Harry Reid

Mr. REID

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 2343 and S. 2334, both of which were introduced earlier today, and S. 2338 be considered as having been read twice and placed on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 432.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until Wednesday, April 25, at 9:30 a.m.; 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 the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1925, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act; and that following the remarks of the two leaders, the time until 2 p.m. be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the Republicans controlling the first 30 minutes and the majority controlling the final 30 minutes; further, that the Republicans control the time from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. and the majority control time from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and that at 2 p.m. the Senate resume consideration of S. 1789, the postal reform bill.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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 upon disposition of S. 1789 but no earlier than Wednesday, April 25, the Senate adopt the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 312, S. 1925.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. There is a bill at the desk and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. REID. I now ask for the second reading in order to place the bill on the calendar, but I object to my own request.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, America has the best, brightest, and most dedicated workers in the world. All those workers need is a fair shot to succeed. But right now many workers in this country don't enjoy the same rights as the wealthy CEOs; that is, the right to negotiate the terms of their employment. A new rule from the National Labor Relations Board will remove unnecessary obstacles to workers' rights to form a union. I solidly support this rule, and I urge my colleagues to vote tomorrow against the resolution of disapproval which strikes down this commonsense rule. The new rule doesn't change or do anything to encourage unions, but it doesn't discourage them either. It just gives workers the ability to vote yes or no while minimizing the chance of intimidation and stalling. Mr. President, tomorrow the Senate will vote on a number of amendments to a bipartisan postal reform bill. This important legislation will safeguard more than 8 million jobs of people who depend on a vibrant postal system. It will also protect postal customers--particularly elderly and disabled Americans and people who live in rural parts of this country. I am pleased we reached an agreement to allow Senators to offer amendments to this bill. I hope once we work through the amendments to the bill tomorrow we will see a strong bipartisan vote to modernize the Postal Service and save this important institution from insolvency. This institution is so important it is contained in our Constitution. Once we pass postal reform tomorrow, as I expect we will, the Senate will move on to the consideration of another very important piece of legislation, the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Since its passage in 1994, this legislation has reduced the annual incidence of domestic violence by more than 50 percent. Despite that incredible progress, we still have work to do to keep women and their families safe. Three women die in this country every day at the hands of abusive partners--on weekends, all days, no days off. For every victim who is killed there are nine more who narrowly escape death and are beaten savagely. It would be unacceptable to step back from our national commitment to stop violence and abuse now. This legislation was the brainchild of Vice President Joe Biden when he was a Member of the Senate. It does very important work. For example, it allows communities to get support in setting up shelters for these women and their families to go in secret. The legislation was unanimously reauthorized by the Senate in 2000 and 2005. This effort should be--and traditionally has been--above partisanship. I hope that proves to be the case again this year. This year it has 60 cosponsors and the support of 47 State attorneys general. I cannot imagine why my Republican colleagues would oppose such a worthy piece of legislation. I am hopeful and I am confident they won't. By joining Democrats to pass this legislation, Republicans can help us send a clear message that this country doesn't tolerate domestic violence. If the Senate doesn't complete the work on this critical issue before we recess for this work period, we will continue after we come back to try to work through any problems. I don't see any, Mr. President. But the Violence Against Women Act isn't the only pressing matter the Senate has to complete the next work period. We must begin work on a number of appropriations bills, consider additional judicial nominations, and take up legislation to cut taxes for small businesses so that they can expand and hire. Cybersecurity legislation, I have been told, the House will take up soon, and I appreciate that. We must address the looming crisis for millions of students in America: the July 1 deadline for interest rates to double on Federal student loans. That is fast approaching. With middle-class families struggling and fewer families able to afford the rising cost of higher education, we cannot afford to put college out of reach for more promising young people. Doubling interest rates from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent--effectively socking 7.4 million students with $1,000 a year in student loan costs--would do irreparable harm to our ability to educate young men and women. Today Americans have more student loan debt than credit card debt. Why would we want to double what they pay? The average graduate owes $25,000 when they graduate. Getting a college education should not burden young people with unsustainable debt. Unfortunately, many of my Republican colleagues have signaled that they would rather cut taxes for the richest of the rich than invest in the next generation of American workers. But the business community agrees that making college affordable is the key to keeping America competitive in a global economy. An investment in education is an investment in our economy. I hope we will all join together, hear the message, and work to stop 8 million students in this country from having an increase in the amount of money they are obligated to pay back for the loans they get for an education in America today.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it recess until Tuesday, April 24, at 10 a.m.; that following the prayer and the pledge, 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 the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1925, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act; and that at 10:30 a.m., the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 36, a resolution of disapproval regarding the National Labor Relations Board offered by Senator Enzi, under the previous order; and that at 12:30 p.m., the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1925; further, that the Senate recess from 12:50 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings; finally, that at 2:15 p.m., the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 36.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the first vote will be at 2:15 tomorrow on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 36. If that motion is defeated, there will be several votes in order to complete action on the postal reform bill at 2:15 p.m.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would yield to my friend from Rhode Island.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the cloture votes with respect to the Lieberman-Collins substitute amendment 2000, as modified, and S. 1789 be postponed to a time to be determined by me after consultation with Senator McConnell.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate is now considering the motion to proceed to the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. Following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, if any, the first hour will be equally divided between the two sides. The Republicans will control the first 30 minutes, the Democrats the final 30 minutes. I note that the filing deadline for second-degree amendments to the substitute amendment and to the postal reform bill is 11 a.m. today. We are still hopeful of working out an agreement on the postal reform bill. If no agreement is reached, there will be a cloture vote on the substitute amendment this afternoon at 2:15. Postal Reform Mr. President, for more than two centuries, 200 years, America's postal system thrived and grew in spite of rapidly changing technology. The Postal Service survived the invention of the telegraph, the telephone. It expanded despite radio and television. It grew regardless of the fax machine. The post office was created in the day of the quill and ink--these inkwells we talked about yesterday--and mailbags slung across horses. The post office survived all of that. It grew through the days of horse and buggy, steamboat and railroad, into the age of airplanes. It adjusted to the expansion of the suburbs, to the growth of cities, and the explosion of our population generally. It adapted from hand sorting and conveyer belts, with the invention of ZIP Codes and optical sorting machines. The post office has always found creative, cutting-edge ways to do more and more to move mail more quickly, and more of it. In fact, for two centuries, the Postal Service relied on technology to cope with constant growth, growth in the volume of mail it delivered and the number of homes and businesses to which it delivered. And for 200 years, the Postal Service kept up with a flood of packages and letters and mail orders and online purchases, catalogues and fliers, life-saving medications and absentee ballots, bulk mail and overnight delivery. The post office survived. Today the Postal Service handles nearly half the world's mail--554 million pieces every day, 6,400 pieces every second. That feat would be impossible without modern technology and world-class workers and facilities. But now technology is both a solution and a problem. In the last 5 years, the Postal Service has seen mail volume drop by more than 20 percent. That trend is expected to continue. E-mail and online bill payments significantly contributed to this crisis. Today letters, orders, payments across the world happen with the click of a mouse. And the challenge facing the Postal Service is how to adapt to a decreasing volume of mail rather than how to deal with increasing demand. The bipartisan compromise before the Senate will help the system do that. It will build a leaner, smarter post office which offers new products and services while protecting its mission--delivering the mail 6 days a week to every corner of our great Nation. The postal reform legislation before this body will sensibly restructure the system while preserving overnight and Saturday delivery. The legislation will save the Postal Service from insolvency. It will responsibly reduce the Postal Service workforce and the number of facilities it maintains. But it will also protect postal employees, including 130,000 veterans from our Armed Forces. It will also safeguard the more than 8 million jobs that depend on a vibrant postal system. And, most importantly, it will account for the needs of millions of seniors, people with disabilities, small business owners, and rural Americans for whom the U.S. mail is an important lifeline to the outside world. Unlike the unacceptable bill Congressman Issa is pursuing in the House, this bipartisanship Senate bill preserves the Postal Service we know and rely on. The House bill, by contrast, would immediately eliminate Saturday delivery, and it would set up commissions to unilaterally cut costs by closing post offices and processing plants, voiding union contracts and laying off tens of thousands of workers when our economy can least afford it. That may be why Congressman Issa's bill has not come up for a vote. There could be other reasons. But even the tea party advocates have trouble supporting his reckless ideas. The Senate bill we are considering today is not perfect. It will not save every post office, every job, or every distribution center. It will not please every Senator, every postal worker, or every customer. But unlike the House legislation, it is a strong, bipartisan bill that will modernize an institution enshrined in the Constitution without gutting its mission. I hope we can continue to work together to pass this worthy legislation, but we are going to have to make a decision on that this morning. I appreciate everyone's cooperation. I especially appreciate the hard work of Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator Susan Collins, the two floor managers of this legislation. There have been others who have worked very hard on this legislation, not the least of whom is Tom Carper who has devoted a lot of the last few years of his life to this legislation. Mr. President, 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. Mr. President, as I indicated this morning, we are real close to an agreement. The main issue now is whether there will be a 50-vote hurdle or 60-vote hurdle. We have been through that before. Obviously, we know where we are going to wind up, in my opinion, if we are going to have a bill. So we will work on that for the next hour or so and see what we can come up with. We are very close to getting something done. As I have said here before the last few days, Senators Lieberman and Collins have done an outstanding job to the point we are. We have made progress. We are here. We are trying to legislate. We have a rule of relevance. It is very broad. That is indicated by the amendments that people have suggested. So I hope we can work this out very soon. If we cannot, we will have to come back and I guess walk away from postal reform, which is a shame. But everyone who is holding up things should understand, if there is no bill, you are not going to get what you want. If there is no bill, the post office will be drastically hit. The Postmaster gave us until May 15 to come up with something. We have come up with nothing to this point. So if people are concerned about some rural post offices, as well they should be, or about processing centers, as of May 15, the Postmaster General, unless we do something, will have carte blanche to do almost anything he wants to do. That is not what the Senate wants. So those Senators who are holding up the bill because they do not like it, they may not like what the result of having no bill is.

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

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, there will be a rollcall vote on confirmation of the Wimes nomination. This evening we reached an agreement to complete action on the postal reform bill. On Monday there will be time from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and following the vote at 5:30 p.m. for Senators to debate their amendments to the bill.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to S. Res. 430.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, another important issue: I ask unanimous consent that at 2 p.m., on Monday, April 23, the Republican leader or his designee be recognized to move to proceed to the consideration of S.J. Res. 36, a joint resolution disapproving a rule submitted by the National Labor Relations Board relating to representation election procedures; that there be up to 4 hours of debate on the motion to proceed, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees; further, that the first 2 hours of debate, equally divided, occur from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday, April 23, and the final 2 hours of debate, equally divided, occur from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 24; that at 2:15 p.m., Tuesday, April 24, the Senate proceed to vote on the adoption of the motion to proceed; that if the motion is successful, then the time for debate with respect to the joint resolution be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the joint resolution be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the joint resolution; finally, all other provisions of the statute governing consideration of the joint resolution remain in effect.