Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to a period of morning business until 6 p.m. this evening, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each during this time.

Following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

There will be no rollcall votes today. The next rollcall vote will be at about noon tomorrow on confirmation of the Simon nomination.

Further, following the weekly caucus meetings on Tuesday, Senators should expect up to three additional rollcall votes on confirmation on the Panetta nomination, cloture on the Economic Development Act, and if cloture is not invoked, cloture on the motion to proceed to the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act.

Mr. President, this Congress convened in January with a single mandate from the American people: create jobs. So Democrats have brought to the Senate floor bill after bill aimed at helping American businesses innovate, grow, and hire. These were good pieces of legislation with proven track records of creating jobs.

Take the latest, the Economic Development Administration reauthorization. Since 1965 the EDA has created jobs in economically distressed communities all over America, creating good jobs in places that need them, such as Nevada, California, Florida, and many others. This should be a goal on which we can all agree.

In the last 5 years, the Economic Development Administration has created 314,000 jobs and has done it efficiently too. For every dollar the Federal Government invests, private industry invests $7.

For 45 years the EDA has worked with businesses and universities at the local level to create jobs from the ground up. Even when Republicans controlled the White House, even when they controlled Congress, even when they controlled both, EDA was there helping businesses grow.

Today, our economy needs jobs more than ever. Yet Republicans have found new ways to kill a piece of legislation that would put Americans back to work. They have stood on the Senate floor and talked with straight faces about job creation and then turned around and bogged down good job-creating legislation with amendments that would kill even the most bipartisan bill. Meanwhile, unemployed Americans wait and wait.

They wait while Republicans filibuster, not with words but with amendments. A bill that has created 314,000 jobs in the last 5 years, they filibustered. One would think these must be important amendments if Republicans are willing to make Americans who are standing in the employment line wait longer and longer. But you be the judge.

Our Republican friends are holding up a proven job creator to exempt the sand dune lizard from the Endangered Species Act. Lest the lizard be singled out, there is an amendment to exempt the lesser prairie chicken.

This sends the message that such frivolous amendments, more than 90 of

them, are more important than putting people back to work.

Here are some of the amendments they have filed: EPA water quality standards, lightbulbs, right-to-work laws, the estate tax, repeal of Wall Street reform, the United States-Mexico border fence. Yet, again, a handful of these amendments would delay or repeal health care reform. None of them are germane to the legislation before us.

My staff looked through all of these, and they found one arguably is germane, and that one is an amendment offered by Senator Inhofe which the chairman of the committee, Barbara Boxer, agrees to. Again, they have amendments that would delay or repeal health care reform. It is a battle Republicans seem determined to fight over and over, no matter how many times they lose.

We have already voted on bank card swipe fees and ethanol subsidies, and we voted on the regulatory reform amendment offered once again by the senior Senator from Maine. Yet we could not reach agreement to consider this worthy bill.

This is not the first time Republicans have stopped the important work of job creation in its tracks. The small business innovation research bill died on the Senate floor because of amendments, none of which related to that bill. The Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization and patent reform bills, which would have put about a half million people to work, languish in the House. They are over there now someplace. Yet, still, unemployed Americans wait on this bill we are going to vote cloture on tomorrow--or try to.

The amendments are really hard to comprehend: the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, to do away with that; they repeal Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform, the Commission to Approve Oversight and Eliminate Wasteful Spending, debt instrument transparency, amend the NLRA with respect to States that have the right-to-work laws, national right to work, gainful employment regulation, termination of global climate change, permanently repeal the estate tax, substitute the Economic Development Administration, prohibit award and designation of funds to any area or entity named for a living Member of Congress, repeal position on withholding of certain payments made to vendors by government entities, extension of certain Outer Continental Shelf leases, removal of insurance moratorium for industrial banks, limit antitrust exemption, repeal Davis-Bacon wage requirements, prohibit printing of the Congressional Record, increase statutory limit of the public debt, enable States to opt out of health care reform.

Another one is, Stability Oversight and Council authority, inclusion of application to independent regulatory agencies, amend Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, border fence completion, major rules of the legislative branch shall have no force for approval as enacted into law, delay implementation of health care reform until final resolution in pending lawsuits, securities laws amendments, rescind $45 billion of unobligated discretionary appropriations, rescission of unobligated discretionary appropriation, reduce amounts authorized to be appropriated, prescribe fires in Flint Hills region, EPA water quality standard, repeal Bright Fields Demonstration Program, terminate global climate change mitigation.

Mr. President, these are amendments that go page after page. I have only mentioned a few of them. They have more than 90 of them. If there ever were an example of such a tremendous waste of the Senate's time and the indication that the Republicans don't care anything about the American people working--I guess their goal is to make things as bad as they can and, hopefully, the American people won't see through it, and maybe they will get somebody elected to replace President Obama. What other reason could there be?

People are desperate for jobs. The unemployed wait and wait. It would be different if they came here and offered amendments that had some relevance or germaneness to this legislation. But they don't.

Tomorrow, Republicans will get another chance to help us move forward on a bill that has a proven track record of putting people to work, for the amount of $1.2 billion, and the last 5 years we have created 314,000 jobs. Why? Because it is good for the private sector. For every dollar we invest, they invest $7. In the meantime, though, I urge my Republican colleagues to consider the cost of these delaying tactics.

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

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 782, which is the Economic Development Revitalization Act, with 4 hours of debate on the Feinstein and McCain amendments. At about 2 p.m., there will be two rollcall votes in relation to the Feinstein and McCain amendments. Each amendment will have a 60-vote threshold.

Mr. President, I am happy to see the Republicans opening up to what Democrats have been saying all along--that cutting wasteful subsidies to Big Oil should be on the table if we are going to reduce the deficit. Yesterday, my friend, the senior Senator from Tennessee, said he would consider ending taxpayer subsidies for oil companies making record profits. I congratulate my friend, the senior Senator from Tennessee. Democrats agree. Handouts such as these to companies that made $36 billion in the first quarter of this year alone must be part of the discussion if we are going to get our fiscal house in order.

As we decide where to cut, we will need to make some tough choices, but not every choice has to be difficult. If we are serious about reducing spending, ending tens of billions in taxpayer giveaways to big oil companies shouldn't be one of the difficult decisions we have to make.

When the other side says the alternative is to end Medicare, slash Medicaid, and put millions of seniors at risk, the choice is that much clearer. We cannot take with one hand from those who can least afford it and give with the other hand to those who can. Before we end Medicare as we know it or eliminate Medicaid funding for nursing homes, as the Republicans have proposed, we should cut wasteful spending. During the course of a year, one in five Americans will be on Medicaid. The cuts the Republicans propose will affect real people--the elderly man in the nursing home, for example; the child missing her yearly checkup, as an example; the pregnant woman, as an example, whose baby depends on proper prenatal care; or the person with a disability, for example, who is able to live alone thanks to the helping hand Medicaid provides. These cuts will affect everyone else too. Cutting Medicaid simply shifts costs; it doesn't lower costs. Each patient who doesn't get the care he or she needs from a doctor today will get it tomorrow at three times the price in an emergency room, and we will all foot that bill.

The American people have spoken loudly and clearly. They do not want to balance the budget on the backs of seniors, children, or the disabled. I am glad to see at least one of my Republican colleagues courageously breaking from the pack.

Mr. President, would the Chair now announce whatever the business of the day is.

Mr. President, noting there is no one on the floor, I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that during the quorum the time be equally divided.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to modify the pending Feinstein amendment with the changes at the desk.

This modification is to correct a drafting error made by legislative counsel.

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

There will be no more rollcall votes this week. We will work on next week's schedule later today. I ask unanimous consent that the Senators from Massachusetts, Mr. Kerry and Mr. Brown, be recognized for up to 10 minutes each, and following that time I be recognized.

Madam President, I am happy to be here to listen to my friends talk about hockey, and I will talk for just a minute about hockey. I was raised in the desert. When I came back as a Member of Congress, I wanted my boys to watch a hockey game. I wanted to watch one. I had never watched one. So we went to a hockey game. I tell my colleagues, it is a game you have to learn something about. For me, with no hockey experience, it was pretty difficult. They are on the ice just a few minutes and then off, back and forth, and it is hard to keep track of it. But I did have the opportunity twice to watch the great Gretzky and that was a great experience.

One of my most difficult, scary experiences of my life: There was a time when--well, they still do--Las Vegas had a minor league hockey team. I was asked to go out in the middle of that ice and drop a puck. I don't do very well, as demonstrated when a few weeks ago I slipped and fell and dislocated my shoulder on regular dirt. So to walk out on that ice was something that was frightening to me, and I have never forgotten that. So to have those men rushing up and down those rinks the way they do is truly astounding. My only heroism in hockey was my own heroism in convincing myself I should go out there.

Mr. President, our staffs have been working diligently for days now to find a path that would allow the Senate to complete action on the jobs bill which is now on the floor. They have worked so hard on this bill because it is legislation to reauthorize the successful Economic Development Administration, which has been so important to this country since 1965. It is not an Obama piece of legislation. It was started by Lyndon Johnson, and every President since then, Democratic and Republican, has wrapped their arms around this legislation because it is so good for our country.

The Economic Development Administration has created jobs where they are most needed--in economically distressed communities. In just the last 5 years, for $1.2 billion of investment, we have created 314,000 jobs. The merits of reauthorizing this job-creating administration are so very clear. EDA works with businesses, universities, and leaders at the local level, so it creates jobs from the bottom up. For every $1 we invest as a government, we get $7 in return. It helps manufacturers and producers compete in the global marketplace, and it is a great investment. Every $1 from EDA, as I have indicated, attracts $7 in private sector investment. That is a pretty good return.

Because of this agency's success and because each Senator is on record talking about the importance of creating jobs, including Senator Boxer in her capacity as the chair of that most important committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, she has produced this bill. She has shown me statements by virtually every Senator in this Chamber about the merits of this bill--Democrats and Republicans alike. So this is the kind of bill that should pass on a bipartisan basis, if not unanimously, and it has passed in the past unanimously. In the past, that is what would have happened. We would have done this so quickly-- but no more.

Now we find ourselves struggling just to bring it up for a vote. I heard the Republican leader this morning speak earlier about the state of play on the EDA bill. He said we have gotten this done. We have this to do and this to do and this to do.

Here is a brief review for our colleagues, so far, of what we have had on this bill. We have already had votes, again, on matters totally unrelated to this bill, including swipe fees, regulatory reform, ethanol--three votes on that. We have 70 amendments that have been filed. We have pending now a number of amendments relating to the debt limit, to Wall Street reform, health reform, Davis-Bacon, and 66 others that could be pending.

In addition, Senators have filed amendments that are related to immigration reform, the border fence, E-Verify, the estate tax, right- to-work laws, gainful employment regulation, a series of amendments dealing with endangered species, light bulbs and other energy-efficient provisions. There has been not a single amendment that has anything to do with this bill, not a single thing that is germane to this bill.

So I am going to continue to work with the Republican leader and hopefully find a way to complete action on this extremely important bill. But it seems, so far, to be a never-ending process. It is filibuster by amendment--amendment after amendment after amendment-- amendments that have nothing to do with the legislation.

We can't continue this. This process has to end so we can pass this bill, let the private sector create jobs the American people need, and let the Senate move on to other pressing matters. I hope we can work something out, but in the meantime, I have no alternative as the leader of this Senate but to file cloture on this bill.

Cloture Motion

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

I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 75, S. 679, the Presidential appointment efficiency and streamlining bill.

Madam President, before I leave the floor, I wish to say a word to and about my friend, the Senator from California. As I have indicated, she is the chair of this most important committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, which I had the good fortune of chairing on two separate occasions. She has been tireless in bringing legislation to this floor--attempting to. She has been talking about this bill for months, about how good it is.

When she sat down and reminded me of the merits of this legislation, I thought: This should be a good one, a job-creating measure. We need that right now. I have been very disappointed that we haven't been able to move forward. But it is not because of any lack of effort on her part.

She and I came to Washington together many years ago and served together in the House of Representatives. She is my friend, but she is also one of the most outstanding legislators we have had in this body, bar none.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business until 6 p.m. this evening, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each during that time.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that morning business be closed.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 75, S. 679. I send a cloture motion to the desk and ask the clerk to report.

Cloture Motion

Mr. President, I am disappointed that we had to file cloture again. I would hope, though, that in the ensuing days, the Republicans on the other side will let us get on this bill.

This is a bill Senator McConnell and I started working on when we were both whips many years ago. The purpose of the bill is to eliminate the need to have all of these nominations to these relatively minor posts confirmed by the Senate. And the work done by the chairman and ranking member of the Budget Committee, Senators Schumer and Alexander, has been exemplary.

We now will have--when this legislation passes, and I really think it will pass, even if we have to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed and on the bill itself--hopefully that will not be necessary, but if we do, that is what we will have to do. This bill would take away the necessity of our having to do some 200 nominations for some of these minor posts I talked about.

I hope we can get on this bill when we come back next week. It will be the right thing to do. There is so much to do. This would set the tone of this work period that has not been so good to this point.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 34, the nomination of Michael H. Simon, of Oregon, to be U.S. district judge for the District of Oregon; that there be 1 hour of debate 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 Calendar No. 34; that following this vote, the Senate recess until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly party conferences; that at 2:15 p.m., the Senate consider Calendar No. 183, Leon E. Panetta to be the Secretary of Defense for our country; that there be 2 hours of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on Calendar No. 183; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, no further motions be in order to

the nominations, and any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session; further, that following this vote, the Senate resume consideration of the EDA bill and vote on the motion to invoke cloture on that bill; that if cloture is not invoked, the Senate proceed to vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act; finally, that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived on both cloture motions.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 2 p.m. today. The first hour is equally divided and controlled, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the second half.

We continue to work through amendments on S. 782.