Floor Speeches

Sen. Schumer has been derided for his bill aimed at punishing people who renounce their citizenship to avoid taxes.

Sen. Orrin Hatch said Democrats are purposefully ignoring fiscal proposals to ensure that taxes go up in 2013. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday morning said he is still optimistic that the Senate can move a Food and Drug Administration bill this week, even though he is facing pressure to include language on the bill to extend the federal flood insurance program.

"I'm optimistic that the Senate will move this legislation without unnecessary delays," Reid said Tuesday. "I hope ... I'm not disappointed."

House members clashed at midnight over how to fix language allowing the permanent detention of terrorist suspects.  Read more...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday morning reiterated his growing frustration with the inability of the Senate to do its work, and blamed Senate Republicans for filibustering every bill that comes up.

"It's almost universally acknowledged that Republican obstructionism has reached new heights in the Senate," Reid said on the floor. "Democrats would have to break a filibuster, I guess, to declare the sky blue or the Earth is round, and passing even the most common-sense consensus legislation can take weeks or months."

"Even though there is outward support for this legislation, they want to kill this bill," Reid said of Senate Republicans.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday said the Republican proposal to replace the sequester is a return to governing that can help avoid steep cuts to defense spending that both parties oppose.

"We believe the purpose of the sequester was to replace the fact that Congress isn't governing," Ryan said in opening debate on the bill. "Well, let's have Congress govern. That's why we're doing this."

Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), John Lewis (D-Ga.) and other House members on Wednesday rejected a Republican proposal to ease certain rules in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and said ongoing racial prejudices mean it is too early to even start discussing these changes.

The discussion came up after Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) offered an amendment to the 2013 Justice Department appropriations bill that would prevent Justice from enforcing Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Wednesday night that he is "disappointed" with the Obama administration's position on the use of medical marijuana, and called on the House to approve an amendment that would prohibit the Justice Department from fighting state laws allowing its use.

"I have been disappointed on this point with the Obama administration," Frank said on the House floor. "The Clinton administration was quite sensible on this. The Bush administration slipped back on this, and I hoped that… the Obama administration would be more sensible."

Sen Jim Webb (D-Va.) is looking to close a critical "loophole" in the administration's war powers, which could be used to take military action against Syria without congressional approval.