Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 4365 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to H. Con. Res. 147.

I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and 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 when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 p.m. tomorrow, January 2, 2013; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate proceed to a period of morning business until 1:30 p.m. for debate only with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, first of all, I appreciate everyone, including the Presiding Officers we have had over the last few days, and everyone, especially the staff who have been working so hard. Everyone is just as tired as I am, I am sure. So I appreciate very much the hard work, and I hope tomorrow will go well.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, we will be in a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, discussions continue on a plan to protect middle-class families from a tax increase tomorrow. There are a number of issues on which the two sides are still apart, but negotiations are continuing as I speak.

We are running out of time. Americans are still threatened with the tax hike in just a few hours. I hope we can keep in mind--and I know we will--that our single most important goal is to protect the middle- class families. Whether or not we reach an agreement in the short time we have left, we will need cooperation on both sides to prevent taxes from going up tomorrow for every family in America.

I repeat, there are still some issues we need to resolve before we can bring legislation to the floor.

I yield the floor.

I ask unanimous consent that the period of morning business for debate only be extended until 1:35 a.m. today, with Senator Harkin being the person who will be speaking. When he finishes his speech, I ask that I then be recognized.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of H.R. 8; that the substitute amendment, the text of which is at the desk, be agreed to; that there be 10 minutes of debate equally divided between the two leaders prior to a vote on passage of the bill, as amended; that there be no other amendments in order prior to the vote; that there be no points of order in order to the substitute amendment or the bill; finally, that the vote on passage be subject to a 60-vote affirmative vote threshold.

Mr. President, very quickly, we have worked really hard this week. We Senators had to be here and are happy to be here, but there are four individuals who didn't have to work this week, but they volunteered to do so. These four pages have kept this place operating by helping floor staff and us. They could be home with their families and friends enjoying the holiday. Instead, they are here.

We have 18-year-old Jarrod Nagurka, of Arlington. He gave up his winter break to be here; Twenty-two-year-old Priscilla Pelli of Washington, DC, is a staff assistant in my office. She has devoted her time here. Twenty-two-year-old Erin Shields of Takoma Park, MD, is an intern in my office. And 16-year-old Gwendilyn Liu of Kaneohe, HI, the only remaining current page, skipped her winter vacation to help here. I want the record to reflect our deep appreciation for them, and I wish them the very best in their future endeavors.

Mr. President, working through the night and throughout today, we have reached an agreement with Senator McConnell to avert tax increases on middle-class Americans.

I have said all along that our most important priority was to protect middle-class families. This legislation does that. Middle-class families will wake up today to the assurance that their taxes won't go up $2,200 each. They will have the certainty to plan how they will pay for groceries, rent, and car payments all during next year. The legislation also protects 2 million Americans who have lost their jobs during the great recession from losing their unemployment insurance.

I am disappointed that we weren't able to make the grand bargain that we tried to do for so long, but we tried. If we do nothing, the threat of a recession is very real. And passing this agreement does not mean the negotiations halt--far from it. We can all agree there is more work to be done. I thank everybody for their patience today--and they have had a lot of patience.

I also thank my friend the Republican leader, Senator McConnell, for his hard work to reach this bipartisan agreement. It has been difficult and very hard. As we have said before, Senator McConnell and I out here do a lot of talking to each other; we kind of go over everybody's head. But he and I know that when the talk is done out here, we work hard to try to help this country. So he is my friend, and I appreciate very, very much the work he has done.

For example, this bill cuts $4 billion in fiscal year 2013 and $8 billion in fiscal year 2014. These are real cuts that are in this bill.

I hope the new year will bring a new willingness on the part of the House Republicans to join Democrats in the difficult but rewarding work of governing. The Speaker has said all along that he was waiting for the Senate to act. The Senate soon will act. Now, I hope for America that the Speaker will allow the full House of Representatives to vote on this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. President, the vote will start immediately, and people should get here as quickly as they can.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, we don't expect any more votes today, no more votes today. We want to wait and see what the House does on Sandy, and I think whatever we do on Sandy will have to be done by unanimous consent anyway, so I wouldn't expect any votes until we come back here and reconvene on January 3, the day after tomorrow.

Mr. President, the Committee on Armed Services has received a request from the Secretary of the Air Force seeking access to records of the Committee relating to the Committee's consideration of the 1972 nomination of MG John D. Lavelle to retire at the rank of lieutenant general. That nomination was not confirmed. In 2010, the President nominated Major General Lavelle to be posthumously advanced on the retired list to the rank of general. After the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee requested further information regarding that nomination, the Air Force initiated an independent review of Major General Lavelle's case. That review is being led by the Honorable William H. Webster.

The Secretary of the Air Force requests that Judge Webster and those assisting him in the independent review be granted access to the Committee's executive session documents relating to the 1972 Lavelle nomination. The Chair and Ranking Minority Member of the Committee would like to be able to cooperate with this request by providing access to those conducting this independent review to the requested committee records.

This resolution would authorize the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Committee on Armed Services, acting jointly, to provide records, under appropriate security procedures, from the Committee's 1972 consideration of the Lavelle nomination to those conducting the independent review of Major General Lavelle's case on behalf of the Air Force.

Mr. President, there will be an hour of debate on the Galante nomination. At 2 p.m. there will be two rollcall votes on confirmation of the nominations of William Baer to be an Assistant Attorney General and Carol Galante to be an Assistant Secretary for

Mr. President, we have been negotiating now for 36 hours or thereabouts. We did have conversations last night that ended late in the evening between the staffs. This morning we have been trying to come up with some counteroffer to my friend's proposal. We have been unable to do that.

I have had a number of conversations with the President. At this stage, we are not able to make a counteroffer. The Republican leader has told me that--he just said here that he is working with the Vice President. I wish them well. In the meantime, I will continue to try to come up with something, but at this stage, I do not have a counteroffer to make. Perhaps as the day wears on, I will be able to.

I will say that I think the Republican leader has shown absolute good faith. It is just that we are apart on some pretty big issues.

We yield back all time.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, we had a brief colloquy, the Republican leader and I, before the vote. Now that everyone is on the floor, I will elaborate a little bit. We have one more vote today. Then we are both going to have our respective caucuses. We hope there will be an announcement after that. We will have to wait and see.

Over the last 24 hours, we have been working with Senator McConnell's staff and Senator McConnell to craft legislation to shield middle-class families from huge tax increases that could pass both Chambers on a bipartisan basis. But I wish to be clear. There are still serious differences between the two sides. I am only going to talk about one. We have made a lot of progress. I said earlier today, I appreciate very much Senator McConnell's good-faith efforts, and I am confident he feels the same way about me.

The one thing I do want to mention is that we are not going to have any Social Security cuts. At this stage, that just doesn't seem appropriate. We are open to discussion about entitlement reforms, but we are going to have to take it in a different direction. The present status will not work. We are willing to make difficult concessions as part of a balanced comprehensive agreement, but we will not agree to cut Social Security benefits as part of a small or short-term agreement, especially if that agreement gives more handouts to the rich.

With 36 hours left until the country goes over the Cliff, I remain hopeful but realistic about the prospects of reaching a bipartisan agreement. At some point in the negotiating process it becomes obvious, when the other side is intentionally demanding concessions they know the other side is not willing to make, we are not there.

I hope we are going to be able to go further. Right now, with the status of the negotiations, we are not where we could come forward and say we have this for you. As I indicated, and just to make another statement in that regard, at some point in the negotiating process it appears there are things that stop us from moving forward. I hope we are not there, but we are getting real close, and that is why I still hold out hope we can get something done. I am not overly optimistic, but I am cautiously optimistic we can get something done.

I hope I have made it clear we have one vote. That is all we have. I hope later in the evening there will be another vote or two, but right now we don't have that. We have one scheduled vote, and that is taking place right now. But everybody should hang loose because something may break and we will be able to get something done.

I yield back the remaining time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate recess subject to the call of the Chair.