Reid calls House 'big dark hole' where legislation gets stuck

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday sought to turn the tables on recent House criticism that the Senate has not acted on various House-passed bills, calling the House a "big dark hole" where job-creating legislation created in the Senate goes to die.

Reid specifically complained that the House had not worked on legislation funding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or a patent reform bill passed by the Senate earlier this year.

"It [the FAA funding bill] has been held up in the big dark hole in the House of Representatives," said Reid. "Nothing has been done...And 280,000 jobs that were created or saved haven't been completed.

“One of the most important things we can do is protect our patent system and make it better than it is,” continued Reid. “We did that here. We passed it here, sent it to the House. Nothing has happened on that. They haven't voted on it.”

Reid said if the House had passed the Senate patent reform bill, it would have created or saved 300,000 jobs.

The GOP-House has approved several bills that have not been approved by the Senate, including a repeal of the healthcare law. 

Senate procedural rules generally require that legislation win at least 60 votes in the upper chamber for approval.