Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012--Motion to Proceed--Resumed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would just like to comment on that. Because it does not matter how long one is here, all we need do is pick up the newspaper or pick up the National Journal. I agree with my colleague from South Dakota.

At the beginning of this year, the National Journal, big article, picture of the majority leader, and the headline is: ``Reid's New Electoral Strategy.'' ``Forget passing bills'' is the subheadline. ``Forget passing bills. The Democrats just want to play the blame game in 2012.''

That is exactly what we saw this morning on the floor of the Senate. This is not some piece of fiction. This is something that actually the majority leader told 40 Democrats from the House about his goal, his intentions for the 2012 year in Congress. It goes on to say:

Working with the White House, Senate Democrats are applauding a 2012 floor agenda driven by Obama's reelection campaign. .....

It goes on.

Senate floor action will be planned less to make law--

We have 8.2 percent unemployment, and this party admits--the leader admits in this piece the Senate action will be planned less to make law--

than to buttress Obama's charge that Republicans are obstructing measures. .....

That is what their goal is? That is a year's plan, as outlined to Democrats in the House from the majority leader.

It goes on to say:

..... Democrats will push legislation that polls well and dovetails with Obama's campaign. .....

With 8.2 percent unemployment, that is not polling so well. With the New York Times reporting today that over two-thirds of Americans want to find that the health care law is unconstitutional--New York Times, two-thirds of Americans, unconstitutional health care law. That is what the people are saying.

Nothing this President and this administration and the Democrats are doing is polling very well. We ought to look back at the history of this great institution. The Senate is a unique legislative institution. No matter who the majority is, it is designed to guarantee the minority party, and therefore a large block of Americans whom it represents, that that party has a voice.

Traditionally, this body functions well when the majority party works to find consensus with the minority party on the process and the substance of legislation--consultation, compromise, and both parties working together. Historically, that has been the rule, not the exception, as we have seen in recent years.

I sit here and look at the seat, the empty seat a couple rows ahead of me and off to the other side of the aisle where Robert Byrd sat.

Senator Byrd understood the importance of allowing for a full debate and amendment process in order to preserve the Senate as a unique institution in our democracy--``the one place in the whole government where the minority is guaranteed a public airing of its views.'' The Senate, he taught, ``was intended to be a forum for open and free debate and for the protection of political minorities.'' Indeed, ``as long as the Senate retains the power to amend and the power of unlimited debate, the liberties of the people will remain secure.''

I would say allowing the minority to debate and amend legislation has given way to what we see now as Democrat's election-year political strategy of blaming Republicans as obstructionists. The minority and the majority need to work together. Majority Leader Reid has done all these things in terms of the strategy and the blaming by preventing Republicans from amending pending legislation, ending debate before it starts, and bypassing the committee process.

He has made a habit of squelching the voice of the minority by curtailing its ability to amend legislation. The majority leader is always the first to be recognized on the Senate floor. He can use that power to offer a series of Democratic amendments to pending legislation in a way that prevents Republicans from offering any of their ideas. It is called filling the tree.

How often does it happen? Let's think first about the history. The majority leader once insisted that this practice of filling the tree, he said, ``runs against the basic nature of the Senate.'' By the way the Senate operates today, however, it is clear he has abandoned that previous assessment.

According to the Congressional Research Service, Majority Leader Reid has employed this tactic a record 59 times. He has used it to block minority input in legislation 50 percent more often than the past five majority leaders combined. The minority's only option, under these circumstances, is to oppose ending debate on legislation known as invoking cloture in order to convince the majority to allow it to offer amendments to legislation and thereby represent the interests of their constituents.

This is a very bad practice. When one takes a look at Congress after Congress, whether it was George Mitchell, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Tom Daschle, Bill Frist, combined, here we have Senator Reid 50 percent more than all the others combined.

So here we are. We have come to the floor of the Senate to respond to what we heard from the majority leader this morning about obstructionism, and what do we see? It is just a page from the majority leader's playbook of the electoral strategy for 2012 from the leader of the majority. Forget passing bills, the Democrats just want to play the blame game in 2012. That is exactly what we saw today.

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