Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, if I could ask my friend to withhold for a brief moment.

Mr. REID. It is my understanding that Senator Coburn has been waiting around for a while to talk. The Senator is OK waiting?

Mr. REID. OK.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I appreciate my friend's remarks about his pastor. They were very well thought out, and I appreciate them very much. Schedule

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the first hour here today will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. The majority will control the first half and the Republicans the final half. I filed cloture last night on a motion to proceed to the cybersecurity bill. I hope we can reach an agreement to have that cloture vote sometime today. If not, we will have it tomorrow. When a major storm ripped through the Mid-Atlantic region last month, it left millions of people without power--I repeat, millions of people. I was at my home here in Washington, which is different from my home in Searchlight, NV. In Searchlight, the wind blows a lot, so you can hear the wind. It is kind of pleasant for me. But the wind we heard at our home in Washington was not pleasant. At 9:30 or 10:00 at night, it was loud and it was abusive and it was, quite frankly, a little scary. Our power was not affected, but that wasn't the case for millions of other people. Residents of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and the District of Columbia soon realized how quickly a major power outage can alter life as we know it. I talked to Senator Manchin of West Virginia, and a week later power was still out in large parts of West Virginia. He said it was the worst storm they have ever known in West Virginia. This power outage altered life as people knew it here in the entire eastern part of the United States. The blackout was devastating to many families and many businesses. But it was also minor compared to the devastation that malicious cyber terrorists could wreak with a single keystroke. I repeat, as damaging and frightening as this storm was, we could have a malicious cyber attack by terrorists that would be far more devastating than this violent storm. Cyber attackers could all too easily shut down the electric grid for the entire east coast, the west coast, and the middle part of our country. Any one attack could leave dozens of major cities and tens of millions of Americans without power. We know, because we were shown in a room here in the Capitol, how an attack could take place and what damage it would do, so we know this is not just make-believe. Without ATMs or debit card readers, commerce would immediately grind to a halt. My daughter, who lives here in the DC area, lost power when the storm hit. They waited for a number of hours, and then they took all the food out of their freezer, they gave away what they could, and they threw the rest away. And that was the way it was all over. Their power was out for about a week, and it made it very difficult. They are fortunate enough to have a basement, and the heat wasn't oppressive down there. Without refrigeration, food would rot on the shelves, the freezers would have to be emptied, and people could actually go hungry. Without gas pumps, transportation arteries would clog with abandoned vehicles. Without cell phones or computers, whole regions of the country would be cut off from communication and families would be unable to reach each other. Without air-conditioning and without lifesaving technology and the service of hospitals and nursing homes, the elderly and sick would become much sicker and die. Most major hospitals have backup power, but it is only for a limited amount of time. It depends on how much fuel they can store, and that is very limited. The devastation is really unimaginable, but we have heard these ominous scenarios before. What many Americans haven't considered is that the same power grids that supply cities and towns, stores and gas stations, cell towers and heart monitors also power every military base in our country. About 99 percent of electricity used to power military installations comes from outside the bases. Nellis Air Force Base, one of the largest in the world of its type, has some solar energy there that they have developed, but over 90 percent of their power, in spite of that, comes from outside the base, and more than 85 percent of that power is provided by the same electric utilities that power homes and businesses and schools in the civilian world. So a cyber attack that took out a civilian power grid would also soon cripple our Nation's military--very soon. Although bases would be prepared to weather a short power outage with backup diesel generators, within hours, not days, fuel supplies would run out. Command and control centers would go dark. Radar systems that detect air threats to our country would shut down. Communication between commanders and their troops would go silent. And many weapons systems would be left without either fuel or electric power. Much of what we do militarily is now done by computers and done very remotely. It is no secret that the drones that operate for our country all over the world are not operated from Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Somalia, they are operated from a base 35 miles outside Las Vegas. That is all done with electricity. So in a few short hours or days, the mightiest military in the world would be left scrambling to maintain base functions. That is why our top national security officials--including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Director of the National Security Agency, the Secretary of Defense, and the CIA Director--have said that the kind of malicious cyber attack I have just described is among the most urgent threats to our country. In fact, they have said that unless we do something and do it soon, it is not a question of if, it is only a question of when. There have already been cyber attacks on our nuclear infrastructure, our Defense Department's most advanced weapons, the NASDAQ stock exchange, and most major corporations. These are just a few of the things that have already been attacked by cyber. Senator McConnell and I recently received a letter from a bipartisan group of former national security officials, including six former Bush and Obama administration officials, that presented the danger in stark terms: We carry the burden of knowing that 9/11 might have been averted with the intelligence that existed at the time. We do not want to be in the same position again when ``cyber 9/11'' hits--it is not a question of whether this will happen; it is only a question of ``when.'' That is what they said, not me. The group said the threat of cyber attack ``represents the most serious challenge to our national security since the onset of the nuclear age sixty years ago.'' The bill before this body, proposed by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans--including Chairman Lieberman and ranking member Collins--is an excellent piece of legislation endorsed by many members of the national security community. In my view, it is not strong enough, but it is a tremendous step forward, and I admire the work they have done. I know some of my colleagues have suggestions on how to improve this legislation. I have a few of my own. There is plenty of room for good ideas. Some of them are already on the table. It is my intention for Senators to have an opportunity to have a robust debate on these proposals. Let's stick with what this bill is all about and let's have as many amendments as people feel is appropriate. The national security experts agree we can't afford to waste more time. The question is not whether we should act but whether we will act in time. As I mentioned at the start, we are scheduled to have this vote an hour after we come in tomorrow. I am working with Senator McConnell now to try to arrange a time, perhaps even today. My goal is to get on the bill. I hope we can get on the bill. It would be terrible for our country if we are not on the bill. I would like to get on the bill and have Senators Lieberman, Collins, Rockefeller, Feinstein, and the other committees that are involved come up with a list of amendments as we have done so well on a number of the bills we have worked through. When we come back next week, let's start doing some legislating and have some robust debate, get some of these amendments disposed of, and pass this bill on to the House. The House has done their bill. We can go to conference and get something done. It would be very important for our country. Recognition of the Minority Leader

Mr. REID. Madam President, I appreciate my friend yielding, my dear friend from Vermont.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 470, S. 3414, which is the Cybersecurity Act.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would now yield to the senior Senator from the State of Iowa, Mr. Grassley.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk with respect to this nomination.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that at 3:30 p.m. today, the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to proceed--or what we can do, we will start the vote at 3:25; and if somebody is going to be a bit late, we will protect them on that. So I ask unanimous consent we start voting at 3:25 p.m. today on the motion to proceed to S. 3414, the cybersecurity bill.

Mr. REID. Madam President, I meant that request to be 3:22 p.m.

Mr. REID. All for my friend from Louisiana.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I would object to any further proceedings with respect to this legislation.

Mr. REID. Madam President, for the third time in as many weeks, Republicans are poised to kill a tax cut without ever debating it on the Senate floor. Two weeks ago, Republicans filibustered legislation to cut taxes for small businesses. Last week, they filibustered a bill to end tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas and cut taxes for companies that move jobs back to America. Now they are filibustering our plan to cut taxes for 114 million middle-class families. Not one of these bills has gotten a debate on the Senate floor. So let's look at what led to this latest Republican filibuster. Two weeks ago, Senator McConnell came to the Senate floor to ask for two votes, one on the Democratic plan to cut taxes for 98 percent of American families and reduce the deficit by about $1 trillion. The other vote he wanted was on the Republican plan to raise taxes by $1,000 each for 25 million middle-class families while handing out tax breaks to millionaires of $160,000 each. That afternoon, I told the minority leader that Democrats were willing to give Republicans what they said they wanted--those two votes. But although it had been only a few short hours since Senator McConnell asked for those two votes, my offer was refused. He said he had to see our proposal first. It seemed like a thin excuse at the time. He hadn't seen our proposal when he asked for the votes in the first place, but others within his caucus had seen it, and the staff had seen it, of course. But I took the minority leader at his word. So Democrats produced legislation in legislative form, and we offered once again to vote on our bill and on the Republicans' plan to hike middle-class taxes. Again, they refused the up-or-down votes they had asked for. This time they wanted a third vote now, on a different plan, we are told. We have President Obama's tax plan before us. I am not going to make up some tax plan of the President that they said they are going to do. We have President Obama's tax plan. We have worked hand in glove with him now for months to come to the body with what we have today. So this third vote is again a charade. The Presiding Officer has a couple of small children. My children aren't so small anymore. But small children being small children, it is very often they have a bedtime tactic that has been used forever. I am sure the Presiding Officer's children--and I know my kids--when they needed to get to sleep always wanted one more story. They would ask for one more story and then one more story. But parents learned and saw this bedtime story for what it is, a delaying tactic to stave off bedtime. Americans see the Republicans' hollow request for one more vote, a made-up vote, for what it is, an excuse to put off a simple majority vote on the Democrats' plan to cut taxes for the middle class. Of course, we know why Republicans are filibustering our plan to protect the middle class: They know it would pass if we held an up-or-down majority vote on that today. Our bill has the support of President Obama, it has the support of the Democratic caucus, and it has the support of the American people. A majority of Americans--including a significant majority of Republicans--agree taxes should remain low for the middle class and that the top 2 percent should pay their fair share to reduce the deficit. As I said, the majority of Republicans agree. The only place there is no agreement is with the Republicans in Congress. They once again have decided to obstruct rather than to legislate. So the Senate may not even get to debate the merits of our plan to cut taxes for 98 percent of American families. There is still time for Republicans to reverse course and drop their filibuster. They owe the American people a serious debate on this proposal. Cybersecurity Madam President, I hope my friends on the other side of the aisle will allow us to debate a crucial cybersecurity bill before the end of this month. We hope to have a vote on this as early as tomorrow or the next day. Cybersecurity--a new word, but there is nothing more important to national security than doing something about cybersecurity. If we do not pass this legislation that is now before the Senate, if we don't do something about this, we are told by the experts it is not a question of if; it is a question of when. This legislation is extremely important. National security experts from the left, the right, and center say weaknesses in our cyber defenses are among the greatest threats facing our Nation--and some say it is the greatest threat facing our Nation. So Congress must act rapidly to address this issue. The House and Senate must also act before Congress leaves for the August recess to pass the final version of legislation initiating new Iran sanctions. This past year, the Senate conference has been hard at work to complete this agreement. I have been clear that I expect the negotiations to conclude soon so we can further tighten these sanctions against Iran. Sanctions are critical. It is a critical tool to help stop Iran's nuclear weapons program and ensuring the security of our ally, the State of Israel. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. REID. Madam President, I understand that S. 3429 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

Mr. REID. Madam President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 467, the Middle Class Tax Cut Act of 2012.

Mr. REID. Madam President, we are now in the midst of another Republican filibuster. So the time until 2:15 today will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. The Republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the second 30 minutes. At 2:15, there will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the Middle Class Tax Cut Act that was just outlined by the clerk. Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 3429

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that at 4 p.m. the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed to S. 3412 be withdrawn; the Senate adopt the motion to proceed to S. 3412, a bill extending the 2001, 2003, and 2009 tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans and 90 percent of all small businesses; that the only amendment in order to the bill be a substitute amendment offered by Senators McConnell and Hatch, which is identical to the text of S. 3413; that the amendment not be divisible; that the time until 4 p.m. be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to a vote on the McConnell-Hatch amendment; that upon disposition of the McConnell- Hatch amendment, the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended; that there be no motions, points of order, or amendments in order to the amendment or the bill; that there be 2 minutes equally divided between the votes; finally, that when the Senate receives a companion bill from the House providing for the extension of tax cuts, as designated by the majority leader, it be in order for the majority leader to proceed to its immediate consideration; strike all after the enacting clause and insert the text of S. 3412 as passed by the Senate in lieu thereof; that the House bill, as amended, be read a third time, a statutory pay-go statement be read, if needed, and the bill, as amended, be passed with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, the President's bill is the one that is before this body that I asked unanimous consent on. We have a Statement of Administration Policy. It is the President's bill. So I respectfully object to my friend's suggested modifications.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, my friend is objecting to the last paragraph in my request. He has asked consent to add a third provision. I have objected to the third provision. He has objected to the last paragraph. I would be willing to renew my consent minus the last paragraph which begins ``finally'' and ends with the word ``debate.''

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the vote will occur at 4 o'clock today on these two amendments. I appreciate very much the Republican leader allowing us to arrive at the point where we are. I would tell everyone that the time until 4 o'clock is evenly divided, approximately an hour for each side. I ask unanimous consent that if there are quorum calls between now and 4 o'clock the time be equally divided between the two sides.

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