Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I first thank the Senator for his leadership. He has been the singular force in the Senate to have us reassess the rules of the Senate to make certain they are serving the needs of our Nation. I thank Senator Merkley for his leadership, and I know he felt a great sense of satisfaction with the vote that was just cast on the floor--a vote in which 71 Senators voted to invoke cloture and end the filibuster on the nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

As the Senator from Oregon knows, this Bureau has been controversial since its inception when we passed the Dodd-Frank finance reform bill after the tragedies and scandals of Wall Street. There were many who did not want to see us create a consumer protection agency. Yet we did. It was the brainchild of one of our current colleagues, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who, before she was elected, thought this was an important agency--literally the only consumer protection agency in the Federal Government. But it wasn't welcomed by some corners, particularly some financial institutions and others.

I think it is noteworthy at two levels, and I would like to ask the Senator from Oregon to respond. First, it is noteworthy that although it took 2 years, in that 2-year period of time this Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proven its worth.

I am working now on the exploitation of our military by for-profit schools. Holly Petraeus, the wife of General Petraeus, works for this agency, and she has focused her efforts on military families and the exploitation of the GI bill by these schools.

I think every American would agree that those who are guilty of it should be held accountable, and this investigation is under way by this agency. Now Richard Cordray is there to head it. I think that is important, and that is why this vote which will be in a few hours on Richard Cordray's nomination is important.

But the second point is a larger global point about the Senate and perhaps Congress. We have in a very brief period of time--1 month--seen two very significant votes, in my estimation. The first was on the immigration bill, where 68 Senators voted for the immigration reform bill, 14 Republicans joining all the Democrats. It was a breakthrough, and most of us feel it was the first time in a long time that we have seen Senators of both political parties sit down and hammer out an agreement that was reflected in the vote on the floor: 14 Republicans, 54 Democrats.

Now we have the second evidence of bipartisanship with the vote that was just cast, 71 who came forward--some 17 Republicans and 54 Democrats, if I am not mistaken--voting in favor of ending cloture.

The point I would like to get to in this long question--and I would ask the Senator from Oregon for his reflection on this--it seems to me the key to getting things done on Capitol Hill these days, in a fractured political Nation, is bipartisanship--not just in the Senate Chamber but in the House as well, that they have to reach beyond the majority party--in our case Democrats and in their case Republicans--and start thinking about how we put things together on a bipartisan basis that have a chance of passing and ultimately becoming law and solving the problems facing our Nation.

When it comes to consumer protection, with a bipartisan vote, we move forward. A few weeks ago when it came to immigration reform, we had a bipartisan vote that moved forward. So I would ask the Senator to not only reflect on this institution and the earlier vote but on the current challenges we face politically and how these votes reflect on those.

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