[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13542-13543]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I want to make a few comments on the CR. 
Senator McConnell has given a great statement, but about whom? It is a 
straw man argument. We don't oppose the Zika legislation. We don't 
oppose helping flood victims. But we want more. We think it should be 
taken care of, but it hasn't been in this bill, that is for sure.
  On opioids, we think it should be really funded, not this pitter path 
that doesn't do anything. What it does is allow you to spend money that 
is not here. We think we should do the Shaheen legislation and pay for 
it. We do believe we should not leave Flint behind, though.
  The CR proposed by the Republicans is short on a number of issues, 
and I will talk only about two of them this afternoon.
  I was especially disappointed to see the Republicans' proposal 
regarding another disaster--a disaster that has been ongoing for well 
over a year. This CR, this funding measure, does not put a single penny 
toward Flint, MI--not a penny. The people of Flint, MI, have been 
waiting for emergency assistance to clean up poison water for more than 
a year. There are 100,000 people--children--lead-poisoned already.
  Senate Republicans claim they will address the needs of Flint when we 
return after the election. Well, we have heard that before, haven't we? 
That has been the Republicans go-to move in stalling funding for 
Flint--they always claim they will do it at a later time. Flint has 
heard this and heard this and heard this. In the meantime, the people 
of Flint, if they are fortunate, can take a drink of water out of a 
bottle and bathe in bottled water.
  We ran out of time months ago. We ran out of time when the 
Republicans decided to take a 7-week vacation, which is something that 
was remarkable in history, in more than 60 years. With the time we are 
going to have off before December 9 with the funding resolution, it 
will be the longest break the Senate has had going back, we believe, to 
before the Depression--the Great Depression, not the Bush depression.
  The crisis has been going on for a long time. Two and a half years 
ago, Flint learned that its water was not safe. Nine months ago, 
Republican Governor Snyder and President Obama declared the Flint, MI, 
water crisis an emergency. Five months ago, the Senate Environment and 
Public Works Committee passed water infrastructure legislation with a 
bipartisan aid package for Flint. I commend the chairman of that 
committee, Senator Inhofe, over and over for agreeing to do the fair 
thing. That package was voted out of the Senate less than 2 weeks ago 
on a vote of 95 to 3 as part of the so-called WRDA Act, but the House 
Republicans made it clear they have no intention of putting funding for 
Flint in that bill. Still the people of Flint wait for assistance.
  I have heard all the happy talk: Well, the Republicans are going to 
take care of this. Call and tell me you are going to take care of it. 
Give me some assurances that you are going to take care of it because 
100,000 Flint residents continue to struggle with having safe water to 
drink. In fact, 40 percent of the people of Flint live below the 
poverty line.
  Flint, MI, is a community of color--African Americans. The junior 
Senator from Louisiana was especially callous in dismissing the people 
of Flint. It is hard to acknowledge what he said, but I am going to do 
it. He called the residents of Flint ``other people's grief.'' Well, 
using his analogy, the things we have done over the years with all the 
problems that Louisiana has had--hurricanes, floods, wind storms, and 
this latest ravaging rain they got--in Nevada, I guess that is somebody 
else's problem--the people of Louisiana. The many problems we have had 
in Texas over the last decade--they are everybody's problem, but not by 
the definition of the Senator from Louisiana. They are not other 
people's grief.
  I would suggest the relatively new Senator from Louisiana needs to 
figure out what the name of his job is. It is United States Senator--
not State senator from Louisiana, United States Senator. He can look 
out for the people of Louisiana and yet turn a cold shoulder to fellow 
Americans in Michigan. Congress must act to address emergencies 
whenever and wherever they occur, especially to help vulnerable 
Americans, because every one of these emergencies is creating lots of 
vulnerable Americans.
  The people of Flint deserve justice, and 90,000 children who have 
been lead-poisoned deserve justice. But instead of helping the people 
of Flint, they promise to use this government funding measure to feed 
their addiction to undisclosed and unaccountable dark money. What the 
Republican leader stuck in this funding resolution is a provision to 
prevent the Securities and Exchange Commission from telling 
corporations that they must disclose campaign contributions. If ever 
there were legislation contained in a resolution that didn't deserve to 
be there, it would be that. Shadowy interest groups are spending 
hundreds of millions of dollars on trying to elect handpicked political 
candidates.
  What is this dark money? It is all these advertisements with all 
these phony front groups, most of which are funded by the Koch 
brothers. You won't see their name on anything other than something to 
divert your attention--a public service announcement about how good 
Koch Industries is for creating jobs. Well, Koch Industries is great 
for trying to get richer and richer and trying to enrich these two 
wealthy, Republican, rightwing men who are doing everything they can to 
buy America. They are doing pretty well, I have to give them credit for 
that. If they continue the way they are, they are going to be first in 
line. They are going to be the No. 1 oligarch in America, and they can 
match to see if they are entitled to be even a notch higher than the 
No. 1 oligarch in Russia. Russia is an oligarchy, and because of the 
Koch brothers, America is turning into one. And what does the 
Republican leader do? He sticks a provision in this legislation to 
protect them even further.
  Current Federal law requires publicly traded corporations to disclose 
financial details on their annual report to shareholders, such as how 
much they are paying their executive officers and others, but 
shareholders--the true owners of corporations--have no idea how much 
money is being spent on politics, being directed by a few in the 
corporations. The Securities and Exchange Commission does not require 
this to be reported.
  Last August, 44 Democratic Senators sent a letter to the Securities 
and Exchange Commission in support of adding political disclosures in 
their annual

[[Page 13543]]

shareholder reports. The Republican leader wants to stop this. He wants 
to do everything he can to protect the Koch brothers. But the 
Securities and Exchange Commission received 1 million public comments 
in support of disclosure because it protects the interests of 
investors--1 million comments. That is unheard of.
  The Republicans in the Senate are opposed to disclosure. That is why 
the Republican leader has attached this so-called rider to the 
government funding bill to prevent shareholders from knowing how their 
money is spent and being used in the political process. Republicans are 
holding the government hostage because they want to keep the political 
system awash in dark money. They want to give contributions to the 
Chamber of Commerce, the National Rifle Association, and on and on--
millions and millions of dollars.
  The Senate Republicans need to rethink their priorities. Republicans 
need to spend less time worrying about the balance in their campaign 
accounts and more time protecting their fellow Americans, especially 
those in Flint, MI.
  Madam President, I see my friend the senior Senator from Iowa on the 
floor. Before he speaks, will the Chair announce the business of the 
day.

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