[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 7776]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        HELPING THE MIDDLE CLASS

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I think everyone knows that I disagree 
with the reasoning for the trade bill. Based on my experience of 
looking at trade bills that have passed the Congress in years past, it 
is not going to help the people whom I want to help.
  I am happy that multinational corporations are doing well, but my 
first goal is not them. It is people who work for a living, middle-
class Americans, who work so hard, first of all to find a job, and then 
once they find a job, they do everything they can to hang on to that 
job. The trade bill is another example of how we have ignored in this 
Congress the working men and women of this country.
  I so admire our ranking member of the banking committee, Senator 
Brown of Ohio. He has done a remarkably good job of pointing out what 
is wrong with the trade bill. It passed, and I accept this. The vast 
majority of Democrats opposed it, but there are some who didn't. I 
respect them, and I respect their judgment. I am not here to criticize 
them. I am here to criticize the underlying legislation. This 
Republican-led Senate has done nothing to help the middle class. It 
doesn't matter what you look to--minimum wage, equal pay for men and 
women, the burden of student debt, and, of course, the tremendous lack 
of impetus to do something about our surface transportation system, our 
highways.
  We have 64,000 bridges in America that are structurally deficient. 
Fifty percent of our highway roads are deficient, and we do nothing. 
Likely, what will happen here in the next day or two is that we will 
extend the highway authorization for 60 days. It should be pretty easy 
to do because we have done it 32 other times.
  Since the Republicans came to town and started flexing their muscles, 
we found a situation where they were unwilling to help middle-class 
Americans. Think about that. Our country has 64,000 bridges that are 
structurally deficient. Does this really matter? Well, talk to the 
people of Minnesota. One of their bridges collapsed and 13 people died. 
Of course it matters, and we are ignoring it as a Congress, and that is 
not right.
  Ray LaHood, a Republican, who was Secretary of Transportation for 
President Obama for a long time, said that our transportation system 
should be called the pothole because that is all the highways are 
anymore.
  The trade bill is an example of not helping the middle class, and it 
is an example of how we focus on multinational corporations.
  My friend the Republican leader talked about the FISA bill, the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Republican leader and I are 
friends. We have served together for decades here in this body. But 
with all due respect to him, I think I will take the word and opinion 
of the head of the FBI, the Attorney General of the United States, and 
the man who is in charge of all of our intelligence, James Clapper, who 
has said, without any question, that the bill that passed the House of 
Representatives--by almost 390 votes--is what we should be doing here.
  Among other things, in a letter they wrote to Senators Leahy and Lee, 
they say:

       The Intelligence Community believes that the bill preserves 
     essential operational capabilities of the telephone metadata 
     program and enhances other intelligence capabilities needed 
     to protect our Nation and its partners.

  I repeat, the bill passed by a 4-to-1 margin in the House of 
Representatives. My friend the Republican leader talks continually 
about bipartisanship. We have a piece of legislation out of the House. 
It was one of the rare times where bipartisan efforts were made and 
they worked. They passed this bill, and we should do the same before we 
leave here rather than extend this program.
  Efforts have been made to extend a program that has already been 
declared by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States as 
illegal. How can we extend an illegal act? That is what some of the 
talk is from the other side of the aisle. I think that is unfortunate, 
and I think we should make sure that before we leave here, we do what 
our intelligence community suggested to us, and in very strong words--
that we simply move forward on the legislation that has a name that 
maybe says it all, and that is the USA FREEDOM Act. That is what that 
legislation is, and we should pass that.
  We know there is work to be done on the trade legislation, and I am 
happy to work with Senator Brown, Senator Wyden, and anyone else who 
has a way of moving forward on that.

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