Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 181.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 182, which was submitted earlier today.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 noon on Monday, June 24, 2013; 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 resume consideration of S. 744, the immigration bill, and the time until 5:30 p.m. be equally divided and controlled between the two managers or their designees; and that the filing deadline for second-degree amendments to the Leahy amendment No. 1183, as modified, be 4 p.m. on Monday.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent at a time to be determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 179; that there be 30 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form; that following the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nomination, 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; 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. I ask unanimous consent at a time to be determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 180; that there be 30 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form; that following the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nomination, 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; 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. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, there will be a cloture vote on the Leahy amendment No. 1183, as modified.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader remarks, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume consideration of S. 744, the comprehensive immigration bill, and that the time until 12 noon be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees and that I be recognized at 12 noon.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I indicated last night that I was going to create a vote at 11:30 this morning, but Senators Mikulski and Shelby have asked that we put that over a little bit, so we are going to do that at noon because they are having an important markup in the Appropriations Committee. We will continue to work through amendments to the bill today. Hopefully, we could have, at that time--at noon--a path forward on this legislation. We have a number of amendments that are now pending. We hope to have a way of disposing of those, and I hope there is something that can be worked out. Senator Landrieu and others have indicated they want some amendments, and I hope we can work that out so we can move forward on the bill. So we will continue to work through the amendments, as I indicated, today. The first rollcall vote, as I have indicated, will be at about noon today. Mr. President, we have made some significant advances on the historic immigration legislation that is now before us. I am confident and I am hopeful that we can pass this bill. I have indicated on a number of occasions that we are going to do everything within our power to finish this bill before the July 4 recess. I have had conversations with the Republican leader and other Republican Senators, and, of course, with my Democratic Senators, and I think that is the goal, and I have no reason that we should not be able to meet that goal. We have made progress on amendments. I expect and I hope that a group of Republican Senators working with the Gang of 8 will come forward with a way that they think we can move forward on this bill dealing with the border. As I have said all along, I am willing to look at any reasonable amendment--I think we all are--and I hope something can be worked out with my Republican colleagues and the Gang of 8. I have said before, and I say it again, I appreciate very much the Gang of 8 for their diligent work, both in crafting this legislation and in shepherding it through this transparent and thorough process. It goes without saying that the chairman of the committee Senator Leahy has been remarkably focused on how to get this done. One of my favorite Senators I have had the opportunity to work with over the years is Chuck Grassley, the Senator from Iowa. He is the ranking member of that committee. Even though we disagree on occasion on how to move forward, I never remember having an unpleasant conversation with Chuck Grassley. So I appreciate his working on this. As I have indicated, he and Senator Leahy do not agree on parts of this immigration bill, but that is the way things are and should be on this legislation--all legislation. But he has been cooperative in helping us meet his expectations and move forward.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, a century ago, a person born in the United States could reasonably expect to live to their late forties. I repeat, 100 years ago, a person born in the United States could reasonably expect to live to their late forties. Today, most people born in the United States can live into their late seventies or early eighties. That is the way it is. Look how things have changed over these last 100 years. Imagine adding more than three decades to life expectancy just in this period of time. This gift is due to a number of reasons. But the most significant reason is we have had 125 years of research done by one of the great institutions of America: the National Institutes of Health. Due to their research, fewer people die of cancer, for example, each year than the year before. It is stunning, the advances we have made. If one looks at their personal life, the things that happen in their family, think what it would have been a few years ago, such as with a terrible automobile accident or a dread disease like cancer. Think of the work that has been done by these scientists to help us advance the cause of curing people. Over the last half century, deaths from heart disease and stroke have fallen by 60 percent. That is just in 50 years. Because of the work done, thanks to the Institutes of Health, scientists understand the heart about as well as any part of your body. Now these wonderful scientists are beginning to study the brain, which is much more complicated than the heart, but still the heart is very complicated. They are going to begin a study to find out everything they can about the brain. The most extensive research project in the world is dealing with the brain, which is going to be-- and it has already started--at the National Institutes of Health. Because of antiviral therapies developed by NIH-funded projects and researchers, now they have diagnosed HIV/AIDS to the extent that--I was out there on Monday, and I talked to them about that when I first came to the Senate, when someone was diagnosed with AIDS, it was a death sentence. Not anymore because of the work done there. They can count their life expectancy in multiple decades, when in the past it was months. It would be impossible to count the lives NIH innovation has already saved, and researchers are not close to realizing the limits of modern medicine. I was fortunate to have the opportunity, as I indicated, to visit the facility on Monday morning. These facilities in Bethesda, MD, are stunningly important to visit, to witness, the fascinating work they do there. I toured one of the clinics where the best medical researchers in the world are trying to solve the world's most elusive medical mysteries. There are 27 different institutes that make up the National Institutes of Health. They are studying diseases that have yet to be identified, let alone be cured. They have one institute where that is what they deal with. On diseases, they do not know what the cause is. I met a little girl there who is 7 years old--a beautiful child. They are trying to figure out why she has the problems she has. They have made some progress, but they do not know yet. Once they identify--and they have. They have found reasons why in that young lady and others certain things are missing. I am not a scientist and I cannot probably do justice to this, but there are certain things in the body--gene sequencing in the body--where something is missing or something is added, such as a protein that should not be there. Now they can identify this. It is tremendous that they can do that, but on a number of these diseases they are still--even though they have identified what causes it, they do not know for sure how to fix it. That is what they are doing there. In addition to the work being conducted by the nearly 6,000 scientists who work there--these are labs located on their campus; it is a huge campus--they award not only the work they do there, but they award thousands of grants each year to more than 300,000 researchers across the country. Most of them are university based, but not all of them. These scientists are seeking the next breakthrough for treatments they can do with drugs and even cures. They are reaching out for the next advancement that will--to borrow Abraham Lincoln's words--add years to our lives as well as life to our years. But today the crucial lifesaving work at NIH is in jeopardy. The arbitrary, across-the-board cuts of the mean and arbitrary sequester have hit NIH very hard. The institutes have cut $1.55 billion from their budget this year alone. Think of the work that is not being done there because of that. The little girl who I met there--think of the work that is not going to be done with little girls and boys like her because, this year alone, $1.5 billion is cut from their program. What that means, among other things, is that NIH will award 700 fewer grants this year than last, putting the next revolutionary treatment at risk, whatever it might be. And faced with diminished funding opportunities and an uncertain future, promising young scientists are abandoning the research field altogether. The Director of the National Institutes of Health is Dr. Francis Collins, the father of the gene sequencing that we now look to in the future to curing literally every disease. This wonderful man, who could make a fortune by moving out of his scientific endeavors, has decided that is his life's work. Not only does Dr. Collins feel that way, but everyone who works there. They are doing things to help us, our families, our friends, America, and literally the world. It is very sad to me that these wonderful people, who are dedicating their lives to not how much money they can make but how much better they can make people feel and what they can do to cure diseases, are looking for other places. The best friend of someone who works for me here in Washington is one of the leading experts, if not the leading expert, in the world on a disease called melanoma--cancer. He is not applying for grants anymore at NIH because you cannot do this work on a 1- to 2-year basis; it has to be long-term or you would do not the research. It is happening all over. Not only that, people who work there are leaving the institution. NIH researchers are currently studying cancer drugs that zero in on a tumor more, with fewer sickening side effects. I say that--sickening side effects. The Capitol physician, Dr. Brian Monahan, is a wonderful man. He was a professor, taught medicine. He is a Navy admiral. He is board certified in hematology, internal medicine, and oncology. As some know, my wife has been through a pretty brutal bout with breast cancer. He told me, when Landra was really sick lots of time--really, really sick--he said just a few years ago that they had to admit women to the hospital because they could not stop vomiting because of the medicine they were taking. We have made progress. That does not happen often anymore. As sick as my wife was, she was not as sick as she would have been a few years ago. At this wonderful facility, they are developing a vaccine to fight every strain of influenza without a yearly shot, saving money and lives. A man at the institute there, on a blackboard--really a greenboard--with a piece of chalk, drew a picture which showed me and my staff what happens when influenza strikes and the reason we need now a yearly shot for the flu. But we are very close to having one shot to take care of flu all the time. This flu is not anything to not worry about. In 1918, 100 million people died because of flu around the world--100 million. We have a couple types of flu right now that are potentially very damaging. These scientists are very close to having a vaccine that will take care of the flu with one shot for always. They are conducting clinical trials to help identify and treat those at risk of developing early-onset Alzheimer's, leading to more successful treatment of this costly and debilitating disease. Many years ago I was at an event in Las Vegas. Next to me was a physician. I was a new Senator. He said: You and Congress need to do something about Alzheimer's; otherwise, you are going to bankrupt America. With people living longer, there is more Alzheimer's coming all the time. We have made progress. We still have a long way to go. These innovations have the possibility not only to save lives but to save us all billions of dollars each year on medical care. The NIH is an intellectual and economic leader the world over. Everybody looks at the NIH as the premier research facility for disease. But the senseless meat ax, unfair cuts we call sequester, puts all that NIH does at risk. As we, this wonderful, great country of ours, are slashing investments in medical research--slashing--our competitors are redoubling their efforts: China, 25 percent increase in medical research; we are cutting billions. In just 2 years, with the sequester deal, we will cut almost $4 billion. China is increasing theirs by 25 percent; India by 20 percent; South Korea, Germany, Brazil, 10 percent. We are whacking ours, cutting these wonderful scientists. These countries, all they are trying to do is duplicate our success, replicate our success. While they are doing that, we are abandoning investments that brought us to where we are. But medical innovation does not happen overnight. It takes years of research, years of trial and years of error, quite frankly, years of the process of elimination. One of the institute Directors--we talked about spinal cord injuries. They are making progress with something they thought a few years ago worked really well, but further tests said it works only a little bit, not the way they thought it would. Even when scientists know the cause of a disease--as I have indicated, they have figured out some of this with gene sequencing--it takes an average of 13 years to develop a drug to treat that. These shortsighted cuts in the research funding will cost us valuable cures tomorrow. While these costs may not be felt this month, this year, or even this decade, their long-term consequences will be grave. Now, we say it may not be felt this month. To the scientists working there, they are going to feel it very quickly because some of them are leaving. Imagine if we had neglected our commitment to finding effective treatments for cancer, heart disease, or stroke a few decades ago. Imagine if we had abandoned investments in treatment for HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. Think of the burden that would have been not only on the people who were sick and dying but the burden it would have been on our economy because of the huge cost, the lost time at work, and all the medical stuff. We do not have to worry about that anymore. Imagine lives cut short. We can all agree that reducing our deficit is a valuable goal. We have done a good job--$2.5 trillion. But we should reduce the deficit by making smart investments, not by the making shortsighted cuts that cause pain and suffering and death. There is simply no price tag you can put on that.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have not heard all of my friend's statement. We have a list of 27 amendments that the chair has come up with that are noncontroversial. One of them I was surprised we could not put on the list because a Republican Senator objected because they thought it was controversial that we should do things in this bill, the immigration bill, for the best interests of the child. That is controversial. That surprised me.

Mr. REID. While Senator Landrieu was here on the floor last night, we had a colloquy back and forth for a little bit. My friend the chairman of the committee and I can lament about the days when we would bring a bill to the floor and--the Energy and Water appropriations bill. The two of us have been longtime members of the Appropriations Committee. Senators Bennett, Johnson, and I, Pete Domenici, when he was the ranking member with me--we would do the Energy and Water bill in a couple of hours, a bill that was extremely important for the country. It provided security for nuclear weaponry. But now we do not do that anymore. We have 27 amendments here. It is a sad commentary on things. But these things would be accepted not in a managers' amendment, they would just be done by unanimous consent. But, anyway, we cannot do that. Mr. President, I call for regular order with respect to the Cornyn amendment No. 1251.

Mr. REID. I move to table the Cornyn amendment. I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 minutes equally divided prior to the vote on my motion to table.

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

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the managers of this bill and floor staff are working to try to come up with a path forward on this legislation. We have a number of Senators who are concerned about amendments that they feel are not controversial, and that is one track we are trying to come up with. The other track is a number of Senators are working with the Gang of 8 to come up with a major amendment dealing with, as I understand, border security and a number of other things. I am also told that amendment is being drafted by legislative counsel. So I hope we can have that amendment soon so people can look at it, and I hope we can do something with the noncontroversial amendments. In the meantime, we have to understand this is not easy to do. But I think we have a path forward. I am grateful to everyone for being as understanding as they are, because legislation is not easy, especially on a major piece of legislation such as this. But I do say this: This is not one of those bills that suddenly appeared on the Senate floor. People have been working on this legislation for months. For months the Gang of 8 has been working on this. We had one of the most thorough markups in recent history in the Senate. Hundreds of amendments were considered, scores were accepted-- Democratic amendments, Republican amendments. So this legislation we have on the floor is not as if suddenly it is here and not much has been done about it. Again, I repeat what I said before: We are trying to find a way forward. Mr. President, in the meantime, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Toomey, Senator Landrieu, and then Senator Cruz be recognized for 10 minutes each in the sequence I just mentioned.

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

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time until 4 p.m. be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees and that I be recognized at 4 p.m.

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

Mr. REID. Madam President, what is the pending amendment?

Mr. REID. I raise a point of order against the Vitter amendment that it is improperly drafted to the Leahy amendment.

Mr. REID. The Vitter amendment falls; is that right?

Mr. REID. Madam President, I now ask unanimous consent that there be a period of debate only until 6:30 p.m., with the time equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, and that I be recognized at 6:30 this evening.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the period for debate only be extended for 1 hour, until 7:30, with the time equally divided.