Harry Reid

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following leader remarks on Sunday, December 30, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 518 under the previous order; further, that after the use or yielding back of the time, we proceed to consideration of Calendar No. 909 and proceed to vote on Calendar No. 909 and Calendar No. 518; that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form prior to each vote; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table; that there being no intervening action or debate and no further motions be in order to the nomination; that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record, President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 475, S. 3454.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader, with the concurrence of the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 502, H.R. 8.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a Feinstein- Chambliss substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed to H.R. 6014.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 6620 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to this matter be placed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1464 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that the Burr substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; that the title amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and any statements relating to the measure be printed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent to proceed to H.R. 6621.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Leahy- Grassley substitute amendment which is at the desk be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; a motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and any statements related to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, there will be two rollcall votes at approximately 2 p.m. on Sunday.

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, following the remarks of Senator Schumer, for not to exceed 8 minutes.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 1 p.m. on Sunday, December 30, 2012; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session under the previous order; and that following disposition of the Galante nomination, the Senate recess for 1 hour to allow for caucus meetings.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, New Years Eve is fast approaching and for decades and decades the American people have watched the ball drop in Times Square. It is the countdown to midnight, the start of a new year. This year the American people are waiting for the ball to drop, but it is not going to be a good drop because Americans' taxes are moving in the wrong direction. Come the first of this year, Americans will have less income than they have today if we go over the cliff--and it looks as if that is where we are headed. The House of Representatives as we speak, with 4 days left after today to the 1st of the year, is not here, with the Speaker having told them he will give them 48 hours' notice. I can't imagine their consciences. They are out wherever they are around the country and we are here, trying to get something done. They are not in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is not here. They could not even get the Republican leadership together yesterday. They had to do it with a teleconference. If we go over the cliff, we will be left with the knowledge it could have been prevented with a single vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Prior to this session starting today, the Presiding Officer and I had a conversation about how things have changed around here. I served in the House of Representatives. There are 435 Members of the House. What goes on in this country should not be decided by the majority, it should be decided by the whole House of Representatives. Everyone, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, knows that if they had brought up the Senate-passed bill that would give relief to everyone making less than $250,000 a year, it would pass overwhelmingly. Every Democrat would vote for it and Republicans would vote for it. But the Speaker, he says: No; we cannot do that. It has to be a majority of the majority. So we have done nothing. He even tried to bring up the bill last week to show they could defeat it. They could not do that even. They could not defeat the bill that passed in the Senate. I don't think the American people understand the House of Representatives is not operating as a House of Representatives. It is being operated with a dictatorship of the Speaker not allowing the vast majority of the House of Representatives to get what they want. If the $250,000 threshold would be brought up, it would pass overwhelmingly, I repeat. On any given day for the last 5 or 6 months, since July 25, Speaker Boehner could have brought the Senate-passed middle-class tax cut legislation to a vote in the House and it would have passed. But he has made the decision he is not letting us have a vote on that because if he let it be voted upon, it would pass. I have said it is not too late for the Speaker to take up the Senate-passed bill, but even that time is winding down. Today is Thursday. He is going to give 48 hours' notice to the House before they come back. So 48 hours from today is Saturday. With just that one vote, middle-class families would have the security that taxes would not go up by at least $2,200 on New Year's Day. That is the average. Some would go up more, some less, of course. Speaker Boehner should call Members back to Washington today. He should not have let them go, in fact. They are not here. John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the Nation on a firm financial footing. It is obvious what is going on around here. He is waiting until January 3 to get reelected as Speaker before he gets serious with negotiations because he has so many people over there who will not follow what he wants. That is obvious from the debacle that took place last week, and it was a debacle. He made an offer to the President. The President came back--they are just a little bit apart--and he walked away from that and went to Plan B. All that did is whack people who need help the most--poor people. He could not even pass that. Remember, he is not letting the House of Representatives vote. He is letting the Republicans vote. It was so bad, and he was in such difficult shape there he would not even let a vote take place with his Republicans because he knew he would lose. For months, he has allowed House Republicans to hold middle-class taxpayers hostage to protect the richest 2 percent, and the funny thing about that is the 2 percent do not want to be protected. The majority of people in our great country are willing to pay more. The only people who disagree with that are Republicans who work in this building. The Speaker just has a few days left to change his mind, but I have to be very honest; I don't know, timewise, how it can happen now. Everyone knows we cannot bring up anything here unless we do it by unanimous consent because the rules have been so worked the last few years that we cannot do anything without 60 votes. There are 53 of us. After the first of the year, there will be 55 of us. I hope the Speaker and the Republican leader in the Senate would come to us and say here is what we think will work. Let's find out what that could be because the Speaker cannot pass, it seems, much of anything over there. On the Sunday shows they had Republican Senators and they were asked on the FOX network--pretty conservative, and that is probably a gross understatement--would you filibuster the President's bill? They refused to answer. We don't make that decision. We can't answer that. A filibuster is over all our heads. That is why we have to look seriously next year at changing the rules around here. The bill that has passed the Senate protects 98 percent of families and 97 percent of small businesses. They passed a bill in the House, that we defeated, that extends the tax cuts for everybody. That was voted down over here. The President said he would veto it. So this happy talk--the Republican House leadership said yesterday: Let them take our bill. That bill was brought up and it was defeated. I repeat, the American people do not agree with the Republicans in the House and Republicans over here. The way to avoid the fiscal cliff has been right in the face of the Republican leaders, both McConnell and Boehner, for days and days, going into weeks and months, and it is the only option that is a viable escape route and that is the Senate- passed bill. It would not be hard to pass. I have talked about that at some length. Every Democrat in the House would vote for it, a handful of Republicans would vote for it, and that is all that would be needed. But Grover Norquist is standing in the way of this--not the rich people but Grover Norquist, the man who says what the Republicans can do. I say to the Speaker: Take the escape hatch we have left you. Put the economic fate of the Nation ahead of your own fate as Speaker of the House. Millions of middle-class families are nervously watching and waiting and counting down the moment until their taxes go up. Nothing can move forward in regard to our budget crisis unless Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell are willing to participate in coming up with a bipartisan plan. Speaker Boehner is unwilling to negotiate, we have not heard a word from Leader McConnell, and nothing is happening. Democrats cannot put forward a plan of their own. Without the participation of Leader McConnell and Speaker Boehner, nothing can happen on the fiscal cliff and so far they are radio silent. We are going to work in the next couple of days to get the most important legislation done on FISA. There should be a good debate. We have people who are interested in changing what we have on the floor. There have been a series of amendments on trying to change FISA--the espionage legislation that guides this country. It should be a good debate. We have to finish the supplemental appropriations bill that is so important for the people in the Northeast. We have a lot to do. There could be as many as 28 votes in the next few days. We are in Washington working while the Members of the House of Representatives are out watching movies, watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here. They should be here urging the Speaker: Let's bring up the $250,000 bill. Let's not have middle-class Americans and small businesses get hurt. What is the business?

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am not sure my distinguished Republican counterpart has followed what has taken place in the House of Representatives. In the House, as reported by the press and we all know it, one of the plans--it did not have a name, it was not Plan B, I don't know what plan it was because they had a number over there--but this plan was to show the American people that the $250,000 ceiling on raising taxes would not pass in the House. Why did they not have that vote? Because it would have passed. They wanted to kill it. The Speaker wanted to show everybody it would not pass the House, but he could not bring it up for a vote because it would have passed. A myriad of Republicans think it is a fair thing to do and of course every Democrat would vote for that. The Republican leader finds himself frustrated that the President has called on him to help address the fiscal cliff. He is upset because ``the phone never rang.'' He complains that I have not delivered the votes to pass a resolution of the fiscal cliff, but he is in error. We all know that in July of this year we passed, in the Senate, relief for middle-class Americans. That passed the Senate. We know Republicans have buried themselves in procedural roadblocks on everything we have tried to do around here. Now they are saying we cannot do the $250,000 because it will be blue-slipped. How do the American people react to that? There was a bill introduced by the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee in the House, Sandy Levin, that called for this legislation. The Speaker was going to bring it up to kill it, but he could not kill it. Then we moved to Plan B, the debacle of all debacles. It is the mother of all debacles. That was brought up in an effort to send us something. He could not even pass it among the Republicans it was so absurd--``he'' meaning the Speaker. It is very clear now that the Speaker's No. 1 goal is to get elected Speaker on January 3. The House is not even here. He has told them he will give them 2 days to get back here--48 hours; not 2 days, 48 hours. They do not even have enough of the leadership here to meet to talk about it. They have done it with conference calls. People are spread all over this country because the Speaker basically is waiting for January 3. The President campaigned on raising taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year. The Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of this year. Obama was elected with a surplus of 3 million votes. He won the election. He campaigned on this issue. Again, the Speaker cannot take yes for an answer. The President has presented him something that would prevent us from going over the cliff. It was in response to something the Speaker gave to the President himself. But again, I guess, with the dysfunctional Republican caucus in the House, even the Speaker cannot tell what they are going to do because he backed off even his own proposal. The House, we hear this so often, is controlled by the Republicans. We acknowledge that. I would be most happy to move forward on something Senator McConnell said they would not filibuster over here, that he would support and that Boehner would support, if it were reasonable. But right now we have not heard anything. I don't know--it is none of my business, I guess, although I am very curious--if the Republican leader over here and the Speaker are even talking. What is going on here? You cannot legislate with yourself. We have nobody to work with, to compromise. That is what legislation is all about, the ability to compromise. The Republicans in the House have left town. The negotiations between the President and the Speaker have fallen apart, as they have for the last 3\1/2\ years. We have tried mightily to get something done. I will go over the little drill, to remind everyone how unreasonable the Republicans have been. Senator Conrad and Judd Gregg came up with a proposal to pattern what they wanted to do after the Base Closing Commission. The Commission would be appointed, they would report back to us, no filibusters, no amendments, yes or no, as we did with the base closings. We did a great job there. We closed bases over two different cycles, saving the country hundreds of billions of dollars. We brought that up here--I brought it up. We had plenty of votes to do it, except the Republican cosponsors walked away and wouldn't vote for it. That is where Bowles-Simpson came from. Again, people talked about why don't we do Bowles-Simpson? One problem: The Republicans appointed there would not vote for it, generally speaking. Then we went through the months and months of talks between the President and Boehner. Both times Boehner could not deliver because they refused, because of Grover Norquist, to allow any tax revenues whatsoever. We had meetings with Vice President Biden and Cantor. Cantor walked out of those meetings. He is the majority leader in the House. We had the Gang of 6, we had the Gang of 8, we had the supercommittee. They were doing good things dealing with entitlements and revenues. One week before they were to report by virtue of statute I get a letter signed by virtually every Republican: Too bad about the supercommittee, we are not going to do anything with revenues. This is not a capsule of a couple days. This has been going on for years. They cannot cross over the threshold that has been built by Grover Norquist. People who are rich, who make a lot of money, they are not opposing raising the taxes on them. The only people in America who do not think taxes should be raised on the rich are the Republicans who work in this building. Any-time the Speaker and the Republican leader come to the President and say we have a deal for you, the President's door is always open and mine is too.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, will my friend yield for a question?

Mr. REID. The distinguished Senator from Oregon and I served together in the House of Representatives. Does the Senator remember the days when the House voted not as a majority but as a body to come up with how legislation should be given to the American people? Does my friend remember that?

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have in my hands a letter from Brian Schatz, the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Hawaii, and that letter is a resignation letter. I ask unanimous consent the resignation letter be printed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, on behalf of the entire Senate, I welcome Senator Brian Schatz to the Senate. I congratulate him on his appointment to fill the seat of the late Senator Dan Inouye who, as we all know, was an institution in and of himself. Senator Schatz is now one of the youngest Senators in this body. Nevertheless, he has a long history of serving the State of Hawaii. Prior to entering politics, Senator Schatz served for 8 years as the CEO of Helping Hands Hawaii, one of Hawaii's largest nonprofit social services organizations. He also served four terms in the Hawaii House of Representatives and served until just a few minutes ago as the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Hawaii. Having been a Lieutenant Governor he has experience as a legislator, and then as one of the presiding officers of the entire Senate, speaks for itself in helping to prepare for the job he has here. I expect he will build upon the foundation laid by Senator Inouye in the Senate. While no one can fill the shoes of our friend Senator Inouye, Brian Schatz is a young man with a future full of promise and opportunity. I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Hawaii, Mr. Akaka, now be recognized.