Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act

Floor Speech

FAMILY SMOKING PREVENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT -- (Senate - June 10, 2009)

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OBSTRUCTIONISM

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wanted to say this to the occupant of the Chair personally, but I will take the opportunity to say it now. The presentation the Senator made on the floor regarding health care was stupendous, terribly impressive. I am going to take much of what the Presiding Officer said today and use it in the information I give people in Nevada and the presentations I am making on the floor. It was very good.

As the health care debate has heated up this week, Republicans have once again rolled out one of their standard, stale talking points: They question the efficiency of our government. When all else fails, all they do is berate the government.

But if Republicans want to have an honest debate about how our government operates, I think one of the first things I would suggest is that they should start looking in the mirror at themselves.

Today, Republicans are wasting more taxpayer time and more dollars for no good reason. The tobacco bill on the floor right now is both responsible and overdue. After making us wait out all the 30 hours of procedural time before even moving to the bill--Mr. President, the 30 hours isn't all of it. To get to that point, you have to file cloture, which takes 2 days, and then we have the 30 hours--a total waste of time. Republicans are now making us wait another 30 hours before we can vote on this bill. So it is 30 hours just to move to it, and then 30 hours once we are on it.

Let me reiterate how important the bill we are wasting time on not doing is to the American people. Every day, 3,500 Americans try a cigarette for the first time, and the vast majority of them are children. Nationwide, 3 1/2 million high schoolers smoke; 3 1/2 million boys and girls in high school smoke. That is more kids than participate in athletics in our schools who are smoking. Tobacco companies make money hand over fist by marketing and selling their poisonous products to our kids.

The bill before the Senate takes smart steps to keep our children and families healthier and keep the tobacco companies honest. It will make it harder for those companies to sell tobacco to children; help those who smoke overcome their addictions; it will make tobacco products less toxic for those who cannot or do not want to stop.

We have tried in good faith since last week to reach agreement with Republicans on amendments to this bill. Our floor staff has given the Republican floor staff a finite list of both Democratic and Republican amendments that we wanted to vote on as we consider the bill. With rare exception, the amendments were germane. If not germane, they were arguably germane. But no. These amendments included three from Senator Hagan, and one each from Senators Coburn, Enzi, Bunning, and Lieberman.

Unfortunately, despite repeated efforts to move forward, our Republican colleagues have said no every time.

Republicans are also slowing down our government in another way. In the few short months since President Obama took office, Republicans held up many of his nominees for crucial positions. There are 25 being held up right now, as we speak. Let me give you a few of them. We have had to have cloture votes this year on the Secretary of Labor; the Deputy Attorney General, the No. 2 person for a massive Justice Department; the Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior, which is like the Chief of Staff for the Department of the Interior; two members of the Council of Economic Advisers; and, incredibly, America's Ambassador to Iraq, Chris Hill. They held him up for a long time. Every time I spoke to Secretary Gates, he wanted to know where his Ambassador was, somebody to run that country--at least American interests in that country.

Today, they are holding up 25 or more qualified and noncontroversial nominees, including Rand Beers, nominated to be Under Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, a pretty important position; Cass Sunstein, nominated to head the Office of Management and Budget's Information and Regulatory Affairs division. You could go to any law school in America today and ask them to name the top 10 academics in law schools, and Cass Sunstein's name will be one of the 10 on everybody's list. But he is not good enough for the Republicans to get him cleared; Hilary Chandler Tompkins, nominated to be the Solicitor for the Department of the Interior. That is the lawyer there. They have 70,000 employees. Secretary Salazar thinks it is a good idea that he has a lawyer there. They are not going to allow that; William Sessions, nominated to be Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Listen to this one. We have been told the reason he is not going to be approved is because he is from Vermont, and Senator Leahy is chairman of the Judiciary Committee. They want to embarrass a friend, the chairman of that committee, Chairman Pat Leahy; Harold Koh, nominated to be the State Department's legal advisor. Just like the Interior Department, the State Department, Secretary Clinton wants a lawyer there, in that huge, most important office. But no. Robert Grove, nominated to be Director of the Census--no.

I have only mentioned five. There are 20 others. The Republicans recklessly refuse to confirm our new Ambassador to Iraq. Listen to what they are doing now. They are holding up LTG Stanley McChrystal, an eminently qualified soldier, whom President Obama and Secretary Gates chose to be our new commander in Afghanistan. I met him in my office the other day. This is a man with the military in his blood. His father was a great general. His father won five Silver Stars fighting for our country around the world. Stanley McChrystal is an expert in counterinsurgency, which we need so badly in Afghanistan. But, no, we are not going to get him approved--at least for now.

Republicans are so opposed to everything, they even oppose putting people in some of the most important positions in our government. We believe--the majority, Democrats--that those who have been chosen to serve our country must be able to get to work without delay.

Republicans across the country agree with that, also. But we have 40 Members of this body--Republicans--who don't represent Republicans across this country. Republicans, if given a chance, wouldn't they approve LTG McChrystal? Of course they would. And the other people I mentioned. We believe those who have been chosen to serve our country must be able to get to work without delay. President Obama was elected. Shouldn't he have the people he wants to work with him? Perhaps those listening think this is how the Senate always operates. The occupant of the chair is a new Senator. This isn't how it used to operate.

Let me put these delays into context. In the first 4 months of the Bush administration--the second Bush administration--I am sure it was the same in the first Bush administration--when the Senate was controlled by the President's party, and we were in the minority, there wasn't a single filibuster of a Bush nominee--not one. But in the first 4 months of the Obama administration, Republicans have filibustered eight of his nominees. Those are the ones we had to file cloture on. I have indicated that there are many others. With the constraints we have in the rules of the Senate, I cannot file cloture on every one of these. Those filibusters in the first 4 months of Senator Obama's administration are twice as many as President Bush faced in his first 4 months.

I hope people who are listening or watching understand this: We are not berating Republicans in Oregon or in Nevada or across the country. What I am saying is the Republicans here in the Senate--40 of them--are not being fair to our President and our country.

Last year, after Republicans held up the work of the Congress more than any other time in history--remember, we had 100 filibusters last year--the American people rejected the Republican status quo. They said no to Republicans' just-say-no strategy. I would hope they would learn that the American people don't like this--Independents, Democrats, and Republicans don't like it. We want to work together.

Take health care. They have seats at the negotiating table. We want to work with them. Energy, the same thing. There is no question the American people are taking notice, and they are fed up with petty partisan games. There is no question that these reckless tactics have consequences.

Republicans delay and delay and delay to their own peril. The truth is that all Americans suffer. It is time that the Republicans let us get to work and allow President Obama to have his nominees, and let's get this bill off the floor. Every day we wait, 3,500 more people are subject to being addicted to tobacco.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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MCCHRYSTAL NOMINATION

Mr. REID. Mr. President, in my office a few minutes ago, I received a call from Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I wrote down what he asked and what he said. He said: Senator, there is a sense of urgency that General McChrystal be able to go to Afghanistan tonight.

There is no commander in Afghanistan.

Admiral Mullen said--and I wrote it down: Admiral McChrystal is literally waiting by an airplane. It is 2 o'clock in the morning Thursday in Afghanistan. Dawn will soon be breaking and our troops will not have a commander there.

Is this what the minority wants? Why can't they come and approve this man to go defend us in Afghanistan? I am without words to try to explain my consternation at the fact that General McChrystal, one of our most eminent, prominent, outstanding, qualified soldiers, a man whose father won five Silver Stars, a man whose record is one of being the leading person in our military to do counterinsurgency--that is what he is an expert in doing.

Let's get the man approved tonight so he can leave in an airplane and get over there and take care of his men and women.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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