[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11182]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         REPUBLICAN FILIBUSTERS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, first, I wish to take just a moment to 
praise the good work being done by the chairman and the ranking member 
of the HELP Committee. The senior Senator from Tennessee and the senior 
Senator from Washington have done a remarkably good job to bring this 
reauthorization to the floor.
  Elementary and secondary education is so important, and we are not 
living up to the standards that we should have. It is important to 
remember that all of this could have been done a long time ago.
  On the floor I mentioned yesterday that Senator Harkin--who I said 
was a legendary Senator who served here for six terms, plus a number of 
terms in the House of Representatives--for quite some time was chairman 
of the HELP Committee, and when he wasn't chairman, he served under the 
guidance and leadership of Senator Kennedy.
  Yesterday I said that the Republican leader came to the floor and was 
boasting: Oh, we are getting this bill done. It is so great that things 
are working so well in the Senate.
  I mentioned at that time--yesterday--that Senator Harkin tried to 
bring the bill to the floor. He sent me an email last night, and he 
said that he on two separate occasions--2011 and 2013--got a bill out 
of the committee. But what happened? It was blocked coming to the floor 
by the Republicans--the same group of people who are now boasting that 
things are working so well here.
  Well, Mr. President, I think it is a shame that people come here to 
the floor and boast about the fact they have spent the last few 
Congresses trying to ruin Congress and the country. And they have done 
a pretty good job of it.
  We are happy to be on this bill. And there is no motion to proceed, 
such as I had to do on virtually every bill we brought to the floor. 
But let's understand that historically. My friend the Republican leader 
is living in a dream world. In fact, it is fast becoming a theme of 
this 114th Congress--bringing up legislation that Republicans have 
blocked in the past. Senator Stabenow from Michigan calls it the 
filibuster makeup.
  Look at the accomplishments about which my friend the Republican 
leader brags that he has gotten done this year:
  Terrorism risk insurance. We would have done that at any time during 
the last Congress--at any time--and he knows it.
  The Clay Hunt suicide prevention bill. That was a bill which was so 
easy to get done. It was blocked. The Republicans wouldn't let us move 
forward on it.
  Appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security. We were 
prevented from doing that.
  The human trafficking bill. We spent a lot of time on it in this 
Congress. We would have done that last Congress easily. We were 
prevented from doing so.
  The repeal of Medicare's sustainable growth rate. We call it SGR. We 
would have done that at any time, Mr. President. There are no great 
shakes here. How did we get it done? It wasn't paid for. Why? Because 
it was a budget gimmick in the first place, during the Bush years.
  So to hear my friend the Republican leader coming and boasting about 
all this stuff getting done, we could have done--most of it could have 
been done two Congresses ago. Certainly in the last Congress we should 
have gotten it done.
  The extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act--the 
PATRIOT Act. We knew it had to be done. We tried to get it done last 
Congress but couldn't get it done. We were prevented from doing so.
  Now it is the same with the elementary and secondary education bill. 
I am glad we are on this and glad to complete this other stuff, but 
let's not try to rewrite history, Mr. President. These things could 
have been done easily had they not been filibustered here on the Senate 
floor. Any one of these bills would have easily passed in the last 
Congress, but every one of them was blocked by Republicans.

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