Default Prevention Act of 2013--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. I wish to thank my esteemed colleague from Illinois and take this opportunity to offer some remarks on the debt ceiling and the continuing operations of the government.

I come to the floor to make an appeal for action, action on opening the government and action on addressing the debt ceiling. Of course, that requires bipartisan effort. This is something our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have to work together to accomplish. We have been negotiating, not only our leadership, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, but the Members of this body, Republican and Democratic, both sides of the aisle. We have been negotiating and talking about many different ideas, but now we need to come together and find a way to both address the debt ceiling and to reopen the government.

The kinds of ideas we have discussed include a short-term extension of the debt ceiling. Certainly Members on my side of the aisle feel we have to also address the underlying problems that are leading to our growing debt and deficit.

We need savings and reforms as part of addressing that debt ceiling. Also, we have talked about ideas for a continuing resolution to reopen the government, one that follows established law. By that I mean the Budget Control Act, which establishes budgetary caps that need to be kept in place and honored as part of this agreement.

The continuing resolution we have talked about would also include flexibility for agencies to prioritize spending subject to congressional oversight, but we have to have budget discipline. We are spending more than we are taking in. Whether it is a family, whether it is a business, whether it is the Federal Government, that doesn't work. We must exercise budget discipline.

Also, we have talked about ideas that might include addressing the medical device tax, possibly repealing the medical device tax or at least deferring it for 2 years and paying for it with pension smoothing under provisions similar to those in MAP-21. We have looked at and talked about requiring income verification under the Affordable Care Act to avoid fraud, ideas Republicans have put forward. I think there has been broad support for it on the Democratic side of the aisle.

An agreement composed of these kinds of ideas would open government and address the debt ceiling on a short-term basis, but the reality is we need to find savings and reforms to address the underlying problems that are driving our deficit and our debt. As part of a debt ceiling agreement, we need to have savings and reforms that underlie our problem. Our problem is that we are spending more than we take in. We can't raise the debt ceiling for another year and add $1 trillion in debt to the debt that we already have of $17 trillion.

It is kind of like going to the bank. When you go to the bank and you talk to the banker, you say: Hey, I want a loan. I want to increase the loan I have, and I want to raise my credit limit.

The banker may be willing to give you the loan, but he is going to say to you: What are you going to do to address the underlying problem, the problem you have that you are spending more than you are taking in? What are you going to do to address that?

If you said to the banker: I am not going to do anything to address it, you might have a hard time getting the loan, right? That is true whether you are a family, that is true whether you are a business, and that should be true for the Federal Government. So let's put the necessary savings and reforms in place.

In his budget, the President identified more than $600 billion in changes and savings and reforms that he could support to mandatory spending programs, and we have talked to him about those time and again. Now is the time to implement those savings and reforms to those mandatory spending programs.

Let me cite an example of one I have been hard at work on for the last 2 years; that is, the farm bill. The farm bill is a mandatory spending program. I am a member of the agriculture committee, and we have worked hard on changes, on improvements, on actually strengthening the farm bill by strengthening crop insurance under the farm bill, which is what our farmers and ranchers want. As we worked through that, at the same time we identified on the order of $25 billion to $30 billion in savings that we can generate by reforming the farm program.

I am a member of the conference committee on the Senate side. The House has now appointed their conferees. We are ready to go and resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions of the farm bill, and we can have a stronger farm program and save billions of dollars.

Those are the kinds of mandatory spending program reforms we need to put in place as part of the debt ceiling agreement. And we need to find a common commitment, a bipartisan commitment, and a commitment on the part of the administration as well as the Congress to do that.

When we talk about addressing the debt ceiling, that is what it really means. It doesn't just mean raising the debt ceiling. It doesn't just mean borrowing more money. It means fixing the problem. So we need to act. We need to address the debt ceiling. We need to get the government open, but we need to have a common commitment, a bipartisan commitment to solving the underlying problems and to getting the reforms and the savings that will ensure we aren't spending more than we are taking in.

Of course, a big part of that is economic growth as well. We understand that. And at the point where we truly come together in a bipartisan way--and I would argue this is that point and this is that time--I think the markets will react, and I think business across this country will react. Businesses large and small will react because the certainty of knowing we truly are dealing with our debt and our deficit will give them the confidence to invest and hire more people, not only bringing people back to work, reducing unemployment, but getting economic growth--economic growth not by raising taxes but, with economic growth, broadening and growing the base and generating revenue to help with our deficit and our debt.

By putting these commonsense reforms, these solutions, these savings in place as part of this debt ceiling agreement--a commitment to doing that on both sides of the aisle--we will help unleash the power of the strongest economy in the world, and that economic growth will be a huge part of solving our deficit and our debt as well. It is vitally important that we do it. It is vitally important that we do it for the strength of our country, to get people back to work, but most of all for our children and for future generations. I don't believe there is anybody here in Congress--in the Senate, in the House--or anywhere else who wants to leave our children with a $17 trillion debt. So let's solve this. We can do it, and now is the time.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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