Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I have spoken with the White House, I have spoken with the Republican leader, and we have agreed on a way forward based on the President's speech last night. As the President told the Nation last night, the President has asked Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force in Syria and pursue instead a diplomatic path to see if that works. Tomorrow sometime, in Geneva, Secretary Kerry is meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. So it is right that the Senate turn from the Syria resolution while the Secretary of State pursues these important diplomatic discussions. As I said this morning, Congress will be watching these negotiations very closely. If there is any indication that they are not serious, or that they are being used as a ploy for delay, then the Congress stands ready to return to the Syria resolution to give the President the authority to hold the Asad regime accountable for the pain, suffering, and death it caused with those chemical weapons. In the meantime, the Republican leader and I have agreed the Senate will return to the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill. Senator Shaheen, Senator Portman, and the chairman of the committee, Senator Wyden, have talked to me many times over a period of more than a year to move this legislation forward. So I think it is appropriate that, rather than us sit here and tread water, doing nothing, we should move forward on this legislation. As the agreement will indicate, so as not to interfere with the diplomatic discussions going on, we have agreed that the Senate will consider no amendments on the energy efficiency bill relative to Syria or the use of force. I have talked to a number of the Republican Senators and that is certainly fine with them. We look forward to considering amendments on issues domestic in nature and passing this important piece of legislation.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Amitai Bin-Nun, a fellow in the office of Senator Coons, be granted the privilege of the floor during consideration of S. 1392.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Res. 222.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I commend the managers of the energy efficiency bill, Senator Wyden, chairman of the full committee, Senator Murkowski, the ranking member, and the sponsors of this legislation, Senators Shaheen and Portman, for their work in bringing this bill to the floor and managing it today. We have had a number of Senators who have tried to offer amendments. I was told by Senator Shaheen that she had a dozen or so bipartisan amendments that were waiting to be offered. There has been an attempt to offer amendments dealing with the bill but there is a little hurdle here with something that is totally nongermane that has been offered. One of the amendments Senator Udall of Colorado would like to offer is a bipartisan amendment to promote energy retrofitting of schools. Senator Bennet of Colorado seeks to offer a bipartisan amendment to facilitate best practices in commercial real estate energy efficiency. Senator Klobuchar would like to offer her amendment to promote energy retrofitting of nonprofit buildings. But once again, Mr. President, once again my Republican colleagues can't help themselves. They have objected to the consideration of any of these amendments or any other amendments until the Senate considers an amendment--and not only considers an amendment but is guaranteed a vote on it. Pretty interesting situation. The Senator's amendment is, of course, and everyone knows it, only for looks. It is a ``gotcha'' amendment. The Senator's amendment is the sort of amendment that is to help get some headlines in newspapers or some kind of news story. We recognize it is for show. But be that as it may, we will work with managers to craft a way forward on this bill, perhaps, or we may have to take the bill down. But we will make that decision at a subsequent time. It is unfortunate, but that is the political world we live in now with the tea-party-driven House of Representatives. And by the way--of course everyone knows by now--they couldn't pass their continuing resolution today, so that is off the table. They were going to do that not today but tomorrow, and they pulled that down. Then we have our folks over here trying to just outmatch what they do over there so we wind up getting nothing done. Such a shame.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, September 12, 2013; and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks the Senate be in a period of morning business for 1 hour, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of S. 1392, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 166, S.J. Res. 21.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my and Senator McConnell's remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 11 a.m. this morning. At 11 a.m. we will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to the Syria resolution. The time until noon will be divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. The Senate will recess from noon until 2:15 p.m. to allow for our caucus meetings. The leader and I have talked this morning--and prior to this morning--with regard to the energy efficiency bill. We automatically go to that bill at 11 a.m. We are trying to work out a way we can go to that bill. Senators Shaheen and Portman have worked for more than a year to come up with a bill. We have not done an energy bill in a long time, so there is a desire on both sides to move forward on this. Senator Shaheen and Senator Portman have bipartisan amendments they want to offer to their bill, and I have expressed to the Republican leader that we need to move to that when we finish the Syria issue. I would like permission to move to that bill at the appropriate time. Once we get on the bill and we get the CR from the House, for example, I told the Republican leader--and everyone who wants to hear--that we don't have to finish the energy efficiency bill all at one time. We want to have an amendment process, and we will do that. I don't want to file cloture on the motion to proceed again, so we have instructed our staffs to try to come up with something before 11 a.m. that we can agree on. I repeat. There will be amendments offered, and we will have adequate time to work on this. We may not be able to do it all at one time, but we will do it and finish this legislation. Syria Mr. President, we are engaged in a very important debate. The Syria debate is one that cannot be taken lightly, and I don't believe anyone has taken it lightly. The discussion and bipartisan resolution under consideration is simply too important to be rushed through the Senate or given short shrift. So it is right and proper that the President be given an opportunity to meet with Senators from both parties, as he will today. He will meet with us at 12:30 p.m. When he finishes with us, it is my understanding he will report to Senator McConnell's conference. In addition to that, he is going to address the Nation tonight. He is going to speak directly to the American people about the potential for limited military action to Syria. He will do that at 9 p.m. tonight. As I said last night, it is appropriate to allow other conversations to go on. We now have--as a result of some work done by other countries--France, Russia, and we understand Syria is involved in this as well. This is aimed at avoiding military action. We will have to see if this works out. It is very important to understand that the only reason Russia is seeking an alternative to military action is that President Obama has made it plain and clear that the United States will act, if we must. Our credible threat of force has made these diplomatic discussions with Syria possible, and the United States should not withdraw from the direction we are taking as a country. If there is a realistic chance--and I certainly hope there is--to secure Syria's chemical weapons without further atrocities of the Asad regime, we should not turn our backs on that chance. But for such a solution to be plausible, the Asad regime must act quickly and prove that their offer is real and not merely a ploy to delay military action or action by the body of the Senate. Any agreement must also assure that chemical weapons in the hands of Syria can be secured and done in an open process, even in the midst of this ongoing war we have in Syria. Any agreement must ensure that Syria is unable to transfer its dangerous chemical weapons to the hands of terrorists in that area. Such an attempt would be met with a rapid and robust response from the United States. I am pleased the administration is considering this offer. I am pleased other countries are involved in addition to Russia. It is my understanding that France is heavily involved, as of a few hours ago, and I think that is the right direction at this time. We will move forward but under the general criteria I have suggested and outlined. The Senate should give these international discussions time to play out but not unlimited time. That is why, although there is support to move forward and debate this bipartisan resolution reported by Senators Menendez and Corker--they did a terrific job for the committee last week--I didn't rush to file cloture, as I indicated last night, on the motion to proceed. We don't need to prove how quickly we can do this but how well we can do this. The Syrian regime should fully understand that the United States is watching very closely. The Asad regime should be warned our country will not tolerate this breach of human decency and long-held international consensus against the use of chemical weapons. Unanimous Consent Agreement--S. 1392

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order with respect to S. 1392, which is the energy efficiency legislation, be modified so that the motion to proceed be agreed to at a time to be determined by me with the concurrence of the Republican leader--not consultation with him but concurrence with him.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 191, the nomination be confirmed, the motion 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 nomination; that any related statements 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. I ask unanimous consent that the time during the quorum calls, which I will suggest in just a few seconds, be equally divided between the majority and the minority.

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

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, let me announce now, we had an all- Senators briefing scheduled for 2:30 tomorrow. We are not going to do that. I have just spoken to the President's Chief of Staff. There are too many things moving. There are a lot of moving targets here. I think it will be better for the Senate if we do not have that briefing tomorrow. There are a lot of things going on. We have had many briefings. We have had committee hearings. But tomorrow I think to have this with what is going on--it is my understanding the Secretary of State is going to be in Geneva to meet with his Russian counterpart. So there are a lot of things going on. I think the briefing tomorrow would be very premature with all of the, as I said before, moving targets. So everyone should know that the 2:30 all-Senators briefing will not occur. So everyone knows the schedule a little bit tomorrow.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 221.

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following the prayer and pledge, there be a moment of silence to pay tribute to the thousands of Americans whose lives were taken on September 11, 2001. Of course, there were other casualties. Some people are still suffering the ravages of that sinister attack; that following any leader remarks, the time until 2:30 p.m. be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. In addition to the moment of silence at 10 a.m., there will be a bipartisan, bicameral remembrance ceremony of the 12th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks at 11 a.m. tomorrow. Members will gather in the Rotunda at 10:45 a.m. Senators will gather in the Rotunda, but then they will walk out and we will have a few speeches on the east front of the Capitol.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 1427 and that the bill be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I just had a brief conversation with the Chaplain, who came down to wish me well on my return. He indicated he was going to do a special prayer this afternoon for the Senate in this time of crisis. I am always aware of how he looks out for us spiritually. The prayer is for Democrats, Republicans--all of us. His prayers are very heart-warming. Not only is he our chaplain, but he is a retired admiral in the U.S. Navy. He has been all over the world in that capacity. We appreciate him very much. We don't acknowledge him as often as we should. I appreciate how he is always available and so kind and thoughtful to everyone.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to consider S.J. Res. 21.