Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, May 20, at 5 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 45 and 46; that there be 30 minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote, with no intervening action or debate, on the nominations in the order listed; further, that at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 11 and 12; that there be 30 minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote, with no intervening action or debate, on the nominations in the order listed; further, that following the votes on Calendar No. 12 and Calendar No. 46, 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; 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. Mr. President, following leader remarks the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 10:30 a.m. The Republicans will control the first half, the majority the final half. Following morning business the Senate will resume consideration of the Water Resources Development Act. There will be up to seven rollcall votes to complete action on this bill, and we will start the voting at about 10:30 this morning. Mr. President, there is a lot going on here--committees meeting--but I want to alert all Senators, Democrats and Republicans, that we have a lot of votes to do and we are not going to wait around while someone strolls in. The first vote will be the regular 15-minute vote, and after that it will be 10 minutes. I am alerting everyone that we are going to close the votes as quickly as we can so we can finish. The Republicans have an important meeting beginning before 1 p.m. today, so we will move through these votes as quickly as we can. We also expect votes today on confirmation of Marilyn Tavenner to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and we may get to see if we can finish the Orrick nomination to be a judge for the Northern District of California.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am told that S. 953 is due for a second reading.

Mr. REID. I object to any further proceedings on this bill at this time.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the great Albert Einstein defined insanity as follows: ``doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.'' That is what Albert Einstein said. If his definition is true--and I am not going to argue with Einstein--the House Republicans have truly lost their minds. This week the House of Representatives will vote for the 37th time--the 37th time--on exactly the same thing. What are they voting on? They are voting to repeal the landmark constitutional health care reform bill known now as ObamaCare--and I say that proudly. After last year's election, Speaker Boehner conceded that ObamaCare is here to stay. Here is what he said: It's pretty clear that the president was re-elected. Obamacare is the law of the land. I think that is a pretty fair statement. Again, the Speaker said it is pretty clear President Obama was reelected and ObamaCare is the law of the land. So no matter what he said then, this is now, and he has changed his mind. The House will waste yet another week on another dead-end repeal vote. Perhaps Republicans think the 37th time is the charm, but 37 times on the exact same thing? Tea party extremists bullied the Speaker into holding yet another vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act and roll back benefits for tens of millions of Americans. This is what the Speaker said last week: We've got 70 new Members who have not had an opportunity to vote on the President's health care law. . . . Frankly, they've been asking for an opportunity to vote on it. This political kabuki has tied up the floor of the House of Representatives for weeks and cost the American taxpayers $52.4 million and counting. These are figures compiled by CBS News of the time wasted on those 37 votes--all the House staff and all other personnel who have responsibilities for making sure that place runs as well as it does. That money--$52.4 million--is enough to restore funding for 19 million meals for homebound seniors or 6,900 children dropped from the Head Start Program. But while the vote may be political theater, it does have one benefit: The American people will know where the freshman class of House Republicans stands. I think we know, but we will get another opportunity to see this. Do they stand with millions of Americans who are already benefiting from ObamaCare--we know that answer--or do they stand with insurance companies? We know that answer. The insurance companies would like nothing better than to have things the way they used to be and to once again deny coverage to sick children, impose lifetime caps on care, and discriminate against those with preexisting conditions. Since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, insurance companies can no longer put profits ahead of people. One of the provisions in this bill says that, of premiums paid to insurance companies for health care, 80 percent of those premiums must go to patients. No longer, as once happened, will 50 percent of the premiums go for salaries and bonuses and other perks for insurance executives--no longer. Insurance companies can no longer discriminate against children with preexisting conditions. They can no longer raise rates for no reason. They can no longer drop coverage if someone gets sick. But that is what happened. Yet this week, for the 37th time, House Republicans will try to change all that. Here are a few of the other benefits already in effect that House Republicans would eliminate. In Nevada alone--and we are not a heavily populated State such as Massachusetts or California or New York, but we are getting bigger, we have about 3 million people--tens of thousands of seniors have saved tens of millions of dollars on medicines because the Affordable Care Act closed the gap on prescription drugs. That means millions of seniors across this country have more money in their pockets for food, gas, and electric bills. More than 3 million young people, because of ObamaCare, including 33,000 young Nevadans, have benefited from a provision in the law that allows children to stay on their parents' health plans until they are 26 years old. That means no person will have to worry about getting sick while looking for a job that offers insurance or while they go to college. In my little town of Searchlight, NV, a boy made a decision. Was he going to join the military--he was from a patriotic family--or was he going to go to college? He made the decision that he was going to go to college. His family was not one of means. His mom worked part time in a post office, and his dad worked at a powerplant about 40 miles from Searchlight. They were so happy that this boy was going to go to college. He was the first person in their family to go to college, and he did extremely well. He finished his first year, and he was in his second year when he started feeling some discomfort. He had testicular cancer. At the time ObamaCare passed, he was 23 years old and no longer could he be on his parents' insurance. So they had no insurance to cover this cancer their son had--their youngest boy. They begged and borrowed and literally-- well, I shouldn't say ``begged.'' They didn't do that. They had a very difficult time of it. He needed two surgeries. Now I guess the Republicans in the House want to go back to that. Maybe the Republicans here--they love voting against ObamaCare provisions--want to go back to a time when that boy, Jeff, would no longer have insurance. That is what they want for these young men and women who are trying to go to college, to get a job--they want to go back to that time. He has 3 extra years now. That means a lot. Under ObamaCare, hundreds of thousands of businesses that already offer their employees health insurance are getting tax credits for doing the right thing. That means small business owners can spend their capital on growing their firms instead of growing insurance premiums. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can no longer set arbitrary lifetime caps on benefits, as they once did. What does that mean? It means there was a provision hidden in that policy they sold you that stated that when your benefits reach $50,000, coverage stops. It didn't matter if you had been hurt in an automobile accident or you had cancer or some other dread disease; it used to stop. Not anymore. Because of the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans are no longer one car accident or a heart attack away from bankruptcy. Today, children can no longer be denied coverage because they are born with a disease or a disability--a protection that will soon be extended to all Americans. Soon, being a woman will no longer be a preexisting condition. I said that right, Mr. President. No longer will being a woman be a preexisting condition. My daughter has a preexisting condition. What is it? She is a woman. But no longer. In a few months, 129 million Americans with preexisting conditions, such as high blood pressure or epilepsy, can rest assured they will have access to affordable insurance and lifesaving care regardless of how much money they make or don't make. And soon 25 million more Americans who can't afford health insurance will have access to reasonably priced insurance and quality care. But if Republicans get their way, these benefits and more will disappear. There is going to be a vote in the House of Representatives to repeal everything I have talked about--not change it but repeal it. President Obama led the charge here, and we were able to pass the Affordable Care Act--the most significant change in our health care delivery system since Medicare all those many, many years ago. It ensures access to quality affordable health care for every American. But Republicans would erase these gains and force millions of American families to once again rely on expensive emergency room care or go without care at all. Fortunately, the Republicans' latest exercise in insanity, as described by Albert Einstein--that is, their latest repeal effort--is doomed to fail just as it did the previous 36 times.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I now ask unanimous consent that at 2 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 40 and 92 en bloc; that the time until 4:30 p.m. be equally divided in the usual form, with Senator Baucus controlling the time from 4:15 to 4:30; that upon the use or yielding back of time the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations in the order listed, with 2 minutes for debate between the votes; and that the second vote be 10 minutes in length; 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 resume legislative session.

Mr. REID. I yield to my friend from Oregon.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business until 2 p.m. today, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 73, S. 954.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, May 20, at a time to be determined by me, after consultation with Senator McConnell, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 73, S. 954.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, the Republican leader and I follow very closely the Washington Nationals, and we talk often about how they fare on any given day. We just spent a minute commiserating about a young man from Las Vegas, Bryce Harper. We talk about him often because he is a phenomenon in baseball. Yesterday, while playing in Los Angeles--a late game--he got two walks, a hit, and, as he does all the time--well, not like this--he was chasing a ball full speed and he ran into the wall full speed. I told the Republican leader I am going to talk to his family later. It is too early in the West, but I told him I will talk to his mom or dad and find out how he is doing. But he crashed into that wall, and he has 11 stitches in his chin, he was knocked out, and he hurt one of his shoulders. So we will see how he is.

Mr. REID. I would be glad to yield.

Mr. REID. And the manager said, when asked afterwards about him, I don't want him to change anything because he is such a competitor. But I think he will maybe have to watch those walls in the future.

Mr. REID. Yes, we are wearing the same suit. We try to match wardrobes.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, following leader remarks the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 11 a.m. this morning. The majority will control the first half, the Republicans the final half. Following morning business the Senate will resume consideration of S. 601, the Water Resources Development Act. Order of Procedure I ask unanimous consent that the full time, the full 1 hour, be given to the Democrats, their half hour, and the Republicans, their half- hour, and if the vote has to come a little later, we just need to get that out of the way before our caucuses. And we could probably terminate that at noon. That will be fine. So I ask unanimous consent that the Democrats have their full half hour and the Republicans their full half hour.

Mr. REID. Following morning business, as I indicated, the Senate will resume consideration of the Water Resources Development Act. Madam President, I was in a meeting a few minutes ago. This is an important bill, and it shows that one of the most liberal Members of the Senate and one of the most conservative Members of the Senate-- Boxer and Vitter--can work extremely well together, as they have on this bill. I hope we can have a finite list of amendments and not have to invoke cloture because we would invoke cloture and I would rather not do that. The filing deadline for all second-degree amendments to the bill is 11:15 a.m. today. The managers continue to work to complete action on the bill. If no agreement is reached, there will be a cloture vote at noon today.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, on Thursday Speaker Boehner said a remarkable thing. He said: We can't cut our way to prosperity. It was good to hear him speaking candidly, for that is what Democrats have been saying for years--we cannot cut our way to prosperity. It is important that we have done some cutting. That is very important. And we are proud of the work we have done. To this point, we have cut more than $2\1/2\ trillion. But it will take more than meat-ax budget cuts to keep our economy on the path to full recovery. To protect our economic growth, it will take a balanced approach, one that couples smart spending cuts with investments in our future and some new revenue from closing these wasteful loopholes I have spoken about to members of the Finance Committee in my caucus on many occasions. Nothing could be further from that balanced policy than the so-called sequester. As long as the sequester's harmful across-the-board cuts remain in effect, our economy is in jeopardy. And as long as Republicans refuse to go to conference on the budget and work out our differences, the sequester will remain in effect. It has now been 52 days since the Senate passed its budget. Why are Republicans standing in the way? We have talked about that for weeks. We need to move forward and pass a budget that encourages economic expansion by investing in what makes America strong while cutting the deficit. After years--years--of calling for regular order, after years of demanding the Senate pass a budget, I expected Republicans to embrace this process, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Republicans have objected to a conference half a dozen times and counting. It is obvious they are delaying for one nakedly partisan reason: They hope to delay compromise long enough to create another manufactured crisis, as the Nation once again approaches the debt limit. The debt ceiling is something we used to just move past. The elephant never forgets, but Republicans obviously don't follow their mascot--the elephant--as they have a very short memory. Elephants don't, but the Republican Party does. They should remember the political pain they inflicted upon themselves--the Republicans--and our country over the last 2 years, in part by driving the country from one manufactured crisis to the next. It is astonishing that Republicans would once again--as they did in the House last week--pass a bill to hold the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government hostage, if only because it is so bad for their political brand. But it is also bad for our country. The last time Republicans drove us to the brink of default, it cost the United States its pristine credit rating, and it cost the economy billions of dollars. When I talk about Republicans, I am not speaking about Republicans generically--that is, Republicans around the country--because many Republicans, if not most, agree these manufactured crises are a waste of time and not good for our country. I am talking about and directing my attention to the Republicans in the Congress because they do not, obviously, agree with the Republicans around the country. I hope my Republican colleagues will not take their partisan ploy as far as they did in the past. It is time to embrace regular order. It is time to get away from last-minute negotiations and short-term fixes. It is time to engage in a responsible budget process. The budget process is the only way to work through our differences without bringing the country to the verge of another artificial crisis. Americans are tired of bitter battles over whether the Federal Government should pay the bills it has incurred. That is what we have done. We have incurred these bills, and we have to pay them. We have made purchases on credit. Americans know, as Democrats do, that Congress won't set sound fiscal policy during last-minute negotiations and Congress won't set sound fiscal policy through extortion or hostage-taking. The Secretary of Defense is going to announce later today that 800,000 civilian employees at the Defense Department are going to get furloughs. The decision is how long it is going to be. He hopes he can make it 11 days, but probably it will be 2 weeks. That may not sound like much, but for somebody who is on a budget, a personal budget, depending on their wages, to suddenly hear that during the time until September 1 they are going to be furloughed, that they are not going to get paid for 14 days, that is a significant amount of money and can wreak havoc with their personal budget. What this sequestration is doing is setting bad fiscal policy. It can't happen. We have to compromise. We won't set sound fiscal policy without sitting down and finding common ground between the Republican priorities and the Democratic priorities in this Congress. Passing the budget would clarify each side's values. We did that. We had a vote- athon here determining what Republicans wanted to do and what Democrats wanted to do. We finished at 5 o'clock in the morning. We thought that was a good step toward compromise, but we were wrong. Republicans will not move forward. We have waited 52 days. The next step is to name conferees, and that will only be a first step. After conferees are named, we have to make sure they meet and work things out. Right now, Republicans are the only party standing in the way of progress in getting rid of this sequestration. If my Republican colleagues are serious about reducing the deficit and charting a course for economic growth, they should stop waiting around for another crisis and start working with Democrats today. Finally, again, it has been 52 days since the Senate passed this bill. We need Republicans to follow regular order and move to a conference.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID. Mr. President, Senators Boxer and Vitter have worked hard for days now to come up with a finite list of amendments to complete work on this very important bill, the Water Resources Development Act. In just a minute I am going to ask consent that we postpone the vote scheduled for 12 today until 2:30. We will come back in session, I hope, at 2:15 today. When we come back in session I want Chairman Boxer to report to the Senate if they have been able to work out an agreement between the two of them. If they have, I want her to ask the consent and when she asks that consent, if there is an agreement, we will work through a number of amendments they have come up with to complete work on this bill. If there is no agreement at 2:15 when she comes in, then we will vote at 2:30 on cloture. I hope that is not necessary. But I am not going to have any ``I'm objecting on behalf of somebody else.'' If it is not done, I don't care who objects, we are going to move to cloture. That is what I believe should be done. It is a lot of work to get this agreement. I think tentatively it has been done. We know how things work; one Senator can block all this. I hope that is not the case. I know the block will not come from our side. Senator Boxer has the complete confidence of all members of our conference. They recognize that she has worked hard on this and has done the right thing--as she always does. I ask unanimous consent that the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on S. 601 be moved to 2:30 p.m. I will ask, while she is on the floor, the Senator from California, the chairman of the committee, is there anything I have missed in my statement?

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on S. 601 be moved to 2:30 p.m. this afternoon; that if cloture is invoked, it will be considered as having been invoked at 12 noon.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to S. Res. 140.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I understand S. 953 introduced earlier today by Senator Reed is at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. REID. I now ask for its second reading and object to my own request.