Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I don't like this bill. The White House doesn't like the bill. I object.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to H.R. 3979. The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives: Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 3979) entitled ``An Act to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure that emergency services volunteers are not taken into account as employees under the shared responsibility requirements contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,'' with an amendment. Motion to Concur

Mr. REID. I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3979.

Mr. REID. There is a cloture motion at the desk. I ask that the Chair order it reported.

Mr. REID. I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3979, with a further amendment.

Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays on that.

Mr. REID. I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. REID. I have a motion to refer the House message with respect to H.R. 3979 with instructions.

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

Mr. REID. I have an amendment to the instructions which is at the desk.

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

Mr. REID. I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I yield back the time.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 10:30 a.m. this morning. At 10:30 a.m., the Senate will proceed to two rollcall votes on the Lodge and Walter nominations. If cloture is invoked on either nomination, a confirmation vote will occur at 6 p.m. this evening. The Senate will recess from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am told there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to both of these bills.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the commerce committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1204 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Rockefeller-Tester substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, and there be no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we note you open the Senate every day, but today you had a little extra something in your step and a gleam in your eye because of the guest Chaplain, who is your lovely wife Marcelle's brother, so I am glad you have had the chance to have a small visit with him again.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, if the words Hemingway said so clearly-- ``man is not made for defeat''--applied to anyone in the world, they certainly apply to Tim Johnson. He is a testament to this sentiment because he never ever acknowledged defeat. He refuses to be defeated. Tim never lost an election. He served in the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1997--for 10 years. He served in the State legislature. They weren't all easy votes and weren't all easy elections. He won his election in 2002 by 524 votes. Hundreds of thousands of votes were cast, but he won by 524 votes. Senator Tim Johnson refused to succumb to defeat because he knew he was fighting for the people of South Dakota. He fought for South Dakota jobs when he fought to keep Ellsworth Air Force Base open and running. It was based near Rapid City, and he saved it from closing. He worked to this end, saving thousands of jobs, preserving a thriving economy based on that Ellsworth Air Force Base. During his tenure in the House and Senate he fought for water, which is so important. People from so many other States don't realize how important water is to States such as South Dakota and many Western States. Water is something you always have to keep your eye on. He secured funding for the Mni Wiconi Rural Water Project and the Lewis and Clark Rural Water System. Combined, those two projects provided clean drinking water to some 400,000 people. That is half the population of the State of South Dakota. Without question though, Tim's biggest fight took place in 2006. I can still remember that so clearly. I got a call from his chief of staff saying: You need to go to the hospital. Tim has been taken by ambulance to George Washington. So I went there because Tim had suffered a very bad bleed on the brain. He was born with this situation--no one knew of course--but it suddenly hit him. Lots of people have this condition, but most people don't have a bleed on their brain, but Tim did. I was there in the hospital with him. Barbara was there, his daughter Kelsey, and his two boys, Brendan and Brooks, came in as soon as they could. One was serving in the military after having seen combat duty as a member of the U.S. Army. The other boy is a lawyer and is now a U.S. attorney in South Dakota. It was a very difficult time for his family and a difficult time for him especially. He was in surgery on more than one occasion. His life was threatened. Many people don't survive this difficult situation he was hit with. But he is a huge man. I, frankly, never realized how physically big and strong he was until I saw him lying there in the hospital. But Tim met these physical challenges, and they were very difficult. Ten months later he was back working in the Senate. He was here on the floor. After this incident, his physical body would never be the same, but his mental capacity is better than ever. With the support of his wife Barbara, since 1969, and their three children, whose names I have already mentioned, he made this remarkable recovery. It was all very difficult. He had to learn to talk again, he had to learn to walk again, and much of his life now is physically different than it was before. He is now, a lot of times, in a wheelchair, but he has never asked for any sympathy. He has pushed forward as he always has his whole life. Regardless of these changes to his body, his honorable, indomitable spirit is the same. One newspaper recently said, in speaking of Tim's return to the Senate: Loss of integrity is a greater handicap to any politician and, once lost, cannot be regained with confidence. Johnson's integrity has never been in question. Tim Johnson has his integrity. He has his unbreakable determination to fight for the people of South Dakota and just fight to do the things he needs to do. Tim is retiring after 18 years in the Senate and 10 years in the House. To say he will be missed by the people of South Dakota is a gross understatement. He worked here with my predecessor, the Democratic leader Tom Daschle, and they got so many good things done for the State of South Dakota. Senator Daschle is missed as Tim will be missed, but their friendship is something I have long admired. To show the type of person he is, the person he beat by 524 votes came back the next election and endorsed him--a Republican and long- time Member of the House and Senate, Larry Pressler. He endorsed Tim Johnson in his reelection. That is the kind of integrity Tim Johnson has. People admire him very much. Tim Johnson leaves the Senate as he entered it, undefeated. I will miss him very much. My wife will miss Barbara. They are members of a book club, and I have seen their exchange of emails back and forth as to what books they should read, what they thought of the book, and where they are going to meet. So the Reids will miss the Johnsons. South Dakota will miss the Johnsons. But Tim will still proceed forward and be a great blessing to the State of South Dakota, as he has always been, and to his family. Tom Harkin Mr. President, Abraham Lincoln once said: I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. Today I stand for just a few minutes to honor a man by the name of Tom Harkin. Throughout his time in the Senate he has planted many flowers--so many we can't count them all. Tom Harkin's legacy of fighting for all Americans, particularly those who are disadvantaged, will never be forgotten. In fact, no one in the history of this institution has done more for people who have a physical disadvantage, an emotional disadvantage, a mental disadvantage, and disadvantages generally, than Tom Harkin. Tom's life wasn't easy. His father was a miner. His mother, a Slovenian immigrant, died when Tom was 10 years old. He and his family pushed forward, living in a house without hot water or a furnace. Not one to use his difficult upbringing as an excuse, Tom Harkin pushed himself very hard. He attended Iowa State University. He came there on a Navy ROTC scholarship. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Navy and became an Active-Duty pilot--a naval pilot. I have such admiration for naval pilots, for all pilots, really, but thinking of landing on an aircraft carrier out in the middle of the ocean, that postage stamp size you have to try to find and land out there is something Navy pilots do, and Tom Harkin did this. In 1974 he was elected to represent Iowa's Fifth Congressional District, a seat he held for 10 years. When he came to the Senate in 1984, Tom, similar to President Lincoln before him, encountered many thistles. He was especially motivated to help millions of Americans with disabilities, as I have already said. Here is what Tom Harkin said once: I heard stories from individuals who had to crawl on their hands and knees to go up a flight of stairs, who couldn't ride a bus because there wasn't a lift or couldn't cross a street in a wheelchair because there were no curb cuts. Millions of Americans were denied access to their own communities and to the American dream. Tom did a lot to make sure people did have the ability to dream. What did he do? He encountered the injustice faced by millions of disabled Americans and responded by authoring the Americans with Disabilities Act. People don't realize now what those disabled people had to go through. There was a big dispute here in the Senate and in the House as to whether Members of Congress should vote for this. It created a lot of issues for businesses. A former Member of the House of Representatives, James Bilbray of Nevada, was getting a lot of pressure not to vote for this, but he voted for this, and here is why he voted for it: Just like Tom Harkin saw this long before many of us did, James Bilbray had a friend whose daughter was confined to a wheelchair. This man wanted to visit Congressman Bilbray and his family here in Washington, DC. What an ordeal it was. They couldn't find a place with a hotel room. They had trouble getting airline reservations. It was extremely difficult. So Jimmy Bilbray said: That is enough for me. I am voting for this. This landmark legislation that was pushed and pushed by Tom Harkin has helped to move areas of employment, public services, transportation, and telecommunications for people with disabilities. Tom Harkin's work to protect the disadvantaged hasn't been just reactive, it has been preventative. Tom has lost four siblings to cancer. In response to that heartbreak, what has he done? Senator Harkin fought to double the funding for groundbreaking medical research at the National Institutes of Health. He had a partner in this for many years, Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania. They worked on that subcommittee, Labor-HHS, and Appropriations. Some will remember that this was an unbelievable thing he did to force us to spend more money on medical research. But in hindsight, what a blessing this was for America and for Members of the Senate who voted for this. It was good for us, and it was good for the country. It was good for our constituents. With the extra money NIH got, they have engaged in a landmark effort to cure cancer, heart disease, and a myriad of other diseases. We have a long way to go. Funding hasn't been adequate the last 6 years. The only boost we got in NIH funding was in the stimulus, the first few months of the Obama administration where we got additional money. That was done as a result of the work by Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter, and that money now is not there. We need to do more for the National Institutes of Health. Tom Harkin has been tireless. He worked to triple the funding for the Centers for Disease Control. In fact, in ObamaCare he is the one who was responsible for the prevention title in that bill. He has spent his career coming to the defense of the defenseless. A longtime defender of human rights, Tom has worked to fight child labor, both domestically and abroad. His tireless efforts gave him the U.S. Labor Department's Award for the Elimination of Child Labor. I have spent much of my Senate life on the Senate floor. I can remember when I would look and see one of his staff come to the floor, and I thought: Oh, no. I knew we were in for some trouble. His name was Richard Bender. I really have such admiration for Senator Harkin's staff, but it was epitomized when Richard Bender walked in this door because I knew Harkin was going to do something we had not planned. Sometimes it took a lot longer to get things done because of Bender and Harkin, but in the end it was always better for our country. So after a lifetime of service, Tom will finally be able to spend his post-Senate time in another direction, still involved in a form of public service. I have such great admiration for Ruth, whom I know extremely well. I don't know Amy and Jenny, his daughters, but I do know they are going to be able to spend a little more time with their dad and her husband. On a side note, Tom Harkin is one of the few Senators who has been to my home in Searchlight. I was there one day, and I got a call. He said: ``Are you going to be home?'' ``Yes.'' ``Do you mind if we drop by?'' ``No, I don't mind if you drop by.'' So within an hour he was at my home in Searchlight. So as Tom Harkin closes a chapter of service to the American people, I salute Tom Harkin on a job very well done. He has become the longest- serving Democratic Senator in Iowa's history, and he will be greatly missed.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2719 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Ayotte amendment, which is a substitute amendment, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, what is the matter before the Senate?

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, today for the first time the American people are going to learn the full truth about torture that took place under the CIA during the Bush administration. I have served for 22 years with the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein. She is dignified. She is very thorough in whatever she does. She is intelligent and she cares a great deal. She has proven herself to be the one of the most thoughtful and hard-working Members of this body. The people of California are, as well they should be, very proud of this good woman. I am appreciative of the work the Senate Intelligence Committee has done under her direction. We are here today because of her efforts. She has persevered, overcome obstacles that have been significant, to make this study available to the American people. I am gratified for the work done by Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. We are here today, again I repeat, because of their efforts. We do not often mention, as certainly we should, the work of our staffs. I want to throw a big bouquet to the intelligence staff. They have worked so hard. Under the direction of Senator Feinstein, they have worked for 7 years--7 years--working on this vitally important matter. It is a report that was not easy, but they did it. Here is what they did: Committee members and staff combed through more than 6 million pages--6 million pages--of documents to formulate the report. The full committee report is 6,700 pages long--7 years, I repeat, in the making. The unclassified executive summary, which is going to be released today, is more than 500 pages. I want everyone to understand, the Select Committee on Intelligence, along with the House Committee on Intelligence, is the only group of people who provide oversight over our intelligence community. They actually have the ability to investigate what happened. No one else. Not the press, not Senators, nor the public, or outside organizations have the ability to investigate the CIA. But we did it. The implications of this report are profound. Not only is torture wrong, but it does not work. For people today, we hear them coming from different places saying, It was great. It was terrific what we did. It has got us so much. It has got us nothing, except a bad name. Without this report, the American people would not know what actually took place under the CIA's torture program. This critical report highlights the importance of Senate oversight and the role Congress must play in overseeing the executive branch of government. The only way our country can put this episode in the past is to come to terms with what happened and commit to ensuring it will never happen again. This is how we as Americans make our Nation stronger. When we realize there is a problem, we seek the evidence; we study it; we learn from it. Then we set about to enact change. Americans must learn from our mistakes. We learned about the Pentagon papers. They were helpful to us as a country. The Iran contra affair. I was here when it went on. It was hard on us, but it was important that we did this. More recently, what happened in that prison in Iraq, Abu-Ghraib. We have three separate branches of government, the judicial, the executive, and the legislative branches of government. To me, this work done by the Intelligence Committee, of which the Presiding Officer is a member, cries out for our Constitution, three separate, equal branches of government. We are here today to talk about the work done by the legislative branch of government. We can protect our national security as a country without resorting to methods like torture. They are contrary to the fundamental values of America. So I call upon the administration, the Intelligence Committee, and my colleagues in Congress to join me in that commitment, that what took place, the torture program, is not in keeping with our country.