Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 439, S. 2239.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, then be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the upcoming recess or adjournment of the Senate, the President of the Senate, the President pro tempore, and the majority and minority leaders be authorized to make appointments to commissions, committees, boards, conferences, or interparliamentary conferences authorized by law, by concurrent action of the two Houses, or by order of the Senate.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 3363.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements related to this bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, as previously announced, there will be no rollcall votes on Monday, July 9. The next rollcall vote will be at noon on Tuesday, July 10, on the confirmation of the Fowlkes nomination.

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 unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn and convene for pro forma sessions only, with no business conducted, on the following dates and times, and that following each pro forma session, the Senate adjourn until the next pro forma session: Tuesday, July 3, at 12 p.m.; Friday, July 6, at 12 p.m.; and that the Senate adjourn on Friday, July 6, until 2 p.m. on Monday, July 9, unless the Senate has received a message from the House that it has adopted S. Con. Res. 51, which is the adjournment resolution; that if the Senate has received such a message, the Senate adjourn until Monday, July 9, at 2 p.m., under the provisions of S. Con. Res. 51; 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 use later in the day; that the majority leader be recognized and Senators be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would object to any further proceedings with respect to this matter at this time.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the next hour will be divided between the Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans will control the first half and the majority will control the final half. It was last night, but just barely, when we finally worked out some agreement on a piece of legislation we are dealing with. The House posted that last night just before midnight to meet their rules. It includes the transportation conference and flood insurance and student loans in one package. I say to all of my Senators that we are going to finish this before we leave. I hope we can do it today. We certainly can if the will is there. Otherwise, if it takes tomorrow or whenever, we have to finish the bill. I know everyone has a lot of work to do, but we have to finish this legislation. The student loan program expires at the end of the month. The highway program has to be completed by the end of the month. The work that has been done has been hard. I met with the Democratic chairs yesterday at noon. I explained to everyone that we were trying to work our way through this. These are veteran legislators, the chairmen of all of the committees here in the Senate. We talked a lot about compromise being what legislation is all about. Legislation is the art of compromise, consensus building, but when it comes right down to doing that, it is hard for Senators to give up what they want. But this is a bill that affects almost 3 million people. That is just the transportation part of it--the flood part, 7 million people, and the student loan, 7 million people. So everyone had to give a little bit or we could not have gotten this done. I am terribly disappointed on a part of what did not get done. I have always been a big fan of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. I do not have a better friend in the world than Ken Salazar. This is something he wanted so very much, but we could not get it done. So there is a lot of disappointment in many different areas. But this is legislation at its best. I say that purposefully. It is hard to get these pieces of legislation done, but we got it done. And as I said, we are going to work through the process. With the Senate being such that it is, people can hold measures up, but they cannot hold them up forever. So we are going to work through this. It is for the betterment of our country if we complete this legislation as quickly as possible. Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 3342

Mr. REID. Mr. President, S. 3342 is at the desk and due for its second reading.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, there is a lot going on in Washington today. I so admire the Supreme Court's ability to keep everything quiet. I mean, it is really incredible that we are going to have two major decisions this week--one dealing with immigration, one dealing with health care--and there has not been a single word that has come out of the Supreme Court. I am so impressed. That is the way it has always been, and I hope it stays that way. Today the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the landmark health reform that made affordable, quality care a right for every American. Millions of Americans are already seeing the benefits of this law--I repeat, millions of Americans. The Democrats are very proud that we stood for the right of every man, woman, and child to lifesaving medical care instead of standing for insurance companies that worry more about making money than making people better. The Supreme Court's decision, being a lawyer myself--I know the Presiding Officer was the chief legal officer for the State of New Mexico, the attorney general--when you are in the area of law and are a lawyer, whatever the Court does, you accept that. That is our form of government. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of men. So whatever the Court does, we will work through that. If they uphold it, that is great. If they do not uphold it, whatever it is, we stand ready, willing, and able to work to make sure Americans have the ability to get health care when they are sick. I look forward to the opinion coming out in the next half hour or so, and we will see what that holds. I know that will cause a lot of interest here in the Senate, but we cannot take our eyes off what we have to do today; that is, figure a way forward on these other matters with which we have to deal--flood insurance, student loans, and the big Transportation bill. Reservation of Leader Time

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

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am happy, I am pleased to see the Supreme Court put the rule of law ahead of partisanship and ruled that the affordable care act is constitutional. This is a long opinion. We know when we come back here after the elections there may be some work we need to do to improve the law, and we will do it together. But today millions of Americans are already seeing the benefits of the law we passed. Seniors are saving money on their prescriptions and checkups, children can no longer be denied insurance because they have a preexisting condition--protection that will soon extend to every American. No longer will American families be a car accident or heart attack away from bankruptcy. Every Thursday I have a ``Welcome to Washington.'' Today we had a group of people from Nevada who have or have relatives who have cystic fibrosis. It has been so hard for these young people to get insurance. It is not going to be that way anymore. No longer will Americans live in fear of losing their health insurance because they lose a job. No longer will tens of millions of Americans rely on emergency room care or go without care entirely because they have no insurance at all. Soon, virtually every man, woman, and child in America will have access to health insurance they can afford and the vital care they need. Passing the Affordable Care Act was the single greatest step in generations toward ensuring access to affordable, quality health care for every person in America, regardless of where they live or how much money they make. Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress continue to target the rights and benefits guaranteed under this law. They would like to give the power of life and death back to the insurance companies. Our Supreme Court has spoken. This matter is settled. No one thinks this law is perfect. The Presiding Officer doesn't and neither do I. Democrats have proven we are willing to work with Republicans to improve whatever problems exist in this law or, in fact, any other law. Millions of Americans are struggling to find work today, and we know that. Our first priority must be to improve the economy. It is time for Republicans to stop refighting yesterday's battles. Now that this matter is settled, let's move on to other issues such as jobs. I note the absence of a quorum.

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 the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I want to spend a few minutes and bring everybody up to date. We have had wonderful cooperation in the last several weeks. We have gotten a lot done. Our passing the three bills that are left to do--student loans, flood insurance, and the highway bill--would be a significant accomplishment. We are going to do it; it is only a question of when. A lot of the committees and the chairs and ranking members worked late last night. I talked to CBO today. They didn't get the information that they started scoring until 4 a.m. They are moving forward and doing their best. As with all agreements, things come up, and at this point everything appears to be just right. The committees of jurisdiction have indicated they have worked through all these matters. They have completed the drafting of a revised version of the conference report. We expect this to be filed momentarily--it could have already been filed. But what we have done many times is we have voted on what the House has filed before they passed it. We have done that many times. It is standard procedure. Right now we don't have the consent from all Senators to do that, but that could be forthcoming. I will report back to the Senate within the next hour, after I find out whether we can finish this work tonight or whether we have to come back tomorrow. Everyone stay tuned. At this point, I can't express enough appreciation to everyone--Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate. As I laid out to my chairmen at the lunch I had yesterday, this has been truly an example of what legislation is all about--compromise. Compromise really sounds good. Legislation is the art of compromise-- until you are faced, as a Senator, with something you may not get because of the overall good of the bill. Sometimes we have to understand that we have to give things up for the betterment of this country. We cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. So everyone understands that to this point. As I have indicated, we will know within the next hour, and I will report back as to whether we can finish tonight or come back tomorrow.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am sorry it has taken so long. There are a lot of things to do around here. The conference report has been filed. As I said earlier today, I appreciate very much the work of everyone, including our very hard-working staffs on both sides of the Capitol. But there is no need for us to wait anymore. We are not going to finish this tonight. We are going to have to come back tomorrow. I have talked to a number of people, and I wanted to make sure before anything was announced that the papers had been filed. They have been. We have a number of issues we are trying to work through procedurally. We are not going to be able to do that tonight. I am not passing blame on anyone, because we all have a lot to do tomorrow, a lot of things that we are going to put on hold. This is a very big work period for us the next 10 days. I think it is appropriate to say we will be back at 10 o'clock in the morning to finish this legislation and do it as quickly as we can. We do not know what time the House is going to vote on this tomorrow, but we may have to wait now until they pass it. That is one of the pieces we are working on. We have done our very best to try to complete everything tonight, but we are not going to be able to do that. I am disappointed. I heard that from many people, how disappointed they are that we could not move further down the road. But that is the way it is.

Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield.

Mr. REID. Yes. If I thought it would help to come in earlier, I would do that. But it would only be----

Mr. REID. We likely cannot do anything until the House votes on the bill tomorrow. We are trying to work through that. I have to say, the House has been extremely cooperative in everything we have done the last few days. I see on the floor my friend, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. She knows how hard this has been and how cooperative the Republicans have been. No one has been more so than the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Jim Inhofe. I will always admire Jim Inhofe for the manner in which he approached this important piece of legislation. We pass out accolades on this floor, about everyone, how hard they work, but we would not be able to get this bill done except for Jim Inhofe. Fact. So I am disappointed we cannot do this tonight. As the chairman of the Judiciary Committee just said, we would stay here tonight on our side until the wee hours of the morning, because we have some things to do. I was scheduled to be in Lake Tahoe tomorrow, but I can't be there. Other people have certainly more important trips than that. But it is one of the issues we have to face with these jobs we have, which are a tremendous privilege, but sometimes we do not have the ability, as a Governor does or the President does, a member of the Court does, to say: This is the schedule. There are 100 different leaders here, each thinking they have the best way of solving the problems of the world, and it takes a while sometimes to work through their opinions.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 341, S. 2237.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to S. Res. 514.