky, their livelihood is being taken away by 
the War on Coal.''
  These are the people whom distant bureaucrats in Washington should be 
forced to meet before they draft their rules. This guy just wants to 
put food on the table, to keep the lights on, and to give his kids a 
better life. But the war on coal jobs is taking away more than just his 
livelihood and that of so many others. It is taking away his dignity as 
well. Maybe that is why the administration doesn't want to meet 
Kentuckians like him. Maybe that is why they don't want to look my 
constituents in the eye. It is a big problem, and that is why I am so 
proud of the people who stood up to this latest ominous regulation.
  Yesterday the EPA confirmed that it won't hold a single hearing 
within hours of my State as it works to finalize national energy tax 
regulations that could devastate the lives of tens of thousands of 
Kentuckians. They don't care, and they are not listening.
  Well, I care. I see these folks when I go home. I hear their stories. 
My heart breaks for them. I am going to keep fighting. I am going to 
keep fighting against the Obama administration's various power grabs 
and its regulatory overreach. I am going to keep fighting against the 
national energy tax. I am going to keep fighting for practical ideas 
that aim to help struggling families for once--a marked departure from 
the administration's constant attacks against them--ideas such as the 
Coal Country Protection Act and the Saving Coal Jobs Act.
  These proposals are common sense. If the majority leader would stop 
blocking them, we could deliver some relief to middle-class families 
for once. So he should know I am not going to let up and neither are 
the American people who won this important victory yesterday on another 
subject over the EPA's latest power grab because, as we also saw with 
the administration's recent withdrawal of an IRS regulation aimed at 
restricting free speech, the people can still win with enough 
determination. Civic involvement works--and given the pattern of abuse 
we keep seeing with this administration, it is absolutely critical.


                       Reservation of Leader Time

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time 
is reserved.

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