Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the leader time not count against the hour that is set aside for morning business.

Remember, Congressman Ryan, when he came up with one of these budgets, used these overseas contingency funds to balance his budget.

Let's not even worry about that for purposes of this conversation, the overseas contingency fund. Let's just talk about the war in Afghanistan. What my friend is saying is that it is OK to borrow money for the war in Afghanistan but not to use that same money to reduce pains being felt all over America today.

Even Joe Scarborough on ``Morning Joe,'' a former Republican Congressman from Florida, said today that he can't believe that the pain is being felt all over America today and no one is concerned about the war in Afghanistan.

Does anyone think we are going to be fighting a war in Afghanistan 5 years from now, 10 years from now? That is the money people are trying to protect. I hope not. For the sake of my children and grandchildren, I hope we are not still fighting in Afghanistan 5 or 10 years from now.

We are asking to take a few dollars of the $650 billion that is there--billion dollars--to relieve the pain we are feeling now for 5 months. That is it.

I think it is really unfair that it would be so easy to turn the sequester around and allow us to do something for a long term to take care of this issue, but, no, the Republicans like the pain.

One Republican Senator who came here last night said: Well, why don't we take the money from the construction fund for airports?

Those create jobs.

He said: Why don't we take it from essential air services?

That dog has been here and fought lots of times. That has been stripped bare.

As I indicated in my opening statement, this is supposed to be fair and equal. You can't jimmy things around. It is the same amount of money. The Republicans say: Well, it is the same amount of money, but give more pain to somebody else than the other; just balance it out. The pain is too severe; it can't be balanced out.

I yield back all time.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the next vote be 10 minutes in duration.

Madam President, on behalf of Senators Enzi, Durbin, and others, I have an amendment at the desk and I ask the clerk to report.

I have a cloture motion at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the names be waived.

I now ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Madam President, I now ask unanimous consent that Senator Donnelly be recognized for up to 20 minutes to give his maiden speech, and he will proceed as in morning business. Following his speech, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Durbin, the manager of the bill, be recognized.

Mr. President, S. Res. 114 concerns a request for testimony, documents and representation in a federal criminal action pending in Arizona Federal district court. The prosecution and defense have requested the production of a limited number of documents and testimony, if necessary, from current and former employees of the Offices of Senator John McCain and former Senator Jon Kyl. Senator McCain and former Senator Kyl would like to cooperate with these requests by authorizing the production of relevant documents and employee testimony from their offices.

The enclosed resolution would authorize the production of relevant documents and employee testimony from the offices of Senator McCain and former Senator Kyl. It would also authorize the Senate Legal Counsel to represent any current or former employees of those offices from whom evidence may be sought in this case.

Mr. President, following leader remarks the Senate will be in a period of morning business for 1 hour. The majority will control the first half, the Republicans the final half. Following morning business the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to the Marketplace Fairness Act. From 12:30 today until 2:15 the Senate will be in a recess to allow for our weekly caucus meetings.

Yesterday evening a number of Senators missed votes. We have talked about this a number of times and become somewhat complacent. We have votes for 15 minutes. We extend it for 5 minutes. We have extended that time for a long period of time.

Because of procedural things around here in the Senate, I had to terminate that vote before 6 o'clock in an effort to save a full day of legislative business. Obviously, there is 30 hours following that cloture vote--wasted time. I have talked about it before, but there was no reason whatsoever that we went into Wednesday rather than Tuesday. So I do not apologize. Everyone here has to understand there are certain things we have to do around here.

We have been somewhat lax in enforcing the length of votes. It is very unfair to people who vote and have other things to do to wait for others before the vote is terminated. I understand how important it is for people to do their votes, but it is also important to get our business done here. I repeat, had we not terminated that vote before 6 o'clock, then it would have kicked us over until Wednesday before cloture could be filed on the bill. I do not know if I am going to file cloture on the bill today, but at least I have the opportunity to do that.

Mr. President, my Republican colleagues often demand a return to regular order. We have heard speeches, and the House is also talking about regular order. They have done this many different places but especially where the budget process is concerned. They complained for 2 years that we did not pass a budget, even though there was a law we passed that gave us those budget numbers.

But they still came and talked about our needing to do a budget resolution. I repeat, we did not need a budget resolution because we had enacted a budget with the force of law, a bill the President signed. A resolution, the President does not have to sign that. This year, I repeat, the Republicans again requested we take up a budget resolution.

Until 5 in the morning we took vote after vote on amendment after amendment, more than 100 votes. In the end, we passed a budget resolution without a single Republican vote in the affirmative. After giving the Republicans what they wanted or what they said they wanted, regular order, countless amendment votes, the passage of a budget resolution, a strange thing happened. House Republicans did a complete 180. They flipped. They are no longer insisting on regular order, even though they preached that for years. They do not want to go to conference and work things out. They did not even want to name conferees.

It seems House Republicans do not want to be seen discussing even the

possibility of compromise with Democrats for fear there will be a tea party revolt, but that is not a good reason to run away from budget negotiations. In fact, it is ridiculous. So today I am going to ask unanimous consent to name conferees so we can have a budget conference to try to work things out.

I hope, even though I doubt, my Republican colleagues in the Senate will not object for the sole purpose of giving cover to the House Republican colleagues who are certainly directed and guided by the tea party folks over there. If the Republicans are serious about reducing the deficit, we need to get to work, get to work sooner rather than later.

What is regular order? It means we do things the way they are supposed to be done--by the book, so to speak. So I am going to ask that consent soon.

Let's talk about sequestration just for a brief time. I talked about it yesterday in the afternoon when the Senate convened. On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration implemented sequester furloughs. It will affect tens of thousands of employees. By Monday, yesterday, travelers were already experiencing delays at airports from coast to coast.

According to the Wall Street Journal, flights to New York airports were delayed more than an hour already because of those furloughs. Delays are also reported in Los Angeles and even Baltimore. The FAA assured us things will get much worse before the end of the busy summer travel season, as these arbitrary sequester cuts continue to affect airport staffing levels.

What this means is that every 2 weeks all FAA employees will have to take a day off. At peak travel times, almost 7,000 flights will be delayed every day, some of them by up to 3 hours. On the worst day we had last year because of weather-related issues, less than 3,000 flights were delayed. Now, every day, more than twice that number will be delayed.

These delays will be bad for business, they will be frustrating for families, and they will be devastating for the economy. But flight delays are not the only unintended consequence of these across-the- board cuts. It is not just FAA employees. It will affect 750,000 jobs across the country. It will shred the safety net that keeps millions of seniors, children, veterans, and needy families from falling through the cracks.

It will gut investment in education, medical research that helps America compete in the 21st century. More than 2,700 schools with large numbers of disadvantaged children will see their Federal funding slashed. Seventy thousand little boys and girls will not be able to do the Head Start programs. These cuts will put 10,000 classroom jobs at risk. They will eliminate extra help at closing the achievement gap for 1.2 million underprivileged students.

More than 7,200 teachers and classroom aids who work with children with disabilities will lose their jobs because of the sequester. Some 33,000 college students will lose their work study jobs. I was a janitor for part of the time I went to school. It helped me pay my tuition. Things have changed over the years, but these jobs are still important, very important. They call them work study jobs.

We are putting the dream of higher education further out of reach for our poorest students if we keep this sequestration going. Families and businesses in every State will feel the pain of the sequester whether they fly or do not fly. But Congress could act now to reverse these cuts without adding a single dollar to the deficit. We can use the savings from wrapping up military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to avoid the full brunt of these arbitrary cuts.

Right now, there is about $650 billion in that fund. We could erase the sequester for the rest of the year, which is a fraction of the savings from winding down these two wars. Using those savings, Congress could avert the most painful and senseless sequester cuts, cuts to the FAA and programs that get homeless veterans off the streets, fund research to cure lethal diseases, and provide meals to needy seniors.

I only hope public outcry over long delays at airports will serve as a wake-up call to my Republican colleagues. We cannot put off action any longer.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 33, H. Con. Res. 25; that is, the budget resolution; that all after the enacting clause be stricken and that the amendment which is at the desk, the text of S. Con. Res. 8, the budget resolution passed by the Senate, be inserted in lieu thereof; that H. Con. Res. 25, as amended, be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be consider made and laid on the table; that the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, with the appointment of the budget conferees being on the ratio of 7 Democrats to 5 Republicans, and there be no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Toomey be recognized for up to 4 minutes, that following his remarks the Senator from North Dakota, Ms. Heitkamp, be recognized.

Las Vegas is the destination resort of the world. I may get a little static from New York about that, but it is a place a lot of people wish to visit. We understand the importance of doing something about the lines at airports as the result of sequestration. But as I indicated in my remarks, I am also concerned about the little boys and girls who are knocked off Head Start--70,000 of them. I am also concerned about medical research. As I stated yesterday, Duke University is laying off 50 people. Duke does some of the most important medical research there is, dealing with dread disease. I am concerned about homeless veterans. The program will eliminate homeless veterans having a home. This is what sequestration does to them.

The reason sequester is taking effect is because Congress enacted it into law the Budget Control Act of 2011. The vast majority of Republicans voted for this. The Senate considered an alternative that would have altered sequester, and it would have done it with a balanced package. Republicans blocked it earlier this year.

We need to lessen the impact of sequestration. It is not as if we are blind to doing something about deficit reduction. We have already reduced the debt by about $2.6 trillion.

My friend from Pennsylvania has a reputation for being very concerned about dealing with money, and I admire him for his tenaciousness in that regard.

What I have suggested here certainly seems reasonable. For 5 months, we do a timeout on the sequestration. During the 5 months, sequestration would be paid for with part of the $650 billion that was in a pot that is a result of the money building up due to reducing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During these 5 months, let's find a better way to go forward with our efforts to reduce the debt. I think this is reasonable, it would be fair, and it would give us time to do something.

Certainly with the debt ceiling coming up and other major issues we need to deal with, I think we should lessen not only the impact of the problems we have at airports around America, but also we should focus on little boys and girls and elderly men and women who are losing Meals On Wheels, their only hot meal of the day.

I think we should do that--look at this sequestration and take a timeout.

I recognize my friend from North Dakota, who is going to give her maiden speech. We are looking forward to hearing what she has to say.

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

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

Madam President, my friend from Oklahoma is on the Senate floor. I would ask if he would be kind enough to wait while I say a few words and withhold offering the consent agreement to allow Senator Schumer to speak for 5 minutes. Following Senator Schumer, I will offer the consent agreement. Would that be appropriate for the Senator from Oklahoma?

Madam President, the arbitrary spending cuts in the Budget Control Act were designed to be painful--so painful that both parties would come together to find a bipartisan way to reduce the deficit. Thus far, it hasn't worked. We have reduced the debt by doing a number of different things by approximately $2.5 trillion. We have cooperated in that regard. The deep cuts required by the sequester failed to bring the Republicans to the negotiating table to find more savings or more revenue.

Even after both the House and the Senate passed budget resolutions, the House Republican leadership has refused to go to conference to work out our differences. Republicans have been telling us for a long time that they want regular order. When we come to regular order, they don't want regular order.

Republicans are afraid to even be seen considering a compromise with Democrats. I speak more strongly, as the Republicans here in the Senate are doing their objection here on going to conference more to protect the House. This applies much more to the House Republicans than it does to the Republicans in the Senate. The Republicans in the House are afraid to be seen considering a compromise with us.

Because Republicans have refused to negotiate a compromise, sequestration kicked in with devastating effect. We are just beginning to feel the impact of these deep cuts. Nationwide, the sequester will cut 750,000 jobs this year alone. More than 70,000 little boys and girls will be kicked off the Head Start Program. Programs funding medical research with Duke University, as I indicated on the floor yesterday, and scores of other programs that do the same and programs that help get homeless veterans off the streets are being decimated. Yesterday I spoke about Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels is one of the programs that are so helpful. Homebound seniors receive one meal a day, and it is usually only during the day. These are being significantly hammered. I have spoken about Head Start for young children, but education programs are being hit very hard. These are programs that deal with impoverished children.

We know the sequester is causing massive delays. I am from Las Vegas. I am from Nevada. No place in America is more desperate to have the flights on time than tourist-oriented Las Vegas. It is the same in Reno. These cuts are hurting tourism in Las Vegas and in all of the country.

It is not only the furloughs at the FAA, it is some of the programs I have spoken about and many more. We have seen the dire effects of these arbitrary budget cuts, and we have an obligation to stop them. That is why I am going to ask unanimous consent to take up and pass legislation that would block sequestration until the end of this fiscal year, until the first day of October. This would give us 5 months to sit down at the negotiating table and work out an agreement to reduce the deficit in a balanced way, in a way that doesn't punish the American people and our economy in the meantime.

The legislation I am proposing is simple, and it deserves quick approval. There is no reason to go back, even though I would agree to it through the Buffett rule.

Let's do some spending cuts, let's do some more cutting.

We tried that. It wouldn't work.

Let's try the flexibility.

That also won't work because we are dealing with the same amount of money.

I hope this simple solution I am offering will be supported by my Republican friends--establishing binding caps on the war spending. The wars are winding down, and currently there is $650 billion there. And as this bill proposes, the one on which I will ask consent, it will close that loophole and propose more than enough savings to offset the cost of delaying sequestration for 5 months.

Let's put a stop to the furloughs, delays, and a stop to the job losses. Let's put a stop to the devastating cuts to programs that keep our poor children from receiving an equal shot in life. Let's stop senior citizens and homeless veterans, who are the most vulnerable among us, from falling through the cracks. They may not be as transparent as what is happening at our airports, but these are devastating to human beings. Let's do it in a fiscally responsible way and do it now. Then let's get to work finding a broader agreement to strengthen our economy and reduce our long-term deficits.

I yield 5 minutes to my friend the Senator from New York as indicated with the tentative agreement I requested earlier. Then I will resume on the floor to ask for the consent, and my friend from Oklahoma will respond.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 788.

My friends on the other side have had this legislation for a short time, not a long time, but it is not that difficult to understand. I have tried to explain it the best I can.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 788, the text of which is at the desk, which is a bill to suspend the fiscal year 2013 sequestration and offset that with funds from the Overseas Contingency Operations; that the bill be read three times and passed; and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.