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Floor Speech
With so many different committees and the four corners working to resolve so many issues, I had hoped that we would get over the goal line and be here with that conference report.
Unfortunately, events overtook us and objectives of the calendar and a variety of issues that narrowed the discussion we have before us today to two focus points: one, the Science Committee's work with the Commerce Committee in the Senate and language that basically would incent the semiconductor industry.
And our colleagues voted to proceed on those two measures, and there was a lot of discussion on what the definition of a ``skinny bill'' was. Not sure, exactly--I mean, I know a lot of the events that got us to that discussion.
But I will say to my colleague that he is correct. When USICA left the U.S. Senate, it included this language, and this language was very much debated in conference, and it was part of the jurisdiction of several committees, but primarily the HELP Committee, whose content is now not part of the legislation we are considering.
So I am hopeful that we will get those committees that have jurisdiction over this language to rectify their differences between the House and the Senate, but that is what four corners is. It is rectifying these issues between the House and the Senate, and I hope that my colleague will work with me on a conference that will continue after this point.
I hope that we get this legislation done, and then I hope that we literally return to finish up the rest of the conference work because there are so many important issues, like this, that we should include in the legislation.
So I hope my colleague will continue to work with us, knowing that these are not all of the issues that had been discussed, but a more narrow issue.
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Ms. CANTWELL. I know because I have consulted with them many times over the last month and a half, wondering about its progress and wondering about various issues involving people on both sides of the aisle to resolve what they were concerned about in definitions. I, too, felt like the Senators' hard work and language had gotten to a point where it could be included in a package of legislation.
We were very, very hopeful that the various committees' work--that of the Finance Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the HELP Committee--the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee--the Intel Committee work, and the work that we just discussed from the Homeland Security Committee--could all be included in a conference report. So the words ``pins down'' did not come from my side of the aisle. The words ``pins down'' did not happen. For me, I have been doing nothing but diligently working with all of my colleagues--most of the time when they don't agree--in trying to get them to agree.
I very much appreciate the subject at the heart of what Senator Portman's work is. He is trying to say to us that we have to understand the reality of the world that we live in now and make sure that we are protecting all of our research dollars as we move forward.
Again, it wasn't my decision to decide the narrowness of this bill. It wasn't my decision to say that these are the two subject areas that people are going to include. I know because I thanked the Senator for his help in getting the Science Committee's legislation included in this package. But you could see that even that was a very tough lift in that there were a lot of people around here who didn't want to do that.
So I say to my colleague from Ohio that I am going to work with him in whatever capacity to get this language accepted.
Now he is saying that he has streamlined this language from, probably, what the four corners has agreed to. I do know that the Senator worked very hard trying to get a four-corner agreement from the Science Committee, which we didn't have, to include this language. And why? Because there had been a big fight in the House between the Science Committee and their Homeland Security Committee about what this language said. Then you had the Judiciary Committee weighing in in both the House and the Senate as to what this language said. Since all of those people have been part of that discussion, that part of the four corners did not happen.
My colleague is earnest, and his work is real. The reports that he is referring to in the Homeland Security Committee are real, and we should honor them and honor that work. I am committed to getting that legislation passed, and we will confer with the Senator from Ohio about where that goes and if it goes in the conference report because I am committed to finishing the conference report, because as I said, the Finance Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the HELP Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and your Homeland Security Committee--five committees--would still all like to have language as part of this conference report.
While we aren't able to cover every aspect of this jurisdiction, I am very hopeful that our colleagues will take the impetus of this legislation's passing and double down on getting the rest of the conference report done and signed and on the President's desk. Then we will have a robust policy, not just the incentives, not just the R&D but a variety of issues addressed as they relate to our competitiveness.
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Ms. CANTWELL. today, the Senate vote on a motion to waive the budget point of order; further, that if Senator Sanders raises a budget point of order and a motion to waive is made, that at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, July 27, all postcloture time expire and any remaining amendments except Senate amendment No. 5135 be withdrawn and the Senate vote on the motion to waive the Sanders point of order and the motion to concur with respect to H.R. 4346, with an amendment; further, that following the vote, the Senate resume consideration of the message to accompany S. 3373, the PACT Act, and notwithstanding rule XXII, at 4:30 p.m., the Senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur, all without further intervening action or debate.
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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, pursuant to section 404(b) of the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution, S. Con. Res. 13 of the 111th Congress, as amended by S. Con. Res. 11 of the 114th Congress, I move to waive section 404 of S. Con. Res. 13 for purposes of the pending measure and ask for the yeas and nays.
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