Floor Statements

Now, Madam President, while most of the attention in this Chamber falls on the elected Members, today I want to recognize one of the many people who work behind the scenes, who quite literally makes the Senate come to life, and someone we wish a fond, happy farewell.

Megan Mercer, thank you for all you have done over the past few years in your role as senior floor assistant. We see you scurrying around, making sure everything works, and we so much appreciate it. Day after day, you have made this body work, and we wish you well on the road ahead.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 364.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call for the cloture motion filed October 7 be waived and that the cloture motion ripen at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 19.

Mr. President, I thank my friend from Wyoming, and I ask unanimous consent that he be able to resume as soon as I finish my remarks.

Now, in America, Mr. President, we have always kept a basic promise: We pay our debts on time without exception. It has been a key to our economic success and our standing in the global markets across the world. Today, it is time for us in this Chamber to do our jobs and make sure those promises remain unbroken.

In order to preserve the full faith and credit of the United States, the Senate must act and, by the end of this week, send a bill to President Biden's desk suspending the debt ceiling and allowing our government to keep paying its bills and meeting our outstanding obligations.

Later this afternoon, the Senate will vote on cloture on the House- passed message that would suspend the debt ceiling through December 2022. If cloture is invoked, the Senate will then vote to pass this bill on a simple majority basis.

Democrats have been clear from the start: We are going to do the responsible thing and vote to allow the United States to keep paying its bills. Every single one of us is going to vote for cloture this afternoon.

For months, Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans have insisted they want a solution to the debt ceiling but only if Democrats do all the work by themselves. We have already presented Republicans with numerous opportunities to do what they say they want, including offering a simple majority vote so Democrats can suspend the debt ceiling on our own, as Republicans have asked, but each time, Republicans have chosen obstruction and have kept us, unfortunately, on a path to default. Republican obstruction on the debt ceiling over the last few weeks has been reckless; it has been irresponsible.

Nonetheless, today, Republicans will have an opportunity to get exactly what they have kept asking for. The first and easiest option is this: Republicans can simply get out of the way, and we can agree to skip the filibuster vote so we can proceed to final passage of this bill.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, good morning.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, notwithstanding rule XXII, the cloture vote on the motion to concur in the House amendment to S. 1301, occur on Thursday, October 7, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the Republican leader.

Mr. President, we have been negotiating all afternoon and all night, just until recently. We are making good progress. We are not there yet, but I hope we can come to an agreement tomorrow morning.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4981, which was received from the House and is at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 409, submitted earlier today.

I know of no further debate on the resolution.

I ask unanimous consent 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 when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Thursday, October 7; 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, and morning business be closed; and that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session.

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

Mr. President, first, on Build Back Better, Democrats continue their work this week to iron out the details of our Build Back Better agenda--a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild ladders for working families to reach the middle class, to help people stay in the middle class who are already there, and to secure another century of American prosperity.

Last night, I held another round of extensive talks with top officials from the White House, with the Speaker, and with my Senate colleagues. We made good progress, and we continue our talks later this week. There is more work to do, so we are going to keep at it. We are going to work at this every day until we can get it done.

I want to thank my colleagues, the Speaker, and the White House for everything they are doing to finalize this important bill. It is a rare opportunity to do something big for the American people, and we will press ahead until we pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and our Build Back Better agenda into law.

Mr. President, now, on the debt ceiling, last night, as you know, I filed cloture on legislation sent to us by the House of Representatives that provides for a suspension of the debt ceiling until December of 2022.

The Senate is going to hold that vote tomorrow, and, once again, Members of this body will face a choice: We can bring this Republican- manufactured debt ceiling crisis to a swift end or Republicans can keep barreling our country ever closer to the first default in American history.

By now, it is perfectly clear which political party is working to prevent a default on the debt and which party is deliberately and almost cynically rooting for one. Republicans have been offered multiple opportunities to deescalate this crisis they have created. Yet, each time, the Republican leader has chosen to magnify it instead.

Last week, Democrats offered a commonsense proposal that would have addressed the debt ceiling on a bipartisan basis; Republicans voted, instead, to default.

Democrats then offered Republicans what the Republican leader said they have wanted by proposing a simple majority vote--exactly what happened in the early 2000s--and, again, Republicans blocked it in favor of default.

By now, it is clear that despite what they say, Republicans seem intent on seeing the United States miss out on its payment for the first time ever. They seem perfectly at ease telling the American people, including our Active military, our Social Security recipients, and all those who rely on Medicare, that they are unequivocally the party of default--the Republicans are unequivocally the party of default. And some of them seem to be proud of it.

It is hard to believe that one of America's two major parties would be willing to jeopardize our entire economy and irrevocably damage our standing throughout the world just because they don't like that the party that won the election is following through on its agenda to help American families. But that is what is exactly going on here.

Now, to be clear--let's be very clear--tomorrow's vote is simply a cloture vote. It is not a vote to raise the debt ceiling; it is, rather, a procedural step to let Democrats raise the debt ceiling

on our own, just as Republicans have called for.

Let me say that again so all my Republican colleagues can hear it, and the American people can hear it loud and clear: Tomorrow's vote is simply a cloture vote. Tomorrow's vote is not a vote to raise the debt ceiling; it is, rather, a procedural step to let Democrats raise the debt ceiling on our own.

We are telling Republicans: We are not asking you to vote for it; just let us vote for it. And that is what you called for. That is what Leader McConnell has called for on countless occasions from July on.

As recently as yesterday, the Republican leader pointed to episodes in 2004 and 2006, while the majority raised the debt ceiling, while the minority voted against it. As happened then, the minority party can just get out of the way and let the majority supply the votes.

Tomorrow's vote, then, is a chance for Republican Senators to show that they don't have to link arm-in-arm with those extreme Members of their conference running for President. They have a chance to show that they are still responsible. It is not too late, but it is getting dangerously close.

As I said yesterday, this Chamber must send President Biden legislation to raise the debt ceiling before the end of the week. We do not have the luxury of using a drawn-out, convoluted, and risky process. We can resolve the debt ceiling crisis this week and reassure the world that the full faith and credit of the United States will never be in question.

Democrats are going to do the responsible thing tomorrow and vote yes to prevent a default.

There is still time--still time--for Republicans to get out of the way and allow this bill to pass with a simple majority vote. If Republicans want to vote no tomorrow, if they really want to be the party of default, that is their choice.

Mr. President, now on voting rights, despite all we must do in the coming weeks, Senate Democrats remain strongly committed to advancing legislation in this Chamber to protect the most precious right in our democracy: the right to vote.

Later today, my friend the Senator from Vermont, Senator Leahy, will introduce the new John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. I am a cosponsor, and it is my intention in the coming weeks for the Senate to hold a vote on this bill.

As a complement of the Freedom to Vote Act, Senator Leahy's bill restores some of the most critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act gutted by the Supreme Court's conservative majority in 2013.

Perhaps, most importantly, this proposal would reinstate the so- called ``crown jewel'' of the civil rights movement: the VRA's preclearance coverage formula, retailored for the 21st century. It would also adopt new provisions to address the next generation of suppressive voting already sprouting in States, unfortunately, across the country.

Critically, this new bill also responds to the Court's troubling ruling in the Brnovich case of earlier this year, a decision which further weakened the VRA's protections against State practices that hinder minorities seeking to vote.

I will have more to say on this later, but, for now, I want to thank my colleague from Vermont for his diligence and leadership in our fight to protect our democracy.

The Senate must act soon if we are to successfully defeat the anti- democracy forces of the far right. And we will; we will do just that.

I yield the floor.