Small Business Lending Fund Act Of 2010
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I had the opportunity to hear the distinguished Senator from Maine, a few moments ago, speak on the measure before us and how it has seemed to become completely enmeshed in the political agenda of the other side. I commend her for her efforts to get this bill right. Senator LeMieux was on the floor earlier, another one of our colleagues on the Republican side who worked long and hard to get this bill across the finish line.
But I must say, it takes a lot of effort to make a partisan issue out of a bill that should have broad bipartisan support. You have to go out of your way, as Senator Snowe pointed out, to make a small business bill controversial, but our friends on the other side have managed to pull it off.
They have outdone themselves. We got this bill in late June. This is July 29. Since then, the Democrats have set it aside six separate times to move on to something else. So, from the beginning, this bill clearly was not a priority to them until they realized they didn't have anything to talk about when they go home in August. I think one Democratic Senator put it best when he suggested this week that a midterm campaign that revolves around his party's agenda and that of the White House is a losing proposition for the majority.
He was summing up their strategy on this bill. They knew they could not run on a record of job-killing taxes, burdensome new regulations, massive government intrusions and record deficits and debt. So what do they do? What do they do? They create an issue where there is none. That is what this debate is all about.
It was clear from the beginning there was a path for this bill to pass with a very broad bipartisan majority. Instead, we are standing here this morning looking at a third version of a bill and we have yet to engage in any substantive amendment process. They have been adding either controversial or completely unrelated matters to the bill--all to avoid any real debate and to avoid voting on Republican amendments.
This bill now has over $1 billion in agricultural spending in it. It has $1 billion in agricultural spending in a small business bill, in the core bill--the most recent version of the core bill. As I said, we have been on this since June 29.
Republicans have asked for a total of eight amendments. That is about two votes a week if we had been on this bill. That is not too much to ask.
It is obvious what is going on. They wanted to make this an issue so they have something to talk about other than their failed economic policies. The President made that clear 2 weeks ago when he accused Republicans of blocking this bill, a statement every single fact checker in town has shown to be false. So they can try to deflect attention all they want, they can manufacture a legislative impasse--and that is what has happened here, a manufactured legislative impasse--but the American people know what is going on. Nearly every major piece of legislation this Congress has considered has had painful consequences for small business. Nearly every major piece of legislation this Congress has considered has had painful consequences for small business. Attempting to create a controversy is not going to hide that from anyone.
Hopefully, if cloture is not invoked, we can return to the original intent of this bill, strip it of its controversial add-ons and pass a small business bill that attracts broad bipartisan support and helps American small business owners. Given the legislative record of this Congress, they could certainly use the help.
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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, reserving the right to object, let me first compliment my friend the majority leader. I think we are beginning to make some real progress here toward making a bill that was initially bipartisan bipartisan again. This doesn't quite get back to where I had hoped we could get, but I think we are making progress.
Therefore, I would encourage my Members to oppose cloture on the vote, but we are going to continue the discussion. This is only 11:30 on Thursday. I think we are getting closer to getting where we may be able to do some business and get this bill out of here, but there will have to be some amendments on our side. Actually, I think our friends on the other side knew it would have to be more than three. I appreciate the movement in the direction with the three, but that would not be enough, at least for this juncture right now, to be satisfactory. Therefore, I object.
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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, we turned to this bill initially on June 24. We have left it six times over the last month. There is widespread agreement on a bipartisan basis that we should pass a small business bill. We are finally making some progress. It has become less a political instrument and more the initial bill, as Senator Snowe has been asking us to do for quite some time. I think we should continue to discuss it after the vote.
It is only 11:30 on Thursday. I think there is a chance we may be able to make some significant progress very soon. In the meantime, we should go ahead and have the vote. The majority leader and I can continue to try to unsnarl this problem and see if we can move forward.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
Mr. REID. There is nothing to unsnarl. We have agreed to take out the offending provision that Senators on the other side of the aisle said they wanted out. I took it out. They wanted to offer amendments. I have agreed to let them offer amendments. There is nothing snarled. There is only an effort to stop passage of this bill.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the majority leader is graciously giving us three amendments. What I am saying is three amendments is not enough, and he knows that. So we are not expecting to have an unlimited number of amendments, but three amendments will not suffice.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Louisiana.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, could I ask the minority leader a question, please. Will he yield?
Would the minority leader be willing to say how many amendments might be enough? The Senator from Maine, the ranking member, said a few. The Senator from Florida--if I could finish--the Senator from Florida, Mr. LeMieux, said he thought it would be fair if there were four or five. We have offered three. Is there any sort of possibility--because that would help us get even further.
Mr. McCONNELL. Is that a question?
Ms. LANDRIEU. Yes.
Mr. McCONNELL. I will tell my friend from Louisiana that is the sort of thing the majority leader and I work on every day, is to try to determine the number of amendments, and we ought to continue to try to do that.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, let me press for a minute on this question, because with all due respect to the minority leader, until we can finally agree on that number, it is going to be hard to figure out a path forward. So my question to the minority leader is, so we can do this in a more public way----
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senate has a cloture vote at this time.
Mr. McCONNELL. Regular order.
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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I think we are making some real headway. I appreciate the majority leader taking out basically the appropriations measures. One was in the underlying bill and the others were going to be offered as amendments.
I had not originally intended to offer a counter UC, but in order to reassure everyone--I know there is support on our side of the aisle if we can get it right--I offer a counter UC which I suppose will be objected to, as I will object to the majority leader's, for the afternoon.
But I want to underscore what he said, which is I do think we are getting closer to getting back to the original bill which started off on a pretty strong bipartisan basis and then seemed to deteriorate over the course of the last month. In fact, we turned to the bill on June 24 and left it six times between then and now.
Having said all that, I think we are heading back in the right direction.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture motions with respect to the small business substitute and the bill be vitiated. I further ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be the only amendments in order to the Reid substitute, and there are four: Johanns amendment No. 1099, repeal; Hatch, R&D; Grassley, biodiesel; Sessions, spending caps. I further ask unanimous consent that it be in order for the majority to offer relevant side-by-sides limited to the subject matter of the above-listed amendments. And, as I said last night, we are prepared to enter into reasonable time agreements on each of these amendments.
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