Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, today I rise to recognize one of my longest- serving and loyal staffers, Janice Miller. After more than a quarter of a century in my Las Vegas office, Janice retired on February 22, 2013. She has earned a happy and restful retirement from public service, but she will be deeply missed. Just six months after I had been elected to serve my first term in the U.S. Senate, Janice joined my staff. A self-described cat lover, Janice soon came to be known for her laughter and her sharp wit. Along with her no-nonsense attitude, she showed true compassion for the countless Medicare and Social Security recipients she assisted throughout her career. Janice is a true Nevadan. She attended the Western High School in Las Vegas, and then went to the University of Nevada, Reno. Although Las Vegas is her home, she continues to be an avid Wolf Pack supporter. In her youth, Janice had a tremendous activist spirit. That was tapped into by one of her mentors, my good friend and former chief of staff, Rey Martinez. Rey taught Janice at Western High School, and he also introduced her to politics, where she stayed until her recent retirement. Janice has always cared deeply about women's issues, ranging from women's health care to access to education and equality in the workplace. Janice Miller, during the time she worked on my campaigns, was an all-star. Janice also had tremendous compassion for senior citizens who were often struggling with Social Security issues. In the more than 25 years that Janice was with me, she never lost her concern for the seniors who needed her help. She always went above and beyond, helping to develop invaluable resources for Nevada's seniors in need. She helped to write the first ``Retiree Guide'' for my office. Thousands of copies of this guide are still used as a catalog of information and resources for seniors in southern Nevada. Janice developed a deep understanding of the medical field through her work and her continued outreach to the community. Cindy Lubiarz, vice president of business development at Care Meridian, credits Janice with helping to facilitate the development of the CareMeridian Pediatric Facility, the only free-standing, post-acute inpatient pediatric facility in Nevada, which is set to open its doors later this year. While fighting to ensure that Nevadans in need got the benefits they deserved, Janice also battled breast cancer. As a survivor, she serves as a source of strength for so many women who are facing the same challenge. She took this role in her personal life as well as in her professional life. Her support has meant so much to Mary Liveratti, retired administrator for the Nevada Division of Aging and Disability Services, who is a breast cancer survivor herself. When Janice first learned of Mary's diagnosis, she pulled her aside at a meeting to tell Mary that she had also battled breast cancer and to offer Mary support and encouragement. When Mary talks about this incident, it brings her to tears because she knew she was not alone in her fight. Janice's kind spirit, in-depth knowledge of Medicare and Social Security, and commitment to public service will be truly missed. I thank her for her tireless service, and wish her well in her retirement.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Following leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 933, the continuing resolution legislation. Last night I filed cloture on a motion to proceed to this most important legislation. We are now in the midst of another filibuster. If no agreement is reached, the cloture vote will be tomorrow morning. The Ryan Budget Mr. President, yesterday Americans got their first look at this year's Ryan Republican budget. It turns out it looks like last year's Ryan Republican budget. I wasn't the only one who said: Gee whiz, not again. Here is the headline from Bloomberg News: Ryan Budget Replays Republican Hits. One Washington Post reporter compared the release of the not-so-new and certainly not improved Ryan Republican budget to the movie ``Groundhog Day,'' where Bill Murray relives his least favorite holiday over and over and over. Remember, this is the third Ryan Republican budget. This is what the Washington Post also wrote: The unrepentant reprisal of the same fiscal vision that was decisively repudiated last fall is bound to attract notice. Indeed, this is the same budget plan we saw from Congressman Ryan last year and the year before that. Even the name is the same. If anything, this new version is even more extreme than the last two Ryan Republican budget proposals--proposals that sought to end the Medicare guarantee and raise taxes on middle-class families, all the while handing out more tax breaks to the wealthy. The Ryan Republican budget is anything but balanced, and it reflects the same backward values Americans rejected in November. Instead of asking the wealthiest to contribute their fair share, the Ryan Republican budget demands that middle-class families pay more in taxes. Instead of ending wasteful corporate tax loopholes, it basically ends Medicare. In fact, the Ryan Republican budget takes special aim at health care. It would eliminate free preventive health services for 34 million Americans. The Ryan Republican budget would increase prescription drug prices for seniors by $2.5 billion in 1 year. It would end the coverage guarantees for 3.1 million young men and women who are on their parents' health plans. The budget would end coverage for mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, and contraception for more than 47 million women and allow insurance companies to deny care for 17 million children simply because they were born with a heart defect or some other illness. These drastic cuts will literally cost lives and also jobs. Instead of a balanced approach that protects the American economy, the Ryan Republican budget guts education, medical research, infrastructure, and even public safety. The Ryan Republican budget would actually jeopardize the economic recovery; it wouldn't help it. And in case you are thinking such huge and painful cuts can buy an awful lot of deficit reduction, think again. Instead, Congressman Ryan's cuts will buy more tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. This budget isn't a serious attempt to reduce the deficit. Meaningful deficit reduction will require shared sacrifice, including contributions from those who can best afford to contribute to it. Today, Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray will introduce a budget that reflects the principle of balance. Senator Murray's plan, the Democratic plan, will cut wasteful spending, reduce the deficit, and close tax loopholes that benefit the rich, and it will invest in the things that help our economy grow: education, preventive health care, worker training, and roads and bridges. It will invest in a strong middle class. And unlike the Ryan Republican plan, it won't leave you wondering if it is Groundhog Day all over again. As things now stand, we are in the midst, as I indicated, of a filibuster to even try to get on the bill. If we get on the bill tomorrow morning, then there will be 30 hours of waiting around, staring at each other. I just alert everyone that we have an Easter recess coming a week from Friday, and we are not going to be able to do that. The budget has a locked-in amount of time, 50 hours, plus the vote-athon. So everyone should be prepared to change their plans for the first few days--we hope it is the first few days--of the Easter recess. We are not even on this bill, and that is such a sad thing. I thought it was such a good atmosphere here. We had a bill at a decent time from the House. As I indicated yesterday, I didn't like everything in that bill, but we had Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby working together. They checked in with me and Senator McConnell to let us know how they were doing, and they did well on their own. They didn't need our help. They came up with a plan that was fair and as balanced as could be under the sequester situation, and it was bipartisan. The amendment that is being filibustered is sponsored by Mikulski and Shelby. So this is a real shame. I said last week when we were going on this bill that we would have opportunities for amendments. I hope we can get on the bill and have some amendments offered, but each day that goes by--and we have wasted 2 so far--we are unable to have the amendment process. We had yesterday waiting all day for Harkin and Cruz because that is the first Democratic amendment and the first Republican amendment. They are still on deck, waiting to come whenever the umpire says we can go forward-- the umpire being one Senator.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, as I said yesterday on the floor, I have nothing but the highest respect for my friend from Arizona. I know he looks into things very deeply, and I appreciate his peacemaking. Even though he is a famous man in America and the world because of his wartime experiences, he is also a peacemaker, and I am grateful for that. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to proceed be agreed to.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I withdraw the cloture motion.

Mr. REID. The first two amendments we will go to on this bill, according to the two managers, are the amendments by Harkin and Cruz. If Senator Harkin is not available immediately, then Senator Cruz can do it. These are the first two amendments, and I ask that both of them come to the floor at the earliest possible time. In fact, soon. The two managers, Senator Shelby and Senator Mikulski, will be here shortly. In the meantime I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I will withdraw my request for a quorum call. I didn't know my friend, the distinguished Senator from Illinois, was here wanting to talk, which is a rare occasion.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following leader remarks tomorrow, March 14, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 933; that there be up to 1 hour of debate equally divided in the usual form on the Harkin amendment; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the Harkin amendment; that there be no amendments in order to the amendment prior to the vote, and the amendment be subject to a 60-affirmative-vote threshold.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion on the Mikulski- Shelby substitute amendment at the desk.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have another cloture motion to the underlying bill at the desk.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum required under rule XXII be waived with respect to both cloture motions.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have been waiting today to take just a moment to honor Myron Fleming, Director of Doorkeepers, who is retiring after 40 years of working on Capitol Hill. Myron began his work in the Capitol with the office of Senator Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio. He has worked in the Senate for 33, 34 years, and prior to that he worked in the House of Representatives for 7 years. He is someone whom I have watched over the many years I have been here. He has a wonderful personality. He is someone who helps keep order in this institution, and his presence in the Senate is one that is calming. Everyone who knows him likes him. It just will not be the same without him. While I will miss him, I know he will be glad to spend more time with his wife Jean Carolyn, as well as his children Mark and Mitchell and their granddaughter Nila. We talked earlier in the day when I learned he was retiring, and I have already spoken about what a fine gentleman he is. But here is one thing he and I joked about today. I was here handling the floor as I did for Senator Daschle for many years, and there was this big crash. Everyone said: What has happened? What happened was Myron was rushing around doing the work he did, and he could not have done a better pirouette if he been a ballerina. He flipped in the air and came crashing down. Everybody thought something bad had happened, and Myron just got up, smiled, and walked away. He and I joked about that earlier today. I will always remember that. I asked Gary to find somebody on the staff who was there when Myron fell, and no one remembered, but Myron and I remembered. So I went and talked to him myself. Myron is leaving next week to go on a cruise to Cancun, Mexico, with his wife and his granddaughter. I thank him on behalf of the entire Senate for his faithful service to our country and to the U.S. Senate. I wish him well in the future.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. 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. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to S. Res. 76.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, 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. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning, March 14; that following the prayer and the 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 H.R. 933, the continuing appropriations bill, under the previous order.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Tomorrow we will continue to work through the amendments to the CR. There will be at least one rollcall vote at approximately 11:15. We hope to complete action on this bill tomorrow.

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 ask for a second reading in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, but I object to my own request.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 12:30 today. The majority will control the first 30 minutes, the Republicans the second 30 minutes. Chairman Mikulski and Ranking Member Shelby are expected to make opening statements about 11 o'clock this morning. Just as an aside, this is a new day in the Senate. We are so grateful for the hard work of Senators Mikulski and Shelby. The amendment is offered as their substitute amendment. I am very proud of the work they did. We are going to have to work through a number of amendments, but when it is all over, we are going to send over a bill I hope the House will accept. If not, we will have a quick conference--I hope that is not necessary--and continue the work on our other appropriations bills and finish the problems we have had in being behind. The CR will fund the government until October 1. We hope by then we can complete work on our appropriations bills, so in 2014 we don't have to go through all this again--CRs and omnibuses and all that kind of stuff. We are going to recess from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. today for weekly caucus meetings. We have extended that for an extra 15 minutes because the President is going to be here today. We expect to begin consideration of H.R. 933, which is the appropriations bill I just talked about, following the caucus meetings we are going to have.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Earlier this year, with November election losses fresh in their minds, top Republicans promised a kinder, gentler Republican Party, a Republican Party that cared about ``every American . . . achieving their dreams.'' Republicans bandied about words such as ``fairness'' and ``opportunity.'' They made overtures toward women and Hispanics. They promised cooperation and an end to brinkmanship. House Majority Leader Cantor even spoke of ``an agenda based on a shared vision of creating the conditions for health, happiness, prosperity for more Americans and their families.'' Rebranding, we thought, was underway. Then a few weeks passed and the Republican emphasis on fairness and equity made a direct U-turn back to where they started. Today the House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan will unveil an extreme budget that is anything but balanced. This budget reflects the same skewed priorities the Republican Party has championed for years, the same skewed priorities Americans rejected in November. The Ryan budget will call for more tax breaks for the wealthy, an end of Medicare as we know it, and Draconian cuts to education and other programs to help America's economy grow and prosper. We have heard it many times and I will repeat it. Yogi Berra famously said, ``It's deja vu all over again,'' and it really is. We have seen this before, deja vu all over again. The Ryan budget will shower more tax breaks on millionaires and continue to tilt the playing field to the advantage of big corporate interests and raise taxes for the middle class. I know Congressman Ryan is held out to be this guru who understands things so well. What he understands is gimmickry and that is what he has done so well. He has pulled the wool over the eyes of those people in the House and they continue following him, but his budget is anything but balanced, anything but fair. Members of the House should look at what they are being led into--or out of. This plan, just like last year, refused to close a single tax loophole in order to reduce the deficit. Yet it guts investments in education, health care, public safety, scientific research, and job- creating clean energy technology. The Ryan budget would end the Medicare guarantee and force seniors into a voucher program. It would ax preventive health care such as cancer screenings and charge seniors more for prescriptions and further reduce the funding for food inspectors, police, and first responders generally. As if protecting the wealthy special interests is not bad enough, the Republican budget also devastates the economy, costing jobs and slowing economic growth. Not only is this a wrong approach, it is the same old approach. To make matters worse, the Paul Ryan Budget No. 3--he has done it two other times--used the same fuzzy math and gimmickry as his previous two budgets, relies on accounting that is creative at best and fraudulent at worst to inflate its claims of deficit reduction. We believe it is critical to stabilize the deficit, but it will take more than accounting gimmicks to achieve real deficit reduction. At a time when corporations are making record profits, the stock market is soaring, and wealthy Americans' income continues to rise, the deficit reduction should not have to be at the expense of middle-class families, senior citizens, and the poor. Americans have demanded a fair approach to deficit reduction for all Americans--Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. They want a fair approach to deficit reduction that makes sensible cuts and asks profitable corporations and the wealthiest among us to share the burden--balanced. We have been listening. That is why this week Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray will introduce a budget that reflects those balanced priorities. Her plan, the Democratic plan, will cut wasteful spending and reduce the deficit, close tax loopholes that benefit the rich, and invest where the economy needs to grow, to go really hard, to continue to build, to grow. It will create a strong middle class. Congressman Ryan and his Republican colleagues in Congress have taken a different approach, an approach that makes it plain they missed the message in the November elections. Their budget once again will put moneyed special interests ahead of middle-class families, and no amount of rebranding will hide that.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 21, H.R. 933.

Mr. REID. Madam President, we expect to adopt the motion to proceed to this bill this afternoon and start on the amendment process. I have spoken to the Chair and the ranking member of this committee, and we are anxious to move forward and start doing some legislating. As I said this morning when I opened the Senate, this is exemplary, the work done with the two managers of this bill, and we need to make sure we move forward on it. It would be good if we would have amendments that would be in some way germane and relevant to what we are doing, but we are going to take all amendments and try to work through them as quickly as we can. I hope people would agree to very short time agreements. I would hope we do not need to table the amendments. I hope we can move forward and set up votes on every one of them.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am somewhat amazed and stunned. You would think that someone who is given an answer to the question--yes--should pretty much be satisfied. We have been trying to keep the government from shutting down. I appreciate the work done by the Speaker. I didn't agree with his bill, but I appreciate what he did, and he did it in a timely fashion. The chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Mikulski, has been negotiating with her Republican counterpart, Richard Shelby, for days now. They worked all weekend, late into Sunday night, and they worked out a bipartisan agreement. They offered the amendment here. Now we hear from a couple of Senators: Let's not take up the bill. They need more time. I thought people wanted to have an open amendment process on this bill. Offer amendments. Now it appears that the day is gone. I guess we won't be able to offer amendments today. I have said all along that we would turn to it as soon as possible. Our Republican colleagues said they want to see the first amendment that was to be offered. They saw that. They were originally given to certain people in the leadership office on Saturday about noon, and there has been every effort to work together on this matter. They wanted to see the first amendment that will be offered. I have indicated that was done; they saw it. There were negotiations to get to where that is. But now Senators want to prevent us from going to the bill. Remember, if I file cloture today, the earliest we can have the vote is Thursday. We are going to finish this CR, and we are going to finish the budget before there will be an Easter recess. That is a fact. So everyone should understand that delaying on this--because they want to read the bill more deeply, I guess--doesn't really make a lot of sense. We are going to do the budget resolution. I have made that clear, and I emphasize that now. And the Republicans have been talking about--even though it is basically without foundation--that we haven't had a budget resolution. We haven't needed one. We had one that was not a resolution, it was a law that set the standards for what we would do with our budget. It set ceilings on how much we would spend. As a result of that, we were able to get the funding for our subcommittees and appropriations. But they want a budget resolution, which isn't as good as law, and we are going to do everything we can to get that done. So if Republicans object to allowing the Senate to be in consideration of a bill negotiated with Republicans, then the only people who will be disadvantaged are other Republicans who want to be able to offer amendments. So I regret that again we have come to this. Just when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse. There are things we have to do. The CR is one of those. If it means cutting into the April recess--we have 2 weeks to do a lot of things people have planned for some time--then that is what we will need to do. But I am stunned. I learned about this when we had the President at our caucus. I really am flabbergasted that here we are on the eve of doing something together, regular order, but regular order around here is stopping every bill from going on the floor. That is what the regular order is here. I thought we had some kind of an agreement at the beginning of this Congress that this wasn't going to go on anymore. We had that 2 years ago. We changed the rules here a little bit. There is going to be tremendous angst within my caucus and I think the country to continue trying to legislate with the burdens that we bear, that just one or two people do everything they can to throw a monkey wrench into everything we do. As a country, we are being looked at as being inoperable. It is too bad. It is not good for this institution, and it is really not good for the country.

Mr. REID. Object to what? Mr. President, through the Chair to my friend from Arizona, this is a 587-page bill that has been available to the public because the vast majority of this bill is identical to what the House already passed-- identical. He, along with his staff and the Senator from Oklahoma, have had days and days to look this over. I want to make sure everyone understands I can only do so much. I try not to be too sensitive, but the Senator from Oklahoma seems to have a problem--I assume he was referring to me or perhaps he was referring to Senators Durbin, Schumer, and Murray. Here is what he said on one of the Sunday shows: ``The Senate's not nearly as dysfunctional as it is made out to be . . . '' said Coburn. ``Our problem in the Senate is the leadership in the Senate.'' I don't know if he is referring to Senator McConnell, I don't know whom he is referring to, but one day he should look in the mirror. I want to try and get along here. The vast majority of the stuff that is in this bill came from the House of Representatives. It has been available for days. I cannot remember what day we received this. I think it was last Wednesday or thereabouts, so it has been many days. I know Senator McCain very well. He and I came to the House and the Senate together. I understand how he feels about these issues. I don't blame him for being upset about some of the things in this bill, but it is not our fault. We are trying to get a bill to fund the government, and what we need to do is get on the bill. I am criticized for not allowing amendments to be offered. We cannot have amendments offered until we get on the bill. I think it would be much better if we could get on the bill. If people want to offer amendments, it is kind of jump ball here. We have 100 Senators, and a few of them want to offer amendments. We cannot dictate what amendments will be offered before we even get on the bill. I hope my friend from Arizona will take some time with the staff and look the bill over--it has been around since last Wednesday or thereabouts--so we can get on the bill. The time is being wasted. We have to finish this and the budget before we leave for Easter vacation. We can do the bill this week, next week or the week after that. We have to get this done. I am not trying to fight with anybody, but as I said, I do have some sensitivities about my friend from Oklahoma continually berating the leadership in the Senate. I have come to the rationalization that maybe he is talking about his own leadership. I don't know.