Reid Remarks On Republican Obstruction

Press Release

"We should be passing legislation that strengthens our economy and protects working families. Instead we're wasting hundreds of hours as we struggle to perform one of our most basic duties -- confirming presidential nominees."

"Instead of seeing how their needless obstruction has hurt our country, and working with us to confirm these vital nominees, Republican leadership has responded with what can only be described as a temper-tantrum."

"If nominees are deserving of your unanimous support, why waste the Senate's time by blocking confirmation of these individuals?"

Nevada Senator Harry Reid spoke on the Senate floor imploring Republicans to end senseless obstruction of qualified nominees and legislate in good faith with Democrats:

A lot of young people may not understand what I'm talking about when I mention an emergency brake or a parking brake on a car. It used to be standard procedure to engage the parking brake anytime the car was parked. When ready to drive you would remember to release it before you took off. But sometimes you would forget, and that car would still go forward, but it didn't go forward very well. In fact it could start smoking.

It appears that the Republicans in the Senate have intentionally left on the emergency brake engaged. Throughout President Obama's time in office, Republican leadership here in the Senate has done its best to keep the brakes engaged, slowing any effort to legislate even the most bipartisan of bills. We should be passing legislation that strengthens our economy and protects working families. Instead we're wasting hundreds of hours as we struggle to perform one of our most basic duties -- confirming presidential nominees.

Last year, in response to unprecedented Republican obstruction, the Senate was forced to change its rules to ensure that the President's nominees receive the up-or-down vote they deserve. I'm glad we made that change. It has allowed the Senate to make substantial progress on one of its primary functions. Positions that were once vacant for months -- even years -- are now staffed by qualified, competent public servants.

In spite of changing the rules, the Republicans are still continuing to try and slow everything down. Again, the brakes are on. And they only have one reason that I can come up with for doing this. It is not that they dislike the president's nominees. It is just that they want to do everything they can to slow down his administration, to make him look bad, to make Senate Democrats look bad because they believe that even though they're the cause of the obstruction, that everybody will look at us and say, Democrats control the Senate. Why aren't they doing more?

Well we can't do more, because they've put the brakes on. Even though we changed the rules and are moving through especially the judges very quickly, because for the viewing audience here, on a judge they can only stall for one hour. And they usually do. On circuit court judges, 30 hours, and they take up all those 30 hours, even though they wind up voting for the judge. On cabinet nominations, 30 hours. On subcabinet officers hours, they get eight hours. That's the rules. We changed some of the rules but we didn't change that. In hindsight , we'll have to wait and see if they're going to continue this, maybe we'll have to take another look at that. It's outrageous what they've done.

The Senate is continuing to make progress confirming nominees in spite of Republicans putting up roadblock after roadblock in our path. Instead of seeing how their needless obstruction has hurt our country, and working with us to confirm these vital nominees, Republican leadership has responded with what can only be described as a temper-tantrum.

They're mad about a lot of things, I guess. The Republican Leader is obviously now resorting to a tactic more fit for the professional football or a basketball game or a soccer game. He is just trying to run out the clock. But instead of killing time on a scoreboard, the Republican Leader is using the cloture clock to kill the remaining 6 months of this Congress, preventing nominees from getting confirmed and thwarting Democrats attempts to pass legislation good for the middle class.

Would it be good for the middle class, to raise the minimum wage? Of course it is. It would be great. Would it be good for the American public to have it so that my daughter, if she does the same job that your son does, that they get paid the same amount of money? They filibustered that. They've stopped that. How about student loans? Student loans are the highest debt in America today, almost $1.3 trillion. And we tried to remedy that, make it better for the students and -- make it better for the students and their families who are paying for these large loans. Filibustered. Extending unemployment benefits, filibustered. They're doing this to make the president look bad, make us look bad, but it's to run out the clock. That's what they're trying to do. Again, so people understand, when we take cloture -- and it takes a simple majority -- they can stall for many, many hours. Circuit judges, 30 hours. Nominees for cabinet posts, 30 hours. 8 hours for subcabinet. Only 1 hour for other judges.

If we take a closer look at how they have utilized that time proves that this is just another gimmick, another misguided attempt to bring the wheels of the Senate to a halt. Over the last 2 months that this body has been in session, Senate Republicans have wasted almost ten full days -- 236 hours -- in order to slow the confirmation of President Obama's nominees. Of those 236 hours, Senate Republicans have used only 5 hours to actually come to the Senate floor and debate the qualifications of these nominees. For every hour they have debated these nominees, Senate Republicans have wasted 46 hours just killing time.

And then, to further highlight the absurdity to their obstruction, Republicans then vote overwhelmingly to confirm many of these very same nominees they stalled and obstructed. So far this year, Republicans have blocked immediate confirmation of 22 nominations that they later voted unanimously to confirm. Why are Senate Republicans blocking nominees that they all support? What are they achieving?

They just want to slow things down. They want everybody to look bad. They know they're not in control here. That's what the American public feels, even though they have all these rules that they force us to -- the procedural gimmicks that we have to work our way through. There is no other way to look at what Republicans are doing -- this is obstruction for obstruction's sake.

The Republican Leader is desperate to keep the brakes engaged, hoping that by slowing down every Senate process imaginable, he can run the remaining 6 months out on this Congress and damage President Obama. The harm it does to our country is not in their calculation. He is playing a very dangerous political game at the expense of the United States government and the American taxpayer.

The Senate currently has a backlog of 131 executive nominees who have languished on the Senate calendar for an average of 281 days. It is particularly outrageous that Republicans are stopping us from confirming non-controversial career foreign service officers as Ambassadors. These are not political nominees, they serve Republicans and Democrats, Bush and Obama, in critical countries such as Honduras, Qatar, and Vietnam. Even officials at the Department of Defense, the Navy, and the Air Force are at the mercy of the Republican Leader's clock-killing obstruction. American interests abroad and the defense of our nation are forced to take a back seat while Republican leadership hopes to make political gains by running out the clock.

As the Senate returns following the 4th of July, I implore my Republican colleagues to put this needless obstruction behind them. What is to be gained by needlessly grinding the United States Senate to a halt? If you oppose a nominee, let's have a debate on the nominee and vote on them. Don't delay a vote on a career foreign service officer that has worked his or her entire career to become an Ambassador. Don't delay national security personnel that are needed to protect our nation. Don't delay key staff at cabinet level agencies from doing the work of the American people.

I don't expect Republicans to give their unanimous consent to every nominee on the calendar. Rather, Senate Democrats are asking that Republicans legislate in good faith. Take your foot off the brake and allow the Senate to do its work. If nominees are deserving of your unanimous support, why waste the Senate's time by blocking confirmation of these individuals? We have so much to address over the upcoming weeks -- Senator Kay Hagan's bipartisan sportsmen legislation, our depleted highway trust fund, and hopefully, reconsideration of much-needed appropriations bills previously filibustered by Republicans.

We have more than enough to keep us busy. Let's not waste any more time on nominations that we all support.

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