Commerce, Justice, Science, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on the vote just cast, as my friend well knows, we had worked on an amendment list not only last week but earlier today. We were down to what I thought was a manageable list. There is no one on this side of whom I am aware trying to prevent the Commerce-Justice-State bill from passing. So far this year we have had a very good amendment process. Members have been able to offer their amendments and get votes. I thought until about 5:15 this afternoon we were going to be able to get an amendment list. It broke down somehow in the discussions. So I wouldn't make more out of this than it is. We were very close to being able to finish this bill.

I suggest we continue to work on the amendment list, which was quite reasonable, and wrap up the bill in the very near future.

Mr. REID. Madam President, I appreciate the suggestion of my Republican counterpart. But we are going to get cloture on this bill, and we will handle the germane amendments. We have legislated on this bill for 5 days. That should be enough. The list they think is reasonable, someone should take a look at it and see how unreasonable it is. We will go ahead. We will do the regular order. We will get cloture on this bill, and we will handle the germane amendments--maybe. We don't have to handle the germane amendments. We don't have to deal with those. We might do that; we might not do it.

I think what has happened in the Senate is outrageous. I want to make sure the record is clear. I appreciate very much John McCain saying nice things about President Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize. Another person who says he is running for President also said nice things about President Obama getting that. That was Governor Pawlenty. Obviously, Governor Pawlenty knows the American people think it is wrong for someone who receives this high honor, for people not to pat him on the back.

What has gone on in the Senate is as indicated in the New York Times last month: they are legislating out of spite. We are going to continue to work for the betterment of this country and move forward on the agenda this country needs to work on. We have had a successful year legislating. It has been extremely difficult. We have had a lot of hurdles to go over.

I appreciate the legislation we have passed. We only recently got 60 votes. We have had 58, so we have always needed a couple Republicans. And we have been able to get those but just barely. I appreciate the scowls from the other side as they vote with us.

We have a lot of important things to do. We are going to continue working on them. Health care has taken a lot longer than we had anticipated, but we will take that over the finish line. It will be hard, but we are going to do that. I hope we can do it with some support from the Republicans. It appears at this stage that we are not going to get any, other than maybe a couple of courageous souls. Maybe we will get three if we are lucky.

We have to do something about energy, an important issue. We are going to deal with that. We have to do something about regulation reform.

It would be a lot better for the American people if Republican Senators worked with us. Take, for example, the health care bill from the HELP Committee. You would think, after having accepted scores and scores of Republican amendments, that some Republican would say a nice thing about that HELP bill. Not a word. Every single member of the Republican Party who is a member of the HELP Committee voted against the bill.

It is pretty clear what is happening around here. As I indicated--for the third time--Republicans are legislating out of spite, and that is not good for this country.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.

Mr. McCONNELL. With all due respect to my good friend, the majority leader, I don't know what the vote we just had had to do with the President winning a Nobel Peace Prize. I congratulate him for that. I think all Members are proud that he was able to achieve that. I don't know what it had to do with health care. What it had to do with is the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill.

We had agreed to all of the amendments on a list but one. We said to the majority that we would eliminate the one. So I don't know why they can't take yes for an answer. We basically had an agreement on our amendment list but for one amendment which they objected to, and we said we would take it off the list. It strikes me rather than having a spirited debate about health care and other matters, we ought to agree to the amendment list and finish the bill.

Mr. REID. Madam President, Thursday we waited virtually all day--all day--for them to come up with a list. It was never quite right. Never quite right. I was here late Thursday night, very late Thursday night. Everyone else had gone home. But the Republicans refused to OK a list. So I had no alternative but to file a motion to invoke cloture. The agreement is in their minds only. We have been very generous in allowing amendments that have nothing to do with bills this whole year. We were still willing to do that with this piece of legislation. This is part of a stall that we have had all year long, the stall all day Thursday. We had problems on Wednesday trying to come up with a list, and Thursday. Just never quite right.

Suddenly, today, we have a list. We are willing to drop an amendment. I don't know what amendment they are talking about dropping.

I have made my statement very clear. We have a pattern in the Senate by the Republicans that is abusive to the system. It is preventing the American people from getting work done. An example is this very important bill dealing with law enforcement--Commerce-Justice-State--FBI agents. Senator Mikulski has worked very hard. She is proud of this legislation. We are going to go ahead and get it done without the Republicans. We are going to go ahead and do it. Their earmarks are included. We are not going to take away any of their earmarks because we believe in fairness.

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