Floor Statements

Mr. President, Senators should expect two rollcall votes beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Monday. The first vote will be on confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 10, the nomination of James Emanuel Boasberg, of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia, and the second vote will be on a motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 17, the Small Business Reauthorization Act.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order, following the remarks of the assistant majority leader of the Senate, Richard Durbin.

Madam President, following any leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 10:40, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The majority will control the first half and the Republicans will control the final half.

At 10:40 a.m., the Senate will recess for a joint meeting of Congress with the Honorable Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia.

The Senate will reconvene at 12 noon and proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1, the Defense appropriations bill, which is the famous CR, H.R. 1, and the Democratic alternative.

At 3 p.m., Senators should expect two rollcall votes in relation to those two matters. Under an agreement reached yesterday, each proposal will be subject to a 60-vote threshold.

Madam President, on the news on the way to work this morning, I heard one Republican Senator who is part of the Republican leadership say he thought all Republicans would vote for H.R. 1, this job-killing--that isn't what he said, it is what I say--this job- killing, shortsighted bill. He said they would do it because of the numbers involved in it--the numbers involved in it. I tell everyone, my friends on the Republican side, the American people are not as concerned about the numbers as what is in this bill, with those mean- spirited riders.

We are concerned about the numbers. The American people are concerned about the numbers. The President of the United States and Democratic Senators have agreed to address the numbers, and we will do that. We have done it in our alternative here today.

But this is not a bill about numbers. H.R. 1 is a mean-spirited bill that will cut the heart out of the recovery we have in America today. It goes after little children, poor little boys and girls who want to learn--they don't know what they want, but we want them to learn to read, to be able to learn. Head Start is a program that has been successful. We have a lot of poor people in Nevada. I wish we didn't, but we do. Head Start has been great for our communities. The National Institutes of Health, they are whacking that--the National Science Foundation. Our clean energy jobs, they are going after them. National laboratories. Where is the spirit of Pete Domenici--Pete Domenici, a long-time Republican Senator. He and I worked as chair and ranking member of that Energy and Water Subcommittee on Appropriations, trying to fund those very important labs. The labs do lots of good. Among others, they make our country's nuclear weapons safe and reliable. What has been done with this meat axe approach that they say is only numbers is not good for our country. I have heard my friend, the assistant majority leader, talk about what is happening to one of the smaller laboratories, Argonne, in Illinois. We have big ones at Livermore, at Sandia, Los Alamos, and other labs around the country that are some of the places where there is pure science--some of the few places in America today where we have pure science. What H.R. 1 has done, what they are trying to do to

education in our country--not only Head Start--but how it affects education generally is unacceptable.

What this bill would do if it were to pass--it is not numbers; it is not numbers only. What does it do to our port security? The Presiding Officer is from the State of New York. Every day there are evil people trying to do damage to the people and the State of New York in the ports. Our airport security. We still have to look out for these bad people, the shoe bombers and other people who come up with all of these very bad ways to try to harm America.

So for someone over here on the other side to say they are looking at H.R. 1 and they will probably all vote for it because of the numbers-- how insulting to the American people.

Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Inouye, I send to the desk amendment No. 149.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 63 and the Senate proceed to its immediate 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 proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 97.

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 on Thursday, March 10, at 2:15 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 7; that there be 15 minutes 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. 7; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record and that President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following Senators be recognized as in morning business at the times listed below for the purpose of giving their maiden speeches to the Senate: Senator Moran, Thursday, March 10, at 10:30 a.m. for up to 15 minutes, and Senator Coats, Tuesday, March 15, at 2:15 p.m. for up to 30 minutes. I will say, this is his second maiden speech.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until Thursday, March 10, at 10 a.m.; 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; that following any leader remarks, there be a period for the transaction of morning business until 2:15 p.m., with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each; that at 2:15 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session as provided under the previous order.

Mr. President, at approximately 2:30 p.m., the Senate will vote on confirmation of the nomination of Max Oliver Cogburn, Jr., of North Carolina, to be a U.S. District Judge for the Western District of North Carolina.

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, I am going to use leader time. I am wondering how long Senator Boxer is going to take.

Madam President, I will use leader time.

Madam President, since the moment Republican Representatives passed their budget, the now infamous H.R. 1--it was their No. 1 issue in the House of Representatives--the country has been waiting to see whether the Senate would repeat the House's mistake in passing it. The House has passed it.

The plan the tea party pushed through the House is an irresponsible plan. It is a reckless plan. It is dangerous for the health of our economy and certainly the citizens of our great country.

In the last few days, I have come to the floor and explained at length the damage this tea party plan would do in the short term and in the long term. Let me now again talk, briefly, about a few of the things I have talked about before--but I will talk about them again. Here are some of the consequences.

H.R. 1 will fire 700,000 Americans, 6,000 Nevadans. Our budget would create jobs, not cost jobs. It will kick 200,000 Head Start students, the poorest of the poor, little boys and girls trying to get started in life, it will kick them off their ability to learn to read and do elementary math. Hundreds in Nevada will suffer from that. This is a very successful early education program. Head Start works.

It would slash college students' Pell grants, the financial aid so many rely on to afford to go to school. It will eliminate job training investment at a time when we need them the most. It would pull the plug on 600 renewable energy jobs at the largest solar plant in Nevada. It would fire 600 Nevadans who work at community health centers, which hurts those workers as well as the neediest Nevadans who need this help every day.

It would arbitrarily slash programs that fight crime and keep our neighborhoods safe. It would slash homeland security investments that keep Nevadans safe and our country safe. We have 55, 60 million people who visit Las Vegas every year. It is important we keep them safe also.

The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1, eliminates national public broadcasting. That is saying a lot; is it not? It eliminates the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts. These programs create jobs. The National Endowment for the Humanities is the reason we have, in northern Nevada every January, the Cowboy Poetry Festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.

National Institutes of Health, it whacks that. When we are at a time in the history of this country, when we are on the verge of breakthroughs on some of the most devastating diseases known to man, they are cutting that program.

There are scores of other examples I could talk about. But, in short, the Republican plan they want to push through the Senate is all smoke and mirrors. It cuts the deficit in the name of a stronger future but cuts the most important ways we strengthen our future. It is counterproductive. It is bad policy. It is going to cost America 700,000 jobs. This is not some figure I picked out of the air. Economists agree with them, including Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's, who, by the way, worked for the Republican nominee for President, John McCain. He was his chief economic adviser.

Their plan slashes billions from the budget and hopes no one will look past the pricetag. H.R. 1 is not just about numbers, it is about people. It is about programs. It is about little boys and girls at Head Start. It is about senior citizens whose programs are going to be cut.

Because Republicans know that once the country sees what is in the fine print, they will run away from that as fast as they can. It seems Republicans themselves have finally read their own budget in the Senate because now they are even running from H.R. 1.

In the Senate, it was not we who moved H.R. 1 forward, it was the Republicans. We have a procedure in the Senate called rule XIV. It allows bills to move forward.

The Republicans decided they wanted to get to H.R. 1. So they jump- started H.R. 1. They wanted to make sure they let their buddies in the House know they wanted to have a vote on H.R. 1.

Last Thursday at 4, back in the Vice President's office, there was a meeting held with me, Senator McConnell, Speaker Boehner, Leader Pelosi, and the Vice President. The purpose was to move forward on budget negotiations. We had a very good meeting. Everyone was kind and thoughtful and considerate. The idea we came up with is that what we should do to move these negotiations forward is have a vote on H.R. 1 and a vote on our alternative. That was the agreement. It was agreed upon by the Vice President, Joe Biden; by the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell; by the majority leader, Harry Reid; by the Speaker, John Boehner; and the leader of the Democrats in the House, Nancy Pelosi. That was the agreement we made: We would come here today and have a vote on H.R. 1 and on our alternative.

After we had made the agreement, the staff was called into the meeting. We told them what was done. Now over here the Republicans don't want to vote. They don't want to live up to the agreement.

Last Thursday the leaders of both Houses of Congress and both parties met with the White House. We decided this was a way to move forward. We agreed to hold a vote on H.R. 1 that Republicans moved to the Senate floor themselves. Then we would vote on the Democratic alternative, which makes much smarter cuts and more solid investments. But that would be up to the body to decide. Then we would return to the negotiating table and try again to find common ground.

There is no question that was the agreement made, no question. That was the deal. Now Republicans are reneging on that deal. They don't want to vote on their own bill. They want some procedural votes. They will have an opportunity to vote on H.R. 1. I may have to jump through all the procedural hoops to do it, in spite of the fact that they made a deal that we would move to have those votes. We are going to do that. The Republicans over here are going to have to vote on that terrible bill, H.R. 1. They will have to vote on it. They don't want to vote on their own bill.

The budget we outline--and our votes on that budget--reflects our values, values such as helping our Nation recover and prosper, giving us strong education for the children, encouraging innovation, keeping America competitive. But another important value is keeping one's word. Where I come from people keep their word. I am disappointed that Republicans now refuse to keep theirs.