[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13623]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Republican leader just said: What are 
the Democrats trying to do, have built-in dysfunction?
  During the 8 years I was majority leader, we had to overcome 644 
filibusters led by the Republicans--644. A comparable time: Lyndon 
Johnson, who was the majority leader for 6 years, had to overcome one 
and, arguably, two filibusters. Two compared to 644, so don't lecture 
us on building dysfunction. They have invented it in the modern Senate.
  This afternoon the Senate will vote on cloture on the CR proposed by 
the Republicans. I appreciate the good work done by appropriators, on 
our side lead by Senator Mikulski. They have done good work, and 
tremendous progress has been made.
  The Republican proposal will likely fail to get cloture this 
afternoon, and for good reason. The Republican legislation misses the 
mark. It seeks to keep in place the status quo with regard to 
undisclosed, unaccountable dark money that is flooding our political 
system.
  On the way to work this morning, I learned that the National Rifle 
Association is placing another $1 million of TV ads in Nevada. We all 
know that the National Rifle Association was really good at direct 
mailing. They raised that money from their members. That is not how it 
works now. Most of the NRA money comes from the Koch brothers. We are 
fortunate there are not two Trumps. That is the dark money we are 
talking about. Those ads will say NRA, but it is not NRA money. The ads 
will say the Chamber of Commerce, but it is not Chamber of Commerce 
money. It is all Koch money. It is how it works with the dark money, 
nondisclosed money. And the provision my friend the Republican leader 
has to have in this resolution is this: The Securities and Exchange 
Commission will be powerless to tell corporations that they have to 
disclose their campaign contributions. They have to disclose everything 
else at their shareholders meeting, but not that; oh, no, that would be 
terrible, any type of disclosure. We want to keep all of this money out 
there dark, secret--no one knows. All of these phony names they 
advertise are just so unfair.
  The Republican bill includes a rider to the government funding bill 
that prevents shareholders from knowing how their money is being used 
in political campaigns. Again, the Republican leader is trying to shut 
the door on disclosure.
  The Republican continuing resolution also ignores the 2\1/2\-year 
crisis in Flint, MI. Lead has poisoned all 100,000 people--almost 
10,000 children, some of whom are babies. Lead is a killer for 
children. After a short period of time--a month, a few weeks--a child 
who ingests lead in any way, whether they are eating paint off the 
floor but certainly drinking water, will be affected the rest of their 
lives. They will not be as smart as they could be; they will not be as 
agile as they could be. It really hurts them. And it is not good for 
adults. So after 2\1/2\ years, don't those people deserve something?
  The Republican leader said there is a water resources development 
bill, and I acknowledge that. I think good work was done to get that 
passed. I said yesterday, and I will say again today, that I appreciate 
the work of Senator Inhofe. He has worked with one of the most liberal 
Members of the Senate, Barbara Boxer, and he is one of the most 
conservative, and they did good work and I appreciate it very much. But 
would it be asking too much for the Speaker of the House and the 
Republican leader of the Senate to stand and say: We are going to get 
that thing done. We are going to pass it; we are going to make sure 
that the bill that passed overwhelmingly here in the Senate is going to 
become law. But they ignored that. They ignored the people of Flint.
  We are happy to help with the disaster that took place in Louisiana. 
Since the Republican leader is here, we have been happy to help with 
all of the problems, the emergencies they have had in Texas. We stepped 
up to the plate, and we took care of that. We were happy to do that in 
Louisiana.
  This will not be the reason I will not support this legislation, but 
I think Louisiana deserved more than what is in this bill. The 
emergency declaration for them is $2.8 billion, and in this bill there 
is $500 million, and they will get most of that. A little bit will go 
to West Virginia, and some--a little bit, even less--will go to 
Maryland. It will be distributed on a proportionate basis. But couldn't 
they help Flint?
  Here was the response of the junior Senator from Louisiana: That is 
someone else's grief. That is what he said: That is someone else's 
grief. Louisiana wasn't someone else's grief when the hurricanes 
struck. It was our grief. The junior Senator from Louisiana should 
understand that he is a U.S. Senator, not a State senator from 
Louisiana. It is not someone else's grief; it is our grief.
  The Republicans are essentially saying that disasters in our States 
are more important than disasters in your State. It is unfair and it is 
wrong.
  This morning my leadership team sent a letter to the Republican 
leader. Durbin, Schumer, and Murray--they sent a letter to the 
Republican leader encouraging the Republicans to come back and give us 
a solution for the people of Flint.
  After the vote on the Republican CR this afternoon, I encourage my 
Republican colleagues to help us have some degree of certainty that the 
people of Flint will be helped. It is not deficit spending even though 
it is an emergency. I believe it should be taken care of just like we 
had taken care of Louisiana. It is paid for. In fact, I commend 
Senators Stabenow and Peters for taking money from a program they have 
in Michigan to pay for this. It is not deficit spending. Why can't we 
do it? The reasons are apparent, and that is too bad.
  This doesn't need to be a manufactured crisis. We know the 
Republicans know how to close the Senate. They did it for 17 days, and 
they have done it another time. We don't need to have this manufactured 
crisis. We want to make sure that Flint has some degree of certainty 
that after 2\1/2\ years they would get some help. We need to work 
together to keep our government properly funded and the people of Flint 
protected. Certainly, we should be able to do that.

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