Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to my friend from South Dakota, it is so transparent what is going on here. They are hung up on procedure. If this Keystone vote is so important to them, let's have a vote on it. That is what I was told when we brought up, for the second time, the energy efficiency bill. In fact, I was told by our Republican leader who was pushing that bill to go ahead and fill the tree; we have already worked out all the amendments. The bill is different when we first brought it; we put all the amendments in it. So, again, we get right where we need to be to pass substantive legislation and here they come. The Republicans walk in here dealing with procedure. If this Keystone is such a big deal, let's vote on it. Let's vote on energy efficiency which is a bipartisan bill. But, no, they can't do that. They can't do that because we wouldn't be able to offer more amendments. Now, remember, the Republicans, who were part of that arrangement on the energy efficiency bill, Shaheen-Portman, thought it was a good bill. But again, I repeat, if this is such a big deal to the Republicans, why do they get hung up on procedure? Let's vote on both of them. Let the cards fall where they may.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, no one needs to take my word for it. Take the word of one of the most senior Republicans in this body, the senior Senator from Tennessee. He came to the floor a few days ago and said-- on the appropriations bills we hear this plaintive plea: Let's have some votes. So the Senator from Tennessee said: Why don't we have the votes? What has been established around here is that we have 60 votes on anything that is controversial and 50 votes on everything else, and that is what the Senator from Tennessee said. Let's just go ahead and work through the bills. There is no better example of that than Dodd-Frank, a bill that the Republicans hate. It passed. On the 24th amendment that we voted on, on that bill, Senator Durbin offered an amendment on swipe fees, and he was told it was going to be 60 votes. Everything else had been 50. So he had to do his with 60 votes. That is how things work here. The Republicans don't want to have votes. They want to have issues on procedure. We could finish every one of those appropriations bills-- every one of them--if we followed what Lamar Alexander suggested and what we Democrats have suggested. So it is interesting. It is interesting. Energy issues--it is just a buzzword for ``let's take care of the oil companies some more.'' That is what this is all about. They want to protect big oil. Now, if they want to have all the appropriations bills pass, let's pass them. All we have to do is follow what I have suggested and what Senator Lamar Alexander has suggested. That is what we should do.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object to my friend's suggestion, I would ask that it be modified to have a vote on Keystone and have a vote on Shaheen-Portman--60-vote threshold, of course.

Mr. REID. Yes.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, let's not have revisionist history. Let's have real, valid history. Shaheen-Portman was worked on for weeks last fall. Shaheen and Portman worked on this new version of the bill for months, and they worked out many amendments in the committee. They came to me and said they have all this worked out--Shaheen and Portman and a number of other Senators. I said: Great. So before one of our recesses, the day we were getting ready to leave, they came to me and said: What we need to know and what would be even better is if we had a sense-of-the-Senate resolution on Keystone. I said: We already agreed to what we are going to do. The bill is different with all of this input, such as the Workforce Investment Act, which we will take up this afternoon. So I came back and said: OK, we will have a sense-of-the-Senate; that is fine. And we are going to do this as soon as we get back. We came back and then I was told: Well, we don't want a sense-of-the- Senate resolution; we want an up-or-down vote here. I said: OK, let's do it. And that is when that still wasn't good enough. That still wasn't good enough because they want the issue. The energy efficiency bill is a good bipartisan bill. It is like the one we are going to work on this afternoon. It is a complex bill, but the differences have been worked out, and we should go ahead and vote on it. So if they really care about Keystone--if this is such a big deal-- the Republican leader said we have been working on this for 5 years. The time has come. Let's belly up to the bar where we vote, and let's vote on it. But in the process, let's also do the bipartisan energy efficiency legislation that Jeanne Shaheen has put her heart into. So that is where we are: another obstruction, diversion to keep us from really voting on things. They want the issue. They are focused on procedure. And what the American people want is for us to do things. They want the minimum wage raised. They want unemployment benefits extended for the long-term unemployed. They would like it so that a man working doesn't make more money than a woman who does the same work. The American people believe they should not be burdened with college debt which is larger than any other debt. It is $1.3 trillion now. They have stopped us from doing that based on procedure. Why don't we work on things that will help the American people?

Mr. REID. I agree to that. That is fine.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID. Is there a motion now pending to proceed to S. 2363?

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion at the desk.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to a period of morning business, and during that time Senators be allowed to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 1:45 p.m., on Thursday, June 26, 2014, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 897, 896, 654, 557, 620, and 503; that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form on each nomination; that upon the use or yielding back of time the Senate proceed to vote, without intervening action or debate, on the nominations in the order listed; that all rollcall votes after the first be 10 minutes in length; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that any related statements be printed in the Record; that the President 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 executive session to consider the following nominations: Nos. 600, 872, 873, 874, 875, 876, 877, 878, 879, 880, 881, 882, 883, 884, 885, 886, 887, 888, 889, 890, and 891, and all nominations placed on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, and Navy, that the nominees be confirmed en bloc; the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Res. 484.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Res. 485.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I understand there is a bill at the desk and it is due for its first reading.

Mr. REID. I 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. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, June 26; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business until noon, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each during that time, and that the time be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees; that following morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Executive Calendar No. 738, and there be 2 minutes of debate prior to a cloture vote on the Krause nomination.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Tomorrow there will be a rollcall vote at noon and another at 1:45 p.m.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. 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 move to proceed to Calendar No. 384, S. 2363, the Hagan Sportsmen's Act.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 11 a.m. this morning, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. At 11 a.m. the Senate will proceed to executive session, and we will have five rollcall votes which will be to confirm three judges from Florida, one from Vermont, and also a very important cloture vote on the Rodriguez nomination, to be the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security. Nominations Mr. President, it is unfortunate that we still have scores and scores of good men and women on the Executive Calendar waiting to be confirmed. The delay by the Republicans is untoward. It has never happened before, and we are working through these as quickly as we can. The judges only take an hour of postcloture time, but the nominations take 8 hours of postcloture time. We can yield back 4 hours, which we do almost every time, but these stalling tactics by the Republicans have added to our doing nothing here in the Senate not by hours or days or weeks but by months. It is so unfortunate. We have never had a situation such as this before. As everyone knows, we changed the rules as they related to judges, and thank goodness we did that. Justice can move forward in our country without the delay and obstruction that has taken place over the last number of years with Republicans holding up judges. We, through the chairman of the committee, have moved lots of judges. We now have four circuit court judges we have to move toward, and we will do that, even though each one of those takes 30 hours. We are nearly caught up with district court judges, which speaks well for the Judiciary Committee and the Senators who are forwarding names to the President for submission to the committee. Workforce Investment Act Mr. President, tomorrow we are going to turn to the Workforce Investment Act--a nice, important piece of legislation. It is a picture of what we should be doing here on legislation in general. The Workforce Investment Act is a very complicated piece of legislation. We are not going to spend a lot of time on it, but that should not in any way take away from the importance of this legislation. It is very important legislation. It is an example of how we should be able to get done in the Senate. I commend Senators Murray, Harkin, and Alexander for working to get this bill to us. They have spent untoward hours and hours of time to get us here. Everyone knows Lamar Alexander is a peacemaker, and I appreciate his work. I was told a few minutes ago that he came to the floor and said: Why don't we go ahead on the appropriations bills and on amendments that appear to be controversial, and we can have a 60- vote threshold on those? I suggested the same thing yesterday. We voted here approximately 50 times. I have been forced to have, because of the McConnell rule, 60 votes on anything that is the least bit controversial. Let's move through the appropriations bills. People on my side of the aisle want to do this, and I don't know why the Republicans would prevent us from doing that, but that is where we are now. Voting Rights I will talk to the press about the next issue in more detail at a subsequent time, but I wish to congratulate Rand Paul, the junior Senator from Kentucky. About 15 years ago, I offered an amendment on the Senate floor that said if someone has been convicted of a crime or felony and completed their sentence, if they go to jail, and their probation, if they got probation, they should be able to vote, and that is what Rand Paul said. Rand Paul offered legislation that said if it is a nonviolent crime, they should be able to vote when they have completed their time. I went a little farther than that with my legislation, but I appreciate his suggestion. I will have more to say about that later, and I hope I don't get him in trouble with the Republican caucus for congratulating him. This is something that is long overdue. As a country, we should allow people who have served their time and penance, or however you want to state it, the ability to vote. I have said it before, and I now have said it for a third time. I will have a lot more to say about it later today. Reservation of Leader Time Will the Chair announce the business of the day?

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that following my remarks, the Senate recess until 2:15 p.m.; that when the Senate reconvenes, the time until 4:30 p.m. be equally divided and controlled in the usual form; and that at 4:30 p.m. all postcloture time be considered expired and the Senate vote on confirmation of the Rodriguez nomination.