Max Baucus

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, the first two votes will be on the Thune amendment and the Grassley amendment. The Thune amendment has its heart in the right place. It is trying to help small businesses and provide jobs. But, frankly, it has two very significant problems. Therefore, I urge it not be adopted. First, it makes permanent many provisions of the tax law that actually should be considered in tax reform. This is not the place to be writing tax reform. Our code is riddled with inconsistencies. Many of the provisions in the code fit together. Some don't. There are loopholes. There is a lot of overhaul needed, if we are going to have significant tax reform. We should address those issues at the right time and the right place but not here. It does not make sense to make certain provisions in the Tax Code permanent. The second flaw is, to pay for his provisions, Senator Thune uses excess stimulus funds, funds out of the Recovery Act. The CBO says the Recovery Act is working well. Last month CBO issued its report on the effects of the Recovery Act in the fourth quarter. In that report, CBO said: CBO estimates that in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009, the [Recovery Act] added between 1 million and 12.1 million to the number of workers employed in the United States, and it increased the number of full-time-equivalent jobs by between 1.4 million and 3 million. They say the Recovery Act created or saved between 1 and 3 million jobs. That is why we need to defeat efforts such as those of the amendment offered by the Senator from South Dakota. The Recovery Act is working. Most economists say it is working. If it is working, we should let it continue working. We should not take away dollars from it. I urge the Thune amendment not be adopted.

Mr. BAUCUS. I don't see Senator Thune. It may be a bit presumptuous, but I ask unanimous consent that the time be yielded back, although it is not my place to make that request.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I understand he is on his way.

Mr. BAUCUS. No, it has not been locked in, but I will do so right now. I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from North Dakota, Senator Dorgan, be recognized to speak immediately after the next series of votes and that the Senator from New Hampshire, Mr. Gregg, be recognized to speak thereafter.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I raise a point of order that the pending Thune amendment violates section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I oppose the Grassley amendment for two reasons. I oppose it reluctantly. Senator Grassley is a very decent man. His heart is almost always in the right place. It is in the right place here, but I oppose this amendment. First, the amendment seeks to extend a stopgap measure for the payments of doctors under Medicare, but we should not prolong stopgap measures. We should pass a short-term stopgap, and then we should make meaningful payment reform for the payment of doctors under Medicare. That is what doctors want. That is what would be very much in the best interests of seniors, and that is the responsible way to govern. Second, the Grassley amendment takes its offsets away from the underlying health care bill; that is, the bill we are trying to pass in this next several weeks. Thus, it would undercut health care reform. We need the savings we included in the health care bill, especially the health reform bill. We should not be robbing the health care bill of its offsets. For those reasons, I oppose the Grassley amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. How much time do I have remaining?

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, this is very simple: $10 billion is $10 billion. This amendment takes $10 billion away from health care reform. We must pass health care reform this year, and we need the dollars we can get. Ten billion dollars is a lot. Right now, as we are trying to put this bill together, we are very close to making sure this budget is deficit neutral. In fact, we would like it to be better than deficit neutral. This $10 billion counts. We should not rob health care reform in order to pay for an extension of the doc fix that is not needed at this time. We will take care of the doc fix after we take care of health care reform.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, for all those reasons, I move to table the amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BAUCUS. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I don't know that we are in that position yet at this point. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and section 4(g)(3) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, I move to waive all applicable sections of those acts and applicable budget resolutions for purposes of the substitute amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, this is a killer motion the Senator from Florida is making. This amendment kills jobs. This amendment tells people who are currently unemployed: You are not going to get an unemployment check. This amendment tells people who are trying to get health insurance under COBRA: Sorry, no more. This amendment tells doctors who are trying to take care of patients, Medicare patients, that they are not going to get paid what they should be paid. Let me give a few numbers. Our legislation will help half a million workers who lose their jobs get help under COBRA. That is the health insurance substitute provision for those who have lost their jobs. But the amendment of the Senator from Florida says to those half a million workers who lose their jobs today that they will not get insurance benefits under COBRA. This amendment also will have the effect, if adopted, of preventing nearly 40 million Medicare beneficiaries and nearly 9 million TRICARE beneficiaries from getting access to their doctors--40 million seniors and about 9 million military personnel under TRICARE. This amendment will also prevent 400,000 Americans from getting unemployment insurance benefits. That is just for starters. This motion, if adopted, is not a poison amendment, it is a killer amendment. It kills the bill we are trying to pass in a short period of time. The bill is basically to extend unemployment benefits, to extend the COBRA benefits, and to make sure that people who should get relief under current law are able to maintain that. This is very similar to the situation we faced because of efforts of the Senator from Kentucky not long ago. We finally resolved that. That was a 30-day extension, and the Senate voted 78 to 19 to continue those benefits under that 30-day provision. The Senator from Kentucky tried to stop it. Finally, the Senator relented and the Senate agreed by a vote of 78 to 19 that we should proceed, and it passed that 30-day continuation. This is an emergency. We are now in an economic emergency. Unemployment is close to 10 percent. This economy is still in a recession. It is slowly getting better, but if this amendment were to pass--if the amendment offered by the Senator from Florida were to become law--then, frankly, think of the signal that would send to Americans who are now relying upon COBRA benefits and unemployment benefits. This point of order is a killer, and that is why we need to waive the budget point of order so we can vote for a bill that would come before us later on this evening. I urge Senators, when the vote comes on this waiver, that we waive the budget point of order, because otherwise the provision of the Senator from Florida will send a terrible signal to millions of Americans.

Mr. BAUCUS. I hope we can vote on this fairly soon. Basically, let's remind ourselves this is an emergency. We have lost over 7 million jobs in this recession. We are not out of the recession. Unemployment is close to 10 percent. We hope it comes down. This is an emergency and in emergency situations you take emergency action and that is why this legislation is necessary now. I hope when the economy does recover we have the fortitude to start to live within our means, as we should. Nobody debates that. But we are in a situation now where we have to make sure we extend those benefits and that Medicaid dollars go to the States right now because we are still in an emergency. I urge, frankly, the motion to waive the point of order. I hope it is successful.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I think we will soon be entering an order to vote on several amendments. I would like to point out the theme of these amendments, most of which are offered by the other side, are to cut back Recovery Act dollars, cut back stimulus dollars, take away stimulus dollars. We know the stimulus program has created millions of jobs. At least that is what CBO says. Certainly, it has created a great number of jobs. When these amendments come up, I would like all Members to know the basic theme of these amendments is to pay for them by cutting stimulus dollars, which I think is a bad idea. We should not be cutting stimulus dollars. We should be maintaining the Recovery Act and stimulus program. We will soon get an order so we can start voting on amendments. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 5:55 p.m. this evening the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the following amendments and the Baucus motion to waive in the order listed, that prior to each vote in the sequence, there be 2 minutes of debate divided and controlled in the usual form, and after each vote in the sequence the remaining votes be 10 minutes' duration. I might say the 2 minutes of debate, equally divided and controlled, be amended to 4 minutes of debate, equally divided and controlled, with respect to the two Bunning amendments. Those two Bunning amendments are Nos. 3360 and 3361.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, just to make it clear what the amendments are, it is Burr amendment No. 3390; Sanders amendment No. 3353, as modified; Bunning amendment No. 3360; Bunning amendment No. 3361, and Baucus motion to waive the Budget Act. I thank the Chair. For the information of all Senators, the first vote will be on the Burr amendment, which is similar to the Sanders amendment. One big difference, that Burr amendment takes stimulus dollars to pay for the Sanders amendment. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, the Senate voted yesterday, 53 to 43, against the Bunning amendment to cut back Recovery Act funds for the 30-day extension bill. Earlier today, the Senate voted 61 to 38 against the Thune amendment to cut back Recovery Act funds to pay for tax cuts, and now we have the pending Burr amendment to cut back Recovery Act funds. In all three cases, we turned away those efforts to cut back Recovery Act/stimulus funds. I think we should do the same here, so people can get their benefits--excuse me, so the Sanders amendment gets passed. Mr. President, I raise a point of order against the emergency provisions in the amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I raise a point of order that the pending Burr amendment violates the pay-as-you-go provisions, of S. Con. Res. 21, 110th Congress, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2009.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, this Bunning amendment is the fourth attempt in 2 days to pay for emergency safety net programs by cutting back stimulus spending, by cutting back from the Recovery Act. This is the same amendment. We have voted on this basic topic four times. Yesterday the Senate voted 53 to 43 against the Bunning amendment to cut back Recovery Act funds for the 30-day extension bill. Earlier today the Senate voted 61 to 38 against the Thune amendment to cut back Recovery Act funds, and just a few minutes ago the Senate voted down the Burr amendment. Now we have the Bunning amendment to cut back Recovery Act funds again to pay for the pending bill. CBO does say the Recovery Act has added jobs. Between 1 million and 2.1 million jobs have been added to our economy because of the Recovery Act. Just to repeat, the CBO says the Recovery Act added between 1 million and 2 million to the number of Americans employed in the fourth quarter of last year. CBO also says the Recovery Act increased the number of full-time equivalent jobs by between 1.4 and 3 million jobs. The Recovery Act is creating jobs, so I think the last thing we should do is scale back something that is working. If it is working, don't change it. If it is working, let's continue with it. I move to table the Bunning amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, this is a killer point of order. This point of order would kill the underlying substitute amendment. It would prevent people from getting COBRA benefits. It would prevent people from getting their unemployment checks. It would cause doctors to have their payments for Medicare patients cut 21 percent. It endangers access for 40 million Medicare beneficiaries. It will kill unemployment insurance benefits for 400,000 Americans. This is a point of order that will, in effect, kill the bill. That is why it is vitally important that Senators vote to waive the point of order so we can pass the bill. Mr. LeMIEUX addressed the Chair.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BAUCUS. I move to reconsider that vote.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. We now return to the urgent legislation to create jobs and extend vital safety net and tax provisions. This urgent legislation would prevent millions of Americans from falling through the safety net. It would extend vital programs that expired Sunday. It would put cash into the hands of Americans who would spend it quickly, boosting economic demand. It would extend critical programs and tax incentives that create jobs. Let me be specific. Just today, we received detailed estimates from the National Economic Council on what would happen if we fail to act. Unless we act, a half million workers who lose their jobs nationwide, including nearly 1,600 in Montana, would be ineligible for help paying for their health insurance under COBRA. Unless we act, the average doctor in America would stand to lose more than $16,600 in payments for Medicare. The average doctor in Montana would lose about $13,000. Unless we act, nearly 40 million Medicare beneficiaries and nearly 9 million TRICARE beneficiaries nationwide would be affected. That includes nearly 144,000 Montanans with Medicare and nearly 33,000 Montanans with TRICARE. Unless we act, 400,000 Americans would be ineligible for expanded unemployment insurance benefits. This is urgent legislation. We must extend this legislation, and soon. We had a productive day on the bill yesterday. Senator Sessions offered his amendment to impose discretionary spending caps. This is essentially the same amendment the Senate rejected on January 28. A point of order lies against the amendment under section 306 of the Congressional Budget Act, which requires 60 votes to waive that point of order. At the appropriate time, I intend to raise that point of order against the Sessions amendment. As well, Senator Thune offered his amendment proposing business tax cuts offset by cutting back stimulus funding in the Recovery Act. This is essentially the same argument the Senator from Kentucky, Mr. Bunning, has been raising on the narrower, short-term unemployment and COBRA extension bill. The Senator from South Dakota and the Senator from Kentucky both seek to cut back the Recovery Act. I believe these efforts are mistaken. Let me tell you why. On issues relating to the budget and the economy, we turn to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for the straight story. They are the neutral referees, and the CBO says the Recovery Act is working. That is why it would be a mistake to cut back on the Recovery Act. Last month CBO issued its report on the effects of the Recovery Act in the fourth quarter. In that report, this is what the CBO said: CBO estimates that in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009, the Recovery Act added between 1 million and 2.1 million to the number of workers employed in the United States, and it increased the number of full-time equivalent jobs by between 1.4 million and 3 million. That is what CBO says. They say the Recovery Act created or saved between 1 and 3 million jobs. That is real job creation. That means the Recovery Act is working. That is why we need to defeat efforts such as that made by the Senator from Kentucky and the Senator from South Dakota to cut back on the Recovery Act. Cutting back on a proven job creator is the last thing we would want to do right now. We are working to line up votes on the pending amendments and an amendment the Senator from Kentucky seeks to offer on the short-term unemployment and COBRA bill. I am hopeful we may be able to reach an agreement on these matters this afternoon. I thank all Senators for their cooperation. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Gillibrand.) The Senator from Illinois is recognized.