Floor Statements

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 298, S. 1963.

Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 1845, which is the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act. The filing deadline for first-degree amendments to that is 9:45 a.m. today, just a few minutes from now. The deadline for second-degree amendments to the Reed amendment and to the bill is 10:45 a.m.

Order of Procedure

I ask unanimous consent the cloture vote on the Reed substitute, which is now scheduled for 11 a.m., be at 2 p.m. There will be two votes at that time, and there could be another one. We will see what happens on the cloture vote.

As I said, Mr. President, there will be two rollcall votes. The first vote is on cloture of the Reed amendment. If cloture is not invoked, there will be a second cloture on the underlying bill.

We hope to be able to work something out for Senator Baucus's nomination to be ambassador to China this afternoon.

Measure Placed On The Calendar--S. 1996

Mr. President, I am told that there is a bill, S. 1996, due for a second reading.

I object to any further proceedings with regard to this matter.

Mr. President, I have had the good fortune of serving in Congress for more than three decades with a good man, the senior Senator from Montana Max Baucus. We hope to schedule a vote sometime this afternoon on his confirmation to be our Nation's Ambassador to China.

Senator Baucus has served in the Senate for a long time. At the end of this year, he will have served 36 years. Prior to that, he served in the House of Representatives for 4 years. Prior to that, he served a term in the Montana State legislature.

He has his undergraduate and law degree from Stanford. He is an extremely

smart person and is certainly versed on what goes on in the Congress.

After he received his law degree from Stanford, he worked as an attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission and entered private practice in Missoula after that.

His mentor, and the person who got him interested in politics, was Mike Mansfield. I didn't know him--I shouldn't say I didn't know him. He attended the prayer breakfast, and I met him on a number of occasions at our Wednesday prayer breakfast. He was a very quiet man, and that is what everybody says about him. He was the worst guest in the world to interview on a Sunday show because he wouldn't say anything. He would just answer yes or no. He was well respected in the Senate by Democrats and Republicans.

I heard Senator Baucus tell the story many times about how Mike Mansfield suggested that he go into politics. Well, he did do that.

Senator Baucus served 2 years in the Montana State legislature before he was elected in 1974 to the House of Representatives. He served, as I indicated earlier, 4 years in the House before coming to the Senate. He has been elected and reelected to the Senate 5 times. As I said, at the end of this year, he will have served for 36 years in the Senate.

He has been chairman of the Finance Committee. He has been chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. He has a been a member of the Agriculture Committee for a long time. By the way, he was appointed to that committee on a temporary basis many decades ago and never left.

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, he was instrumental in developing lots of landmark legislation, but the most significant law he helped to pass in this body was the landmark health care reform bill, the Affordable Care Act, which is saving lives and a lot of money for American taxpayers.

He has been a long-time advocate for the Children's Health Insurance Program. He worked on that with a number of people--not the least of which is Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah.

While Senator Baucus is well-known nationally for his tireless work on health care, tax reform, and as a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, he was also involved in public works projects.

I think the most important thing that Montanans will remember about him is that he always put Montanans first. He is an avid hunter. He authored one of the largest public land grant bills in American history which preserved 310,000 acres of forest land in northwestern Montana.

It is a testament to his love of the outdoors that Max Baucus walked almost 1,000 miles across Montana in 1995 and 1996.

Max and I have an ongoing dialogue about running. I have run a number of marathons, but Max Baucus is a better runner than I am. He is faster, and he has run--I ran one 31-mile race, but Max has run 50-mile races, and he has trained for 100-mile races. During one of those, he fell and hurt himself quite significantly. He hit his head because of a fall.

We have exchanged news articles and stories about runners. We enjoy focusing on our athletic skills. It was just the two of us, so we could say whatever we wanted because there was no one there to listen.

He is someone who loves running. He is still an avid runner, and I have admired him for his athletic skills in addition to his legislative skills.

Senator Baucus's independent spirit has made him a powerful advocate for Montana and for the issues he cares about. He is a respected member of the Democratic caucus and has great respect from the Republican caucus.

During the time that Senator Grassley was the ranking member--I can't vouch for this, but I think I am right--and Senator Baucus was chairman of the Finance Committee, they met every week for lunch. Every week we were in session, they had lunch together.

His passion is well known to all of us. He has decades of experience in Congress. President Obama made an excellent choice in appointing Senator Baucus to represent America's interests in China, a growing power in our global economy.

He has never shied away from difficult issues of the day, and I have no doubt that his fearlessness will serve him well in his new role as a representative for our country in China.

Although Senator Baucus will be missed by the entire Democratic caucus and the Senate family, our loss will be the Nation's gain.

I wish the senior Senator from Montana the very best.

I hope we will vote this afternoon on Senator Baucus's nomination to be Ambassador to China. We have not locked that in yet.

Emergency Unemployment Insurance

We will also vote at 2 p.m. to advance a 3-month extension of emergency unemployment insurance that will not add a penny to the deficit. We originally said 3 months and that it should not be paid for, but the Republicans said it had to be paid for.

We have had two, I thought, really uncontroversial issues that paid for it. The first one didn't work. I think that is wrong, but it didn't work. No one complained about the second one, so certainly any ``no'' vote on extending unemployment benefits is a ``no'' vote because they don't want to extend unemployment benefits.

For a number of years the junior Senator from Oklahoma has talked about how millionaires should not draw unemployment benefits. I agree with him. That is in Jack Reed's amendment, which we are going to vote on later today. Under this legislation, we have accepted the suggestion of the junior Senator from Oklahoma that millionaires should not draw unemployment benefits.

We have virtually done everything that the Republicans asked. They will come up with excuses about why we can't do this and how they want amendments, but that is just a loss leader. We offered them 20 amendments before, but it wasn't good enough.

I hope that we could have a few valiant Republicans vote to help the people who are in desperate need of help. I am sorry to say that it appears Senate Republicans appear ready to filibuster this important legislation a second time despite the fact that we have compromised on every one of their demands. Republicans complained that the bill wasn't paid for, so we found an offset that was minimal to just about everything--at least certainly for those people who were originally on the bill--Heller, Murkowski, Collins. It is my understanding they accepted that. I hope more do. We need five Republican votes.

The Republicans have complained after the first vote that they wouldn't vote on an extension of unemployment insurance without reforms to the program, so we did that also.

I am beginning to believe there is nothing that will get Republicans to yes. With the exception of a few Republicans who have taken the human toll of obstruction into consideration, Republicans simply don't want to extend these benefits.

Their obstruction has already cost the Nation $2.2 billion in economic activity--a body blow to small businesses around the country. Every week they delay, another 73,000 Americans lose these crucial benefits, benefits that help them keep food on the table and a roof over their heads while they search for a job.

I shared the story about a 57-year-old Nevada woman who is couch surfing--I had never heard that term before, but I understand it--who is sleeping on friends' couches because she doesn't have a home anymore. She sold all her belongings so she could put gas in her car if she gets a job interview. This woman has worked all her life. She doesn't want a handout; she wants a job.

So I have had some good conversations with Republican Senators. I hope they will go ahead and let this important piece of legislation pass. We are going to move as quickly as we can to some bills that have been reported on a bipartisan basis out of committees. We are looking closely at the HELP Committee, the Energy Committee, and there are other committees we are going to look at to see if we can bring a bipartisan bill here to the floor, have an agreement on amendments, and try to move forward on that basis.

So as we vote today, I hope my Republican colleagues will keep in mind that we need to move forward--it is so important--to help people who are desperately in need of help such as this 57-year-old woman from Nevada. I hope

they will work with us to advance this bill and legislation in the future more expeditiously than we have in the past.

I enter a motion to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked on the Reed of Rhode Island amendment.

Madam President, for the benefit of all Members, we are going to have another vote right now on the other cloture motion that has been scheduled. Then the Republican leader has said we can move forward on the Baucus nomination at that time.

I ask unanimous consent that the next two votes be 10 minutes in duration.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to offer a motion to reconsider the previous vote by which cloture was not invoked on S. 1845.

I know everyone is in a hurry to leave, and I will be very brief. I wish to make sure I am clear where we stand. We are one Republican vote away from restoring unemployment insurance for 1.7 million Americans, including 20,000 veterans who have lost their benefits during the last 5 weeks. We all support this on this side of the aisle.

Right now there is one Republican vote standing between 1.7 million Americans and the lifeline they need to make ends meet. I ask my Republican colleagues to think about the woman from Nevada who is 57 years old. She is couch-surfing. Younger people know a little bit about that term, but I hadn't heard the term before. She has because she has been forced to understand what it is--going around to friends' homes, apartments, and sleeping on their couches. She is 57 years old, worked from the time she was 18 years old. She lost her job and can't find a job. She is long-term unemployed. If she had just lost her job last week or a couple of months ago, she could go get unemployment, but she has been out of work for too long to be able to get it. She has sold everything she has except a clunker of a car, sold all of her personal things so she can buy gas in case she gets an interview.

People are in the same position as she in every State. Our job is to do right by them. All we need is one more Republican vote, one more Republican to step up and do the right thing. We are going to bring this vote up again sometime. I have spoken to my colleague Senator Heller. I said: Dean, let's get this done. Tell me what is needed to get this done.

Madam President, after having consulted with the Republican leader, I now ask unanimous consent to move to executive session to consider Calendar No. 629, the nomination of our friend Max Baucus to be Ambassador to China; further, I ask that all time be yielded back, with all of the provisions under the previous order remaining in effect.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, I now ask for regular order.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum required under rule XXII be waived and the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to this matter occur at 5:30 p.m., Monday, February 10.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 302, S. Res. 270.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the commerce committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 289.

I ask unanimous consent that the Rockefeller amendment to the resolution, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the Rockefeller amendment to the preamble, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the Rockefeller title amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 303, S. Res. 333.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 352 submitted by Senators Klobuchar, Hatch, and others today.

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

Mr. President, I am told that there are two bills at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

I now ask for a second reading en bloc, but I object to my own request en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, February 10, 2014; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1963, the military retirement pay restoration bill.

Mr. President, the next rollcall vote will be at 5:30 p.m. on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 1963.

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