Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider Calendar No. 353, Thomas Andrew Monheim, of Virginia, to be Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate.

I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table without intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to consider the following nominations en bloc: Calendar Nos. 370, 371, 372, 373, 374, and 375; that the Senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 124, S. 1037.

I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion 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 Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further consideration of S. 558 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the Wicker amendment be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time 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 immediate consideration of S. 2923, which was introduced earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

I know of no further debate on the bill.

I ask that the motion 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 the following resolutions, en bloc: S. Res. 338, S. Res. 366, S. Res. 368.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions which were submitted earlier today: S. Res. 402, S. Res. 403, S. Res. 404.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to; that the preambles, where applicable, be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 noon, Friday, October 1; 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; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Adams-Allen nomination.

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.

Madam President, on the CR, the Senate could take action as early as today to address a concern that demands the immediate attention of this Chamber: funding the Federal Government beyond September 30.

To prevent a government shutdown, Senate Democrats will be introducing a continuing resolution that keeps the government open until early December, while also providing long-sought emergency funding to help Americans still reeling from natural disasters from this summer, as well as funding to help resettle Afghan refugees. We can approve this measure quickly and send it to the House so it can reach the President's desk before funding expires midnight tomorrow. With so many critical issues to address, the last thing the American people need right now is a government shutdown. This proposal will prevent one from happening.

I want to thank my colleagues who are working quickly to prepare this legislation.

Madam President, now on debt limit, of course, once we fund the government, we still need to address the urgent matter of extending the debt ceiling and preserving the full faith and credit of the United States.

To paraphrase the economist Austan Goolsbee, who just met with our caucus this morning, throughout history, there have certainly been governments that have defaulted on their debt, but never has there been a default caused by pure stupidity--in this case, Republican stupidity.

Well, Democrats are working to prevent such an outcome from happening now. Over the past week, our caucus has tried to find a workable solution to avoid default on our sovereign debt, but the Republicans have stymied us at every opportunity.

On Monday, we considered a continuing resolution which, among other things, would have extended the debt ceiling until the end of 2022, allowing us to pay for the debt incurred by the previous administration. Republicans unanimously voted in favor of default.

So, on Tuesday, we gave Republicans another chance. We offered to solve the debt ceiling impasse by doing exactly what Republicans claimed they wanted all along: Raise it with only Democratic votes. We gave them a chance to oppose it, like they said they would, and allow Democrats to solve this problem ourselves. Again, it was precisely what they asked for. And Leader McConnell cited this precedent several times in the last few days as to how to get out of the debt crisis. But once again, Republicans blocked that proposal in favor of default, and, quite frankly, no Republican provided a good answer as to why. When Leader McConnell came out to rebut, he didn't discuss the merits of our proposal. He said: We don't want Democrats going forward and doing other things.

Well, this is about debt that we have already incurred, debts from the past, spending from the past. It is not about the future.

If we never did debt ceiling--if we always let the debt ceiling lapse because

one party or the other didn't like some future action that the other party would take, we would never do it. It is an absurd argument--an absurd argument--because they have no real arguments because we were doing exactly--exactly--what Republicans have asked for: Pass it with your own votes.

So Democrats have offered Republicans multiple, entirely reasonable ways to get out of the mess they created, but instead of stepping aside and letting the responsible party address the debt limit, Republicans have chosen to actively obstruct. Again, we are not asking for Republicans to support raising the debt ceiling. If they want to stop payments from going to veterans and Social Security recipients, be our guest. We are just asking for Republicans to get out of the way. Get out of the way, and let us do what they say they wanted us to do: Raise the debt ceiling without their votes.

Time is short. The danger is real. Yesterday, the Treasury Secretary wrote that if the debt ceiling is not addressed by October 18, the government could enter a catastrophic default--catastrophic--for the first time in history.

Secretary Yellen's warning was unmistakable. A default would be ``disastrous for the American economy, global financial market and millions of families and workers whose financial security would be jeopardized by a delay in payments.'' Yet, every day, the outcome grows more and more likely because of Republican intransigence, because Republicans are deliberately preventing the government from being able to pay its bills.

Now, in solving this crisis, this body cannot and will not go through a drawn-out, unpredictable process sought by the minority leader. It risks the full faith and credit of the United States. To do this through reconciliation requires ping-ponging separate bills back from the Senate and the House. It is unchartered waters. Individual Senators could move to delay and delay and delay. It is very risky and could well lead us to default, even if only one Senator wanted that to happen. That is very possible. So you can't do it this route. Everyone who has studied it knows it is risky, and it is simply a political gambit by Leader McConnell, who has changed his tune several different times. He said over and over again: Just you Democrats vote for it. We give them that chance. Now, he has backed off that and moved into this untenable excuse. It is not a real answer.

If the Republicans really want to prevent a default like they claim they do, they should step aside and let Democrats do the responsible thing. As default gets closer and closer to becoming a reality, our Republican colleagues will be forced to ask themselves how long they are going to keep playing political games while the economic stability of our country is at risk. At stake is the well-being of millions of Americans who did not ask for any of this and would suffer immensely because of Republican obstruction. If Republicans choose to keep making this harder, if Republicans choose to drag out this process, they will own the consequences of their default.

Mr. President, I understand there are three bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc.

In order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I will object to further proceeding en bloc.

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

Mr. President, we are ready to move forward. We have an agreement on the CR, the continuing resolution, to prevent a government shutdown. And we should be voting on that tomorrow morning. So I am going to make that an order now.

Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that upon the conclusion of morning business on Thursday, September 30, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 137, H.R. 5305; that Senator Leahy, or his designee, be recognized to offer substitute amendment No. 3830 and that the amendment be reported by number, that only the first-degree amendments in order be the following: Cotton No. 3833, Afghan refugees; Marshall No. 3831, vaccine mandate; Braun No. 3832, No Budget No Pay; that at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, the Senate vote in relation to the first-degree amendments in the order listed, with no second-degree amendments in order; that upon disposition of the amendments, the Senate vote on the substitute, as amended, if amended; that the bill be considered read a third time, and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended, with the Braun and Marshall amendments and passage requiring 60 affirmative votes for adoption; and that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided prior to each vote, all without intervening action or debate.