Default Prevention Act of 2013 - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am pleased we have reached an agreement that will reopen the government and allow us to pay our bills and provide a path forward now for bipartisan budget negotiations. As part of this bipartisan deal, I will once again tonight ask unanimous consent to begin a bipartisan budget conference.

The budgets that passed the Senate and the House 6 months ago are very different. Nobody thinks it is going to be easy to get to a deal. But I know I would not have fought so hard for so long to begin bipartisan negotiations if I did not think we could find some common ground and work something out.

I do not think there is anyone in Congress who wants to put the country through the last few weeks again, and I am hopeful we can now work together in a budget conference to end these constant crises and work now toward a balanced and bipartisan deal that the American people expect and deserve.

So I tonight ask unanimous consent that if the Senate passes H.R. 2775, as amended, the Senate then proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 33, H. Con. Res. 25; that the amendment at the desk, which is the text of S. Con. Res. 8, the budget resolution agreed to by the Senate, be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that H. Con. Res. 25, as amended, be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that the motion for the Senate to insist on its amendment be agreed to; that the Senate request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses and authorize the Chair to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, with a ratio of 12 Democrats and 10 Republicans; that the conferees be instructed to report back a conference report by December 13, 2013; that if the Senate receives from the House a request to go to conference on S. Con. Res. 8, the agreement be modified so that the Senate agree to the request to go to conference on S. Con. Res. 8, with the remaining provisions related to the conference remaining in effect; further, that it not be in order for the Senate to consider a conference report with respect to H. Con. Res. 25 or S. Con. Res. 8 if it includes reconciliation instructions to raise the debt limit; and that all of the above occur with no intervening action or debate; finally, that H. Con. Res. 25, as amended, and agreed to, be held at the desk until a message is received from the House relative to H.R. 2775, and if the House fails to concur in the Senate amendment to H.R. 2775, this agreement be vitiated.

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