Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, April 4, 2011, at 4:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 42; that there be 1 hour for debate equally divided in the usual form; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote, with no intervening action or debate, on Calendar No. 42; 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; that any related statements be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate then resume legislative session.

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. 120, S. Res. 121, S. Res. 122, and S. Res. 123.

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 intervening action or debate; and that any statements relating to these resolutions be printed in the Record.

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

Mr. President, I ask for the second reading of these two matters en bloc, but I object to my own request.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate

completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, April 4; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business until 4:30 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. Further, I ask that following morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session under the previous order.

Mr. President, Senators should expect the first rollcall vote of the week at 5:30 p.m. on Monday. That vote will be on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 42, Jimmie V. Reyna, of Maryland, to be U.S. circuit judge. Additionally, we were able to reach agreement tonight to vote in relation to H.R. 4, 1099 repeal. Senators should expect two rollcall votes on Tuesday prior to the caucus meetings.

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

Madam President, following any leader remarks, there will be a period for the transaction of morning business for 1 hour, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 493, the small business jobs bill. Rollcall votes in relation to amendments to the small business jobs bill are possible today. We hope our friends on the Republican side who are blocking will allow us to move forward on this bill. There are a number of nongermane and really nonappropriate amendments on this bill. We have agreed to go ahead and work on those. Two that are the most glaring are the 1099, which we need to resolve, and the EPA controversy we have. We are being blocked on the other side from even getting votes on these amendments.

We were told earlier in the session that what the Republicans wanted was an open amendment process. That is great, except we have an open amendment process and they will not let us vote on the bills. I hope that changes. They will not let us vote on the amendments or the bills. Anyway, if the logjam is broken, we will schedule them as soon as we can.

There will be a Senators-only briefing today regarding Libya with Secretary Clinton, Secretary Gates, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen. That will be at 5 p.m. in the new Visitor Center.

Madam President, as the country watches, we continue to work toward a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to keep the country running. Let me update the Senate on where we stand.

I want everyone to know how things looked from the beginning, but also let's talk about how they look right now from the negotiating table. Much of the criticism in this process has come from people who are not even sitting at the negotiating table. I am, and so is Speaker Boehner. I am glad he has returned to the conversation. It is obvious he has a difficult situation on his hands, and I do not envy him in that regard. He is getting a lot of pressure from the tea party folks to dig in his heels even if it hurts and destroys the recovery we have going now.

What is worse, the country does not care much about the tea party. There is a new CNN poll out today that says this very directly. Let's put it this way: The people who care about the tea party are a very small number--who care about them positively. Those who think about them negatively is very high, more than 50 percent. And that does not mean 50 percent favor the tea party. It does not. Fifty percent of the American people do not want anything to do with the tea party. Only a small percentage identify with the tea party. The interesting thing and I think the important thing to the country is that the tea party's unpopularity continues to grow because the American people see how unreasonable they are.

Let me reiterate my hope that the Republican leadership recognizes they cannot continue to be pulled to the

right by the radical, unrealistic, unreasonable--I repeat, radical--and unpopular faction, the tea party. I have always said that once the economy gets better, they are going to fade out fairly quickly. It is getting better, and they are fading out. If people want to move the country forward, they cannot let the tea party call the shots.

Our proposal still stands. It is a number the Republicans were for before they were against it. We got that number by relying on reality, not ideology. I repeat, we know the answer lies in the middle. Neither party can pass a budget without the other party. We have already proven that. Neither Chamber can send it to the President without the other Chamber.

I look forward to getting this done so we can avoid the many terrible consequences that come with a shutdown. We do not want that to happen, and if it is up to us on this side of the aisle, it will not happen.

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

Mr. President, for the benefit of all Senators, we have been trying in the last 24 hours or more to work our way through the amendments to get to a vote on this most important bill we are dealing with, the small business innovation bill, a bill that has already created thousands of jobs around the country. It is an extremely important bill. We need to reauthorize this bill. It is a very small amount of money. It generates a lot of jobs. But we have been stuck.

I think we have had a breakthrough that we can at least, hopefully, work toward conclusion of this extremely difficult matter. I have spoken with one Senator who had a concern about an issue that has actually been held up--it is a Republican amendment held up by a Republican--not allowing us to have a vote on it. I think we have worked our way through that. Now the floor staff is trying to come up with a consent agreement that would work toward having a vote develop the will of the Senate on the 1099, the tax reporting requirement. Also, there are a number of amendments people wish to have votes on dealing with EPA standards. I think we are at a place where we can perhaps set up some votes.

With the difficulty of all the things we have today, including a briefing by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Libya, I think realistically we will not have any votes this afternoon. Tomorrow morning we have the funeral in New York for Geraldine Ferraro. We will work very hard to set up a series of votes for tomorrow afternoon. It could be a significant number of votes. It could be 10 votes or so tomorrow afternoon, and if it has to spill over into Friday, we will have to do that. At least I think we can get the voting done tomorrow. With a little bit of good fortune, we can work with the few problems we still have outstanding and move forward with Senator Landrieu's bill on which she and Senator Snowe have worked hard.

I hope this let's Senators know what we are doing. Even though it seems like nothing, there has been a lot of work that has gone into this. It is fair to say we will have no more votes today, and we will try to get something set up for tomorrow afternoon.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess until 6 p.m. tonight for the purpose of the Senators- only briefing on Libya.

Mr. President, happy birthday.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 112, and the Senate now proceed to its consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be

agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to the measure be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 118.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.