Floor Statements

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

Following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 11 a.m., with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final half.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act.

We are working on an agreement to begin consideration of this bill and will notify Senators when votes are scheduled.

Order of Procedure

I would ask unanimous consent that the time not end at 11 a.m. on the majority and minority, that they each have a full half hour.

Madam President, yesterday my friends, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, submitted a resolution supporting the U.S. involvement in the NATO action in Libya.

I commend my friends who have submitted a strong bipartisan resolution with an impressive list of cosponsors, including Senators McCain, Levin, Durbin, Kyl, Feinstein, Graham, Lieberman, Blunt, Cardin, and others. This should have overwhelming support, and I am confident it will.

Some Republicans in the House of Representatives and on the campaign trail have expressed concern over our involvement in this conflict. They have clearly decided to use the War Powers Resolution as a political bludgeon to pursue a partisan agenda.

But I also believe there is a larger question we must each ask ourselves as Senators as we consider this military action: Was our participation in the international effort to stop mass murder and chaos in Libya a just decision? I am confident it was.

Muammar Qadhafi's repressive dictatorship is a threat to the region and to U.S. national security. Our support of this mission is crucial for our NATO alliance that is leading this mission and for the people of Libya who lived far too long under Qadhafi's brutal regime.

I thank the Senator from Massachusetts and the senior Senator from Arizona for beginning to deliberate. These two senior Senators have begun a deliberate, bipartisan discussion of this important matter in the Senate. Working together, this bipartisan group of Senators has made a clear statement to our allies, to the world, to the Libyan people, and to Qadhafi that we support the people's action in Libya.

The Senate is truly at its best when bipartisan lawmakers work together. That is why it is so unfortunate that yesterday Republicans were unwilling to join us in our efforts to create jobs for Americans who need them so very badly. For the fourth time this year, my Republican colleagues stalled a jobs bill that could have put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work now.

This was the second jobs bill Republicans have killed by piling on unrelated amendments--the EDA bill that I

just referred to, almost 100 amendments, none of which related to the legislation at hand. Two more jobs bills passed the Senate but are wasting away in the House. All four of these bills are commonsense efforts to spur innovation, investment, and hiring by private companies. All four had a proven track record of creating jobs. The message the Republicans have sent is clear: They care more about partisan politics than they do about putting Americans back to work.

Later today, Democrats will talk about our plan to reduce the jobs deficit, a problem just as critical to Americans as our budget deficit. We hope our Republican colleagues will join us to tackle the problem. So far, they have put politics first.

I don't know what it will take for Republicans to get the message that people in Nevada and across the country care more about jobs than any other issue. It is the most important issue on which Congress should focus. Instead, Republicans are focused on the one thing Americans don't want to change: ending Medicare as we know it. It is wrong that Republicans are trying to end Medicare as we know it. The American public does not support this.

The vast majority of Americans say they oppose the Republican plan to balance the budget on the backs of seniors by killing Medicare. The number amongst seniors and Independents is sky high in opposition to the Republican plan to change Medicare as we know it. There is no mystery to why they oppose it. The Republican plan to end Medicare would put insurance company bureaucrats between seniors and their doctors. It would raise drug prices from day one. It would increase the cost of cancer screenings and treatments for 7 million seniors and do a lot more damage to our Medicare recipients.

Seniors cannot afford this dangerous plan nor can America. The Senate can't afford to waste any more time. It is our job to create jobs. It is time for Republicans to leave Medicare alone and let us get back to work creating jobs.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 75 be vitiated and the Senate adopt the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 75, S. 679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act.

Will the clerk report the bill, please.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee substitute amendment be agreed to and considered original text for the purpose of further amendment; that there be a period of debate only on the bill until 3 p.m. today; that following the debate-only time, it be in order for any Senator to call up any relevant filed amendment, including a managers' amendment to be offered by Senators Alexander and Schumer; that no amendment offered to the bill be divisible; further, that in addition to relevant amendments offered to the bill, the amendments listed here also be in order: Vitter, relating to czars; DeMint, which relates to IMF bailouts; and Coburn, which relates to duplications; further, that the DeMint and Vitter amendments be subject to a 60-vote threshold and the Coburn amendment be subject to a two- thirds vote threshold; that upon the disposition of the amendments, the bill be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended; that the vote on passage be subject to a 60-vote threshold; and that if the bill does not achieve that threshold, the bill be returned to the calendar; that upon disposition of this matter, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 45, S. Res. 116, a resolution providing for expedited consideration of certain

nominations; that only relevant amendments be in order; and that upon disposition of the amendments to the resolution, the Senate proceed to vote on the adoption of the resolution, as amended, if amended.

Madam President, this means Senators will not need to obtain unanimous consent prior to setting aside the pending amendments for amendments to be called up.

I would also say--I wanted to hold up saying anything about this until we got this agreement--the work done on this bill by Senators Schumer and Alexander has been work that has been ongoing for years and took their partnership, working together as the two men who run the Rules Committee, to move this forward. It has been very hard to get from here to there. I have every bit of confidence that we are going to move forward and do, for the first time in decades, a streamlining of how Presidential nominations are approved. This is good. This is what we talked about doing at the beginning of this year, and we need to continue doing that.

I also express my appreciation to the chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, Senators Lieberman and Collins, for doing additional hard work in sorting through what the committees should do in approving nominations. They have done a good job because virtually every committee chair says: Are you sure you want to do all these? If we were back where we had been in years past, we would wind up getting nothing done because the chairs simply thought they needed to have a hand in everything that went on with all these nominations. Senators Lieberman and Collins did a good job getting us to this point.

When this is done, we will move to some rules changes that Senators Schumer and Alexander have approved.

I see my friend, the Senator from Tennessee, on the floor. Again, as he does on virtually everything--he is a very thoughtful person--he is always trying to work for the betterment of this body. I am grateful he and Senator Schumer have been able to do the good work they have on this legislation.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, June 23, the Senate resume consideration of S. 679; that the Vitter amendment No. 499 regarding czars and the DeMint amendment No. 510 regarding Bureau of Justice Statistics be debated concurrently; that there be up to 30 minutes of debate with Senators Vitter, DeMint, Reid or designee and McConnell or designee, each controlling 7\1/2\ minutes; that upon the use or yielding back of time the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the Vitter amendment and the DeMint amendment in that order; that there be no amendments, motions, or points of order in order to either amendment prior to the votes other than budget points of order on each and the applicable motions to waive; further, that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; finally, that provisions of the previous order regarding amendments remain in effect.

I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority and Republican leaders, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider en bloc the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 62, 110, 145; that there be 2 hours for debate concurrently on the nominations equally divided in the usual form; that upon the use or yielding back of that time the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations in the order listed; the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nominations; that any statements relating to the nominations be printed in the Record and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until tomorrow, Thursday, June 23, at 10 a.m.; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be deemed approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business until 11:30 a.m. with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of S. 679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamling Act, under the previous order.

Mr. President, there will be two rollcall votes at approximately noon in relation to the Vitter amendment No. 499 and the DeMint amendment No. 510. We hope to set up some other votes tomorrow morning for tomorrow afternoon.

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

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

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

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 11 a.m., with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half. I would ask at this time that the morning business hour be a full hour, not stop at 11.

The filing deadline for second-degree amendments to S. 782, the Economic Development Revitalization Act, is at 11 a.m. this morning.

Following morning business, the Senate will be in executive session to consider the nomination of Michael Simon to be United States District Judge in Oregon. Then, at noon, there will be a vote on confirmation of the Simon nomination.

Following the vote, the Senate will recess until 2:15 p.m. today for the weekly caucus meetings.

At 2:15, the Senate will consider the nomination of Leon Panetta to be Secretary of Defense, with 2 hours of debate. At about 4:15 this afternoon, Senators should expect up to three rollcall votes: the first on confirmation of the Panetta nomination; the second will be a cloture vote on the EDA bill; and, if cloture is not invoked, there will be a third vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to the Presidential Appointment and Streamlining Act.

I might note that this, or some version of this, we have talked about for a long time. When Senator McConnell and I were both whips, we talked about this legislation and spent a lot of time on it.

Mr. President, this afternoon we will have a cloture vote on reauthorization of the Economic Development Administration, a law we have depended on for more than 50 years.

This is the fourth jobs bill Democrats have brought to the floor this year. I do hope Republicans will not allow it to be the fourth jobs bill to wither on the vine thanks to their obstructionist tactics. This is a good piece of legislation with decades of helping American businesses in economically distressed communities to innovate, grow, and to hire.

In the last 5 years alone, the Economic Development Administration has created 314,000 jobs and successfully turned every $1 in Federal investment into $7 in private sector investment. It is good legislation that will create good jobs for Americans who need these jobs. Unfortunately, that is not enough to win bipartisan support among Republicans here in the District of Columbia who are more interested in

destroying Medicare than creating jobs.

The Small Business innovation research bill is a good piece of legislation too. That also died in the Senate last month under a pile of unrelated amendments. The bills the Senate passed this year reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration and reforming America's patent system were good legislation also. They would have created or saved about 480,000 jobs. It made it out of the Senate alive but now languishes in the Republican-controlled House. Will the Economic Development Authority suffer the same fate? I hope not.

Here, 24 hours ago, I presented to the American people in the Senate a myriad of amendments that have been filed in regard to this legislation. A lot have been offered but more filed. I read about 40 of them dealing with different types of endangered species, the lesser sand dune reptile, I don't remember what it was, but all kinds of nonrelated amendments. Global warming. Post office reform. As I said, almost 100 amendments, and I read 35 or 40 of them here yesterday, having nothing to do with this legislation. Nothing.

I hope we don't have another bill that is blocked, the fourth this year. If they do that, it would be clear they are more interested in this rightwing ideology than creating much-needed employment. Of the 90-plus amendments, I repeat, only one of which my staff was able to find had any germaneness to the bill, and that is one the chairman of the committee, Senator Boxer, would agree to anyway because it was offered by Senator Inhofe.

This is an important piece of legislation. This legislation will put hundreds of thousands of people to work. So today's vote is again about priorities. Americans have been very clear, job creation is their No.1 priority, their No. 2 priority, and their No. 3 priority. Democrats share that priority. Republicans obviously don't.

We will never stop bringing jobs bills to the floor, and we will never stop fighting the other side's obstructionism to try to get them passed. Again, Republicans have a different priority, it appears, and that is ending Medicare. And that is too bad. They have worked hard to block three bills that could have created and saved hundreds of thousands of jobs during tough economic times, but they pushed even harder for their ideological plan to kill Medicare as we know it.

The Republican plan would put insurance company bureaucrats between seniors and their doctors. Every senior would pay $6,400 more for health care in the first year alone. It would force more than 7 million seniors to pay more for cancer screenings, wellness checks, and treatments beginning next year.

Americans have been clear about this too, very clear. They have resoundingly rejected this ideological plan to hurt seniors. Republicans think it is a bad idea. Democrats think it is a bad idea. And, of course, the Independents think it is a bad idea. All polls show this.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard a shred of evidence that my Republican friends here in Congress are getting the message on Medicare that the American people have gotten. Today they will have a chance to show the American people once again whether they have heard the message on jobs. I hope they have, because so much is at stake. And America is watching.

Madam President, we have 10 minutes. Senators should listen to the debate. It is very important. We have an important vote in just 10 minutes, and it is my understanding that the arrangements have been made that Senator Boxer would close. She would have the final 5 minutes. Does anybody have any problem with that?

I ask unanimous consent that be the case.

If we could have the attention of the Senate.

Senator Schumer and Senator Alexander are that far from an agreement that we can move forward on the next bill. So with everyone's patience, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote scheduled to occur immediately--right now--be postponed until Wednesday; that is tomorrow, June 22, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the Republican leader, and that if cloture is invoked tomorrow, time postcloture be counted as if cloture was invoked at 6 p.m. today.