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Today

Monday, December 10, 2012
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Senate Opening

Dec 10 2012 2:00 PM

The Senate Convened.

Reid

Opening Remarks

Dec 10 2012 2:20 PM

  • Today --
    • The Senate is in Morning Business until 5:00 PM.
    • At 5:00 PM, the Senate will resume consideration of the Motion to Proceed to S. 3637, the Transaction Account Guarantee bill, with the time until 5:30 PM equally divided.
    • The 5:30 PM ROLL CALL VOTE on the Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 3637, the Transaction Account Guarantee bill, has been postponed.
  • Tuesday, December 11th --
    • At 2:15 PM, the Senate will conduct a ROLL CALL VOTE on the Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 3637, the Transaction Account Guarantee bill.
      • If Cloture is Invoked, the Motion to Proceed to S. 3637, the Transaction Account Guarantee bill, will be Agreed to, and Majority Leader Reid will be recognized.
Senate Reid: (2:08 PM)
  • Spoke on the fiscal cliff.
    • SUMMARY "Republicans face a difficult choice in Congress. Will they cooperate with Democrats and put the country on a path that provides certainty for families and investors? As my friend, the is senior senator from Missouri said, the Speaker has a chance to do some good things but he has also a problem because he has to decide whether he's going to work to save his speakership with the country. Will he cooperate with Democrats or will he force us to lurch from one crisis to the next in 2013 as they did in 2011 and 2012? We need long-term solutions, not temporary fixes to the problems that drag down the economic recovery over the past two years. So the House should take up the Senate-passed middle-class tax cut which provides lasting security for families and businesses making less than $250,000 a year. The number of Republicans calling on the Speaker to allow a vote to give middle-class families confidence taxes won't go up has grown. Speaker Boehner could end the suspense with one vote. Over the weekend the junior senator from Tennessee, Senator Corker, joined a number of Senate Republicans and more than a dozen House Republicans in calling for that vote. To quote Senator Corker, I'm beginning to believe that is the best route for us to take. Many Republicans have no leverage in this face-off. Democrats agree sending the Senate-passed tax cut to President Obama's desk is the quickest and most sensible way out of this crisis. Avoiding the fiscal cliff is no excuse for Republicans to replace this artificial crisis with another one. Congress should pass the proposal to end periodic standoffs over the debt ceiling. This plan would give President Obama the authority to avoid default over the nation's bills. Democrats are ready to vote any time but first Senator McConnell needs to stop filibustering his own legislation Rhode Island now Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader McConnell are the only thing standing between Congress and compromise. It's time for them to prove to American families that they're more interested in protecting the middle class than pleasing the tea party."
  • Paid tribute to Senator Nelson-NE.

Rubio, Hatch, Coons

Morning Business

Dec 10 2012 4:37 PM

Senator Rubio: (2:40 PM)
  • Paid tribute to Jenni Rivera.
  • Paid tribute to Human Rights Day.
    • SUMMARY "I wanted to briefly discuss human rights because I would just say that while we've made great advances around the world in the cause of human rights there are still a lot of roads to travel in that regard. I think today is a good opportunities to take note of some of the struggles and challenges around the world with regards to human rights. The first issue I want to talk about with regards to human rights is modern-day slavery. When people think about slavery they think about the historic nature of slavery in this country or around the world and it's hard to imagine today in the 21st century there are slaves in the world. It's even harder to believe there are slaves in the United States but the fact is that there are. It's been well documented human trafficking around the world numbers in the millions and of course sex trafficking is a big part of that and a grotesque part of that and we're aware of that and it's a very serious problem. So, too, is forced labor which you find around the world and even here in the United States. There is no major city in the United States that does not have an element of human trafficking and human slavery within its confines. It's important to understand 35 that it is real, that it is happening. To that extent to remember that there are things we're trying to do here in this sledge legislative body in the united states senate and here in Washington to deal with this issue. One of the issues we're going to have a chance to do is reauthorizing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which was sponsored last year by Senator Brown and Senator Leahy and hopefully we can finish that before the end of the year but if we can't I hope early in the next Congress we'll address it. There are reports that the State Department does, ranks countries around the world on the efforts that they're making to deal with human trafficking and ranks them in three tiers. The third tier being the worst, nations that are not doing enough. One of the things I hope we'll look at is how we reform the process of giving some of these countries waivers. There are countries perpetually on the list of the worst possible places with regards to government policy towards human trafficking and yet they are getting waivers from the implications and the consequences of being a tier three country. There are countries getting that waiver every single year. I hope we'll examine the process legislatively of how we grant the waivers so we can have more information exactly why it is our government is granting waivers to other governments and other nations not making any advances whatsoever on the cause of putting an end to modern-day slavery and human trafficking."

Senator Hatch: (3:14 PM)
  • Spoke on the Death tax.
    • SUMMARY "If Congress does not act, the currently low Death tax rates which have previously been supported on a bipartisan basis ... skyrocket. They will go from an exemption rate of $5 million to an astonishingly low exemption amount of $1 million and 55% tax rate. The question is clear: where are the Senate Democrats on this issue? Again, a low Death tax has previously been a rare point of bipartisan agreement. Yet this past July my friends on the other side of the aisle proposed an passed a bill that included a tax cut extension for individuals making under $200,000 or families making under $250,000. Conversely, the bill would have designated the millions of families in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Virginia and elsewhere to make in excess of $250,000 as rich and subject to higher taxes. Still when it came to the Death Tax, this bill, which was supported by all but one Democrat in this chamber, was silent. In other words, that bill assumed that current death tax rates would expire, a crushing below to America's families and businesses and farms. This bill which, once again, was supported by nearly every Senate Democrat, would allow the Death tax to skyrocket and the exemption to be reduced to the lowest amount in over a decade, creating an administrative and compliance burden for nearly a million estates. Allowing Death tax policy to expire is another example of the president putting ideology and sentiment ahead of economic reality. While the Death tax transfers wealth from one individual to an infinite amount of other individuals, the repercussions are felt throughout all income levels, from the person working in the cornfields to a cashier at a mom and pop store, the long arm of the Death tax affects more than the so-called wealthy. It is called the Death tax not only because it is a tax imposed at a time when family members are grieving over the loss of a loved one but also because it can be a death sentence for the family businesses and farms that American workers depend on for their livelihoods."

Senator Coons: (4:27 PM)
  • Spoke on the FAST Voting Act.
    • SUMMARY "In my view, long lines are simply another form of disenfranchising voters. Running out of ballots is simply another form of voter suppression. Incomplete and inaccurate voter rolls, misleading phone calls, things that make it harder for citizens to vote are simply a violation of voters' civil rights. We can and must do better. As widespread as the problem was in 2012, there are also many states that are getting it right. And these states, in my view, continue to be laboratories of democracy from which we should learn. The FAST Voting Act creates a new competitive voting program which encourages states to pursue reforms in a different field in education. States that demonstrated the most comprehensive and promising reform plan win a greater portion in that model. The FAST Voting Act would inspire election reform. This bill authorizes a federal program that would award grants based on how well states improve access to the ballot in at least nine different ways. Through flexible registration opportunities, including same-day registration. Through early voting, at a minimum nine of the ten calendar days preceding an election. Through what's called no-excuse absentee voting. Assistance to voters who don't speak English or have disabilities or visual impairments. Effective access to voting for members of our armed services. Formal training to election officials, including state and county administrators and volunteers. Audited and reduced waiting times at the poorest-performing polling stations. And as we learned given that Sandy, super storm Sandy occurred just a few days close to the election, contingency plans for voting in the event of natural or other disaster that compels the delay of an election. These are the big areas mentioned in this FAST Voting Act making it easier to register, making it easy to vote early, make it go easier to vote absentee, shortening lines, better preparing for catastrophes, making it easier for Americans to exercise their right to vote."

Collins, Coons, Blumenthal

Morning Business

Dec 10 2012 5:56 PM

Senator Collins: (4:37 PM)
  • Paid tribute to Senators Hutchison and Brown-MA.

Senator Coons: (4:48 PM)
  • Paid tribute to Human Rights Day.
    • SUMMARY "I wanted to simply add my voice to the many others who have spoken out today about the important things that the United States can do to continue our leadership around the world as a country that holds itself accountable and leads others towards being accountable for a world in which human rights have meaning and have substance. There are two things that we can do between now and the end of this calendar year that will make a significant contribution to human rights and to the United States' global leadership. First, the House of Representatives can take up and pass VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization bill passed months ago by this chamber, a strong, broad, sensible reauthorization bill that I think well deserves consideration and passage by the other chamber. And second, TVPA, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, needs to be reauthorized. I was proud last month to join with Senator Portman and with you, Senator Blumenthal, as the three of us jointly founded the caucus to end human trafficking. Slavery exists in the world today. In this country and around the world, there are victims of human trafficking whose voices demand to be heard, and by reauthorizing TVPA, this chamber, this country can make a meaningful contribution toward ending trafficking in persons in the United States and around the world. So, I simply wanted to add today on human rights day those two simple calls for action so that this body, this Congress, this country can continue our global leadership."

Senator Blumenthal: (5:44 PM)
  • Paid tribute to Human Rights Day.
    • SUMMARY "I want to talk about three specific ways that we can advance the cause of human rights in this chamber, in this session through measures that are before us. The first concerns human trafficking. I've been particularly interested in the rampant human trafficking problems on American bases abroad in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Victims are recruited from third countries like Bangladesh and the Philippines and charged exorbitant fees to travel to their work sites often misled about where they're going, what that are salaries will be and what their living conditions will be like. Frequently their passports are confiscated so they cannot in fact return home, even if they're able to scrape together the money to make that journey. This kind of human trafficking is no less than modern-day slavery, subsidized by our government with taxpayer money. It's reprehensible. But for me, the number-one issue here is the safety of our American troops on these bases. That safety is compromised if our bases are filled with unauthorized, potentially unsafe foreign workers. And that's why I introduced the End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act of 2012 which provides the most comprehensive approach taken. It is bipartisan legislation which now is included in the bill which passed the senate last week and I'm hopeful will be retained in conference and signed into law soon ... In addition, I want to thank Senator Leahy for advancing the Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Protection Act known by TVPA which takes an even more inclusive view this have problem to make sure America stands against human trafficking rather than complicit in it. The second issue that I want to raise is the Violence Against Women Act which continues to be stalled in the House of Representatives ... VAWA is a landmark statute aimed at combating domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking. It provides billions of dollars to support investigation and prosecutions of vicious, heinous acts. And it provides remedies and protection for assaulted women. On this day, when we celebrate human rights, what better way than to commemorate the advance that VAWA made in fighting violence against women and to broaden its provisions so as to protect Native Americans and immigrants in this country and gay and lesbian and that community. That is the nature of our democracy. We advance human rights. We make them more inclusive. We broaden their provision. And this legislation is badly needed so that it can be reauthorized. And finally I want to talk about the DREAM Act, which really should be part of immigration reform in this country. I think the vast majority of the members of the United States Senate have accepted and indeed espoused the need for thorough comprehensive immigration reform. That kind of reform should include the DREAM Act The path to citizenship that our dreamers need and deserve. So that they can go to school, serve in our military, give back to this country, earn their citizenship through deeds. Not just words, but deeds that make us all proud and contribute to the quality of life in our nation. That's what they want to do, is to earn citizenship that so many of us take for granted and that so many people in this country have as a birthright without the effort that she will devote to becoming a United States citizen."

Wrap Up (The Senate Stands Adjourned)

Wrap Up

Dec 10 2012 6:01 PM

  • Tomorrow --
    • The Senate will convene at 10:00 AM and proceed to a period of Morning Business for 1 hour. The time will be equally divided, with the Majority controlling the first 30 minutes and the Republicans controlling the second 30 minutes.
    • Following Morning Business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Motion to Proceed to S. 3637, the Transaction Account Guarantee bill, with the time until 12:30 PM equally divided.
    • At 12:30 PM, the Senate will recess until 2:15 PM for the weekly caucus lunches.
    • At 2:15 PM, the Senate will conduct a ROLL CALL VOTE on the Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 3637, the Transaction Account Guarantee bill.
      • If Cloture is Invoked, the Motion to Proceed to S. 3637, the Transaction Account Guarantee bill, will be Agreed to, and Majority Leader Reid will be recognized.
  • Pending --
    • At a time to be determined, the Senate will begin consideration of Executive Calendar #762, John E. Dowdell, of Oklahoma, to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma; and Executive Calendar #829, Jesus G. Bernal, of California, to be U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California, for 30 minutes of debate, equally divided. Following the use or yielding back of time, the Senate will conduct 2 ROLL CALL VOTES on the nominations;
    • S. 3525, the Sportsmen's bill; and
    • At a time to be determined, the Senate will begin consideration of Executive Calendar #518, Carol J. Galante, of California, to be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, for up to 60 minutes of debate, equally divided. Following the use or yielding back of time, the Senate will conduct a ROLL CALL VOTE on the nomination (60 votes required).
The Senate stands adjourned until 10:00 AM Tuesday, December 11th.