Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015-Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Thank you, Madam President.

This morning the Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed legislation approving the Keystone XL Pipeline. I believe that Congress should do all it can to push the Obama administration to approve this project. This will, of course, help create American jobs; they will come along with the Keystone XL Pipeline.

To me, this morning's committee vote was nothing more than a show vote. It is going to do nothing to advance the Keystone XL Pipeline. It will put no pressure on the White House. It will not put a single shovel in the ground building the pipeline because the Democratic majority leader has absolutely no intention of allowing this bill to get to a vote right here on the Senate floor. The majority leader knows that if Senators got the chance to vote on this bill, there is a very high likelihood it would pass. President Obama cannot afford that, and the majority leader will not do anything the President does not want. The majority leader will not do anything to anger the extremists who fund the Democratic Party and who oppose an ``all of the above'' energy strategy in a plan that includes oil.

I know the last thing Americans and the people in the gallery want to hear about is Senate process and Senate procedures, but here is why it matters: There are issues that are important to this country, issues such as jobs, energy, and controlling government spending. There are problems we need to solve in this country, and they are not being voted on here in the Senate because the majority leader continues to block votes. He has blocked votes, he has blocked amendments, and he has even blocked debate on one issue after another.

I believe the majority leader has abused every power at his disposal and even broken the rules of the Senate--rules that have been in place for over a century. He has done this to give himself new powers. Over the past 6 1/2 years the majority leader has taken an unprecedented stand against action in the Senate. He has used tactics such as the so-called filling the amendment tree on bills. That means he stops anyone else from offering amendments other than himself. He has used what is called rule XIV of the Standing Rules to bypass committees, so we are only able to talk about what he wants to talk about, not what our constituents want to talk about, what we hear about from home, or what other committee members want to talk about. These kinds of tactics may make it easier for Senator Reid to get what he wants, but they shut Senators--Republicans and Democrats--out of legislating and they shut out the American people whom all of us represent, Democrats as well as Republicans.

Senator Reid has filled the amendment tree at least 85 times since he became majority leader. That is more than twice as many times as the previous six majority leaders combined.

Between July 2013 and May of this year, Republicans in the Senate filed 810 amendments, but we only got a total of 9 votes--810 different ideas brought forward by Republicans, and Senator Reid has blocked vote after vote, to the point where we have gotten only 9 votes on 810 amendments, and this is almost in a full year.

If you want a comparison, take a look at the House of Representatives, where the Republicans are in the majority but the minority party, the Democrats, have an opportunity to offer amendments and have votes. Over that same time period in the House of Representatives, the Democrats have gotten 132 votes on their amendments. The Democratic minority on the House side has had 132 votes, while the Republican minority on the Senate side has gotten a total of 9.

In the Senate, it is not just the Republicans who are not getting their votes. The majority leader is blocking the Democrats as well. During that same time, from July of 2013 to May of 2014, Democrats introduced 676 amendments on legislation on the floor, and there were only 7 rollcall votes on 676 amendments. I guess it is not surprising that Republicans cannot get votes on their amendments, but it is very surprising that the Democrats cannot get votes because only the majority leader gets a vote.

It is the same story on appropriations bills, and that is why I am here at this time--because we are dealing with appropriations bills. They are some of the most important bills we are supposed to consider in Congress. These are the bills which determine how much Washington spends every year on all the discretionary programs. We started debating the first of these yesterday, and we may do so over the next few weeks.

It used to be that the Senate would take up these bills one by one, and Senators would get a chance to offer amendments and to represent the people who elected them to office. Not anymore. Under this Democratic majority leader, the amendment process on appropriations bills has been almost completely shut down. In the past 2 years Republicans have gotten just six amendments to appropriations bills. Senate Democrats only got one amendment during that same period. The Senate approved trillions--trillions--of dollars in Washington spending, but Harry Reid allowed action on just seven amendments total. In the 8 years before Senator Reid became majority leader, the Senate processed an average of almost 300 amendments to appropriations bills every year--every year almost 300 amendments to appropriations bills.

Senators from both parties have been shut out of the process, and the people we represent have been shut out of the process as well--all by Senator Reid. It is the same kind of power grab we saw last September when the majority leader used the so-called nuclear option to stop debate in the Senate. He radically changed the rules of the Senate to strip the rights of the minority party. Originally, it had to do with eliminating the filibuster on nominations, but it is the same effect. The majority leader grabbed more power for himself and took away the right of anyone else in the Senate to represent their constituents.

This is not how it is supposed to be. The Senate was designed to be a place where we debate these issues and where political minorities get fair representation. The father of our Constitution James Madison explained that the Senate's role was ``first to protect the people against the rulers.'' James Madison, the father of the Constitution, stated that the Senate's role is ``first to protect the people against the rulers.'' That was the point of this body. That is why over its history the Senate has adopted rules that provide strong protections for political minorities. Well, the way the Senate has been run by Majority Leader Reid, it has been embarrassing, it has been unfair, and it has been insulting to the American people.

Again, I know this isn't the most exciting topic of discussion for people to hear, but the damage that is being done by the Senate's failure to act is very real. Congress has important legislation to debate, such as approving the Keystone XL Pipeline, but the majority leader won't even allow a vote on the bill. Our Nation has a total debt of $17.5 trillion, but the majority leader of the Senate blocks amendments that could improve the appropriations bills and maybe start to control Washington's wasteful spending. We should have an open amendment process on these appropriations bills this year, as we should have had in previous years, and we should be starting with the bill that is on the floor today.

It is time for Democrats to stop the show votes and allow real votes on issues important to American families.

Thank you, Madam President.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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