Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013
Floor Speech
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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, Senate Democrats have been waiting a very long time to go to conference on our budget. In fact, it has now been 73 days. Until recently, we have gotten pretty used to Senate Republicans simply standing and saying no.
For months Republicans have been offering a lot of excuses for why they do not want to go to conference on the budget. They have said they want a preconference ``framework,'' which, by the way, is what a budget is. They have said they would not allow us to go to conference unless we guaranteed that the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations would be protected from paying a penny more in taxes. They said they did not want a bipartisan conference to take away the leverage they have on the debt ceiling. And then they called for a do-over, which, actually, my ranking member on Budget called for again this morning--to bring up the House budget, have 50 hours of debate, a whole new round of unlimited amendments, go through the process all over, and they did this after they praised the very open and thorough floor debate we had on the Senate budget.
The story keeps changing. But even as some Republicans were focused on finding excuses to move us closer and closer to this crisis rather than have a budget deal, we have a number of Republicans who are now joining with us to call on regular order. Senator Coburn said that blocking conference is ``not a good position to be in.'' Senator Boozman said he would ``very much like to see a conference.'' Senator Wicker said weeks ago that ``by the end of next week, we ..... should be ready to go to conference.'' We have known for a while that blocking regular order--especially after calling for it so eagerly just a matter of months ago--was not sitting well with a number of our Republican colleagues, and now, according to Politico, ``more Republicans appear to favor heading to conference than blocking it.'' I welcome that.
We need to move this to conference. It is the regular order. It will allow us to solve our country's problems, and we truly need a process to allow us to deal with our Nation's problems.
Senator McCain is on the floor, and I thank him because he understands the importance not just for this bill but for all legislation in the Senate that we come here, we compromise, we fight hard for what we believe in, but at the end of the day just saying ``my way or the highway,'' even if you are a small minority, does not move this country to the place where we need it to get to, which is not a crisis-by-management place. I thank him for taking a lead and calling for regular order. He has said that Republican preconditions such as demanding that the conference agree to not raise the debt ceiling or raise taxes are ``absolutely out of line and unprecedented.'' Senator Collins joined us on the floor a few weeks ago to say that even though there is a lot we do not see eye to eye on, we should at least go to conference and make our best effort to get a deal. I could not agree more.
The stalling that we have seen is, as some have said on their side, ``a little bizarre'' and ``ironic to say the least,'' especially after, I would remind everyone, 50 hours of debate, innumerable amendments that took us way into the early hours, and we offered everybody the chance to speak. After that session was over, many of our Republican colleagues came to me personally and thanked me for finally having an open process. If they want us to have an open process, then they have to take that process and take it to the next step.
So I am deeply concerned. We are moving toward another manufactured crisis this fall. We have our Appropriations subcommittees that need to move forward. The country is very clearly tired of this country being managed by crisis. We just had a budget hearing this morning in which our witnesses, both Republicans and Democrats alike, said that moving us to a manufactured crisis would impact this economy in a horrific way this fall. We do not need to have that happen.
I want to go to conference. Do I want to have a compromise? Not really. I love where I stand. But I have been here a long time. You do not get everything you want, but you do have to compromise in order to move the country forward. And I am willing to go to conference with my counterpart, Chairman Ryan, who is on a very different page than I am, and find our compromise and be willing to move that forward here in the Congress so we can get to a place that allows us to be able to lead this country again. So I think we are at a very critical point.
I see Senator McCain is on the floor. I would be happy to yield to him for a comment.
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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Arizona for his very heartfelt remarks. I know he and I do not agree on a lot, but we do agree that we want this country to work because the alternative is not great. The way for this country to work is for us to come together with our differences of opinion and move forward, and that is what the conference committee is all about.
So, Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 33, H. Con. Res. 25; that the amendment which is at the desk, the text of S. Con. Res. 8, the budget resolution passed by the Senate, be inserted in lieu thereof; that H. Con. Res. 25, as amended, be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate; that following the authorization, two motions to instruct conferees be in order from each side: motion to instruct relative to the debt limit and motion to instruct relative to taxes and revenue; that there be 2 hours of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to votes in relation to the motions; further, that no amendments be in order to either of the motions prior to the votes, all of the above occurring with no intervening action or debate.
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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, if the Senator heard my request, I said we would consider a motion to instruct relative to the debt limit as part of our agreement to move to conference. So the Senator would be allowed to make his voice heard at that time. I would object to making it a requirement without a vote of the Senate that says the majority agrees with that. So I would object to his amendment and again ask for unanimous consent on the original request.
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