Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are now in a period of 2 hours of debate equally divided. I understand Senators on that side will begin. I would like to notify all Senators we are now working through a process to get the next amendment set in order so that Members will know. We do have 2 hours of debate, but Members should know that we may yield back some of that time. So please be ready. I think everybody has a lot of amendments they want to have brought up, and the sooner we can get to that the sooner we will. So, again, we will now move to 2 hours of debate equally divided. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Virginia for helping to craft this budget and for his intense focus on making sure we reach a balanced agreement for our Nation's future. This has been his lifelong passion, and he has done a great job. He is a great working partner, and I appreciate all of his experience. I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Virginia.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that the time be divided equally between both sides.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, how much time do I have?

Mrs. MURRAY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, the only time left in debate right now is Democratic time. But in a spirit of bipartisanship, I yield 5 minutes of our Democratic time to the Senator from Nevada.

Mrs. MURRAY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, we have about 12 minutes remaining. I ask unanimous consent to give 2 minutes of my time to my colleague for his closing remarks, and I will take the last 10 minutes. I want all of my colleagues to know that we will start votes right after we are finished with our closing remarks.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I want to thank all of my colleagues in the Senate--and in particular, my ranking member Jeff Sessions--for their valuable contributions to the debate we have had over the last few days and weeks. While there are clear areas of disagreement about how to restore our Nation's fiscal health, this is an important conversation, and one we can build on. We all like the word ``balanced.'' As chair of the Senate Budget Committee, a critical part of my role is making sure the voices of the American people are heard in the budget process. I believe that budgets are about far more than numbers on a page. They are about the values and priorities of the American people. In their daily lives, families across our country will feel the impact of the plan we lay out in a budget, and they deserve a seat at the table. That is why at one of my first hearings as chairman, we invited inspiring Americans to speak about how the Federal budget impacts their day-to-day lives and the opportunities they have had to reach their own goals. A young woman from New Hampshire named Katyanne Zink attended my hearing. She grew up in a low-income neighborhood in New Hampshire. Her parents didn't go to college themselves, but they desperately wanted the best for their children. Thanks to a great public school teacher who encouraged her to aim high, and with the help of Pell grants and student loans, Katyanne was able to go to college. She is now giving back to her community as an urgent care nurse. Tara Marks of Pittsburgh also spoke at our hearing. Tara never expected to find herself in poverty, but when she was suddenly hit by hard times, she temporarily depended on food stamps to feed herself and her young son. Tara firmly believes that without help when she needed it the most, she would not have been able to get back on her feet. We heard from Patrick Murray, who is an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. Patrick explained that after suffering severe injuries while serving his country, Federal support helped him live independently so he could focus on finishing his degree. The stories that Katyanne, Tara, and Patrick shared are just a few of the millions we must keep at the forefront of this discussion because the interest of hard-working Americans must come first in our decisionmaking. I am proud that the Senate budget my colleagues and I put forward does exactly that. The first priority of our Senate budget is creating jobs and economic growth from the middle out, not from the top down. With an unemployment rate that remains stubbornly high and a middle class that has seen their wages stagnate for far too long, we cannot afford any threats to our fragile recovery. That is exactly why our budget responsibly replaces the harmful and arbitrary cuts from sequestration. It removes the unnecessary burden on our economy that would lower employment by almost 750,000 jobs this year alone. Following the advice of experts across the political spectrum, the Senate budget invests in education and job creation targeted through infrastructure and training initiatives while putting in place a responsible plan for deficit reduction over the long term. To secure strong economic growth in the future, our budget invests in our greatest resource, the American people, by strongly supporting high- quality education from preschool through college and career training. As my colleague Senator Warner said so eloquently here earlier on the floor, we have to stay ahead of our competition. Our budget supports Federal R&D, which will help us make sure that growing industries and the jobs which come with them take root in the United States, not in China or India. This budget also recognizes that getting our debt and deficit under control is crucial to our Nation's economic strength in the coming years. Our Senate budget puts forward serious, responsible deficit reduction that reflects the recommendations of bipartisan experts and the values and priorities of the American people. Back in 2010, the Simpson-Bowles Fiscal Commission recommended finding about $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. This has become, as we all know, the benchmark for other serious bipartisan proposals. Building on the $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction put in place over the last 2 years, our Senate budget pushes us past that $4 trillion benchmark with $1.85 trillion in deficit reduction that is evenly divided between responsible spending cuts and new revenue from the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations. This budget cuts spending responsibly by $975 billion, and we make some pretty tough choices to get there. By taking the balanced approach the American people have consistently called for, our Senate budget matches those responsible spending cuts with $975 billion in new revenue, which is raised by closing loopholes and cutting unfair spending in the Tax Code for those who need it the least. This should not be controversial. There is bipartisan support for reducing the deficit by making the Tax Code more fair and more efficient. If our Senate budget is enacted, the total deficit reduction since the Simpson-Bowles report will consist of 64 percent spending cuts, 14 percent tax rate increases on the rich, and 22 percent new revenue by closing loopholes and cutting wasteful spending in the Tax Code for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations. We will have put our debt and deficit on a downward, sustainable path. This is a responsible approach. It is a balanced and fair approach. It is one that is endorsed by bipartisan groups and experts, and it is one supported by the vast majority of American people. The Senate budget takes the position that the solution to our fiscal challenges will not be found in deep cuts to programs vulnerable families depend on. It maintains crucial services that mothers such as Tara and millions of other families struck by hard times have used as a way to make ends meet while they recover. The Senate budget preserves and protects Medicare for seniors today and into the future. As Senator Stabenow explained on the floor so well yesterday, Medicare is vital to the health and well-being of more than 50 million seniors and Americans with disabilities. Upholding our commitment to seniors and helping struggling Americans get back on their feet is not just good for our economy, it is the right thing to do. I realize there are serious differences between the parties, and in the last few years it has been especially polarized here in Congress. But the House has now passed its budget resolution. We will be working here in the Senate to pass ours sometime late this evening. We have presented very different visions for how our country should work and who it should work for, but I am hopeful that we can bridge this divide. As we look ahead now, I urge my colleagues to think of the millions of Americans such as Katyanne, Tara, and Patrick. I urge them to think of the millions of middle-class families across the country who are looking to all of us to get this right; families who want us to invest in them and their communities; who want us to focus on the economy and on opportunity and the future; who are not looking for a handout, just a hand up when they need it; a government that works for them during the good times and the bad; and who desperately want us to break through this gridlock and end the dysfunction that is hurting our economy and costing them jobs. They are what this debate is about. They are who sent us all here to represent them. The Senate budget works for families. It is a balanced and responsible plan that will tackle our economic and fiscal challenges in a way that puts the middle class and broad-based economic growth first. When this comes up for a final vote tonight, I am going to be proud to vote for it, and I hope all of my colleagues will do the same. When this passes the Senate, by the way, the work is far from complete. I will be working with Chairman Ryan in the House and anyone else who is interested in coming together to make some compromises, and to get to a balanced and bipartisan deal that the American people expect and deserve. It is not going to be easy, but I am hopeful it can be done. I know the families who sent us here expect nothing less. I wish to thank Senator Sessions again for working with me on this. We have different views on many issues, but I am proud of the work we did together to make sure we had a robust and fair debate in the committee and here on the Senate floor. I also wish to thank all of his staff who have worked so hard, all of our staff who are continuing to work--all of them--very hard behind the scenes to pull this together. I wish to thank all of my colleagues again on the Budget Committee for contributing their ideas and their thoughts and their values to this resolution. I believe we have a very strong budget here. I am proud to vote for it, and I am very glad to have worked with so many people to get us to this point and, hopefully, in not too many hours we will pass the budget in the Senate and can go to work for the American people. Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. The Senator from Alabama has asked for 2 minutes and I would be happy to oblige him as we are trying to work out an agreement to get going on votes. I yield him 2 minutes.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I thank all of our Members for their patience. I think we have an agreement put together, and we will be able to get going, so I would ask for everybody's attention. I ask unanimous consent that the next amendments in order to be called up after the disposition of the Republican side-by-side amendments to Shaheen No. 438 be the following: Menendez No. 651, Coburn No. 409, Whitehouse No. 652, Blunt No. 261, Boxer No. 622, Hoeven No. 494, Durbin No. 578, Murray No. 653, and Collins No. 144; and that the only second-degree amendments in order prior to the votes in relation to the amendments listed above be the following amendments to the Durbin amendment No. 578: Enzi No. 656, Ayotte No. 657, and Baucus No. 658, to be offered in that order en bloc; that notwithstanding all time having expired on the resolution, there will be 2 minutes equally divided prior to each vote, with the exception of the vote prior to the Enzi second-degree amendment No. 656 to Durbin No. 578, where there will be 40 minutes--10 minutes each for Senators Durbin, Enzi, Ayotte, and Baucus, or their designees; that the order of votes with respect to the second-degree amendments to Durbin No. 578 be the following: Enzi, Ayotte, and Baucus; that upon disposition of the Collins amendment No. 144, the majority have the next amendment in order; finally, that all after the first vote will be 10 minutes.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, we are now going to be starting a series of votes. I would ask Members to stay in the Chamber. We are going to be very strict on the time in making sure we move through these. Again, I would ask all Senators to please respect those Senators who are speaking so that they can be heard, keep the conversations in the cloakroom, and be ready to vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. I yield 1 minute to the Senator from Colorado.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, our side is amenable. If both Senators agree, we will do this by voice vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, this amendment would allow any employer or insurance company to refuse to cover any health care services for women based on their own religious beliefs and moral convictions that have nothing to do with the health needs of those denied coverage. The compromise put forward by President Obama ensures that religious liberty is respected while ensuring that women can get access to the health care they need. Last year, Judge Carol Jackson, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, ruled in support of this compromise, saying that Federal religious freedom law is ``a shield, not a sword . . . it is not a means to force one's religious practices upon others.'' I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.