Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, will my friend withhold for a question?

Mr. REID. Madam President, I was just speaking with my friend from Arizona, and I direct this question to my friend from Illinois. Nevada is not a heavily populated State as is Illinois, but we have a number of really beautiful systems that are part of our national park treasures. We have one, Lake Mead, which we all know about. We have about 15,000 people visit there every day. That will close at 12:01 tonight. That is about 550,000 or 600,000 people a year. And Red Rock is a beautiful place. Tourists love it, just like we love Lake Mead. We have 1 million people a year come in. This is going to happen all over America. I mentioned just a couple of things in Nevada. I will bet my friend knows of national treasures in Illinois that will close. Is that true?

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 President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask the Chair lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to House Joint Resolution 59.

Mr. REID. I move to table the House amendment to the Senate amendment and ask for the yeas and nays on my motion.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a period of morning business for debate only until 11 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, and that at 11 o'clock I be recognized.

Mr. REID. I note the absence of a quorum.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, there is some dispute here. I thought I said that there would be 10 minutes for debate only and that at 11 o'clock I would be recognized. I want to make sure I said ``for debate only'' because there is some dispute as to whether I said that.

Mr. REID. I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent morning business be closed.

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 Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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, this is a very serious time in the history of the country. It is hard to comprehend, with millions of people being affected tomorrow--in 65 minutes, actually--Republicans are still playing games. As I indicated, speaking through the Chair to the senior Senator from Illinois a couple of hours ago, just take a couple of examples. We have 15,000 people a day who come to Lake Mead, spending huge amounts of money to help the economy. They come there to boat, to fish, to recreate. Tomorrow morning they can't go. We have a beautiful recreational area just a short distance out of Las Vegas. When you fly into Las Vegas, you can see the beautiful red hills. It is called Red Rock. Over 1 million people a year come and visit. Not tomorrow. No. The Republicans are shutting down places like that all over America because they don't agree with government. Tomorrow will be a bad day for government and a day of celebration for the Republican-dominated House led by the tea party over there. We hear the next gambit of the House is to request a conference on the CR. We like to resolve issues. In the Senate Chamber tonight is Patty Murray, chairman of the Budget Committee. She worked so hard to pass a budget in this body. We worked until 5 in the morning to get it passed. We voted on over 100 amendments. We passed a budget. We passed a budget because it was the right thing to do and the Republicans said we should pass a budget--and we did. Senator Murray has for more than 6 months requested a conference on the budget 18 times. So we like to resolve issues. But we will not go to conference with a gun to our head. The first thing the House has to do is pass a clean 6- week CR. They have that before them. They can do it right now. If they do that, then we will agree to work with Republicans on funding for the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. I propose that the House pass our clean CR, and we will sit down and discuss funding for the balance of the year. That is it. This deal they are pulling out--they have a rule over there that says they want to go to conference on the CR. That closes the government. They want to close the government. This is all a subterfuge to satisfy the tea party- driven Republicans. This very strange agenda is so hurtful to the American people. So I want everyone to hear what we just said. We will not go to conference until we get a clean CR. If the government closes, what benefit do we have from that? In 2 weeks the government is not only going to close down--we are going to lose the credit rating because they are talking now about not raising the debt ceiling.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent there be a period of morning business for debate only until 12 midnight, with Senators permitted to speak until for up to 10 minutes each, and that at 12 midnight I be recognized.

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

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID. Madam President, this is so important. People who worked with our military in Iraq as interpreters and doing other things that were essential are now targets in the civil war that is going on in Iraq. Some of them have been wanting to leave for 2 years, and this will allow them to do that. I am so glad we are able to extend this. Every day these people who helped us are subject to arrest, being killed, as are their families. It is so important we did this.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. 1566, the Iraq special immigration visa extension.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, through you to my dear friend from New Jersey, who does such a wonderful job in everything he does, especially running the Foreign Relations Committee, I thank him for yielding to me. This is a very sad day for our country. The President has told the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, to issue a shutdown statement, and she has done that. Here it is: ``MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES.'' This memorandum follows the September 17 memo and provides an update on the potential lapse of appropriations. No more potential. It is after midnight. Appropriations provided under the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act expire at 11:59 pm tonight. Unfortunately, we do not have a clear indication that Congress will act in time for the President to sign the continuing resolution before the end of the day tomorrow, October, 2013. Therefore, agencies should now execute plans for shutdown due to the absence of appropriations. That is what she said. So the agencies of government are in the process of closing down. It now appears that the House is not going to do anything to keep the government from shutting down. They have some jerry-rigged thing about going to conference. It is embarrassing that these people who are elected to represent the country are representing the tea party, the anarchists of the country, and a majority of the Republicans in the House are following every step of the way. This is an unnecessary blow to America, to the economy, the middle class, everyone. The House has within their power the ability to avoid a shutdown. They should simply pass the 6-week CR we sent them. We are going to come in in the morning and see what they have done sometime tonight. But I would hope they would understand that, within their power, at any time, all they have to do is accept what we already passed. All this stuff they keep sending over here--they are so fixated on embarrassing our President, the President of the United States. They think an election is coming this November. It happened last November. He was elected by 5 million votes over what Romney got--5 million votes. It was not close. So it is really too bad. I am going to ask this unanimous consent. We are going to go out tonight and come back at 9:30 in the morning. So the unanimous consent is that we are going to recess until 9:30 tomorrow morning. I want the Senators who are here on the floor to be able to talk for 5 minutes each.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that following the statements of Senators Menendez, Durbin, Murray, and Schumer, the Senate adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. REID. Sure.

Mr. REID. That is right. It keeps the government funded. They have had that for days now. They could do it, with the way they vote, in a matter of 10 minutes.

Mr. REID. Nothing we can do. They are over there now negotiating with themselves, I guess.