Default Prevention Act of 2013-- Motion to Proceed--

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, later today the Senate is likely to consider legislation that would reopen government, avert the default, and put us on a long-term path to come up with a plan to deal with our unsustainable $17 trillion national debt by reopening the long overdue budget negotiations. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will support the plan that has been put forth by our two leaders, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell.

I am pleased that elements of the compromise that the two leaders have worked out have been taken from a plan that was developed by 14 Senators who have worked very hard, on both sides of the aisle, 7 Democrats--actually 6 Democrats and 1 Independent, the Senator from Maine--and 7 Republicans, who have come together in good faith and have worked very hard over the last 2 weeks to put together a compromise plan, a compromise plan that I have to say I actually prefer to that which we will vote on later today.

But elements of our plan have been incorporated into the plan the two leaders have presented for our consideration. This was truly a collaborative effort. I want to make sure that all of my colleagues who worked so hard on it receive the kudos they deserve for being willing to do what this body does too rarely, and that is for both sides to get together, come out of our partisan corners, stop fighting, and start legislating.

This great country deserves a Congress that can govern, and that was the unifying theme of our group. On October 5, a Saturday, when we were in session and the shutdown was in its early days, I was sitting in my Senate office, watching the floor debate. I was disheartened by what I heard because what I heard were partisan speeches from both sides of the aisle and no one offering a path forward. I decided then and there to chart out, to outline a possible plan to end this impasse, and I marched over to the Senate floor and gave a speech in which I urged my colleagues to work together.

Virtually immediately I heard from colleagues on both sides of the aisle who wanted to be part of that effort and who have worked night and day to try to come up with a plan, a plan that I believe helped lay the foundation for the ultimate compromise reached by our two leaders.

Senator Murkowski and Senator Ayotte were the first two Members to call me. I know my colleagues are tired of hearing about the women in the Senate, but the fact is they were the first two to contact me. Senator Joe Manchin was the first person on the Democratic side to call and say: Count me in. I want to work on this as well. Senator Pryor and Senator King were also very early on, and Senator McCain endorsed the proposal of our working together and the outlines of this plan. Senator Johanns was such a thoughtful addition to our group. Amy Klobuchar was there for every meeting. Senator Kirk, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Senator Jeff Flake, Senator Joe Donnelly, Senator Jeanne Shaheen--it was a wonderful group of people, united by our determination to demonstrate that we could compromise, we could govern, we could bring an end to this impasse and do it in a way that was worthy of this great country and our constituents.

We worked together over and over. There were a lot of tough decisions to be made, a lot of lengthy negotiations. We came up with a plan which we presented to our two leaders, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell. Not all elements of our plan were incorporated by the leaders, but I think they would say they built on our work and did, indeed, take some of our provisions verbatim. I continue to believe our plan was a great path forward, but I am pleased that it paved the way to what I hope will be a solution to the impasse we have been facing, that has been so unfair to the American people and has hurt so many people.

I think it is important for us to remember that the damage goes beyond the hundreds of thousands of furloughed Federal workers, furloughed through no fault of their own. It goes beyond the damage to the private sector employees who lost business because of the closure of our parks.

It goes beyond the damage to our disabled veterans who have had to wait for their claims to be handled. It goes beyond the anxiety of many who are dependent on very important Federal programs, the most vulnerable in our society. It goes beyond the impact on our national defense, although we were able to mitigate that to some extent. It goes to something far more fundamental, and that is whether the people of this country can have confidence in our ability to put aside partisan politics and act as patriots committed to doing what is right for our Nation.

I thank the 13 Senators who joined me and worked so hard and did just that--they left their partisanship at the door and negotiated as real patriots who care about America. I thank them all. It has been a great pleasure to work with each and every one of them. All of them contributed so much to the bipartisan plan we presented, and I am glad it has helped to bring us to what I hope is an end to a very unfortunate chapter in America's history.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

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