Floor Statements

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 125, S. 2747.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, October 18, be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 420, submitted earlier today.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 417.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 421, submitted earlier today.

I further ask the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Tuesday, October 19; 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 approved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the O'Hearn nomination; further, that the Senate recess following the cloture vote on the O'Hearn nomination until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings; that if cloture is invoked on the nomination, all postcloture time expire at 2:20 p.m.; finally, that if the nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

For the information of the Senators, the first roll call of the day will be at 11:30 a.m.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the provisions of S. Res. 420.

Madam President, for the information of Members, I have a brief statement.

I have some good news. We have reached an agreement to extend the debt ceiling through early December. It is our hope that we can get this done as soon as today.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, what is the pending business?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the cloture motion with respect to the motion to concur.

Mr. President, I move to table the motion to refer.

Mr. President, I move to table the motion to concur with an amendment.

Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment to S. 1301, with an amendment.

Mr. President, I send to the desk a cloture motion on the motion to concur with an amendment.

Mr. President, I send to the desk a cloture motion on the motion to concur.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

Mr. President, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. President, I move to refer the House message to accompany S. 1301 to the Committee on Finance with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I have an amendment to the instructions at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar No. 259.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Finally, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, October 7, be waived.

Pursuant to S. Res. 27, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee being tied on the question of reporting, I move to discharge the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee from further consideration of the nomination of Catherine Elizabeth Lhamon, of California, to be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Department of Education.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I ask unanimous consent that the time during the quorum call be equally divided.

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

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

Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, following the disposition of the motion to discharge, the Senate resume legislative session; that there be 3 hours for debate under the control of Senator Lee or his designee and 1 hour under the control of the majority; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur with an amendment; that if cloture is invoked, all postcloture time be considered expired, amendment No. 3848 be withdrawn, and the Senate vote on the motion to concur with the amendment; that if the motion to concur with the amendment is agreed to, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table without intervening action or debate; further, that upon disposition of the House message with respect to S. 1301, the Senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 259; that if cloture is invoked on the nomination, all postcloture time be considered expired and the Senate vote on the confirmation of the nomination at 5:30 p.m., Monday, October 18.

Mr. President, in a few moments, the Senate will pass an extension of the debt limit through early December, avoiding a first- ever, Republican-manufactured default on the national debt.

On Monday morning, I said we needed to pass a bill to address the debt limit by the end of the week, and that is exactly what we did.

Republicans played a dangerous and risky partisan game, and I am glad that their brinksmanship did not work. For the good of America's families, for the good of our economy, Republicans must recognize in the future that they should approach fixing the debt limit in a bipartisan way.

What is needed now is a long-term solution so we don't go through this risky drama every few months, and we hope Republicans will join in enacting a long-term solution to the debt limit in December. We are ready to work with them.

Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans insisted they wanted a solution to the debt ceiling, but said Democrats must raise it alone by going through a drawn-out, convoluted, and risky reconciliation process. That was simply unacceptable to my caucus, and, yesterday, Senate Republicans finally realized that their obstruction was not going to work.

I thank very much my Democratic colleagues for our showing our unity in solving this Republican-manufactured crisis. Despite immense opposition from Leader McConnell and the Members of his conference, our caucus held together and we pulled our country back from the cliff's edge that Republicans tried to push us over.

This is a temporary but necessary and important fix. I appreciate that, at the end of the day, we were able to raise the debt limit without a convoluted and unnecessary reconciliation process that, until today, the Republican leader claimed was the only way to address the debt limit.

Let me say that again. Today's vote is proof positive that the debt limit can be addressed without going through the reconciliation process, just as Democrats have been saying for months.

The solution is for Republicans to either join us in raising the debt limit or stay out of the way and let Democrats address the debt limit ourselves. Those are the two choices, and it is very simple.

Senate Democrats want a long-term solution to the debt limit to make sure financial markets remain stable and our economic recovery stays on track. America's full faith and credit must never be used as a political bargaining chip. I hope my Republican colleagues relent from trying to make it one when we revisit this issue soon.

So now that Republican brinkmanship has relented, Senate Democrats will focus on passing the Build Back Better agenda so we can finally build up ladders of opportunity for people to climb up to the middle class, to help people already in the middle class stay there, to fight climate change, and create the good-paying jobs of tomorrow and rekindle that sunny American optimism that has long been the course of our national identity.

I yield the floor.