Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Intelligence Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 86, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no

intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration en bloc of the following resolutions which were submitted earlier today: S. Res. 181, S. Res. 182, and S. Res. 183.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, with no interviewing action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H. Con. Res. 16.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to H. Con. Res. 46.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed to H. Con. Res. 50.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider laid upon the table, and there be no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I am told there are two bills at the desk due for their first reading.

I now ask for the second readings en bloc, but I object to my own request en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, May 16; that following the prayer and the 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 for debate only until 5 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, the next rollcall vote will be around noon on Tuesday, May 17, on the confirmation of the nomination of Susan Carney, of Connecticut, to be a U.S. circuit court judge. Senators are encouraged to come to the floor on Monday to debate the Carney nomination.

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

Madam President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 2 p.m. today. Republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the next 30 minutes. Following morning business, the Senate will be in executive session to consider the nomination of Arenda Wright Allen to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia. So at approximately 3 p.m., we will vote on confirmation of the Allen nomination.

There is a special caucus at the White House this afternoon, so we will close early today. The Republicans will have their meeting at the White House tomorrow.

Madam President, S. 940 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

Madam President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to this bill at this time.

Madam President, I recognize we are in a partisan environment. In a partisan environment, there is temptation to turn every issue into a political issue. We certainly live in one of those environments today. That is regrettable but far from unfamiliar. Politics play a role in our representative government, of course, and they always have. The Founders created a system of checks and balances--three branches of government, for example, and two Chambers of the Congress--precisely because they anticipated these passions. Our Founding Fathers wanted to keep us from losing our way.

Long after that system was created, a new, independent Federal agency was created in the same spirit of checks and balances. That agency is the National Labor Relations Board and acts as a check on employers and employees alike. It safeguards employees' rights to unionize or not to unionize if they so choose. It mediates allegations of unfair labor practices. It does all this independent of any outside influence.

The Acting General Counsel of the NLRB is a man who is as nonpartisan and as independent as the agency for which he works. Last month, he issued a complaint against one of America's largest companies, Boeing. The complaint alleges that after Boeing workers in some States went on strike, the company retaliated by opening a new production line in a nonunion facility. That kind of retaliation, if that is what happened, is, of course, illegal.

That is just the background. I am not here to judge the merits of the case. In

fact, I am here to do the exact opposite--to remind the Senate that prejudging the case is not our job. That would overstep long- established boundaries and weaken our system of checks and balances. Lately, though, some of our Republican colleagues have attacked the NLRB and have tried to poison the decisionmaking process. They are interfering with the case pending before a legal body. For example, every Republican Senator on the HELP Committee--and let's remind everyone, the ``l'' in HELP stands for ``labor''--sent a letter to the Acting General Counsel defending Boeing. The letter itself, sent 6 weeks before a hearing even takes place, seems questionable at the very best, but these 10 Republicans went further. They went out of their way to link their request to the Acting General Counsel's pending nomination. If there were ever a case of intimidation, that sounds like it to me. But that is not all. Eight State attorneys general--all Republicans--also signed a letter to the Acting General Counsel calling on him to withdraw the complaint against Boeing--again, long before an administrative judge has had the opportunity to even look at the case, let alone review the case.

I strongly encourage all of them to take a step back, my Republican colleagues on the HELP Committee and these attorneys general. We all know Republicans dislike organized labor. We know they disdain unions because unions demand fairness and equality from the big businesses Republicans so often shield at all costs. So let's be honest-- Republicans are threatened by unions. They are threatened because when a large organized group is so concerned with workers' rights, the members of that group vote in large numbers. And because Republicans and the big businesses they defend so often try to take away workers' rights, workers don't often vote Republican.

This kind of interference is inappropriate, it is disgraceful and dangerous. We wouldn't allow threats to prosecutors or U.S. attorneys trying to stop them from moving forward with charges they see fit to bring to the courts, and we shouldn't stand for this. It may not be illegal, but it is no better than the retaliation and intimidation that is the fundamental question in this case, and it should stop.

We need agencies such as the NLRB to be able to operate freely and without political pressures. We need to keep our independent agencies independent. This case is for them to decide, not for us to decide.

Would the Chair now announce morning business.

I note the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that the time run equally.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 1 p.m., Thursday, May 12, 2011, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 47 on the Executive Calendar; that there be 1 hour for 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. 47; that the motion 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 nomination; that any statements relating to the nomination be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 179, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.