Filibusters And Delays In The Senate

Floor Speech

FILIBUSTERS AND DELAYS IN THE SENATE -- (Senate - April 15, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor, along with the majority leader and my colleagues, to express our extreme frustration with what the minority, the Republicans are doing to block basic bills from getting through the Senate. We are trying to move to debate and offer amendments on a basic bill that needs to be done, called a technical corrections bill for transportation projects, changing minor things in the law so it can move forward. Normally this bill is done late at night; everyone agrees to it; there is no objection; it moves on; it takes only a few hours of time. It has gone through a lot of work in committee, which Senator Boxer chairs. They have done all their homework. It has passed on a bipartisan basis, and it was approved by the Senate late last night as a procedural move. But we are here today, spending hours and hours with no ability to move forward, no ability to offer amendments, no ability to pass it, because the Republican minority has decided to filibuster this bill.

I go home every week, 2,500 miles away from here to the State of Washington. People come up to me and say: What are we going to do about the rising cost of health care? What are we going to do about the fact that fewer and fewer doctors are seeing seniors going into Medicare? What are we going to do about veterans waiting in line to get the care they have been promised? What are we going to do about the housing crisis? What are we going to do about Iraq and the President's request for $109 billion more? In Washington, Boeing workers come up to me and say: What are we going to do about a procurement process that has allowed our military to send $40 billion to a European-owned company, our tax dollars, at a time when our economy is struggling, to a European-owned company to start producing the backbone of our military, our air tankers? What are we going to do about that?

These are issues that we as Democrats want to bring to the floor and have major debates on, move legislation forward. They will take time. There is disagreement. Growing up in Washington State, when somebody said there is a filibuster, I assumed it was a major argument of the day. We would rush to find out what it was about and see which Senators were arguing which way and wonder in what direction this would change our country in the future.

We are a long way from that today. The filibuster is now being used as a delaying tactic so we won't get to those critical pieces of legislation, those critical debates we ought to be having in the Senate.

Republicans have engaged in an historic, record-setting level of obstruction over the last 14 months. They haven't filibustered the bills themselves, but they have filibustered motions to proceed to basic bills that we need to pass to keep Government running. They have delayed us from moving forward even after voting in favor of these bills. That is where we find ourselves today. Once again, Republicans have decided to keep us from moving forward simply to delay progress. They don't oppose the legislation. In fact, after filing cloture on the motion to proceed last Thursday and waiting the obligatory 30 hours, last night the Senate voted, and 93 Senators wanted to move this legislation forward. So why are we sitting here today delaying 30 more hours before Senators can even start to offer amendments, if they so choose, so that we can then move the bill to final passage, unless, of course, we have to file a motion to end debate and get to another filibuster of 30 hours, which will take a lot more time.

We have seen this before. It is about delaying. It is about not allowing America to move forward. It is about not allowing progress. The word ``filibuster'' gets thrown around a lot here. People think of ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' and the movie appears in their head. That is the most celebrated version of a filibuster. But there are all kinds of filibusters. We have learned that firsthand, because at the core a filibuster is any procedural move to delay the Senate. Any one Senator has the power to delay us. The majority and the minority have the power to talk to Members and say: This is important to enough of us that we need to move past those objections and begin to move this forward. We need to work toward an agreement so we can move forward.

Time and time again we have seen people use delays on motions to proceed, and then the Senate has to wait 30 hours, 30 long hours with people such as me sitting out here talking on the floor on miscellaneous subjects until we can finally get through 30 hours so we can then be on the floor for hours waiting for Senators to offer amendments. That kind of delay has forced this Senate in this Congress for over a year now into weeks and weeks and weeks of wasted time. No wonder the American people think nothing is getting done in Washington. We are seeing delay after delay. Believe me, we are all frustrated that we cannot get to those important topics of the day, to be able to have perhaps a real filibuster on a real issue that is important, that would change the direction of this country. That is what a filibuster ought to be about. But here we have to file cloture on the motion to proceed to basic bills. We have had to file procedural motions on whether to follow the 9/11 Commission recommendations, which then passed 97 to nothing, once we got through all of those hours of waiting around. On the intelligence authorization bill, we had to file a motion to proceed to the bill, had to wait the 30 hours, and then the vote was 94 to 3. So a couple of Senators forced an entire Senate to wait 30 hours and not get anything done. Bill after bill I could list a desire on the part of the minority to delay progress.

What we are seeing is Republicans who are united for obstruction on issue after issue. Month after month, Republicans have put delay before debate, procedure above progress, and obstruction before solutions.

The American people, certainly in my State of Washington, want us to move forward and deal with the issues critical to their families. They are struggling today with the economy. They are worried about their ability to retire. They are worried about being able to send their kids to college. Certainly, our men and women who have gone to fight the war in Iraq are coming home and facing delays. Yet we can't get a veterans bill up on this floor because of the delays we are seeing.

Here we are today, waiting around to vote on a technical corrections bill to a transportation bill that ought to take a few minutes.

It is a sad day in the United States. I hope our colleagues will talk to their leaders and say: We need to move on. It is time to get the business of this country done. That is our job.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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