Senate Proceeding on Jun 6th, 2011 :: 0:03:15 to 0:08:45
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0:03:06 to 0:03:26( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable christopher coons, a senator from the state of delaware, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presidin majority leader. mr. reid: the senate will be in a period of morning business until 4:30 today.

0:03:15 to 0:08:45( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Harry Reid

0:03:27 to 0:03:48( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: following morning business, the senate will be in executive session to consider the nomination of donald b. verrilli, to be solicitor general of the united states. unless an agreement is reached, at approximately 5:30, the senate will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the verrilli nomination. s. 1125 is a the desk and due

0:03:49 to 0:04:09( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: for its second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title. the clerk: s. 1125, a bill to improve national security letters, the authorities under the foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978 and for other purposes. mr. reid: i would object to any further proceedings with respect to this bill. the presiding officer: objection is heard.

0:04:10 to 0:04:31( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: mr. reid: mr. president, i welcome back my colleagues for -- the presiding officer: excuse me. the bill will be placed on the calendar subject to the provisions of rule 14. mr. reid: sorry about that, mr. president. i welcome back my colleagues for what i hope will be a productive month. this month is not unlike last month, though, or the month before, or the month before that.

0:04:32 to 0:04:53( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: once again our constituents are concerned with one thing above all: that's jobs. work. they're concerned because of what the economy means for their families and their lives. they're worried about paying their bills next mond and sending their kids to school next year. too many want to go to the bank once again and know the dignity of depositing a paycheck instead

0:04:54 to 0:05:14( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: of an unemployment check. our constituents are also concerned because of what our economic future will mean for our nation. they're afraid that the ill-informed politicians might lead the country into a default cris and they all fear terrible consequences that would have, consequences that would hurt us as a country and hurt our families and really the world.

0:05:15 to 0:05:36( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: i heard these concerns last week in nevada. we all heard them in our states when we went home last week. we hear home loudly and clearly. so we're going to focus our attention this week and month on jobs, just as we have all year. i'm disappointed that our republican colleagues seem determined to distract that focus. they want to spend the senate's

0:05:37 to 0:05:57( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: time debating an extreme social agenda that would hurt families, seniors, and our economy. they want to end medicare in order to pay for more millionaire tax breaks and oil company subsidies. that's not good policy nor is it good politics. the american people strongly oppose that policy and so do democrats in congress.

0:05:58 to 0:06:18( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: but every day republicans prove that they're not just tone to americans' opinions but also tone deaf to cold, hard economic facts. last week we got a discouraging jobs report. the economy added jobs but not as many as we'd hoped, and moody's sent a letter that gave a clear warning that default cris would send our economy

0:06:19 to 0:06:42( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: into a tailspin. there's no time to waste. the longer republicans insist on dismantling medicare as a price for moving foorksd the longer the unemployed will wait for good news and the closer the nation will come to a default cris. the republicans' ideology of obstruction isn't limited to economics or seniors' health.

0:06:43 to 0:07:03( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: we also see in their approach to the senate's constitutional duty of confirming appointees to important positions. a few weeks ago the republicans blocked a widely respected legal scholar for a seat on the united states court of appeals. now they're continuing these partisan antics by threatening to block two more noncontroversial nominees.

0:07:04 to 0:07:24( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: the first is peter dimon. he is one of the nation's top economists. he's won the nobel prize in economics. not long ago he had bipartisan work. all after awed for no known reason be, the republicans have decided to stand in the way of

0:07:25 to 0:07:45( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: this nomination. the second, don verrilli, is the president's nominee to be solicitor general of the united states. the judiciary committee approved him by a 17-1 margin, so in addition to being supported -- i'm sorry, h he's clearly not controversial. now the republicans are threatening to block in nominee

0:07:46 to 0:08:06( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: over requests for documents totally unrelated to him or his position. i hope they don't. i hope they don't hold him up for those reasons that have nothing to do with his nomination. blocking every nominee no matter the merits is no way to govern or lead. it is no way to move forward. mr. president, if we're going to keep our economy upright and our

0:08:07 to 0:08:28( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: families and our nation as whole, we have to recognize real problems and propose realistic solutions. we can't hold one policy hostage to another or be bound by some strange ideology. every month we play these games. every month we do that, it guaranteeguarantees that the following week will be the same avoidable

0:08:29 to 0:08:45( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: fights. we need to get serious before it is too late. would the chair announce morning business? the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. and under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 4:30 p.m. with senators