Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer Act - Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
WARM IN WINTER AND COOL IN SUMMER ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - July 23, 2008)
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, would the majority leader yield for a question?
Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield to my friend.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I wish to ask the majority leader if--I don't question the sincerity of the Republican side or the minority leader--but did we not say to the Republican side that if this is a critical, timely issue, can you gather together your Republican Senators--all 49--and come up with your package that could include all of the elements that are mentioned here, and did we not make the offer to the Republican side that that would be called to the floor for debate and for a vote in a timely fashion?
Mr. REID. I say to my friend, the answer is yes. But now they have a new deal. The new deal is they want to do some interesting things that haven't been brought up before. They want to drill in ANWR, even though it was resoundingly defeated in the Senate a couple of years ago. Even though McCain is opposed to it, they are in favor of it. They want to do something that is psychological. Not only do they not want to move with their package that we thought was what they wanted to do--they introduced it, whatever the name of it is--now they want to split that off piece by piece and have one piece, two pieces, three pieces, five pieces, whatever is in it, so they can stall some more.
So what I say to my friend is, yes, we were willing to have a vote on their package, and we would have our package. We are very proud of our package.
Mr. DURBIN. If the majority leader would yield through the Chair for another question, if this issue is so critical and time is of the essence, why do they have 28 amendments plus? Why do they come to us and say we will start with 7; there may be more?
It would seem to me if time is of the essence, they would want us to move in an orderly debate to two energy proposals--one on their side, one on our side--have a debate, take a vote, and make sure it is done so we can adjourn as scheduled a week from Friday.
Mr. REID. I say to my friend it is obvious that the situation is they think this is a tiny part of what we are doing. Speculation, which is 20 to 50 percent of the cost of a barrel of oil, is a tiny part, and they will skip that for now and go on to something else. Drilling? The McCain special, the psychological cure for the problems of this country, they decided maybe they don't want to have a vote on that. Maybe what they will do is add on 27 other things.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, if I could ask the majority leader through the Chair, as I understand it we have 9 days left--assuming that there is not much to be achieved later today--9 days left before we are supposed to adjourn. We are trying, before we adjourn for the August recess, to deal with several outstanding measures: the housing bill, which is now back over from the House of Representatives to try to deal with America's housing crisis; the LIHEAP bill, which the Senator has said will provide for the elderly and disabled, help with their air conditioning and heating bills; the tax extenders, an important part of our energy picture so that we have our Tax Code friendly to those who want to promote solar power and wind power and similar renewable and sustainable sources; and, of course, we can't overlook the item that keeps us in through the weekend, the so-called Coburn package--relating to the Senator from Oklahoma--some 40 bills dealing with issues as serious as child pornography and missing children; these elements too.
I ask the Senator from Nevada, the majority leader, how is it conceivable we could have an open amendment process with an endless number of amendments, according to the Republican side, and possibly deal with all of these important issues?
Mr. REID. I say to my friend through the Chair, you can't. I didn't mention--and I appreciate very much the distinguished Democratic whip mentioning this--also they have turned us down on alternative energy. They voted that down, the extenders, which included a 6-year tax credit for solar and all of those good things that Boone Pickens and others said we must move to.
In addition to turning us down on energy price relief, the Consumer First Energy Act--they turned us down on that--they turned us down on the extenders. They do not want to legislate. They obviously aren't concerned about the 85,000 people who are going to be given foreclosure notices in the next few days. They obviously are not concerned about moving forward on LIHEAP quickly. They obviously are not concerned about setting up a registry for Lou Gehrig's Disease so people can find out how to cure that disease. They are not concerned about the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act. Those are all being stalled because of this subterfuge of what is going on here.
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