May 9, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE, Vol. 158, Pt. 5 6287 SENATE—Wednesday, May 9, 2012 The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was STOP THE STUDENT LOAN INTER- work with us to accomplish this, but I called to order by the Honorable EST RATE HIKE ACT OF 2012—MO- am not holding my breath because, as KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, a Senator from TION TO PROCEED I indicated, they seem proud they have the State of New York. Mr. REID. Madam President, I move stopped another piece of legislation al- that the Senate resume consideration together. PRAYER Now, what does this mean, that they of the motion to proceed to S. 2343, and are hanging together to stop legisla- The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- I ask unanimous consent that the time tion, to stop progress? Well, as we work fered the following prayer: until 2 p.m. be equally divided and con- to create jobs and make college afford- Let us pray. trolled between the two leaders or O God, our refuge, help us to never able, our colleagues—my Republican their designees, with the Republicans friends on the other side of the aisle— doubt Your generous love. You gave us controlling the first 30 minutes and the operate under a different set of prior- Heaven’s best gift and desire to freely majority controlling the second 30 min- ities. give us more than we can ask or imag- utes. In the House, for example, there are ine. Even when we sin, You still love The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- efforts now underway to undo a hard- us. Great is Your faithfulness. pore. Without objection, it is so or- fought agreement of last August to cut Give to our lawmakers gifts that dered. more than $2 trillion from the deficit only You possess. Give them this day The clerk will report the bill by title. over the next decade. That agreement the gifts of courage to admit mistakes, The legislative clerk read as follows: came after threats by the tea party- grace to rise when they fall, and peace Motion to proceed to S. 2343, a bill to driven House—and now 40 percent of that the world cannot give. Give them amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to the people over here are tea party ad- this day the gifts of forgiveness for the extend the reduced interest rate for Federal vocates—to shut down the government. past, courage for the present, and hope Direct Stafford Loans, and for other pur- poses. And they wanted to do that in a couple for the future. Keep them calm in the of different ways: not allowing us to quiet center of their lives so that they The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- continue funding for government pro- may be serene in the swirling stresses pore. The majority leader. grams, and then, for the first time of life. Mr. REID. Madam President, the ever, there was a knockdown, drag-out We pray in Your merciful Name. clerk just read the matter before the fight over weeks and weeks as to Amen. Senate, which is to prevent the inter- whether we should increase the debt est rate on loans students receive to go f ceiling in this country. During Presi- to school—the money they borrow— PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE dent Reagan’s time in running the from doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 country, this had been done dozens of The Honorable KIRSTEN E. GILLI- percent. That is the pending matter be- times. But, no, these folks will do BRAND led the Pledge of Allegiance, as fore the Senate. nothing without a big fight. As a result follows: Yesterday the Republicans continued of that, we came to an agreement that I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the to filibuster our plan to prevent that was bipartisan. Now, some say the United States of America, and to the Repub- from happening. We do not want the agreement was forced upon the Repub- lic for which it stands, one nation under God, rates to double. We don’t want them to licans, but they voted for it, an agree- indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. go up at all. There are 30,000 people in ment to reduce the deficit, and the def- f Nevada who are depending on our doing icit we couldn’t reduce before August something to freeze those rates. But APPOINTMENT OF ACTING of last year. We said: OK, fine, if we what is worse, in my estimation—and I PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE don’t do something about it this year, think that of the American people—is then there will be automatic cuts The PRESIDING OFFICER. The that Republicans seem proud of block- called sequestration. clerk will please read a communication ing this legislation. Not a single Re- Now the House is doing everything to the Senate from the President pro publican voted to allow the debate to they can to walk away from the agree- tempore (Mr. INOUYE). go forward. ment we made and the bipartisan vote The assistant legislative clerk read This isn’t an issue of saying: OK, if I we took. They are doing everything the following letter: vote for this, this will be the legisla- they can. They have a Republican U.S. SENATE, tion. They would not even let us go for- budget, the so-called Ryan budget. And PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, ward to debate it. They have said they I say ‘‘so-called’’ because they are try- Washington, DC, May 9, 2012. like the bill, except they do not like ing to make a reconciliation bill, but To the Senate: the way it is paid for. Fine. Let’s get Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, they can’t do it because they are not of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby on the bill and offer amendments to following the law to do that. So they appoint the Honorable KIRSTEN E. GILLI- pay for it. But no—every single Repub- not only have reneged on this bi- BRAND, a Senator from the State of New lican voted no. Every single Republican cameral, bipartisan agreement to re- York, to perform the duties of the Chair. said: We are not going to allow a de- duce spending, but they have fun- DANIEL K. INOUYE, bate. damentally skewed priorities because President pro tempore. The American people certainly they hand out even more tax breaks to Mrs. GILLIBRAND thereupon as- shouldn’t be surprised because this has multimillionaires and shield corporate sumed the chair as Acting President been going on for 3 years, almost 4 defense contractors, all at the expense pro tempore. years. Everything is a fight. They are of hard-working, middle-class families, f blocking legislation that would allow the elderly, and those who can least af- us to stop the increase of the rate on ford it. That is what they are doing in RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY student loans. That is wrong. And the the House. They are going to have a so- LEADER person who signed this legislation into called rule today and vote on it shortly The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- law, making this interest rate such as thereafter. They would slash invest- pore. The majority leader is recog- it is, was President Bush. So I hope Re- ments to strengthen our economy and nized. publicans will come to their senses and just shred our social safety nets. ● This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. VerDate Sep 11 2014 14:16 Apr 19, 2018 Jkt 079102 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 0686 Sfmt 0634 E:\BR12\S09MY2.000 S09MY2 jstallworth on DSKBBY8HB2PROD with BOUND RECORD 6288 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE, Vol. 158, Pt. 5 May 9, 2012 I want to quote from President take the job, but something came up, bers are out here doing all this stuff all Dwight Eisenhower. And let me remind and he didn’t do it. But he is a wonder- the time—I get a letter signed by vir- everybody that he was a Republican. ful man. I also wanted KENT CONRAD on tually every Republican Senator say- He was a tremendous President, and that trip. And I don’t know which one ing: We are not going to raise revenue each day that goes by, people are look- knows more about the inner workings for anything. The supercommittee ing at him more favorably. Here is of the finances of this country, Gregg didn’t work there. The Gang of 6 is what he said: or CONRAD, but they are both good, and gone. So we passed this last August to Every gun that is made, every warship I wanted them to go together, and they fund government for 2 years and to say launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the did. if we don’t arrive at another $1.2 tril- final sense a theft from those who hunger Senators Gregg and CONRAD spent lion in deficit reduction during this and are not fed, those who are cold and not hours and hours seated in that airplane year, it automatically kicks in at the clothed. working on doing something about the end of this year or the beginning of This isn’t some leftwing, socialistic- deficit. They both believed it needed next year. leaning liberal. That was Dwight Ei- some really difficult, hard work, and So that is where we are, and the Re- senhower—a five-star general who led they decided to do what the base-clos- publicans in the House are trying to the invasion of Normandy and did ing commission did; that is, prepare change that.