Floor Speeches

Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) tried for a third time to get agreement from Republicans to form a conference committee on the House and Senate budget resolutions.

“Senate Republicans have now blocked our efforts to move to conference not once but twice,” Murray said Tuesday before asking for agreement for a third time. “Some say they want a framework before going to conference, but that’s exactly what a budget is. … There is no reason to wait.”

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said he was “deeply disturbed” that the White House has decided to “cannibalize” the healthcare law by transferring money from a prevention fund to educating the public on the benefits of ObamaCare.

Harkin said President Obama’s administration announced it would move more than $300 million from a prevention and public health fund created under the Affordable Care Act, also called ObamaCare. Harkin said the White House would use that money to educate the public about the about the benefits of the bill and the healthcare exchange systems. More aspects of the healthcare law are set to go into effect in 2014.

“I am deeply disturbed of the White House’s plan to strip $332 million of funding from the prevention and public health fund,” Harkin said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Some people in this administration just don’t get it. … The prevention fund has already been a giant step forward for our public health.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called on President Obama “to be straight with the American people” by telling them about the negative effects coming under ObamaCare.

“He needs to be straight with the American people,” McConnell said Tuesday morning. “He needs to prepare them for everything that’s coming — the wage cuts, the lost jobs, the higher premiums. Everything our country can expect as a result of ObamaCare.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republicans wouldn’t agree to form a conference committee on the budget because they are afraid of a “backlash from the radical Tea Party.” 

“House Republicans are afraid of a backlash from the radical Tea Party … if they even discuss a compromise with us,” Reid said Tuesday morning. “Partisan politics is no reason to shy away from a bipartisan compromise.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Monday that he would again ask Republicans to join Democrats in appointing budget conferees.

Last month, Reid tried to get a unanimous consent agreement to form a budget conference committee so that the House and Senate could resolve the wide differences in their budget resolutions. Republicans objected to his request.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) challenged critics of his immigration reform bill to put forward ideas to improve it.

“If you disagree, change it. Let’s work on changing it,” Rubio said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Don’t just be against it, offer ideas to change it.

“Don’t view it as something being shoved down your throat, it’s not. You can change it.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Thursday that he would force senators to vote at 1 a.m. Friday in order to complete work on the online sales tax bill this week.

“This leaves me with no alternative but to look at the next alternative to move things on the bill,” Reid said on the Senate floor Thursday. “After midnight tonight … we will have a vote on cloture to the bill. … After that, of course, it’s only a majority vote to complete this legislation.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) accused Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) of trying to add “sugar to a very bitter cup of coffee” by adding some amendments to the online sales tax bill.

“He’s trying to add some sugar into a very bitter cup of coffee, that is his legislation,” Wyden said on the Senate floor Thursday after objecting to an agreement to vote on three amendments. “I just don’t think that makes a lot of sense.”

Several Republicans blamed President Obama on Thursday for imposing flight delays on Americans by furloughing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, and for not speaking out on the Kermit Gosnell abortion trial in Pennsylvania.

One after another, dozens of Republicans took to the House floor as part of a coordinated attempt to raise awareness on both issues.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) tried to offer an amendment to the online sales tax bill that would have directed the IRS to conduct a report on athletes abusing tax exemptions by running a charity.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) objected to Coburn’s amendment Thursday, saying he was afraid it would add a “blue slip” to the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would allow the House to reject the bill.