Floor Statements

Madam President, I now move to proceed to legislative session.

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

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 101.

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

Madam President, I now move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I have a cloture motion I would ask the clerk to report if the Chair agrees.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII of the Senate be waived.

Madam President, I now move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, there is a cloture motion at the desk.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Madam President, I now move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 99.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, no matter how often my friend rudely talks about me not breaking my word, I am not going to respond talking about how many times he has broken his word. That does not add anything to this debate we are having. So he can keep saying that as much as he wants. All we have to do is look back at the record today.

As to the caucus Monday night, my Members will be here. I do not understand--unless this is part of the overall pattern we have come to expect around here, to not do anything today you can do tomorrow. We are going to have a vote at 5:30. Members are usually pretty good at getting here for votes at 5:30.

I also am stunned by boasting about the ranking member on the EPW Committee suddenly seeing the light and he is going to allow Gina McCarthy to get a vote. Now, is that not wonderful? Is that not something to cheer about? He has held up this woman. He is the one who is responsible for 1,100 questions to her. That is what is wrong here. This is so transparent what my friend has asked. He has said he wants to approve two Republican members to the NLRB. Let's have those votes first--only one Democratic nominee. What does this mean? It means within a couple of months Republicans have a majority of the NLRB. I do not blame him for wanting that.

They do not like the organization anyway, just like they do not like Cordray's organization. So I can understand that the Republican leader would like to get consent to create a Republican majority on the NLRB. But it is so obvious. I object.

We are going to have a caucus Monday at 6 o'clock in the Old Senate Chamber. We are going to vote at 5:30. I would hope with something this important we will have attendance. I know my caucus will be there. If nothing is resolved there, which is the way things have been going today, likely it will not be, so we will have a vote sometime early Tuesday morning on these nominations.

Mr. President, no matter how many times he says it, he tends to not focus on what he has done to the Senate. As I indicated earlier, there is lots of time for name-calling. But we know it is replete in the Record, as delivered this morning, how he said there would be no filibusters, we would follow the norms of the Senate, only extraordinary circumstances.

The extraordinary circumstances have come because we are in session, I guess. The only person I know who thinks things are going just fine is my friend. The American people know this institution is being hammered hard. He does not have to worry about me for the heat I have taken. I have not taken any heat. I had a very nice caucus today. My caucus was thoughtful. We heard from--out of my 54 Senators, we probably heard from 25 or 26 of them. Attendance was nearly perfect. So I do not want him to feel sorry for the Senate, certainly not for me.

I am going to continue to try to speak in a tone that is appropriate. His name-calling--I guess he follows, and I hope not, the demagogic theory that the more you say something, even if it is false, people start believing it.

It is quite interesting that Richard Cordray, who no one--no one-- says there is a thing wrong with this man, former attorney general of the heavily populated State of Ohio--Democrats and Republicans have said he is a good guy--this man has been waiting 724 days; Assistant Secretary for Defense, 292 days; Monetary Fund Governor, 169 days; EPA, 128 days; NLRB, two of them, 573 days. We have 15 of them. Average time waiting is 9 months.

Reshuffling the votes as he wants them, that is a laugher. He wants to have a majority of the NLRB be Republicans. I do not think that is a good idea. We are going to have our caucus Monday. I think it was a good idea. I have tried to have them before. My friend has objected to them. That is replete in the press. But we are going to have this one. I am happy to do that.

My friend said the process works. The process works? The status quo is good. I do not think so.

Mr. President, illegally appointed? Why did President Obama recess appoint Cordray and the two NLRB members? Because the Republicans had blocked them, blocked them, blocked them, blocked them. We count Cordray as only 571 days. That went on long before he got there. Elizabeth Warren is the one who set up this program. They said: No chance. Do not even think of bringing her here. That is when he came with Cordray. Elizabeth Warren found him as attorney general of Ohio. So these big crocodile tears--you have recess appointments because the President had no choice if he wanted his team to work.

He said: Oh, we would be happy to process them quickly, just like Richard Perez has been processed quickly? Just like all of these people have been processed quickly? Sorry. So there is not a chance that we are going to let the NLRB be dominated by Republicans. That one organization, above all, looks out for working men and women in this country, should not be dominated by Republicans. It is not going to be.

So I repeat, this issue can be resolved very quickly. I had somebody out here at my stakeout say: What happens if you get cloture on everybody?

I said: There is no problem. They can all vote against these people. They can vote against them, every one of them. But they, on a procedural basis, they are holding up votes on people who are well qualified and would be approved by the Senate if they got a vote. So this is a little strange deal. Talk about marshaling your troops to do something that is absolutely wrong. It is that. If they are so worried about the rules changes around here, it would seem to me they should approve three qualified people whom no one--no one--suggests there is anything wrong with any of them.

Why were they recess appointed? Because the Republicans forced President Obama to do that. There will be no further votes this week. The next vote will be Monday at 5:30.

A sad day in the Senate created by the Republicans. This rules change--he keeps talking about the rules change. The Presiding Officer knows the Constitution is very clear. It is clear that there is one paragraph that says treaties take a two-thirds vote. In that same paragraph, how many votes does it take to confirm a nomination? A simple majority. That is in our Constitution. Since 1977 rules have been changed in this body 17 times--not by fancy things done by the Rules Committee but right here in the Senate.

We have three people who are qualified, and if Republicans want to avoid a problem--obviously they don't. What they want to do is continue.

Can you imagine--the American people are looking at this and saying: The Republican leader thinks the Senate is going just fine, the status quo is good? Look at any poll. The Gallup Poll did one. Eighty-six percent of the American people--why do they think things are bad? Because of gridlock, not doing important things. Sure we were able to get a few things done, but I have been here a while, and we have done some good things this year, but we should be doing lots of good things, not focused on immigration and a farm bill that has been passed twice, on a postal bill that we passed once and we haven't passed again. We talk a lot about WRDA. I am glad we got that done, WRDA, and I am not going to denigrate my friend, the chairman of that committee, but that bill is a mere shadow of its former self because of what the Republicans have done to make a mockery of what goes on here.

All we want is for the President of the United States, whoever that might be, Democrat or Republican, to be able to have the team he wants as contemplated in that document called the Constitution of the United States. That is not asking too much.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.