Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I incorporate by reference the statement I made earlier today on this bill and reluctantly object.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I will be very brief. My friend talks about the left-leaning Senators. Three of the Democratic Senators who sponsored this legislation could be called anything but leaning left: Landrieu, Manchin, and Warner. That brings a smile to anyone's face. It is a fiction that we haven't had votes to debate energy policy. We have had trouble having bills because of the obstruction of the Republicans. But we voted on the Keystone matter before we did the budget debate where we had over 100 votes. That was last year. So we debated Keystone last year, we had a vote on it, and we are willing to have another vote on it. It is my understanding we are now going to enter into debate on whatever people want to talk about for the next hour, and I understand we are going to have a series of votes at 3:45 p.m. I ask unanimous consent that all remaining time postcloture on the motion to proceed be yielded back.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Would the Chair announce the business of the day.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 366, S. 2260.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time until 3:45 p.m. be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees; that at 3:45 p.m. it be in order for the Republican leader or his designee to offer up to two motions to table either the motion to commit S. 2262 or an amendment pending with respect to that bill; that if more than one motion to table is made, there be 2 minutes equally divided between the votes. Mr. President, before you rule, I am agreeing to this, but I don't want this to set any precedent of any kind, because I personally believe these are out of order. But for purposes of moving through this afternoon, I ask this consent request.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, on the floor is Senator Shaheen from New Hampshire. I have never had a Senator better prepared than she on any issue that we bring up, who is more concerned about her State, and has worked harder on an issue than she has worked on the issue now before this body. It is a shame that it appears my Republican counterpart has peeled off a couple of the cosponsors of this legislation, Republicans who aren't going to vote to finish this bill. What a shame. It happens every time we get to an issue which we are trying to move forward. It is the obstruction we have faced for going on 6 years. It is too bad. But I commend Senator Shaheen for her diligence. And I hope, prior to the final curtain call on Monday, we can work the next few days to try to come up with some way forward.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, on behalf of Senators Shaheen and Portman, I call up substitute amendment No. 3012.

Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a first-degree amendment at the desk I ask to be reported.

Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a second-degree amendment which is at the desk.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a first-degree amendment which is at the desk.

Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays on that.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a second-degree amendment.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a motion to commit S. 2262, with instructions, which is at the desk.

Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays on that motion.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have an amendment to the instructions at the desk.

Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays on that motion.

Mr. REID. I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion at the desk.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum required under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, on Thursday, May 8, 2014, at 11:15 a.m., the Senate proceed to vote on cloture on Calendar No. 655, the Talwani nomination; Calendar No. 656, Peterson; Calendar No. 657, Rosenstengel, then proceed to consideration and vote on confirmation of Calendar No. 526, Hamamoto; further, that if cloture is invoked on Calendar Nos. 655, 656, or 657, all postcloture time be considered expired and at 1:45 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of the nominations in the order listed; further, that following disposition of Calendar No. 657, Rosenstengel, the Senate proceed to vote on Calendar No. 690, Rosenbaum, and proceed to consideration and vote on confirmation of Calendar No. 615, Mitchell, and that if cloture is invoked on Calendar No. 690, all postcloture time be considered expired and on Monday, May 12, 2014, at 5:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of Calendar No. 690, Rosenbaum; further, that upon disposition of Calendar No. 690, the Senate proceed to the consideration and vote on confirmation of Calendar No. 560, Croley; further, that there be 2 minutes for debate prior to each vote, equally divided in the usual form; that any rollcall votes, following the first in the series, be 10 minutes in length; further, that if confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nominations; that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 368, S. 2262, which is the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency legislation.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the time until 11 a.m. will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. At 11 o'clock this morning there will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the energy efficiency bill. The Senate will recess, as we do on virtually every Tuesday, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. for our weekly caucus meetings. I would advise all Senators that at 2:15 p.m. today we will do our congressional photo that we do every 2 years. So I hope everyone will make sure they are here on time so we have everyone in the photo. Additionally, there will be a Members-only briefing, a closed briefing, tonight at 5:30 regarding Ukraine. I hope everyone would come to that. There are some things going on in Ukraine we should all know about. Slippery Progress Mr. President, being from Nevada and having traveled the State, as I have, in rural Nevada, we have rodeos. I have been to a few rural rodeos in my life. They are always a lot of fun, and it is a unique form of entertainment. It is good for everybody, for families. One of the things a number of these rodeos have around the country are greased-pig contests. For all those who do not know what a greased- pig contest is, here is what it is: The organizers get a little pig--a piglet--and they cover this little animal with tons of grease. It is a greasy little pig. Then they turn the kids loose. They invite these children to chase one of these pigs. Pigs are a little slippery to begin with, but if you cover them with grease, they are really slippery. These kids run around the arena trying to grab this pig. They grab it and fall. They have a great time. The children run as fast as they can. Some of them get smart and do not run so fast. They wait until the pig turns around--and they do a lot of times. But they try to scoop up this scurrying pig. It is really quite a spectacle, and it is a lot of fun to watch. There is no pain to the pig. It is kind of a painless ordeal for the pig. But it is a lot of fun, as I said. It is obvious what happens every time they grab the pig. They slip. The pig goes on about its business, running. They fall into the dirt. They come out covered with grease and dirt. But eventually-- eventually--one of these kids will wind up with the pig. Sometimes two kids grab the pig. They understand what happens, and they put the pig in one of their arms, and someone comes and takes the pig. But they have a good time. The vast majority of the kids never touch the pig. They go away emptyhanded, for sure. And that is regardless of how hard they try. The reason I mention this, ofttimes working with my Senate Republican colleagues, it reminds me of chasing one of these little pigs in a greased-pig contest. Regardless of all of our efforts, anytime we get close to making progress, it seems as though we watch it slip out of our hands and the Republicans scamper away. Take, for example, the legislation that is currently before the Senate--the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill. This bill has bipartisan support. We tried to do the bill a year ago. Frankly, at that time the bill was good, but not nearly as good as it is now. It is a very substantive piece of legislation. From the time last year to today, the committee--under the direction, then, of Senator Wyden, who was chair of the committee, working with all the members on that committee--put other things in the bill, and the bill that is now before the Senate is much stronger than it was a year ago. This legislation will make our country more energy independent and protect our environment. It will spur the use of energy efficiency technologies in private homes and commercial buildings, at no cost to taxpayers. It is an energy efficiency bill, and it has bipartisan support. This legislation will make our country more energy independent and protect our environment. It will also save consumers and taxpayers money, and lots of it. It will do it by lowering their energy bills, saving about $16 billion a year--that is what they tell us--and it will create up to 200,000 jobs that cannot be exported. I have commended a number of times--and I will do it again--Senators Shaheen and Portman for their persistence in bringing this bill to the floor. This is a fine piece of legislation. But it seems, for the second time within a year, passage of this bipartisan legislation is in question because Senate Republicans keep changing their requests. This time around the minority party seems intent on a repeat performance of last year. Remember last year. The same thing. We want this; we want this. But the clincher we were told was that--last year--they would not vote on the bill unless we brought a bill sponsored by the Senator from Louisiana--the name was not Landrieu; it would be the junior Senator from Louisiana--saying: I demand a vote, before we do this legislation, on doing away with the health insurance Senate staff have. Can you imagine that. But that was his demand, and it is his demand again. He called to tell me that. In order to allow us to vote on this bill, I was told before the break that the Republicans wanted a vote on Keystone--a sense-of-the- Senate resolution. I thought about it, and I came back to them before the recess and said: OK, we will do that. We come back after the break, and they come to me and say: Well, we have changed our mind. What we want now is a straight up-or-down vote on the legislation. That is not the agreement we had. But, anyway, I said: OK, we will do that. Well, now we are told that there are up to five amendments they want. And yesterday--last evening--I was told there is another one I never heard of. This is something about geothermal, but the extent of it I do not understand. But it is always something else. We have these new provisions that have been added to the bill to make this legislation even stronger than last year. To add further to the absurdity of what we are doing here, again the junior Senator from Louisiana wants a vote on taking away health care for our staffs. I said to him: But why would you do that? He said: Well, the higher paid employees, they can probably afford to get it themselves. I am paraphrasing because I remember the telephone conversation. He said--no, I am sorry; here it is--the lower waged salaried employees in the Senate, they will get subsidies--a lot of them. I said: What about those who do not? He said: They could buy their own insurance. These men and women who work in the Senate work very hard. They should be treated as other employees around the country. Their employer should help them with their insurance. But it appears as if it is a virtual reenactment of last September. It seems as though this is nothing but a game of diversion and obstruction to many Senate Republicans. But it is not a game. Every time a group of Republicans feigns interest in bipartisanship, only to scramble away at the last moment, it is part of a calculated political scheme. We know on the very night of President Obama's first inauguration, a group of Republican political consultants--there is some dispute as to who called the meeting, whether it was Frank Lutz or Karl Rove, but a meeting was held--gathered, the Republicans gathered, to discuss their plans for regaining power after President Obama won the election. They devised a plan to oppose all legislation and all nominees in order to make President Obama and Democrats look ineffective--to make our country, I assume, look more ineffective. But their No. 1 goal was to make sure President Obama was not reelected. They failed with that, but they have not failed at obstructing, filibustering, and stopping the legislative process. Instead of working with us to pass meaningful legislation that helps American families, Republican leadership has shown more interest in agreeing to nothing. So as Senate Republicans continue to play hard to get with Democrats who are working in good faith, the American people's frustration grows. This bill presents a unique opportunity for all my Republican colleagues--a chance to work with us in crafting and passing bipartisan legislation that will help the country. I and my 54 Democratic colleagues have been flexible throughout this process, and we hope to reach an agreement that gives both sides most of what they want. But time is running out on this good piece of legislation--running out again. So I invite all of my Republican colleagues to work with us in good faith. Help us pass a bill which creates jobs, saves money, and puts our country on the track to energy independence. Recognition Of The Minority Leader

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have the floor. Please go ahead. Energy Amendments