[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11379]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             FILING CLOTURE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is obvious that the Republican leader has 
certainly changed his view on filing cloture.
  There was a time on several occasions when the Republican leader 
bemoaned what he called ``a quick trigger on the cloture motion.'' That 
is a quote. There was a time--that was in 2012, 2013--when the 
Republican leader called filing cloture ``heavy-handed behavior.''
  Now, keep in mind the backdrop of all of this. For 4 years, the 
Republicans simply wouldn't let us move to anything. We couldn't 
offer--they refused to allow bills to come up. We never even got on the 
bills. We would file a motion to get on a bill; they would object to 
that.
  We have a different world now in the 7 months that we have been under 
the direction of the Republican leader, the senior Senator from 
Kentucky. We have been working in good faith to try to get things to 
move along--specifically this bill, the elementary and secondary 
education bill. There is no sign of a filibuster that I am aware of, at 
least on our side.
  There are still a number of major amendments that need to be 
addressed. Senators Murphy, Booker, Warner, and others have an 
amendment on accountability for the lowest performing schools. They 
have worked hard on this. We have Senator Franken, who is very 
passionate, on an amendment to protect LGBT students from 
discrimination. Senator Markey has an amendment that provides grants to 
allow schools to teach climate science. Senator Casey has an amendment 
to expand and improve early education, particularly for 3- and 4-year-
olds. These are important amendments dealing with education. There are 
others, but these are a few that I mentioned.
  So to have the Republican leader come to the floor and file cloture 
when we have just had a few amendments--he can come out and talk about 
all the votes we have had, but they have been on nothing amendments. 
They could have been accepted really. We didn't even need votes on 
them. We have had virtually no serious amendments, and now, all of a 
sudden, the Republican leader has changed totally, I guess, his 
philosophy on how to legislate by filing cloture very early. I am very 
disappointed in this, but it speaks volumes about how this Senate is 
being run by this Republican majority.
  It is appropriate to file cloture when the shoe is on the other foot, 
I guess, except the difference is that we never had a chance to get on 
the legislation. This is a perfect example of this. We didn't need to 
have a vote on a motion to get on a bill. We just said: OK, go ahead 
and move to it.
  So I am really surprised, quite frankly, but that is what has 
happened. But it is not the first time I have been surprised about how 
things have been going on around here the last 6 or 7 months.
  I have nothing further.

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