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

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I listened carefully to the speech given on health care reform, and I would like to put in perspective what the challenge is that faces America. Absent health care reform, absent a change in the growing increase in the cost of medical care, not only families but businesses and governments will find it impossible to adequately fund the health care Americans need. If we do not come together, as we tried with our health care reform bill, and dedicate ourselves to reducing the increase in the growth of the cost of medical care and do it with an assurance of quality being protected, then the net result of all this, I am afraid, is going to end up with America with medical bills it cannot pay.

We find as we look at government programs--Medicare, Medicaid, veterans programs, for example--that if we do not change the projected rate of growth of cost in these programs, in just a short period of time, the Federal budget of America will be consumed by health care costs and interest on the national debt to the exclusion of everything else.

I just heard my friend, the Senator from Texas, speak against individual mandates. The word ``mandate,'' I am sure, rubs many people the wrong way. But let's take a look at what that individual mandate is. From my point of view, it is a question of individual responsibility, whether individuals in this country have a responsibility to have health insurance.

Some argue of course not; they do not. Yet the reality is that if we do not have some sort of individual responsibility, the people without health insurance will get sick, present themselves at the hospital, be taken care of, and their expenses will be shifted to all the rest of us, to everyone else. So to argue that people have no responsibility to have health insurance is an argument against individual responsibility and an argument that others should have to pay for the medical bills of those who have no insurance. That, to me, is unfair as well.

We had, within the Health Care Reform Act, protection against expensive premiums. We limited the amount an individual would have to pay for health insurance to 8 percent of their income. We provided special help to those in lower income categories. I think that in itself is an effort to strike the right balance.

I have been given a note by the staff that the Republican side has time left. I see my colleague, the Senator from Alabama, has come to the floor. I will yield to him at this point and resume after he has finished.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I wish to thank the majority leader for that statement. He comes to the floor with the other members of the leadership team to call to the attention of the Nation a statement made yesterday by the

majority leader of the House Republicans, Eric Cantor of Virginia.

Many people remember, I say to the majority leader, that it was Eric Cantor who was appointed to the deficit task force the President created, chaired by Vice President Joe Biden--a bipartisan effort to try to deal with the deficit--and people will remember there came a moment after several weeks when Mr. Cantor stood up and said: I am leaving. He walked out, literally walked out of this highest level negotiation on deficit reduction. He said: I want no part of it.

Well, we have another walkaway. Eric Cantor, the majority leader in the House, has announced we are finished for business this year. There is nothing more we are going to do. We are going to politic and campaign and posture. To him, I guess, that is an important responsibility. To the rest of America it is an abdication of responsibility--an abdication of responsibility.

This morning, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, appeared before the Joint Economic Committee. They wanted to talk to him about what more could be done at the Federal Reserve on monetary policy dealing with interest rates to get the economy moving forward. It is a legitimate policy question. But if Mr. Bernanke could have turned the tables for a moment, he might have asked the Members of Congress: Well, what are you doing to get the economy moving forward? I think that is a reasonable question.

Let me suggest to Mr. Cantor, who thinks we are finished for business this year, that there are many elements of outstanding business that can help create jobs in America. Let's start with the first one: the Transportation bill. The Transportation bill will create 2.8 million jobs in America. What kind of jobs? As the majority leader said, jobs to repair bridges and highways, to build our airports, to make sure America has a safe infrastructure upon which to build our economy.

Well, in the Senate, we came to an agreement. Senator Barbara Boxer, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senator Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma, the ranking Republican member, reached an agreement and brought a bill to the Senate floor. We went through the long process of amendments, and it passed. I think the final rollcall was 74 to 22. It was an overwhelming bipartisan vote that extended for 2 years highway construction in America and created 2.8 million jobs.

Well, obviously, that is something that is good for America. The question that should be asked is, Well, where was the House Transportation bill? The honest answer is they never produced one--never. They couldn't agree on a bill. The House Republicans failed to pass the Transportation bill. Ultimately, they passed a measure to extend the current highway trust fund and taxes that are collected to July 1, just a few weeks from now.

Then the majority leader appointed a conference committee, and I am honored to be on that committee with a number of my colleagues. I can't tell my colleagues how hard Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe have worked on that committee. This bipartisan effort, Democrats and Republicans, has resulted in a compromised counteroffer which they personally hand-delivered to the Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee John Mica. They understand we have a July 1 deadline. They understand the urgency to take it up and move it to create and keep 2.8 million jobs in America.

What was the response of Speaker Boehner? Well, it was warming and welcoming, but the fact is as of today, maybe tomorrow--the House is gone for a week. So in this critical period of time when we are up against a July 1 deadline, when millions of American jobs are on the line, the House Republicans are leaving and the Republican majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, said it doesn't make any difference if they stayed because they are not going to do anything significant. They are just going to politic and posture.

How do we explain that to the families of all of these workers across America--workers who need a job at a time when the economy is tough? I guess people living paycheck to paycheck now have to accept this furlough that the majority leader has announced for the rest of the year.

There is important work to be done, and it isn't just the Transportation bill. The majority leader raised some questions and issues that are still pending between us. Let me also add another one to the list: cybersecurity.

I attended a meeting, I guess it was about 2 months ago, the likes of which I have never seen since I have been in the Senate. We had a request by the administration--in fact, it started with Senator Mikulski asking them for it--to ask all of the Senators, Democrats and Republicans, to go to a classified setting--a secret setting--for a briefing on cybersecurity. There was a large turnout, Democrats and Republicans, and they spelled out to us the threat to the United States of America from China, Russia, other countries, and individual actors who are trying to invade our information technology to steal the secrets not only of our government but also of major companies, to burrow into our systems such as the utilities of America and be prepared at a moments' notice to destroy the capacity of the U.S. economy or worse.

We went through the exercise, and it really spelled out for us what might happen; what might happen if there were a cybersecurity attack into the United States and it literally turned out the lights on the great city of New York. What would happen? Well, it would take days before we could restore service. In the process, people would die, the economy would be crippled, and we are at risk of that happening.

So the administration has produced a cybersecurity bill to keep America safe from that kind of attack. Well, unfortunately, it doesn't meet Mr. Cantor's test. He has told us we can't do anything the rest of the year. All we can do is campaign, politic, and give speeches.

We have a responsibility as Members of the Senate and the House to accept the challenges facing this Nation;

No. 1, to create jobs, invigorate the economy, and get this country moving forward; second, keeping America safe.

I might say to Mr. Cantor from Virginia, take some time during your next recess--which is next week--and go over to the Central Intelligence Agency and sit down with them and talk about cybersecurity and the danger to the United States, and ask them if we can wait 6 months or a year to get back to this issue. I know what they are going to say. They are going to remind him he swore to defend and uphold this great United States of America. And if he is going to do it, he ought to roll up his sleeves and go to work instead of coming up with another excuse for political campaigning and delay.

This comes down to a basic question. Eric Cantor, House Republican majority leader, has all but predicted that 2012--this year--is substantively over. We are finished. No more heavy lifting. It reminds me of when I was a kid on the last day of school before summer vacation. Remember that? It is usually a half day. You could not wait to race out the front door, screaming and hollering and throwing things in every direction, jumping up and down with your buddies, saying: We are going to go swimming tomorrow. And get your bike out. We are going to go have some fun. It was 3 months, at least, of pure unadulterated joy, no responsibility.

Well, Majority Leader Cantor has announced that school is out for the House Republicans. They are finished for the year. But America is not finished. Our agenda is still there.

I want to commend the Senate Republicans who have joined us in passing this transportation bill. And I want to say to Speaker Boehner: When you return from the next recess, next week, roll up your sleeves and get to work. Put 2.8 million Americans to work with this bipartisan transportation bill. Have the courage to bring it for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives so we can put America to work and make certain they know we take our job seriously.

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