Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Of course.

Mr. REID. If my friend would yield-- Mr. McCAIN. I appreciate the majority leader's responsibilities, and I appreciate his frustration. I hope he will understand ours and we will try to move this as quickly as possible.

Mr. REID. For many years and decades Senator McCain has been a watchdog of what goes on with spending in this country. I expect that from him, so I don't say that in a negative fashion. I don't have a problem with Senator McCain looking over this legislation so he feels comfortable with moving on to it, and then if he has amendments to offer, we can move on amendments. I have no complaint about John McCain.

Mr. REID. Madam President, it used to be, before the last Congress, the Senate had two speeds: one for deliberation and one for getting things done. Senators saved the deliberation speed for truly great issues of the day, and when we needed to get the country's business done, we came together to work things out. It used to be that all appropriations legislation was business the Senate came together to work on and to finish. Sometimes it was 1 day, sometimes it took 4 or 5 days, but we got it done. These days--for the last 3 years--the Senate has one speed: slow-- real slow. And we haven't had appropriations bills for a number of years because we haven't been able to do them because of the speed-- slow. Even when we are talking about preventing a government shutdown, even when there is broad agreement across party lines that we want to prevent a government shutdown, even then we are stuck in slow. Madam President, when we got the bill from the House, I didn't like it especially, but, as I said earlier--and I still feel this way--the Speaker at least got it to us at a decent hour, not at the last minute. These two good Senators, Shelby and Mikulski, worked very hard for days to get this done. Now, frankly, I didn't like some of the things Senator Mikulski agreed to, but I was with her, and we agreed to do the things together because we wanted to get a bill done. We swallowed a lot of pride. She gave up things in her bill she has worked on for decades and gave in to others so that they would feel better about this bill. So then we come here today and are blindsided. This bill has been in the public for days. It passed the House last week, and 85 to 90 percent of the bill that is the so-called amendment was in the House bill. We are going to finish this bill or not finish it before the recess. If we can't get 60 votes, then it will fail and the government will shut down but not for anything we have done--not for anything we have done. We have a few Senators who are doing everything they can--and have been doing it for years--to throw a monkey wrench into everything we do here. We should have been legislating today. I came to the floor last week and said we are going to have a CR, we are going to have amendments. I said that when we opened the Senate yesterday. I have tried my best to move to this bill. The Senate cannot continue like this. I took everyone at good faith at the beginning of this Congress when we made a few changes. I thought those changes would be helpful. To this point, they have done zero because we have had no cooperation from the Republicans. The Senate has changed, Madam President. I am sorry the Presiding Officer, who has a wonderful background, has not seen the Senate and how it really should work. A small group of Senators has kept the Senate in slow, slow gear. They have prevented us from even starting debate on this important bill. We can't even start the debate on it. People want to offer amendments. We had Senator Harkin waiting to offer an amendment, and we had Senator Cruz here waiting to offer amendments. They can't. We are through for the night, so we have wasted basically 2 days when we could have been considering amendments to this bill, and that is a shame. We have a limited number of Senate days. In our lives, we have a limited number of days. The time of the Senate is too precious to spend it this way, so I am filing cloture on this bill. We will have a vote on proceeding to it on Thursday. How about that? Isn't that great? We are going to vote to proceed to it. So we will be on the bill Thursday, and we can start offering amendments on Thursday. Cloture Motion I have a cloture motion at the desk, Madam President.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I hope the record is very clear that I do not criticize Senator Shelby. He has done his best. He was a tremendous advocate for what he thought should be in this bill. But we are going to have Senators stand up and talk about what is wrong with this place when, after all the work that goes into a bipartisan bill, we are stymied from going to that bill and offering amendments.

Mr. REID. With the tremendous work Senator Coburn has to put into this so he can finish it in the next 12 hours, maybe we can move to the bill tomorrow. But I know he has a lot of work to do on the bill, so we will have to see how he feels about it tomorrow.

Mr. REID. Madam President, I want everyone to hear what I am saying now. If somebody comes to me and says: You can get on the bill if you give me these amendments, I won't agree. We will have cloture on it on Thursday. We are through the dealmaking stage. We have been dealmaking on this bill--an important piece of legislation--for more than a week, and if a Senator comes to me and says: You can go to the bill tomorrow, but I want to make sure I have all these amendments, the answer is no.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Would the Chair announce the business for the day?

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Following leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 5 p.m. today. Following that morning business, the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Gary Taranto to be a U.S. circuit judge for the Federal Circuit and the nomination of Andrew Gordon to be a U.S. district judge for the District of Nevada. At 5:30 there will be at least one rollcall vote-- on the Taranto nomination. We hope the Gordon nomination will be confirmed by voice. We hope to begin consideration of the continuing appropriations bill which we received from the House. It is going to be filed immediately. We need to complete action on this bill by the end of the week.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I am told S. 505 is ready for its second reading; is that correct? The President pro tempore. The majority leader is correct. The clerk will report the bill by title.

Mr. REID. I object to any further proceedings with respect to this bill.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, this evening the Senate will vote on two judicial nominations: Richard Gary Taranto, of Maryland, to be U.S. circuit judge for the Federal Circuit and Andrew Patrick Gordon, of Nevada, to be U.S. district judge for the District of Nevada. Andrew Gordon, of Las Vegas, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1987 after receiving his bachelor's degree from Claremont McKenna College in southern California--the so-called Harvard of the West. He is a partner with the law firm of McDonald Carano Wilson, where he began practicing many years ago and is now a partner in that law firm. As a member of that firm, he handles complex commercial disputes. He focused on alternative conflict resolution and regularly serves as an arbitrator and mediator. He also performs a variety of pro bono work, including handling adoption proceedings. For example, he represented an inmate on death row in a habeas corpus proceeding. He has consistently been named as one of the best lawyers in America. I had the good fortune to practice law at the same time his father Hank practiced law in Las Vegas. Hank was a well-known lawyer in Las Vegas. There is no doubt in my mind that Andy Gordon will serve the court well and be one of Nevada's great judges. I am looking forward to his confirmation.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we are going to take up legislation this week to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. I applaud the committee work done by Chairman Mikulski and Ranking Member Shelby. These two individuals are seasoned veterans. They have worked hard to get this legislation done, as only they could do. They are two of our most senior Members and two of the most respected Members. The measure we are going to work on starting today was passed by the House of Representatives last week. It is not perfect, and we hope to improve upon that. There will be amendments offered. I am working on a process to consider those amendments. This week will offer another opportunity for the Senate to return to regular order, an opportunity for this body to legislate through cooperation, through compromise, as we used to do. This legislation will be a test of the Senate's good will. America's economy is poised to grow and expand. The last thing it needs is another manufactured crisis, such as a government shutdown, to derail its progress. For some public servants the political fires are lit by their first trip to Washington or by being moved by a memorable party convention speech. For others the history of military service leads to a career in public service. For still others a single issue, such as a proposed freeway through a vibrant community, propels them into politics. But for Senator Carl Levin, serving Michigan families is something of a family business. Senator Levin's father served as a Michigan corrections commissioner. His uncle Theodore was chief judge for the district court in the Eastern District of Michigan for many years. I was elected to Congress in 1982--the same year Senator Levin's brother Sander was elected to the House of Representatives. He has been ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee. He is a distinguished Member of the House of Representatives, having served that body for going on 31 years. The first time I met Carl Levin was over here. I was in the House, going to run for the Senate. We met in his office. The first thing I said was, I came to Washington a few years ago with your brother, elected in the same class. He said: Yes, he is my brother but also my best friend. How about that? That is something I have never ever forgotten. These two brothers, natives of Detroit, have done much for the State of Michigan. Carl Levin is truly an outstanding Senator and an even better man. He is the longest serving Senator in his State's history. He dedicated his life to Michigan families long before he was elected to the Senate. He served as general counsel to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission and as assistant attorney general for the State of Michigan. He served two terms on the Detroit City Council, one of them as president of the city council. As a Senator Senator Levin has consistently advocated for Michigan families, whether that meant supporting the auto industry, protecting Lake Michigan, holding credit card companies accountable or securing funding for sons and daughters serving in the U.S. military. As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin is the Nation's most respected voice on national security and the most powerful advocate for the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces. As chairman of the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations, he has sought truth on behalf of American families time and time again. He led investigations of the 2008 financial crisis, abusive credit practices and abusive credit card practices, and a long, extensive, extremely enlightening bit of work on the Enron collapse. His dedication to the Senate is matched only by his dedication to his own family. He and his loving wife Barbara have been married for more than 50 years. They have three daughters and six grandchildren. I am confident Carl is looking forward to spending more time with his grandchildren, taking long walks through his and Sandy's tree farm. It is a wonderful place they go. They don't harvest anything; it is just a bunch of trees, and they love that tree farm. I so admire Senator Levin. Clearly, when he retires in 2 years, the Senate will lose its powerful voice for military families and issues that need to be investigated by this body. Michigan is a much better place because of Carl Levin. Our country, the United States, is a much better place because of Carl Levin's service.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will resume executive session to consider the nomination of John Brennan to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I ask unanimous consent that the time until 12:30 and the time from 2:00 until 3:00 be equally divided in the usual form, and that I be recognized at 3 p.m.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2 p.m. today. Both the majority and minority have caucus meetings. Cloture was filed on the nomination this morning. If no agreement is reached, we are going to vote Saturday morning. I hope we can arrive at an earlier vote, but everyone should note we have sent directives to all of the Senators on this side indicating we may need a vote on Saturday. We need to do this because we have to be on the continuing resolution on Monday, and we have to finish that next week because the next week is the budget and we have to do that before the break we take for Easter.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, my Republican colleagues love to extol the virtues of regular order. If only we could get back to regular order, they say, we could function again. Yesterday, we saw both sides of that. On the one hand, my Republican colleagues did practice regular order. On the other, they didn't. Let's take the one they didn't. They demanded a 60-vote threshold for confirmation of a very qualified nominee, Caitlin Halligan, to be United States Court of Appeals Judge for the DC Circuit. Republicans once again hid behind a cloture vote--filibuster, by another term--to prevent a simple up-or- down vote on this important nomination. They took the easy way out. On the other hand, one Republican Senator did return to regular order. As is his right, he spoke for as long as he was able to speak. And that is a filibuster. After 12 hours standing and talking, this is how Senator Paul ended his filibuster: I would go for another 12 hours to try to break Strom Thurmond's record, but I've discovered there are some limits to filibustering and I'm going to have to take care of one of those in a few minutes here. Well, I have been involved in a few filibusters, as Rand Paul was yesterday, and what I have learned from my experiences with talking filibusters is this: To succeed, you need strong convictions but also a strong bladder. It is obvious Senator Paul has both. We should all reflect on what happened yesterday as we proceed with other nominations, including a lot of judicial nominations. This can be a Senate where ideas are debated in full public view and obstruction happens in full public view as well or it can be a Senate where a couple Senators obstruct from behind closed doors without ever coming to the Senate floor.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, forty-eight years ago today, a young man by the name of John Lewis set out on a march across Alabama, from Selma to Montgomery. By his side were a few hundred freedom-loving men and women calling for an end to discrimination violence against African Americans. Today, John Lewis is a distinguished member of the U.S. House of Representatives, but back then when he was a young civil rights leader, he was determined to fight injustice and force the United States to live up to its founding principle that all people are created equal. I had the good fortune to go--not this year but a year or two ago-- down to Selma and participate in this reenactment. John Lewis was there, as I saw on TV a few days ago. It was a cold day when I went there, and you saw them all bundled a few days ago. And on the day of the march, you see the TV pictures of John Lewis with a long coat, and he had a backpack. I asked him what was in the backpack. He said, I thought I would be arrested and I would be put in jail. I had in that backpack an apple and a book I was reading. After being viciously beaten, John Lewis doesn't know what happened to his apple, his book, or his backpack. But what a legend he has become. He wasn't arrested that day. Instead, John and the peaceful protesters by his side were met a few blocks into their march by State troopers with dogs, fire hoses, and clubs, and they used every one of them against these marchers. Many of the marchers, including John Lewis, were viciously beaten. The terrible violence of that day, known as Bloody Sunday, was broadcast across the country. For the first time the bloody reality of the struggle for equal rights was beamed into America's living rooms. Bloody Sunday marked the turning point in the civil rights movement as Americans cried out against the injustice and bloodshed they saw on the television screens. Later that month protesters finally completed that march from Selma to Montgomery, and more than 25,000 patriots converged on the Alabama State Capitol Building. From the steps of the Alabama capitol, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of the power of peaceful resistance. This is what he said: Selma, Alabama, became a shining moment in the conscience of man. If the worst in American life lurked in its dark street, the best of American instincts arose passionately from across the nation to overcome it. Six months later President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and that is where Senator Thurmond, whom I had the good fortune of serving with here, took to the floor and gave that speech for 24 hours. I may disagree with Strom Thurmond, but he had a right to talk. Rand Paul had a right to talk. The Supreme Court last week considered striking sections of the law barring areas with a history of discrimination from changing voting practices without Federal approval. That is what the Voting Rights Act was all about. Critics say those protections are no longer necessary. But anyone who waited hours to cast a ballot in 2012 knows that is not true. A 102-year-old woman waited 8 hours to vote. And anyone who has watched the State legislature pass laws designed to intimidate eligible voters and keep the poor, minorities, and the elderly from the polls knows the fight for freedom is not over. America has made great strides to eradicate racism, thanks to legends such as John Lewis. But, together, we must guard that progress with vigilance, keeping in mind the sacrifices made by so many 48 years ago today.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader remarks the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to be U.S. circuit judge for the DC Circuit. At 10:30 there will be a vote on that nomination. We all know the weather is inclement. It is getting worse, as I saw coming in. I have talked to Senator McConnell today. We are going to vote on the judge at 10:30. We have the Brennan nomination that we are going to finish this week. I have explained to the Republican leader that if they are going to filibuster that--and I understand that is what they are going to do--we could set up a 60-vote threshold filibuster, and then we can go ahead and have a vote on that today, allowing people to make proper travel arrangements. It is strictly up to the minority. We are ready to make that arrangement, if they so agree, because of the weather.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, each day the world watches in horror at what is going on in Syria. Seventy thousand people have been killed as President Bashar al-Assad carries out a campaign of wanton violence against his own people. These atrocities have gone on for far too long--seventy thousand dead Syrians. It is time for this awful dictator-tyrant to step down and allow his people to pursue a peaceful transition to the democracy which they crave. Assad grows increasingly desperate as rebels continue to gain ground despite the full force of Assad's military arsenal of planes, bombs, and rockets. President Assad should understand the world is watching his every action and will not tolerate his unforgivable slaughter of innocent citizens, including the potential future use of chemical weapons. President Obama has made clear--and I support him 100 percent--the use of such chemical weapons would constitute a red line for the United States and for the national community. Rather than continue to kill his own people, Assad should end the bloodshed and relinquish power to Syria's citizens.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, as America closely observes the unfolding of events in Syria and deals with varying threats around the world, it is crucial that President Obama has a seasoned national security team in place. It is often said there is no substitute for experience, so it is natural that a 25-year CIA veteran, John Brennan, was reported out of the Senate Intelligence Committee by a wide margin on a bipartisan vote. Mr. Brennan is a highly qualified nominee and should be confirmed immediately. As Deputy National Security Adviser since 2009, John Brennan has been President Obama's chief homeland security and counterterrorism adviser. He has been at the forefront of every major national security decision made during the Obama administration. He is responsible for the White House response to pandemics, cyber threats, natural disasters, and terrorism attacks. He has played an instrumental role in finding Osama bin Laden, killing bin Laden, and, in effect, decimating al-Qaida. His distinguished intelligence career began more than 30 years ago when he joined the CIA as a career trainee straight out of graduate school. Mr. Brennan worked his way up through the agency to serve in senior management roles in the CIA, including as Deputy Executive Director under George Tenant. Years spent working on covert and analytical missions and as chief of station in Saudi Arabia give him a comprehensive understanding of the CIA's capabilities and inner workings. His knowledge of the Middle East will be essential as we continue to work to defeat al-Qaida and other terrorist threats. Mr. Brennan has distinguished himself outside of government as well. He spent 4 years in the private sector as president and CEO of the Analysis Corporation. His extensive intelligence background and executive experience uniquely qualify him to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. Just as CIA faces the challenges abroad, it also faces significant decisions about its future. John Brennan must guide the CIA through a series of considerations dealing with the Agency's relationship with our military, how the Agency should respond to the conclusions of a recent Senate Intelligence Committee report on interrogation techniques and practices, and, finally, the Agency's response to demands for transparency. These considerations must not be made lightly, and John Brennan will give them the attention they deserve in his role as Director. The Senate must also approach its duty to advise and consent with the solemnity it deserves. Unfortunately, the confirmation process has focused too much this year and the last two Congresses on partisan political considerations and not enough on the quality of the nominees. I am very disappointed that I am forced to file cloture on John Brennan's nomination. What does that accomplish? If someone doesn't like him, come here and give a big speech, wave your arms, scream and shout, and vote against him. But why hold up the entire Senate over a meaningless vote? My Republican colleagues have already obstructed several critical nominations this year. I hope that pattern of obstructionist behavior will not persist. I do hope for the sake of the country the obstruction of the last two Congresses will vanish. I feel very certain that in Mr. Brennan's case concerns for national security will outweigh the desire to grandstand for the weakened tea party.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I enter a motion to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked on the Halligan nomination.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, we are now going to move to the Brennan matter. The Republican leader and I are trying to work something out. I have had numerous contacts from everybody about the problems with the weather. We are going to try to reach an agreement to move forward on Brennan and finish it today. I don't know if we can do that, but this is what we are trying to do. I suggest the absence of a quorum.