E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 112 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 158 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2012 No. 65 Senate The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was appoint the Honorable KIRSTEN E. GILLI- from happening. We do not want the called to order by the Honorable BRAND, a Senator from the State of New rates to double. We don’t want them to KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, a Senator from York, to perform the duties of the Chair. go up at all. There are 30,000 people in the State of New York. DANIEL K. INOUYE, Nevada who are depending on our doing President pro tempore. something to freeze those rates. But PRAYER Mrs. GILLIBRAND thereupon as- what is worse, in my estimation—and I The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- sumed the chair as Acting President think that of the American people—is fered the following prayer: pro tempore. that Republicans seem proud of block- Let us pray. f ing this legislation. Not a single Re- O God, our refuge, help us to never publican voted to allow the debate to RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY doubt Your generous love. You gave us go forward. LEADER Heaven’s best gift and desire to freely This isn’t an issue of saying: OK, if I give us more than we can ask or imag- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- vote for this, this will be the legisla- ine. Even when we sin, You still love pore. The majority leader is recog- tion. They would not even let us go for- us. Great is Your faithfulness. nized. ward to debate it. They have said they Give to our lawmakers gifts that like the bill, except they do not like only You possess. Give them this day f the way it is paid for. Fine. Let’s get the gifts of courage to admit mistakes, STOP THE STUDENT LOAN INTER- on the bill and offer amendments to grace to rise when they fall, and peace EST RATE HIKE ACT OF 2012—MO- pay for it. But no—every single Repub- that the world cannot give. Give them TION TO PROCEED lican voted no. Every single Republican this day the gifts of forgiveness for the Mr. REID. Madam President, I move said: We are not going to allow a de- past, courage for the present, and hope bate. for the future. Keep them calm in the that the Senate resume consideration The American people certainly quiet center of their lives so that they of the motion to proceed to S. 2343, and shouldn’t be surprised because this has may be serene in the swirling stresses I ask unanimous consent that the time been going on for 3 years, almost 4 of life. until 2 p.m. be equally divided and con- We pray in Your merciful Name. trolled between the two leaders or years. Everything is a fight. They are Amen. their designees, with the Republicans blocking legislation that would allow controlling the first 30 minutes and the us to stop the increase of the rate on f majority controlling the second 30 min- student loans. That is wrong. And the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE utes. person who signed this legislation into The Honorable KIRSTEN E. GILLI- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- law, making this interest rate such as BRAND led the Pledge of Allegiance, as pore. Without objection, it is so or- it is, was President Bush. So I hope Re- follows: dered. publicans will come to their senses and I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the The clerk will report the bill by title. work with us to accomplish this, but I United States of America, and to the Repub- The legislative clerk read as follows: am not holding my breath because, as lic for which it stands, one nation under God, Motion to proceed to S. 2343, a bill to I indicated, they seem proud they have indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to stopped another piece of legislation al- f extend the reduced interest rate for Federal together. Direct Stafford Loans, and for other pur- Now, what does this mean, that they APPOINTMENT OF ACTING poses. PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE are hanging together to stop legisla- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- tion, to stop progress? Well, as we work The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pore. The majority leader. to create jobs and make college afford- clerk will please read a communication Mr. REID. Madam President, the able, our colleagues—my Republican to the Senate from the President pro clerk just read the matter before the friends on the other side of the aisle— tempore (Mr. INOUYE). Senate, which is to prevent the inter- operate under a different set of prior- The assistant legislative clerk read est rate on loans students receive to go ities. the following letter: to school—the money they borrow— In the House, for example, there are U.S. SENATE, from doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 efforts now underway to undo a hard- PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, percent. That is the pending matter be- fought agreement of last August to cut Washington, DC, May 9, 2012. To the Senate: fore the Senate. more than $2 trillion from the deficit Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, Yesterday the Republicans continued over the next decade. That agreement of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby to filibuster our plan to prevent that came after threats by the tea party- ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S2989 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 03:38 May 10, 2012 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A09MY6.000 S09MYPT1 jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with SENATE S2990 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 9, 2012 driven House—and now 40 percent of lars of a successful society—that need Now, Bowles-Simpson was very dif- the people over here are tea party ad- not necessarily be true, is what Presi- ficult. There were 18 members, and vocates—to shut down the government. dent Eisenhower said. But the Repub- they had to get 14 of the 18 to approve And they wanted to do that in a couple lican plan would enshrine into law a it. That didn’t work. They couldn’t get of different ways: not allowing us to set of unbalanced priorities and ensure that many people to vote for it. continue funding for government pro- the kind of terrible math General Ei- In the meantime, President Obama grams, and then, for the first time senhower envisioned. was working as hard as he could with ever, there was a knockdown, drag-out Unlike defense contractors and bil- the lead spokesman of the Republicans, fight over weeks and weeks as to lionaires, ordinary Americans don’t the Speaker of the House, JOHN BOEH- whether we should increase the debt have high-priced lobbyists to protect NER. JOHN BOEHNER said: I didn’t get ceiling in this country. During Presi- them. That is our job. That is our job. elected to do small things, I want to do dent Reagan’s time in running the There is not a person on this side of the big things. And President Obama, to country, this had been done dozens of aisle who doesn’t believe it is good that his detriment with his base, said: I will times. But, no, these folks will do we have wealthy people in America. We do something to change Social Secu- nothing without a big fight. As a result have Senators here, Democrats, who rity and Medicare. And all these things of that, we came to an agreement that are wealthy—certainly not all Demo- he agreed to do publicly. But the Re- crats, but there are some. We don’t was bipartisan. Now, some say the publicans—JOHN BOEHNER—could never look down on people who are rich, but agreement was forced upon the Repub- go against Grover Norquist. The Re- we do have to look out for people who licans, but they voted for it, an agree- publicans shake in their boots. They are in need of our help. Most of these ment to reduce the deficit, and the def- will not do anything, even though the rich people have all kinds of lobbyists icit we couldn’t reduce before August American people by a more than 70 per- here to help them, but the people in cent majority say people making more of last year. We said: OK, fine, if we Henderson, Ely, and Winnemucca, NV, than $1 million a year should con- don’t do something about it this year, don’t have people here to help them. tribute to what the problems are in then there will be automatic cuts They have us. So Republicans are going this country. So that fell apart. called sequestration. after those who can’t fight back—hard- Then we had the Gang of 6 Senators— Now the House is doing everything working Americans and struggling three Republicans, three Democrats— they can to walk away from the agree- families. ment we made and the bipartisan vote Let’s review a little bit of history who had been on the Bowles-Simpson we took. They are doing everything again. The sequester isn’t the first bi- Commission, who said we should do they can.