Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of H.R. 8; that the substitute amendment, the text of which is at the desk, be agreed to; that there be 10 minutes of debate equally divided between the two leaders prior to a vote on passage of the bill, as amended; that there be no other amendments in order prior to the vote; that there be no points of order in order to the substitute amendment or the bill; finally, that the vote on passage be subject to a 60-vote affirmative vote threshold.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, very quickly, we have worked really hard this week. We Senators had to be here and are happy to be here, but there are four individuals who didn't have to work this week, but they volunteered to do so. These four pages have kept this place operating by helping floor staff and us. They could be home with their families and friends enjoying the holiday. Instead, they are here. We have 18-year-old Jarrod Nagurka, of Arlington. He gave up his winter break to be here; Twenty-two-year-old Priscilla Pelli of Washington, DC, is a staff assistant in my office. She has devoted her time here. Twenty-two-year-old Erin Shields of Takoma Park, MD, is an intern in my office. And 16-year-old Gwendilyn Liu of Kaneohe, HI, the only remaining current page, skipped her winter vacation to help here. I want the record to reflect our deep appreciation for them, and I wish them the very best in their future endeavors. Mr. President, working through the night and throughout today, we have reached an agreement with Senator McConnell to avert tax increases on middle-class Americans. I have said all along that our most important priority was to protect middle-class families. This legislation does that. Middle-class families will wake up today to the assurance that their taxes won't go up $2,200 each. They will have the certainty to plan how they will pay for groceries, rent, and car payments all during next year. The legislation also protects 2 million Americans who have lost their jobs during the great recession from losing their unemployment insurance. I am disappointed that we weren't able to make the grand bargain that we tried to do for so long, but we tried. If we do nothing, the threat of a recession is very real. And passing this agreement does not mean the negotiations halt--far from it. We can all agree there is more work to be done. I thank everybody for their patience today--and they have had a lot of patience. I also thank my friend the Republican leader, Senator McConnell, for his hard work to reach this bipartisan agreement. It has been difficult and very hard. As we have said before, Senator McConnell and I out here do a lot of talking to each other; we kind of go over everybody's head. But he and I know that when the talk is done out here, we work hard to try to help this country. So he is my friend, and I appreciate very, very much the work he has done. For example, this bill cuts $4 billion in fiscal year 2013 and $8 billion in fiscal year 2014. These are real cuts that are in this bill. I hope the new year will bring a new willingness on the part of the House Republicans to join Democrats in the difficult but rewarding work of governing. The Speaker has said all along that he was waiting for the Senate to act. The Senate soon will act. Now, I hope for America that the Speaker will allow the full House of Representatives to vote on this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the vote will start immediately, and people should get here as quickly as they can.

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

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we don't expect any more votes today, no more votes today. We want to wait and see what the House does on Sandy, and I think whatever we do on Sandy will have to be done by unanimous consent anyway, so I wouldn't expect any votes until we come back here and reconvene on January 3, the day after tomorrow.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Committee on Armed Services has received a request from the Secretary of the Air Force seeking access to records of the Committee relating to the Committee's consideration of the 1972 nomination of MG John D. Lavelle to retire at the rank of lieutenant general. That nomination was not confirmed. In 2010, the President nominated Major General Lavelle to be posthumously advanced on the retired list to the rank of general. After the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee requested further information regarding that nomination, the Air Force initiated an independent review of Major General Lavelle's case. That review is being led by the Honorable William H. Webster. The Secretary of the Air Force requests that Judge Webster and those assisting him in the independent review be granted access to the Committee's executive session documents relating to the 1972 Lavelle nomination. The Chair and Ranking Minority Member of the Committee would like to be able to cooperate with this request by providing access to those conducting this independent review to the requested committee records. This resolution would authorize the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Committee on Armed Services, acting jointly, to provide records, under appropriate security procedures, from the Committee's 1972 consideration of the Lavelle nomination to those conducting the independent review of Major General Lavelle's case on behalf of the Air Force.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we are going to come in at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning. We will have further announcements, perhaps, at 11 o'clock in the morning. I certainly hope so.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I yield back the remaining time.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we had a brief colloquy, the Republican leader and I, before the vote. Now that everyone is on the floor, I will elaborate a little bit. We have one more vote today. Then we are both going to have our respective caucuses. We hope there will be an announcement after that. We will have to wait and see. Over the last 24 hours, we have been working with Senator McConnell's staff and Senator McConnell to craft legislation to shield middle-class families from huge tax increases that could pass both Chambers on a bipartisan basis. But I wish to be clear. There are still serious differences between the two sides. I am only going to talk about one. We have made a lot of progress. I said earlier today, I appreciate very much Senator McConnell's good-faith efforts, and I am confident he feels the same way about me. The one thing I do want to mention is that we are not going to have any Social Security cuts. At this stage, that just doesn't seem appropriate. We are open to discussion about entitlement reforms, but we are going to have to take it in a different direction. The present status will not work. We are willing to make difficult concessions as part of a balanced comprehensive agreement, but we will not agree to cut Social Security benefits as part of a small or short-term agreement, especially if that agreement gives more handouts to the rich. With 36 hours left until the country goes over the Cliff, I remain hopeful but realistic about the prospects of reaching a bipartisan agreement. At some point in the negotiating process it becomes obvious, when the other side is intentionally demanding concessions they know the other side is not willing to make, we are not there. I hope we are going to be able to go further. Right now, with the status of the negotiations, we are not where we could come forward and say we have this for you. As I indicated, and just to make another statement in that regard, at some point in the negotiating process it appears there are things that stop us from moving forward. I hope we are not there, but we are getting real close, and that is why I still hold out hope we can get something done. I am not overly optimistic, but I am cautiously optimistic we can get something done. I hope I have made it clear we have one vote. That is all we have. I hope later in the evening there will be another vote or two, but right now we don't have that. We have one scheduled vote, and that is taking place right now. But everybody should hang loose because something may break and we will be able to get something done.

Mr. REID. We yield back all time.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, there will be an hour of debate on the Galante nomination. At 2 p.m. there will be two rollcall votes on confirmation of the nominations of William Baer to be an Assistant Attorney General and Carol Galante to be an Assistant Secretary for HUD. Following those votes, there will be a recess allowing for caucus meetings. The majority's meeting will begin at 3 o'clock today. Would the Chair announce the business of the day.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have been negotiating now for 36 hours or thereabouts. We did have conversations last night that ended late in the evening between the staffs. This morning we have been trying to come up with some counteroffer to my friend's proposal. We have been unable to do that. I have had a number of conversations with the President. At this stage, we are not able to make a counteroffer. The Republican leader has told me that--he just said here that he is working with the Vice President. I wish them well. In the meantime, I will continue to try to come up with something, but at this stage, I do not have a counteroffer to make. Perhaps as the day wears on, I will be able to. I will say that I think the Republican leader has shown absolute good faith. It is just that we are apart on some pretty big issues.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate recess subject to the call of the Chair.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I was gratified to hear the Republicans taking their demand for Social Security cuts off the table. The truth is that they should never have been on the table to begin with. There is still a significant difference between the two sides but negotiations continue. There is still time left to reach an agreement, and we intend to continue negotiations. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to a period of morning business for debate only, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an amendment to the title of H.R. 1, the text of which is at the desk, be agreed to.

Mr. REID. Sunday. We have another vote that has been set up, Baer. That is a simple majority.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am told by the manager of this bill, Senator Mikulski, that she thinks they can complete work on this legislation, the supplemental, in the next couple hours. I hope that is the case. Maybe they can even do it more quickly. Here is what the plan is. I talked to the Republican leader about this generally, not specifically. Everyone knows we have been to the White House. We have had a constructive meeting. We certainly hope something positive will come from that. The Republican leader and I and our staffs are working to see what we can come up with. It should not take a long time to do that. I think it would be to everyone's interest if we were not in session tomorrow. It is my plan to come in at 1 o'clock. We have an hour on a previous agreement that we have on Galante. There is an hour of debate on that. We would have a vote.

Mr. REID. Yes. We will have those votes, start the votes after 2, and then for us we will have another caucus following that. Hopefully, by that time, we will have made a determination, Senator McConnell and I, whether we can do something on the floor in addition to what I have just talked about. But I do think we need that time to have everybody kind of step back a little bit. If we come up with something, it is not that easy. We are dealing with big numbers and some of the stuff we do is somewhat complicated. But I think it was a very positive meeting. There was not a lot of hilarity in the meeting. Everyone knows how important it is. It was a very serious meeting, and it took an extended period of time, as you all know, waiting for us. I would like to have the Republican leader speak.

Mr. REID. I am going to do everything I can and I am confident Senator McConnell will do the same. But for everybody, whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect. Some people are not going to like it, some people will like it less, but that is where we are. I am confident we have an obligation to do the best we can. That was made very clear in the White House. We are going to do the best we can for the caucuses we have and the country that is waiting for us to make a decision. Amendment No. 3355

Mr. REID. Mr. President, first of all, I congratulate the people who worked so hard on this bill. We appreciate the new chair of the Appropriations Committee and the good work she did; the work done by the New York delegation, led by Senator Schumer; and the work done by the New Jersey delegation. This is extremely fine legislation. I really appreciate all their hard work, and the cooperation we got from the Republicans was wonderful. The people in New England suffered a tremendous blow caused by nature. As has happened during the entire history of this country when that sort of devastation has occurred, Congress stepped in to do something to help the beleaguered people. In this case, it is New York, New Jersey, and some other States, but they were the ones hit the hardest. Even now, hundreds of thousands of people are without homes, so I hope the House takes this up very quickly.

Mr. REID

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 we now move to a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. For the information of all Senators, we are going to have two votes before we break for our caucuses--the Republicans have a caucus, we have one. So we have two votes before lunch. Then at 2 o'clock we will have another vote. If the meetings run over a little bit, that will give people 15 minutes to get here to vote. Then Senator McConnell and I are both going to be indisposed from 3 o'clock to 4 o'clock. So we will have a little brief time there. Then we will finish the bill, we hope, after that. The order says we are coming back at 2:15. I ask unanimous consent that it be modified so we come back at 2 o'clock.

Mr. REID. So the Senator from Oklahoma is going to debate the second amendment and then we will have two stacked votes.