[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16836-16837]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            BUDGET AGREEMENT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, last night the House of Representatives 
passed the bipartisan budget agreement that will keep our Government 
open, funded, and free from default. Now, 100 percent of the Democrats 
in the House of Representatives voted for this, and 68 percent of 
Republicans voted against it. Let's pause just a minute and understand 
what I said: 68 percent of the Republicans in the House of 
Representatives voted to default on the full faith and credit of our 
great country. So 68 percent of the Republicans voted to close our 
government.
  This legislation is now before the Senate. I urge all of my 
colleagues to support this responsible agreement. It is not perfect, as 
my friend the Republican leader said. No legislation is. But this 
budget agreement accomplishes two major priorities the Democrats have 
long supported. It promotes economic growth by providing relief from 
sequestration's damaging cuts for 2 years, and it ensures that we 
invest equally in the middle class and the Pentagon. The budget 
agreement is good for the middle class, good for the economy, and good 
for the country.
  I thank the people who worked so hard to make this agreement what it 
is today. The agreement was among President Obama, Speaker Boehner, 
Mitch McConnell, Leader Pelosi, and I helped. I applaud and commend the 
President of the United States. He was firm, he was resolute, and he 
was--as usual--very smart. I appreciate the good work that he did to 
help us get to the point where we are now.
  To reach these negotiations, each of us had discussions with each 
other. We also know that a lot of the work was done by our staffs--our 
respective staffs. My chief of staff, Drew Wilson, represented the 
Senate Democrats in these negotiations. The Senate Democratic caucus is 
aware of Drew's expertise, hard work, fairness, and openness. Drew was 
ably assisted by Gary Myrick--indispensable Gary Myrick, who is the 
Democratic Secretary, as well as a number of people on my team of 
senior policy analysts who helped a great deal. Kate Leone--I don't 
think there is anyone in the Senate who doesn't know who Kate Leone is. 
She is the expert on health care. Bruce King, Ellen Doneski, Ayesha 
Khanna, Trey Reffett, Tyler Moran, George Holman, Gavin Parke, Alex 
McDonough, and utility man Bill Dauster all worked literally night and 
day to get this to the point where we were able to be here on the floor 
today, seeking support for it.
  I am so grateful for the wonderful staff that I have, but there were 
others involved. Senator McConnell's negotiator in this was Hazen 
Marshall. Hazen Marshall is a good person. He was resolute. He carried 
forward what the Republican leader wanted, but, like my staff, you 
never get exactly what you want. Everybody enjoyed working with him.
  Dave Stewart was Speaker Boehner's negotiator on this. I care a great 
deal about Dave Stewart. David is a good man, and we all admire the 
work that he has done. I hope the new Speaker to be, Paul Ryan, will 
use his good offices. He is very good. He is a talented man.
  Dick Meltzer was Leader Pelosi's able negotiator. I have to commend 
Nancy Pelosi. I so admire this good woman. She is a stalwart in the 
House of Representatives. She will go down in history as one of the 
great leaders of that body. I admire her, appreciate her friendship, 
and extend to anyone within the sound of my voice my appreciation for 
the work that she did on this bill.
  As to the White House, I have already indicated the President did a 
wonderful job on this, but he also assigned two really terrific, good, 
outstanding people. I can't say enough about them. Brian Deese was one 
of the White House negotiators, along with Katie Fallon. Katie is a 
woman whom we all know in the Senate. She worked for Senator Schumer 
for a number of years, and she worked for the Democratic Policy 
Committee. She was on the committee for a number of years. We admire 
her very much. She was so helpful with everything we did in this 
legislation. She was always easy to get ahold of. She was easy to 
reach.
  It is now time for this important legislation to pass the U.S. 
Senate.
  I have to say a few words about Speaker Boehner. I have to admit that 
I was skeptical when he said that he wanted to clean out the barn 
before he left, but he found a way to clean out the barn by passing a 
clean debt limit and a 2-year budget agreement, which should go a long 
way to returning the appropriations process to the way it should work.
  I will always consider him my friend, and I will miss him. I wish him 
the very best in everything he does in the future. I listened to his 
final remarks on the House floor, which were very moving. It wasn't 
only John Boehner who shed a tear over there today, but many Members of 
the House of Representatives and a number of us who watched his final 
speech shed a tear or two.
  There has been a lot of talk about the appropriations process. I have 
been an appropriator since I came to the Senate. I was very fortunate 
as a brand new Senator, which was many decades ago, to be on the 
Appropriations Committee. What an honor.
  The Appropriations Committee's work is not as it used to be. We have 
to get back to doing individual appropriations bills.
  I say to my Republican friends: Let's do the appropriations bills. 
Let's get rid of these foolish riders that they stick on appropriations 
bills. We need to understand that there is a time and place for doing 
that. There is authorization. Do the bills, authorize stuff, but don't 
mess up the appropriations process. Next year, we will be happy to 
support individual appropriations bills that come to the floor. We 
don't need motions to proceed. We will be happy to move to the bill as 
long as they get rid of those vexatious riders that have nothing to do 
with the bill brought before us. The Defense appropriations bill 
doesn't need something dealing with women's health in the sense of 
directly attacking Planned Parenthood. We don't need on Commerce, 
State, Justice something that basically does away with the 
Environmental Protection Agency. There are many examples that I could 
use. Let's get to doing appropriations bills the way we used to. I want 
to do them. We don't need to have a motion to proceed as long as my 
Republican colleagues get rid of these

[[Page 16837]]

foolish, ideological amendments that have nothing to do with the bill 
before us.

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