Floor Speeches

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.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) read a letter from an anonymous whistle blower Thursday, that said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is pressuring union employees to all take the same furlough day off so that air travel shuts down.

“Management at FAA is trying to make union employees all take the same day off … so that the sequester can hurt,” Coburn said on the Senate floor. “How cynical, how un-American is that?”

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) got emotional Thursday when talking about a Senate resolution designating National Pediatric Brain Cancer Awareness Day. She said she has a personal friend with the disease.

The Senate then passed by unanimous consent S. Res. 116 introduced by Fischer and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) objected to an amendment to the online sales tax bill from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Thursday.

Baucus, who serves as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said it was a "travesty" that the Marketplace Fairness Act was not going through his committee before coming to the Senate floor.

"This is a travesty, the way this bill is being considered," Baucus said.