Floor Statements

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Colin Goldfinch, a fellow on the Finance Committee, and Stephen Jenkins and Kevin McNellis, interns on the Finance Committee, be granted floor privileges for Tuesday, December 17, 2013.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 322.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and that there be no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.; that is, December 17, 2013; 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.

Mr. President, the first vote will be at 10 a.m. on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur with respect to the budget agreement.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate adjourn following the remarks of the Senator from Alabama, Mr. Sessions.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to H.J. Res. 59.

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore laid before the Senate the following message from the House, as follows:

Resolved, that the House recede from its amendment to the

amendment of the Senate to the resolution (H.J. Res. 59)

entitled, ``A joint resolution making continuing

appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other

purposes,'' and concur with a House amendment to the Senate

amendment.

Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59.

Mr. President, I offer a cloture motion.

Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59, with an amendment.

I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion.

I have an amendment which is at the desk.

I move to refer the House message with respect to H.J. Res. 59 with instructions.

I ask for the yeas and nays on that motion.

I have an amendment to the instructions.

I ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment.

I have a second-degree amendment.

I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to H.R. 3304.

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore laid before the Senate the following message from the House as follows:

Resolved, that the House concur in the Senate amendment to

the title of the bill (H.R. 3304) entitled ``An Act to

authorize and request the President to award the Medal of

Honor to Bennie G. Adkins and Donald P. Sloat of the United

States Army for acts of valor during the Vietnam Conflict and

to authorize the award of the Medal of Honor to certain other

veterans who were previously recommended for award of the

Medal of Honor.'', and be it further

Resolved, that the House concur in the first three Senate

amendments to the text of the aforementioned bill, and be it

further

Resolved, that the House concur in the fourth Senate

amendment to the text of the aforementioned bill, with an

amendment.

I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3304.

I have a cloture motion at the desk.

I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3304, with an amendment.

I ask for the yeas and nays on my motion.

I have an amendment that I ask the Chair to order reported.

I now move to refer the House message with respect to H.R. 3304 with instructions.

I ask for the yeas and nays on that matter.

I have an amendment to the instructions.

I ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment.

I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

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 unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3 p.m. on Monday, December 16, 2013; 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 be in a period of morning business until 5:30 p.m., with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees; further, that the filing deadline for first degree amendments to the motions to concur with respect to H.J. Res. 59, the Budget Resolution, and H.R. 3304, National Defense Authorization Act, be 4 p.m. Monday; and finally, at 5:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of Executive Calendar No. 406, the nomination for Anne W. Patterson, as provided under the previous order.

Mr. President, 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 am told that S. 1824 is due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to the reading of this bill at this time.

Mr. President, on Monday there will be a series of rollcall votes starting at 5:30 in the evening. Those votes will be on confirmation of the Patterson nomination to be Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, cloture on the Johnson nomination to be Secretary of Homeland Security, confirmation of the Johnson nomination, and potentially additional procedural votes.

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

Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 243,

Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Nina Pillard to be U.S. circuit judge for the DC Circuit, postcloture.

Measure Placed On The Calendar--S. 1797

Mr. President, I am told S. 1797 is due for a second reading. Is that valid?

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to this bill at this time.

Mr. President, I congratulate the budget negotiators on reaching an agreement last night to roll back the painful and arbitrary cuts of sequestration and prevent another dangerous government shutdown in the new year. Their bargain also protects Medicare and Social Security benefits and reduces the deficit. That is a good package.

I commend Budget Chairman Murray and her House Republican counterpart Congressman Paul Ryan for their diligence and cooperative spirit which made this agreement possible.

The process that led to this accord was long and very difficult. The Republican government shutdown--the first in 17 years--took a toll on our economy, on American families, and on our reputation around the world. It was also costly for the Federal Government in many different ways.

So when Congress reached a temporary settlement that ended the shortsighted shutdown, Democrats were committed to ending the terrible cycle of lurching from crisis to crisis. But understand this: When this measure went to the House of Representatives--it passed here to keep open the government, after 16 days; to stop the government from defaulting on its debt for the first time in history--about 75 percent of the Republicans in the House voted to keep the government closed and to default on the debt. Think about that. So this agreement is really a breath of fresh air--as we have been committed to setting sound fiscal policy through the regular order of the budget process and not through hostage taking or crisis making.

In this new agreement neither side got everything it wanted, but that is how it used to work around here. That is how it worked. Each side would move forward on what they wanted, and they would recognize-- sometimes it was soon; sometimes it was not so soon--that the only way to work something out was to work together. That is what happened here.

So this is, I repeat, a breath of fresh air for the country. But I also hope it is a view of the future. I hope it is a view of the future. For example, I believe, as many Democrats do, that an extension of emergency unemployment insurance should be included in this package. I am very disappointed that the bills posted by the House last night do not include that. About 20,000 Nevadans who have been unemployed for more than 6 months--and more than a million people nationwide--will lose their earned unemployment benefits at the end of this year unless Congress acts.

I will stand for those Americans who want to get back to work as soon as possible but face a market where there is only one job opening for every three unemployed workers. That is why we are going to push here, after the first of the year, for an extension of unemployment insurance when the Senate convenes after the New Year, as I will also work very hard to raise the minimum wage.

It was stunning, Mr. President, the reports all over the national media today--radio, television, all the print media--that the vast majority of Americans believe the minimum wage should be raised to $10 an hour. The American people believe that if someone works for 40 hours, they should not be on the rating as being poor. They should be able to support themselves and their family. But that is not the way it is now. We need to raise the minimum wage, and there will be a sustained effort to do that when we come back.

Democrats, led by Senator Murray, stood for our party's priorities-- protecting the middle class and growing the economy--but we were also ready and willing to compromise with our Republican counterparts. I admire Senator Murray for having proceeded forward along this line.

But while both sides made concessions and sacrifices, I repeat, that is the nature of negotiation and the point of a conference committee: to work together to work out our differences. So to their credit, members of the conference committee considered every option, no matter how painful to their own political party. They rejected many. They rejected most. They were able to come together on enough revenue and enough cuts to come up with this pact that they have.

Under the leadership of Chairman Murray, the committee crafted a 2- year bargain that charts a course for economic growth, maintains fiscal responsibility, and, perhaps most importantly, averts another manufactured crisis that would undercut the economic progress we have made these last 4 years.

So I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol to pass this agreement.

Last night, we also filed--I should not say ``we''--last night, the House filed a bill to ensure physicians are fairly compensated so Medicare patients can continue to see their doctors. It would be a shame if Medicare patients did not have the ability to have a doctor. But unless we did this agreement--short term as it is--physicians would receive a 27-percent cut in pay. So again in the new year we are going to work very hard to get rid of this so-called doc fix once and for all. We need to fix it once and for all.

Unfortunately, instead of beginning work on either of these things I have talked about, the two agreements--that is, the fix for doctors for Medicare patients, the budget; and the Defense bill, which I have not talked about, which also was posted last night in the House-- Republicans are not facing reality. They are not. You are seeing, the American people are seeing before their eyes the face of obstruction. That is what is going on right now. We are eating up days of time-- wasting hours, weeks, and days.

We could be voting on all this stuff now, all these nominations that are appearing before this body now, and move on to the substantive issues. This is why the rules were changed, Mr. President. You can see it right now. We are wasting hour after hour doing nothing.

The filibuster rule was established to get legislation passed. As it relates to nominations, the same thing applied: to get nominations processed. Our predecessors in the Senate set some rules saying that if cloture is invoked, the parties are entitled to some time to make their case before final passage or final vote on the nomination.

So now we have a number of nominations we are processing. To show how shallow the Republicans' obstructionism is, they have no objections to

any of these nominations. Nobody comes and gives these fire-and- brimstone speeches about how bad these people are. Why? Because they are not. They have just been stalling and stalling. I repeat, this is the face of obstruction which we have been facing for 5 years during the Obama administration. Is it any wonder that the rule was changed that relates to nominations? We were spending all of our time trying to get the President to have a team rather than doing work on substantive legislation.

So we will see how late we have to work tonight. Whatever it is, we are going to do it. We are going to finish these nominations this week. If it goes into Friday, if it goes into Saturday, that is what we are going to do. We have to get this done.

Christmas is approaching, and I understand that. We all understand that. But this session of Congress does not end at Christmastime. We have work to do. We have to pass this budget. We have to do something for those Medicare patients. We have to do something for the military of this country with this Defense agreement that has been reached between the leaders of those two important committees--Armed Services and their counterpart in the House, whatever it is called.

So why waste this time? There is no reason to do this. Republicans are stalling. For what? To stop these nominations from going forward? They are going to go forward with a simple majority vote. I understand one of them may not go forward because some Democrats do not like the nominee, but that is the way it should be.

So we could confirm Nina Pillard right now. No one is saying a single word contrary to her being the quality candidate that we have said she is. She is nominated to sit on the District of Columbia Appeals Court, I repeat, some say the most important court in America; most say second only to the Supreme Court.

But instead, Republicans are insisting that we vote on her nomination many hours from now, after they have frittered away 30 hours of the Senate's time. There are no objections to her qualifications. The outcome of her vote is a foregone conclusion. So when people around here complain that they are not home with their families at Christmastime, here is the reason: Republicans' obstruction.

It is hard to imagine a more pointless exercise than spending hour after hour waiting for a vote on an outcome we already know. Republicans insist on wasting time simply for the sake of wasting time. Is it any wonder, I repeat, that the rule was changed? Here is why. It is no wonder Americans overwhelmingly support the changes made to the rules last month in order to make the Senate work again.

The Republican's partisan sideshow is another example of the kind of blatant obstruction that has ground the Senate to a halt. The work of the Senate has come to a standstill over the last 5 years. Members should be aware if Republicans stop squandering the Senate's precious time, rollcall votes are possible at any time this afternoon or this evening. It does not have to be like this.

With just a little bit of cooperation, we could hold votes in a timely manner so we can move on with the business before us. Unfortunately, we can not schedule votes without cooperation; that is part of the Senate rules. Cooperation is in short supply at the moment.

Reservation of Leader Time

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

I ask unanimous consent that at 9 a.m., Thursday, December 12, all postcloture time on the Pillard nomination be considered expired and the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of the Pillard nomination; that upon disposition of the Pillard nomination, the mandatory quorum required under rule XXII be waived with respect to the cloture motion on the Feldblum nomination and the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Feldblum nomination; that if cloture is invoked on the Feldblum nomination, all postcloture time be yielded back and the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of the Feldblum nomination; finally, that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senator be allowed to speak for whatever time he feels appropriate.

My friend, the senior distinguished Senator from Iowa, that is what we are talking about here, the face of obstruction--not him, but the Republican caucus, stalling for no reason other than to stall for time.

No wonder the rules were changed. No wonder the American people look at the Senate as a dysfunctional body. A couple of weeks ago we voted to make it a functional body so that nominations can be confirmed for any President. The President deserves to have his team.

We have been wasting days, weeks, and months on nominations. We have scores of people and positions that need to be filled. We are only dealing with a handful. People understand the rules. We have changed the rules the last couple of Congresses--very little--but we have changed them.

If we have a Supreme Court Justice or a Cabinet officer or someone of that level, they get 30 hours of time following the cloture vote. What are they supposed to do during that 30 hours? Come and explain their position why they oppose a person.

For virtually every one of these nominations there hasn't been a single, single complaint about any of them. This culminated by virtue of the Republicans in the Senate making a decision that people who serve in the prestigious DC Circuit Court of Appeals were not entitled to have a full court. There are eight there now, and they said that is enough. That is, some say, the most important court in America; some say more important than the Supreme Court.

The Republicans arbitrarily have said we are not going to fill those spots, not only because of qualifications, not because of their education, their experience or their integrity, only because they don't want them filled. That is a new low.

I am disappointed to have to inform the Presiding Officer and all Senators tonight that because Republicans are wasting time, all of this staff, police officers--and some of them are getting paid over time-- will have to work. Why? Because the Republicans are wanting to waste more of this body's time and this country's time. No wonder the American people feel about the Senate as they do. For 5 years the obstruction that has taken place is unprecedented.

We are going to continue to work tonight and remain in session as long as we need to. Republicans are forcing us to waste this week on nominees they know will be confirmed. Every one of them will be confirmed.

There are no objections to the qualifications of these nominees, with one exception, and there are only little squeaks here and there about what could be wrong. But the outcome of each vote we will take over the next 4 days is a foregone conclusion. Yet the Republicans insist on wasting time simply for the sake of wasting time. There is no reason these votes couldn't take place right now or in the morning, and we could move to some important items.

I have Senators come to me all the time--the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee was here a few minutes ago, the distinguished junior Senator from Vermont. He has some important work he wants to move on this floor. They have passed some things in the House--and that doesn't happen very often, but they passed it. They sent it over, and it deals with veterans.

He wants to bring that to the floor, have a debate, and offer an amendment. We can't do that because we are wasting time in the Senate on this senselessness.

The junior Senator from the State of Delaware has spent weeks and weeks on manufacturing, which has shown some promise in America the last few years. Jobs are being created. Working on a bipartisan basis with other Senators, they have legislation they want to bring to the floor to talk about ways of improving manufacturing, capabilities, and capacity in the United States.

We can't do that. We are here postcloture looking at each other and doing basically nothing, as we have done for vast amounts of time because of Republican obstructionism.

I had a meeting with the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the junior Senator from the State of Rhode Island a few minutes ago. In the world today we have something called climate change. It is here. Climate is changing all over the world. We have global warming.

Are we doing anything legislatively to address that? No, nothing. She has a portfolio of legislation that she would like to take care of.

There is going to be zero done because we are sitting under these lights complaining about the Republicans wasting time. We could finish these votes now, but we are going to work into the weekend.

We had a break for Thanksgiving. It was very pleasant for me to be home for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I had a death in the family that put a real cloud over things, and that is an understatement.

Christmas is coming. Everyone should know that we are going to work until we finish the items we have before us this week. I am going to file on a number of other nominees as soon as I get a chance, and we are going to finish those. If we have to work the weekend before Christmas, we are going to do that. If we have to work the Monday before Christmas, we are going to do that. If we have to work through Christmas, we are going to do that. I know the game they are playing. They have done it before. A lot of nominations they will ask to be sent back to the administration, and they will have to start all over again. We are not going to start all over again.

We need a director of the Internal Revenue Service. I think that is a very good idea. We need to fill Chairman Bernanke's spot as chairman of the Federal Reserve. That would be very important for us to do with all the problems we have financially.

We are going to do that before we leave. If it means we have to work through Christmas, we will work through Christmas.

Even if we are spending a lot of time--as we have done over the last 5 years because of their obstructionism--looking at the lights, and that is about all we have to look at because we are not looking at substantive legislation as we should be, the only impediment to holding votes without delay in reasonable hours is blatant, partisan Republican obstructionism.

It is pointless spending an entire week wasting time and waiting for a

vote. This is a foregone conclusion that is going to happen to every one of these votes. This is exactly the kind of blatant obstructionism and delay that has ground the Senate to a halt and prevented Congress from doing the work of the people over the last 5 years.

I remind Members that without cooperation there will be rollcall votes, perhaps after midnight tonight, and as early as 5:30 in the morning. With only a little cooperation, Senators can stop wasting time and resources.

The only way the Senate can stop wasting time is if we get some reasonableness and clarity from the Republicans. If there were ever an example why the rules had to be changed and how we tried during two successive Congresses to be reasonable--remember the exercise? Judges would only be opposed under extraordinary circumstances. There isn't a single judge that the President of the United States has nominated who has problems that are extraordinary. I think what is going on is a shame.