Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Let me make it clear. The Senator from Washington does not believe we should be negotiating in the dark of night. The government should be open, public, and people should be able to see what we are doing. That is why our unanimous request was so important. I am so disappointed the Republicans are saying: Hold the country hostage. That is the place we are left in.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I know many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle are deeply frustrated this evening. Once again, with only a few hours left on the clock, House Republican brinkmanship has us struggling to avoid burdening our families and our economy with more dysfunction and uncertainty. This pattern is simply unacceptable, and some of us, Democrats and Republicans, have been trying for months to break it. When the Senate budget passed, I was hopeful that we could move to a bipartisan budget conference where Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate could all come together, sit down, and try to work out our differences. Democrats tried to begin a budget conference 18 times. Many Senate Republicans agreed with us that we should continue negotiations and begin working toward that deal. Each time tea party Republicans and Republican leadership stood and said no. They made it very clear why: They believed they would have more leverage in a crisis--such as the one we are hours away from--than they had a few months ago when we were asking for orderly negotiations. Instead of working on a bipartisan budget that would strengthen our economy, tea party Republicans began manufacturing this crisis to defund the Affordable Care Act. This is a law, by the way, that is helping millions of Americans and beginning tomorrow, shutdown or no shutdown, is going to begin helping many more. Due to Republican refusal to come to the table, we are now scrambling to avoid a shutdown. I am confident the American people, including many in my home State, are looking at House Republicans and asking the same questions many of us are. They are asking: What are they thinking, and why would they hurt their own constituents simply to make a point? Even if tea party Republicans don't want to admit it, a government shutdown wouldn't just impact people in Washington, DC, it would be felt across the country. In my home State of Washington, the impacts could be severe. First, Washington State is home to tens of thousands of Federal employees who will be furloughed or stop getting paid. It is also home to one of our Nation's largest veterans communities. The VA has confirmed this week that if the shutdown goes long enough, disability and GI benefits will stop for veterans in places such as Tacoma, Everett, and Spokane due to some tea party Republicans in Washington, DC, who can't have their way. That is not all. If the tea party forces this government to shut down, our State's gorgeous national parks, such as Olympic National Park and Mount Rainier, will be closed to the public. Students at the University of Washington and Washington State University may not be able to access student loans to pay their tuition bills. Funds for important public health programs, such as WIC, would be cut for women and children who rely on them. Federal support for dozens of Head Start facilities in Seattle and across our State would be at risk. The good news is that none of this has to happen. We still have time, and the Senate has passed a shutdown-prevention bill that would avoid all of this harm. The Senate's short-term funding bill would keep the government open at current spending levels with no changes in policies while we continue to work on that important long-term budget bill. The Senate bill by no means is a long-term solution. It is not even close. But as we work to bridge the gap between the parties on budget issues, the absolute bare minimum Congress should be able to do, the very least we owe to our constituents is to not actively hurt them and sabotage the economy. Playing partisan games with a temporary stopgap continuing resolution is like trying to take away health care from millions of Americans. Tea party Republicans are doing exactly that. Many of their fellow Republicans believe this is an irresponsible and unworkable attitude. Many Republicans have spoken to discourage their own colleagues from waging this pointless, harmful fight over defunding the Affordable Care Act. They have agreed with Democrats that while we might not see eye to eye on everything, we don't have to abandon our basic responsibilities--like keeping the government open--in order to negotiate. We desperately need this type of commonsense bipartisanship because we have seen repeatedly that families across the political spectrum are sick of governing by crisis and the uncertainty that it creates in their lives. They are sick of gridlock in Washington, DC, that impacts everything from their childcare to their paycheck. Unfortunately, it seems as if the House Republicans haven't had quite enough yet. They seem to think this is some kind of game, that whoever is left holding the hot potato will be held responsible. Let me be very clear. The American people are a lot smarter than that. They know tea party Republicans have been pushing us toward this crisis for months. They are going to know why a shutdown happened should the tea party refuse to pass the Senate's clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. Allowing our government to shut down isn't in anyone's best interest--not Republicans, not Democrats, and above all, not the American people. So I would like to call on Speaker Boehner to take one simple step. I ask simply that he allow a vote on the Senate's clean continuing resolution. I truly believe that given the chance, enough Republicans in the House would join with the Democrats in voting for a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open so we can deal with the bigger issues in front of us. If Speaker Boehner takes that step, we could avoid all the disruption and all of the harm a government shutdown will cause to the families and communities we serve. Then we could move forward and continue our work, which is incredibly important, on a longer term budget deal that ends this crisis and puts our families and our economy first. This is what families across the country expect, and it is what my fellow constituents in the State of Washington expect. That is what I am fighting for, and that is what we should deliver. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I find it extremely ironic that we are here right now hearing that the House of Representatives is going to shut down the government and then send us a bill saying they want to talk in a conference committee. Let's remember why we are here right now with the threat of a shutdown where thousands of families and communities are going to be hurt. We passed a budget in the Senate 6 months ago. The House of Representatives passed a budget in the House 6 months ago. The goal was to go together in conference, work out our disagreements, define the funding levels for the coming fiscal year so we would not be sitting tonight, minutes away from a shutdown. The right thing to have done would have been to go to conference anytime in that last 6 months, as we asked for 18 times, but were told no by the same people who are now sitting on the other side of the aisle and saying: No, they want to shut government down. Why do they want to do that? They want to create a crisis because they think they are going to get something. We know going to a conference means that we have to compromise. That is what a conference is. But we are not going to do it with a gun to our head that says we are shutting government down. We are going to conference over a short little 6-week CR? We have to deal with the longer term budget. We have asked many times to go to conference on that. We stand ready to go to work on making compromises for our long-term fiscal crisis. But tonight the only question that should be before the House of Representatives and the Senate is keeping our government open without a gun to anyone's head. The Speaker should pass a clean CR, send it to the President, and tell Americans that we are not going to disrupt their lives in this country for the next 6 weeks while we work out the bigger agreement. That is what we need to be doing. I urge the Speaker to step away from the precipice and have the government stay open. Don't put everybody's lives and communities in this country at risk and allow us to get to work to solve our next year's fiscal crisis before it is on us again. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Maryland for her tremendous leadership. She is absolutely correct--we are here in a manufactured crisis. This Senate and the House passed a budget last spring. For 6 months we have been trying to get those two budgets together to conference a deal to set our budget priorities for the next several years. We have been precluded from doing that by the same Republicans who now want to kill a continuing resolution that will simply keep our government open for a few short weeks so we can do the work we should have been doing for the last 6 months. The answer to this is easy. Let's pass a clean resolution, keep the government open for a few short weeks, do the responsible thing, say to the Nation and to the world that we will pay our bills and raise the debt ceiling, and then do what we need to do, what every one of us knows we need to do, which is to work out the differences between the House and the Senate budgets. But we are here in a manufactured crisis because the same Republicans who are now leading us to a shutdown are saying they don't want us to talk. I agree with the Senator from Maryland. Keep the clean resolution, send it to the House, keep government open, and do what we should do as leaders and adults and come to a budget agreement. I also wish to speak today on and urge my colleagues to support the majority leader's motion that he will bring to us to waive the budget point of order against the continuing resolution we will vote on in a few hours. My Republican colleagues who announced their intent to raise this point of order are concerned that the funding levels in both the House and Senate continuing resolutions violate the Budget Control Act. But, as we all remember, sequestration was never supposed to be in there. It was supposed to be so unthinkable that it would force a compromise, which is what we are going to have to do anyway. But since those automatic cuts took effect, we have now heard from families and communities across the country that sequestration is costing us jobs, it is slowing our growth, and it is harming our national security. That is exactly why the Senate and House budgets both require changes to the Budget Control Act. It is true that we took very different approaches to altering the automatic cuts. The Senate budget on our side fully replaced the sequestration. We did it with an equal mix of spending cuts and new revenues that we raised by closing loopholes skewed toward the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations. The House budget on the other side replaced sequestration fully also, but they did it by fully funding defense programs and paying for that with very deep cuts to investments in families and jobs, all the while protecting the wealthiest Americans from participating in this at all and helping to pay for it. We do have a lot of work to bridge that divide, but that alone shows how important it is that we pass a clean, temporary continuing resolution to keep the government operating while we have that space to negotiate a longer term budget agreement that works for our families and economy.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask for 1 additional minute.

Mrs. MURRAY. To do that, we have to be able to finish this bill, send it back to the House, and get our country back on the right course again. So voting to sustain this point of order isn't voting against a funding level or a policy vote. Voting to sustain this point of order is voting for a government shutdown because if this bill that is in front of us today dies, it is very likely the government will not be open for business on Tuesday, and then our American families will have to deal with the disruption and all the uncertainty that will cause. There is no reason to let the gridlock and dysfunction in Washington, DC, cause more harm to our families and businesses. A vote for this point of order is a vote to kill this bill and shut down the government, and we do not want that to happen. So I oppose it. I urge my colleagues to join me in waiving the point of order when we have that vote later today. Let's pass a clean continuing resolution, have the House pass a clean continuing resolution, and then do the job we were sent to do. Every one of us knows what needs to be done, which is to bridge the divide between the House and Senate budgets and get our country back on track again. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. I would say to the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, that is absolutely correct.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the families that I talk to in my home State of Washington are not interested in partisan back and forth that we see so much of here in Washington, DC. They are thinking about how they are going to get their bills paid. They are wondering when and if they will be able to save enough to retire. They are hoping that they are going to be able to give their children a better future. They, rightfully, expect us to focus on strengthening the economy and creating jobs which will make it easier for them to reach those important goals. We have had an opportunity, many opportunities over the last few months, to move forward on legislation like the Senate budget and the appropriations bills that were approved in Senator Mikulski's committee, which could remove some of the uncertainty that is putting a drag on our economic recovery. But instead we are here on the floor of the Senate, to debate a temporary--a temporary stopgap measure to fund the government just days away from a possible shutdown. I think all but a few of my colleagues would agree with me that these circumstances are far from ideal. So as we work to pass this bill, this temporary stopgap bill, and continue negotiations on the longer term budget deal, I think it is really important to consider exactly how we got to this point, what this continuing resolution means in the context of ongoing discussions and what needs to happen for us to reach a more comprehensive agreement that works for our families and for our economy. As we all remember, if Democrats and many Republicans as well had their way, we could have begun a bipartisan budget conference between the House and Senate months ago and prevented this chaos. When the Senate passed a budget, I was very hopeful that both sides would come together and work out an agreement that would end this cycle of governing by crisis and allow us to focus on creating jobs and economic growth. Democrats have came to the floor 18 times now--18 times--to try to begin a bipartisan conference with the House on our budget resolution. Many Republicans thought this made sense. They agreed. We should at least sit down and try to get a deal. But as we all know now, an extreme minority of Republicans saw things differently, and they believed they would have more leverage if they created a crisis--like the one we are approaching now--than a few months when there was not a looming deadline. Those Tea Party Republicans, backed by the Republican leadership, stood and said no to the bipartisan budget negotiations 18 times, against the wishes of Members on both sides of the aisle. So, today, when we could have been focusing on the real challenges Americans are facing, we are instead focused on preventing the Tea Party from shutting down the government, all because Tea Party Republicans want another shot at dismantling the Affordable Care Act, which, by the way, was passed by a super majority, upheld by the Supreme Court, and was a major issue the American people weighed in on in the 2012 election. In the House continuing resolution, tea party Republicans are fighting to take away health care coverage for millions of Americans and get rid of crucial services such as prevention and wellness visits for Medicare patients, prescription drug savings for our seniors for which we fought so hard, and coverage for over 92,000 Americans who have preexisting conditions. This is absurd. It is a nonstarter. There is no way Democrats are going to give in to these demands that are so clearly harmful to the American people. The same is true of the fight the tea party Republicans are trying to pick over the debt limit. Some Republicans claim it is typical to threaten a catastrophic and unprecedented default in order to extract political concessions, but the fact is the opposite is true. The vast majority of debt limit increases in the last three decades occurred independent of efforts to reduce the deficit or put in place budget reforms. While Democrats are more than happy to negotiate on the budget--and we have been trying to do that for the last 6 months--we do stand firmly behind President Obama and are not going to negotiate about whether the United States of America pays its bills. We believe families and businesses should not have to deal with any more of that uncertainty. Honestly, I do think a lot of Republicans agree. More than a dozen Republicans have spoken to discourage the tea party from starting a pointless debate over defunding the Affordable Care Act in the bill to prevent a government shutdown. I do know quite a few Republicans agree. Brinksmanship over the debt ceiling is the height of irresponsibility. Given all the infighting we have seen recently, governing by crisis clearly isn't working for Republicans. It is certainly not helping Democrats make the investments we feel very strongly our country needs to succeed in the 21st century, and it has put a completely unnecessary burden on our families and our economy. It seems the only ones benefiting from this perpetual crisis mode are tea party Republicans, and I see no reason to keep doing them any favors. I call on the House Republicans to cut the tea party loose, give up these partisan games, and pass the Senate's bill to prevent the government shutdown. This bill is, by no means, a permanent fix. It is temporary. It continues the cuts from sequestration that are already in place and locked into law until we get a bipartisan deal. It will keep our government operating while those negotiations continue. This is critical, because even though some might not be able to see it in Washington, DC, a government shutdown will have serious consequences for families across this country. My home State of Washington is home to more than 100,000 uniformed civilian and defense employees at places such as Joint Base Lewis- McChord and Fairchild Air Force Base. If this government shuts down, these men and women will still have to go to work the next day, but they will not get paid for it. Thousands of civilian defense employees in places such as Tacoma, Whidbey Island, and Spokane would be forced to do the same and thousands more could face furloughs. These hard-working Americans and families across my State and the country are already dealing with the consequences of gridlock in Washington, DC. They are dealing with the across-the-board cuts from sequestration, which continue to pile up. Hundreds of thousands of our defense employees, who now have to wonder about the effects of a shutdown, have been furloughed already and have taken pay cuts. Crucial supports and opportunities for vulnerable families and communities, from Head Start to Meals On Wheels, have been slashed. Sequestration is crippling our ability to plan for the future and make the kinds of investments in research, education, and infrastructure that will help our workers succeed. I hear about the impact of these arbitrary cuts whenever I am home in Washington State. I know every single one of my colleagues has heard similar stories. The cuts are only going to get worse with time and they simply have to go. When we send this legislation back to the House, Republicans have to put an end to the tea party temper tantrums and pass our bill without any gimmicks and games. After we do that, I hope we can leave the tea party brinksmanship behind so those of us on both sides of the aisle who believe in commonsense bipartisanship can move forward with negotiations on a desperately needed longer term deal. In those negotiations, I am going to continue fighting for an agreement that ends this governing by crisis and supports our families and economies by replacing sequestration with smarter deficit reduction, evenly divided between spending cuts and new revenue from the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations. I am fully aware the Republicans have their priorities as well. I have never said reaching an agreement would be easy, but I know many Democrats and Republicans are sick of brinksmanship and crisis. I know they understand, as do we, that compromise is part of our job description. I truly believe if those Republicans work with Democrats, we can reach that critically needed bipartisan agreement we have been working toward. I have heard some of the tea party Republicans here in Washington, DC, dismiss the damaging and costly disruptions a shutdown could cause. Some even seem to think that a default wouldn't be that bad, despite warnings from countless economists that default would, in fact, be catastrophic. Americans across the country who are still fighting to get back on their feet don't have the luxury of dismissing these risks because they are the ones who are going to be affected. They are rightfully expecting us to work together and reach a fair budget agreement that offers hard-working families more opportunity and more security. I believe putting the gimmicks and games aside and keeping the government open is a necessary step toward that goal. I am going to vote for this temporary continuing resolution and against the tea party's dysfunction and brinkmanship. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same. Part of the reason I am confident we can reach an agreement is because I know what we can do when we do work together. During this past summer, I worked with Senator Collins to write the transportation and housing appropriations bill for the coming fiscal year. It included priorities of Members on both side of the aisle, and it was approved in our committee with the support of six Republicans. That bill received strong bipartisan support because it helps families, helps communities, and it gets workers back on the job. It was fiscally responsible, and it laid down a strong foundation for long-term and broad-based economic growth. Our bill stands in stark contrast to the across-the-board sequestration cuts we have been operating under for the last 6 months. Rather than slashing crucial investments in our infrastructure, our bill supports critical transportation projects across the country. It fully funds the highway and transit grant programs that allow our States and local agencies to keep our transportation system working. Rather than leaving our cities and towns that have been hard hit by the recession to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, our bill strongly supports community development grants which offer the tools to strengthen small businesses and local economies. Instead of asking the most vulnerable to bear the burden of spending cuts, our bill funds a critical piece of the safety net, housing assistance and homeless shelters, for millions of struggling families and seniors who are just one step away from the street. As any business owner will tell you, it makes no sense to slash the investments that allow one to compete and prosper in the long term only to make the numbers work in the short term. The investments that are laid out in our bill are great examples. They make our country stronger by supporting job creation, economic growth, and by keeping our commitment to help those most in need get back on their feet. The need for these investments far exceeds the resources of the bill. The bill Senator Collins and I have written keeps our commitment to our States, communities, and makes sure the agencies in the bill can meet their statutory responsibilities. That will not be the case as sequestration continues for yet another year, which would make these commitments impossible to keep. It is important to note that the housing and transportation bill addresses challenges our country faces today. A full-year bill enables Congress to adjust funding levels to meet current needs and to implement new policies that address the problems that have come to light in recent years. This is something that does not happen when we opt for long-term continuing resolutions. A great example is we know that one of every four of our bridges is considered deficient by the Federal Highway Administration. Our bill includes funding to repair or replace deficient bridges across the country in order to protect the safety and reliability of our transportation system. If we simply extend the funding levels we debated 2 years ago, then those investments and many others that create jobs, protect public safety, and support the most vulnerable will be lost. We will also lose the improvements our bill makes to programs, including reforms that address concerns Members have raised the last time the transportation and housing bill came to the Senate floor. Our bill includes important section 8 reforms that will reduce costs and create efficiencies. It contains reforms to improve oversight of public housing agencies and boards, ensures accountability for property owners who don't maintain the quality of their HUD-assisted housing, and it increases accountability in the CDBG Program. It is very important that we enact those reforms and do the important oversight of Federal programs and agencies that the public expects us to do. For all these reasons, we need to pass this continuing resolution to keep the government running. Then we have to move forward on a longer term budget agreement that replaces sequestration with more responsible deficit reduction, a bill that puts our families and economies first, and allows us to enact real, thoughtful solutions to our country's challenges, instead of these stopgap measures that do not move us forward. Investing in our families, communities, and our long-term economic growth shouldn't be partisan. The bipartisan work that went into the housing and transportation bill and the strong support it received in committee proves they don't have to be. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I will need about 12 minutes.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from California for accommodating all of us. I wish to join my colleagues who have spoken on the floor and express my deepest condolences to the families of those who lost someone in Monday's tragic shooting. I know the thoughts and prayers of the Nation are with those who are still recovering. I know I speak for my constituents in Washington State in thanking the law enforcement community here in Washington, DC. They put their lives on the line every day to protect our families and workers in the Nation's capital. We don't have all the answers to the many questions a tragedy such as this raises, but those questions will continue to be asked, and I am hopeful the answers will help our Nation heal and guide our continued work to prevent these kinds of tragedies in the future. I am here today because, like many of my colleagues, I spent this past August traveling around my home State and meeting with my constituents. I heard from Washington State families about a wide range of issues facing our Nation, but the one sentiment I heard over and over from every part of my State was they were sick and tired of the constant lurching from crisis to crisis. They told me how disappointed and disgusted they were that every time they turned on their televisions over the past few years they would see another story about Congress hurtling toward another official deadline, hurting our economy and causing more uncertainty for our businesses. They told me they want Congress to work together; they want us to focus on the economy; they want us to put our country and the families we represent before partisanship and political gains. I couldn't agree more. Like them, I am frustrated that we seem to be once again headed toward another completely avoidable, completely unnecessary, self-inflicted crisis. It has now been 179 days since this Senate and the House passed our budgets. When the Senate budget passed, I was optimistic that because both Republicans and Democrats said they wanted to return to regular order, we might be able to get back to a responsible process. At that time we had 192 days to reach a bipartisan budget agreement and I thought the next step would be a budget conference where the two sides would get in a room, hash out our differences, and work together toward a deal. But as we all know, some of our Republican colleagues had other ideas. They immediately seemed to regret their push for a Senate budget and started running away from a debate as quickly as they could. I came to the Senate floor with my colleagues a total of 18 times to ask for consent to start a budget conference with the House, but every time we tried a member of the tea party here in the Senate, backed by Republican leaders, stood up and blocked us. Instead of using the months we had to work out a compromise, Republicans seemed to think it was in their best interest somehow to stall as long as possible under some misguided theory that a crisis would give them more leverage. I had hoped my Republican colleagues spent their time back home talking to their constituents and would be ready to come back to DC so we could get to work on a balanced and bipartisan budget deal, but, sadly, the opposite has happened. While I believe the majority of Republicans are interested in working with us as Democrats to get to a fair budget deal, a few of my Republican colleagues spent the summer riling up the tea party and making them promises they could not keep. Since Republican leaders know they need to find a way to avoid another crisis that would be blamed on them, a full-scale civil war has broken out within the Republican Party. They are in disarray. They are having trouble figuring out how to pull themselves out of the hole they have climbed into. And while we wait for Republicans to join us at the table, the tea party is pushing our country closer and closer to a government shutdown and closer to what would be a catastrophic default on our laws. Why are they doing this? It is not because they are concerned about the budget, not because they are interested in jobs or economic growth. To them it seems it is all about ObamaCare. Everything they are doing now they are doing in order to cut off health care coverage for 25 million people, to end access to free preventive health care, to cause seniors to pay more for their prescriptions, to cut off young adults from their coverage, to bring back lifetime coverage caps and let patients with preexisting conditions be denied care, put the insurance companies back in charge of our health care system, and so much more. These political games might play well with the tea party base, but here is the reality: ObamaCare is the law of the land. It passed through this Senate with a supermajority. It passed through the House. The President signed it into law. This Supreme Court upheld it. It is already helping millions of Americans stay healthy and financially secure, and it is on track to help millions more. When I see some of my colleagues working so hard to defund ObamaCare, I have to wonder whether they have taken the time to meet some of their own constituents who are already benefiting from this law. This last month I was home in Washington State, and I met an incredible woman named Nikki Mackey who lives in Seattle. On September 16 of 2010, Nikki was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of breast cancer. She was 36 years old and terrified of what this disease would do to her. To make matters worse, instead of focusing on her treatment, she had to worry about her coverage, and that is because a few months before her diagnosis, in the midst of the recession, Nikki had been laid off from her job. So there she was, with her coverage at risk and years of treatment ahead of her. But thanks to ObamaCare, a law some of my colleagues want to undermine at any cost, Nikki will never have to worry about reaching a lifetime cap. She will never have to worry about not getting coverage due to her now preexisting condition. That is why we have worked so hard to pass this law because it says now in America: You shouldn't go broke because you get sick, and you shouldn't be denied care simply because you cannot afford it. Let's be clear about what is happening here and the political calculation some of my colleagues have made. They have decided they are willing to play politics with Americans' health care, they have decided it is better for them to sabotage this law rather than improve it, and they have decided that beyond all that, they are also willing to devastate our Nation's economy to kill this law. Well, we are not going to let that happen. Nikki told me when she turns on her TV and sees Members of Congress using every trick in the book to kill this law, she feels her ``own well-being is under attack.'' I want to be clear: Democrats are not going to defund or delay health care reform. It is not going to happen. We should all be working together right now to make sure it is implemented in the best possible way for our families, our businesses, and our communities. We are certainly very interested in hearing from anyone, Democrat or Republican, who has good ideas about how the law could be improved. We are not going to allow the health care of Nikki or millions of other Americans to be used as a pawn in a political game. We are not going to let this law get sabotaged as it continues to benefit millions of families and small business owners. The sooner Republicans realize this, the sooner we can get to work diffusing this latest artificial crisis. We know the families we represent don't support the Republicans' sabotage tactics. Recent polls show that fewer than 1 in 4 people supports efforts to make health care reform fail. A majority of people believe we in Congress should be trying to make the law work. It is also clear that Americans would rightly blame Republicans if the law shuts down--especially over an issue such as this--and a lot of Republicans know that. My colleague Senator Johanns said these defunding and delaying efforts have ``zero chance of being successful.'' Senator Burr said ``the dumbest idea I've ever heard of.'' House Republicans know this too. That is why they introduced a bill last week that would allow a government funding bill to pass while giving House Republicans a vote to defund health care that has no chance of becoming law. As we now know, the tea party is not interested in that. They don't want a showboat, they want a shutdown, and they are going to keep fighting until they get it. We now have less than 2 weeks before the end of this fiscal year and a potential government shutdown. It is a shame that we have gotten to this point, but we are here. We owe it to the American people to come together and find a solution and a path forward that is good for our economy and fair for our middle class. My goal has been and will continue to be a long-term budget agreement that replaces sequestration, tackles our debt and deficit responsibly, and invests in our workers and our economy. But since it seems clear that the House won't be able to get its act together in the next few weeks, the least they should be able to do is send us a clean, short- term extension of the current budget levels so the government doesn't shut down while we continue to negotiate on this longer term budget deal. I want to be clear: Democrats are not going to negotiate over whether Congress should allow the Federal Government to pay its bills. As Speaker Boehner said in the past, default would be ``a financial disaster, not just for us, but for the worldwide economy.'' Republicans need to take those words to heart and stop threatening the economic recovery with their saber rattling and brinkmanship. We went through this earlier in the year. Back then--after spending months saying they wouldn't raise the debt limit unless they got dollar-for-dollar spending cuts, Republicans dropped their demands, dropped the so-called Boehner rule, and allowed the debt ceiling to be increased. Going back now to that reckless approach of 2011 and drumming up this uncertainty again is nothing but a huge and harmful waste of time. It is ridiculous that we find ourselves on the brink of an artificial crisis again. We should be doing everything possible to support the economic recovery and help our workers get back on the job. We should be spending time finding common ground to tackle our long-term fiscal challenges responsibly, and we should be working together to build on the Affordable Care Act to continue improving our health care system for all of our families and small business owners. As we know, we are now mired in the muck of perpetual partisanship and constant crises. The American people deserve better. Nikki and the millions of families such as hers deserve better. I am hopeful that the Republican leadership stops focusing so much on their extreme party minority and comes to the table with us to work on a balanced and bipartisan deal the vast majority of Americans want. I hope they don't make us reach a crisis to get to that point. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise to discuss legislation that Senator Cantwell and I are introducing today to strengthen our maritime economy and protect American jobs. Over the past decade, we have seen increasing competition for the market share of U.S.-bound maritime goods from ports beyond our border to the north and to the south. In fact, among the 25 largest North American ports, the fastest growing in 2012 were the Port of Prince Rupert in Canada and the Port of Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico. Instead of U.S.-bound cargo creating economic growth here at home by entering at U.S. ports, we are witnessing it being diverted through Canadian and Mexican ports. This loss of cargo shipments leads to decreased activity and capacity at American ports. In our home State alone, more than 200,000 jobs are tied to the activities at the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma. With nearly 27 percent of international container cargo potentially at risk of moving to Canada from four West Coast ports, this trend could result in significant job losses. One of the main reasons for cargo diversion is the Harbor Maintenance Tax, HMT. The HMT is a levy on imports designed to fund the operation and maintenance of America's large and small ports, which drives job creation and strengthens America's trade economy. Unfortunately, shippers have been able to avoid the Harbor Maintenance Tax by shipping goods through ports in Canada and Mexico and then transporting those goods into the United States via truck and rail. This growing cargo diversion reduces the funds available to keep our ports in operating condition. The loss of revenue from cargo diversion is only part of the problem. Equally concerning is the fact that only half of the tax revenue collected is being spent, even though ports across the country are in desperate need of additional maintenance funding. As of 2011, the balance of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, HMTF, which is funded by the HMT, had a surplus of more than $6.4 billion, and it continues to grow. Furthermore, of the funds allocated through the HMTF, the balance is rarely spent on operations and maintenance at West Coast ports, where a significant amount of the tax revenue is generated. Our two largest ports in Washington--Seattle and Tacoma--generate, on average, close to seven percent of the funding for the HMTF, but each received just over a penny for every dollar collected from shippers who pay the HMT in Seattle and Tacoma. We believe that we must work to address the issue of cargo diversion as well as ensure that the funds collected are allocated fully and more equitably to meet our nationwide harbor and waterway needs. To remain competitive in an international marketplace, we need a long-term plan to grow and support infrastructure development, and reforming the Harbor Maintenance Tax is a commonsense place to start. That is why we are proud to introduce the Maritime Goods Movement Act for the 21st Century. The legislation addresses threats to America's maritime economy by repealing the Harbor Maintenance Tax and replacing it with the Maritime Goods Movement User Fee. The proceeds of which would be fully available to Congress to provide for port operation and maintenance. This would nearly double the amount of funds available for American ports, which will help our economy thrive. The bill ensures that shippers cannot avoid the Maritime Goods Movement User Fee by using ports in Canada and Mexico. The legislation sets aside a portion of the user fee for critical low-use ports that are at a competitive disadvantage for Federal funding compared to large ports. Lastly, the bill creates a competitive grant program using a percentage of the proceeds of the user fee to help make improvements to the intermodal transportation system of the United States so that goods can more efficiently reach their intended destinations. The HMT simply is not being collected or spent in a way that ensures American ports can continue to compete on a level playing field. Our legislation works to address these inequalities and enhance our economic competitiveness abroad while supporting good jobs here in the United States.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise to discuss legislation that Senator Cantwell and I are introducing today to strengthen our maritime economy and protect American jobs. Over the past decade, we have seen increasing competition for the market share of U.S.-bound maritime goods from ports beyond our border to the north and to the south. In fact, among the 25 largest North American ports, the fastest growing in 2012 were the Port of Prince Rupert in Canada and the Port of Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico. Instead of U.S.-bound cargo creating economic growth here at home by entering at U.S. ports, we are witnessing it being diverted through Canadian and Mexican ports. This loss of cargo shipments leads to decreased activity and capacity at American ports. In our home State alone, more than 200,000 jobs are tied to the activities at the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma. With nearly 27 percent of international container cargo potentially at risk of moving to Canada from four West Coast ports, this trend could result in significant job losses. One of the main reasons for cargo diversion is the Harbor Maintenance Tax, HMT. The HMT is a levy on imports designed to fund the operation and maintenance of America's large and small ports, which drives job creation and strengthens America's trade economy. Unfortunately, shippers have been able to avoid the Harbor Maintenance Tax by shipping goods through ports in Canada and Mexico and then transporting those goods into the United States via truck and rail. This growing cargo diversion reduces the funds available to keep our ports in operating condition. The loss of revenue from cargo diversion is only part of the problem. Equally concerning is the fact that only half of the tax revenue collected is being spent, even though ports across the country are in desperate need of additional maintenance funding. As of 2011, the balance of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, HMTF, which is funded by the HMT, had a surplus of more than $6.4 billion, and it continues to grow. Furthermore, of the funds allocated through the HMTF, the balance is rarely spent on operations and maintenance at West Coast ports, where a significant amount of the tax revenue is generated. Our two largest ports in Washington--Seattle and Tacoma--generate, on average, close to seven percent of the funding for the HMTF, but each received just over a penny for every dollar collected from shippers who pay the HMT in Seattle and Tacoma. We believe that we must work to address the issue of cargo diversion as well as ensure that the funds collected are allocated fully and more equitably to meet our nationwide harbor and waterway needs. To remain competitive in an international marketplace, we need a long-term plan to grow and support infrastructure development, and reforming the Harbor Maintenance Tax is a commonsense place to start. That is why we are proud to introduce the Maritime Goods Movement Act for the 21st Century. The legislation addresses threats to America's maritime economy by repealing the Harbor Maintenance Tax and replacing it with the Maritime Goods Movement User Fee. The proceeds of which would be fully available to Congress to provide for port operation and maintenance. This would nearly double the amount of funds available for American ports, which will help our economy thrive. The bill ensures that shippers cannot avoid the Maritime Goods Movement User Fee by using ports in Canada and Mexico. The legislation sets aside a portion of the user fee for critical low-use ports that are at a competitive disadvantage for Federal funding compared to large ports. Lastly, the bill creates a competitive grant program using a percentage of the proceeds of the user fee to help make improvements to the intermodal transportation system of the United States so that goods can more efficiently reach their intended destinations. The HMT simply is not being collected or spent in a way that ensures American ports can continue to compete on a level playing field. Our legislation works to address these inequalities and enhance our economic competitiveness abroad while supporting good jobs here in the United States.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we have spent the last 2 weeks here on the Senate floor talking about our bipartisan transportation and housing bill. This is a bill that is all about creating jobs, investing in our families and in our communities, and laying down a strong foundation for a long-term and broad-based economic growth. This bill is not exactly a bill I would have written on my own. I know it is not exactly a bill Senator Collins would have written on her own. But it is a compromise bill that reflects the deep cuts we made when we set spending levels in the Budget Control Act as well as the best ideas from both sides of the aisle of ways we can improve and reform our transportation and housing investment. The transportation and housing investments in this bill have a direct impact on the families and communities we represent, from improving our roads, to reducing traffic and helping Main Street businesses, to making sure our bridges are safe so we do not see more collapses like the one back home in my State of Washington, to supporting our most vulnerable families, seniors, and veterans with a roof over their heads when they need it the most and making investments in our communities that mayors across our country use to create local jobs in their hometowns and so much more. Senator Collins and I worked very hard together to write a bipartisan bill to invest in programs that should not be partisan. I think we succeeded. Six Republicans voted for this bill in committee; 73 Senators voted to bring this bill to the floor for a debate. That debate was a full and open one, with amendments and votes from Democrats and Republicans. I wish to personally thank Senator Collins for her hard work on this bill, and I also thank all of our staff on the appropriations subcommittee: Alex Keenan, Dabney Hegg, Meaghan McCarthy, Rachel Milberg, and Dan Broder; as well as the staff of Senator Collins, who spent endless hours: Heideh Shahmoradi, Kenneth Altman, Jason Woolwine, and Rajat Mathur--all of whom worked so hard and put in so many hours and late nights on this strong bipartisan bill. After 2 weeks of debate and discussion and a bipartisan bill before us, we are now going to move very shortly to a final vote. I want to be clear. This bill has the support of the majority of the caucus. In the House of Representatives, what did we see happen yesterday? They pulled their transportation and housing bill off the floor. The Republican leadership would not even allow a vote on their bill because they did not have a majority in their caucus. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said that showed that sequestration is unworkable and needs to be replaced. That is the House Republican chairman. But here in the Senate we have a majority, and we should move to pass this bill. The only thing that can block the passage of this bill, the only way a bipartisan bill with the support of the majority could be stopped is if Republican leaders whip their own Members into filibustering a jobs and infrastructure bill that many of those Republicans actually support. That is the only way. The choice before us is clear, and I urge my colleagues to make the right one. This vote is not about whether you support this exact bill or agree with the exact spending level. As Senator Collins has made clear again and again, you can think the spending level is too high and still support this process in which we pass a bill in the Senate and work with the House bill on a compromise. You can certainly disagree with the bill and not think it should be subjected to a filibuster. The bottom line is that a vote to wrap up and vote on this bill is a vote for jobs and the economy and for bipartisan solutions to the problems facing our Nation. A vote to filibuster this bill is a vote for more gridlock, more obstruction, more partisanship, and more political games. I know when I go home to Washington State I want to be able to tell my constituents that Democrats and Republicans worked together to solve some problems, help them, and grow the economy. I know there are many Democrats and Republicans here today who want to be able to say the same to their constituents, and I hope they will stand with me and Senator Collins and vote against a filibuster of our bipartisan bill. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, the Senate is not in order.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I wish to echo what my good friend and partner on this bill Senator Collins just said. Similar to all of us, when I go home to my State of Washington, I do not hear a lot from my constituents about partisan politics. They do not ask me which party is up or which party is down. They do not care about the political games and certainly not who is winning or losing them. The vast majority of people I talk to when I go home ask me what we are doing in Congress to create jobs and get this economy going again. They ask me what we are doing to break through this gridlock and the constant manufactured crises and make sure this country, this economy, is working for them and their families. They tell me they want Democrats and Republicans working together. They want us to get into a room and put politics aside and put our country first and find some common ground and get something done. That kind of work is far too rare these days, though many of us are fighting to change that. I am very proud the Transportation bill we are about to vote on does just that. The bill is not exactly what I would have written had I done it on our own or what Senator Collins would have done on her own.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent for 30 additional seconds.

Mrs. MURRAY. This is a bill that is a compromise that reflect the deep cuts we have set in the spending levels of the Budget Control Act. It reflects the best ideas of both sides. So I urge my colleagues to move past the obstruction, get over the gridlock. Let's show the American people we can work for them.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I am pleased to fund the Surface Transportation Board. I agree with my colleague from California that this agency needs funding in order to comply with its governing statute, which directs the Board to support the growth of rail in the United States. I share your concern that some opponents of a single project in California are trying to limit the ability of the Surface Transportation Board to operate under its statute. The appropriations bill before us provides the Surface Transportation Board with the resources necessary to facilitate California high-speed rail, not stand in its way. This bill in no way limits the ability of the Board to oversee projects under its jurisdiction and facilitate their construction.

Mrs. MURRAY. As my colleagues know, California has a grant agreement with the Department of Transportation, and California has spent funds consistent with that agreement. I was extremely careful to draft the Senate bill to ensure that California will be able to be reimbursed for their expenses.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I would like to speak briefly about how the immigration reform bill affects access to health insurance coverage. In particular, I am pleased that the Senate-passed legislation preserves the ability for States to cover lawfully residing pregnant women and children under Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program CHIP. Importantly, States may extend full benefits under these programs to individuals who gain legal status as a result of the bill, including those granted Registered Provisional Immigrant RPI, Blue Card, and V-visa status. My home State of Washington is one of 27 that have decided to exercise the option to extend these health care benefits to children or pregnant women. We do this because we know that when women have access to prenatal care, children are born healthier. We all benefit when children receive the immunizations they need and are able to see a doctor when they are sick. During the debate on S. 744, two of my colleagues, Chairman Leahy and Senator Rockefeller, came to the floor to discuss this issue. I join them in support of preserving States' rights to extend Medicaid and CHIP benefits to lawfully residing noncitizen children and pregnant women. I thank my colleagues for addressing an issue that is critical to my home State and I echo their comments on the intention of the Senate with regard to this issue. Madam President, I would also like to speak today about the need for comprehensive immigration reform by highlighting the work of one of my constituents. I was touched when I read a poem written by 10-year-old Erin Stark of Bellevue, WA. I met Erin last month at a welcoming ceremony for new immigrants in my home State of Washington. She told me about her passion for writing and explained that she won a national writing contest with the submission of her poem on immigration. I think her words exemplify the diversity and extraordinary contributions made by immigrants to this country. ``What Would You Miss About Immigrants, If They Didn't Come to America?'' Would you miss the food? The pot stickers, sushi, and dumplings, Pizza, spaghetti, curry, or crepes? Just think about it for a minute or two, Could you survive eating fish at every meal? Could you? Immigrants are coming every day, Variety is what they bring with them in every way. Would you miss the holidays? Day of the Dead, and Chinese New Year, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Ramadan too? Why did the Christians travel the distance, Was it to share their beliefs and Christmas? Immigrants are coming every day, Variety is what they bring with them in every way. Would you miss their art, Painting, literature, and music, Plays, sculpture, and design? Life would be dull without art, People might become sad and would get broken hearts. Immigrants are coming every day, Variety is what they bring with them in every way. Would you miss the things they made? Railroads, canals, communities, and skyscrapers, Schoolhouses, highways, churches, and businesses? What would kids do without schools? We might turn into fools! Immigrants are coming every day, Variety is what they bring with them in every way. Immigrants are coming every day. They bring recipes, celebrations, talents, and skills. Variety is what they bring with them in every way. USA would be bland without immigrants, Now our nation is colorful and the joy is infinite. --Erin Stark Mr. President, I would like to extend a special welcome to Erin Stark. I look forward to seeing all that she will accomplish in the years to come.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I would like to pay tribute to a dedicated community leader, compassionate public servant, and advocate from the State of Washington, Kip Tokuda. I am proud to recognize Kip as the kind of civic champion who did so much for all of the communities he touched, especially for children and families in need. Mr. Tokuda was born in Seattle in 1946 and eventually served his home district in the Washington State House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002. Through his work on behalf of his constituents and Washington State, he earned a reputation as a deeply principled legislator and respect from both sides of the aisle. In addition to his service as an elected official, Kip also cofounded the Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation, an organization that empowers young people from Asian Pacific Islander communities to seek leadership positions in government and nonprofit organizations. He helped start the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington and last year was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan for his work to build and maintain strong ties between the United States and Japan. Most recently, he was appointed to the city of Seattle's Community Police Commission, where he worked to create a more diverse police force. But most importantly, he was a dedicated father, husband, friend, and mentor to many. People respected Kip because he respected them, and even though he accomplished so much in his life and earned a position of influence, you could always count on Kip to listen. As a longtime Seattle resident, his kindness and passion inspired all who knew him. Kip passed away on July 13, 2013 from a heart attack at the age of 66. Kip is survived by his wife Barb and their two children, Molly and Pei-Ming. He will be missed by many, but his legacy of service will live on through the organizations he founded and the lives he touched. Mr. President, I would like to ask my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to Kip Tokuda. He lived a full life and our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time of great and sudden loss.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I thank the Senator. Senator Isakson has been absolutely great to work with. We have been spending a lot of time on this. Let me make a few remarks. Over the past several weeks and months, we have spent a lot of time in the Senate debating everything from the Federal budget to separate spending bills, and throughout those debates Members of both parties have agreed it is absolutely critical that we are working to write laws and policies that put hardworking Americans back to work, help our businesses grow and invest, and position our economy to compete and win in the 21st century. We have had some disagreement on how to achieve those goals, but as our Nation now recovers from the recession, our first priority has to be getting Americans back on the job. So I wish to join with Senator Isakson to talk about the tremendous progress we have made in the HELP Committee; that is, the work to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act--and to do just that: put Americans back to work. Before I get to the importance of the bill itself, I do wish to take some time to talk about the bipartisan process we have had at the committee level to move this forward. From the very beginning of this process I have worked very closely with my Republican cosponsor Senator Isakson, whom you just heard from, and though I know we represent very different States with different industries and different issues, we have each remained very committed to writing a bill that works for all American businesses and workers. This process has never been about scoring political points or pitting interests against each other. I think it has been a rare and needed example of true bipartisan legislating, and I thank my friend Senator Isakson, again, for his hard work and commitment throughout this process. I also wish to thank our committee chairman and ranking member-- Senator Harkin and Senator Alexander--who have both worked extensively on this legislation and have now signed on as cosponsors as well. It has been 15 years since we first passed the Workforce Investment Act or WIA. But perhaps more important, it has been a full decade since the legislation was due to be reauthorized. So this law--which was first written in the late 1990s--was designed to be changed and updated back in 2003. Since then, as we all know, our country and our economy have changed a lot. In the late 1990s, the Internet was changing the way we do business and driving our economy, and the housing sector was as strong as ever. But as we all know, unfortunately, both of these industries went bust. But back then, we in Congress were willing to take the long view and make meaningful commitments to and investments in our workforce development systems. So back in 1998, we wrote and passed the Workforce Investment Act to help our workers and educators and businesses respond to an economy that was changing faster than ever before. Lately, we have not done much of that, but I am very optimistic that by improving and reauthorizing WIA, we can get back on track. This is the very law that was written to help us respond to a changing economy and provide the framework for our Nation's workforce development system. But it is still written to address the issues we faced more than 10 years ago. So working with Senators from both sides of the aisle and the business, labor, and education communities, we are bringing to our committee tomorrow a very strong reauthorization bill that brings WIA into the 21st century. This bill puts more than a decade of experience and data to use by doing a few things. It requires a single unified workforce plan in each State and replaces all the overlap and confusion between separate State agencies. It recognizes that we need data and analysis to understand which workforce programs are working well, what makes them work well and how to improve them and, just as important, which programs are underperforming, why, and how to fix them. It makes changes to align our workforce systems with regional economic development and labor markets. This bill is focused on using real-world data to measure the returns we get on our workforce investments, and getting good return on the Federal dollars we invest is exactly what Americans are calling for today. So while we are making important changes to the existing version of WIA, I wish to finish my remarks with an example of the incredible success this law has already had in helping our economy. Last year, the WIA adult and dislocated worker programs produced some remarkable statistics. Over 1 million adults and dislocated workers were placed in jobs. Those workers earned more than $12 billion over just the first 6 months of their employment. In that same period, WIA funds spent on those programs came to about $2 billion. Let me say that again. In just 6 months, an investment of $2 billion yielded a return of more than $12 billion. So the investments we make through WIA programs are having an incredible impact on our economy. The important point is we can do more. That is why a lot of organizations across the country have called for a modernized 21st century version of the Workforce Investment Act-- organizations such as the National Business Roundtable, the National Metropolitan Business Alliance, labor and education leaders, and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce in my home State. All of these organizations are supporting the efforts we have put together. We are here today to announce to our colleagues that tomorrow we are going to begin marking up our reauthorization bill in committee, and I look forward to continuing working with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle. In a time when bipartisan legislation has become difficult to achieve, I hope we can set an example of what we are still capable of doing together to strengthen our country and our economy. I again want to thank Senator Isakson and all those who have worked very hard to put this bill together. I am proud of what we have accomplished and look forward to working with him as we move through this process. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, what is the pending business?

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent the following amendments be made in order and the Senate proceed to their consideration en bloc: Flake amendment No. 1818, Flake amendment No. 1772, McCaskill-Blunt amendment No. 1800, Blumenthal amendment No. 1809, Menendez amendment No. 1812, and Cochran amendment No. 1814.