away. now live to the floor of the senate on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain retired admiral barry black will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, we are grateful that you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. lord, we see a faint light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. thank you for lawmakers who understand that when everyone

loses, america loses. we're grateful also for senators who know that before they are democrat, republican or independent, they are americans. as they remember their accountability to you and to history, empower them to keep our nation strong. staying true to their oath to defend our constitution against external and internal foes. lord, keep them from making any decision that will seem reckless in the sober light of hindsight. we pray in your mighty name. amen.

the president pro tempore: please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the president pro tempore: the majority leader. mr. reid: i call up calendar number 211. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 211, s. 1569, a bill to ensure the complete and timely payment of the obligations of the united states government until december 31, 2014. mr. reid: following the remarks of the republican leader and me, the senate will be in a period of morning business where senators will be allowed to speak for up to ten minutes

each, or at least be in a situation where people can speak for up to ten minutes each. mr. president, i am going to wait until senator mcconnell gets to the floor, so i'm not going to give any long remarks here. in fact, i'm not going to give long remarks at any time, but i do have a few things to say. but while we're waiting for senator mcconnell, i haven't had the opportunity to say this. admiral black has for me during this long period of crisis we have had in the country been a voice of stability, a voice of inspiration to me, and i am being very selfish in saying me. it's been for the entire senate and for the country. his heartfelt prayers are so timely and so sensitive to the needs of our country and the need that we all have to call

upon our spirit yult to -- spirituality to get us through the periods of difficulty. i can speak for the entire senate by saying how much we admire and respect this good man who is a counselor and a leader in the senate as much as anyone that serves in this body. i note the absence of a quorum. the presidingthe president pro e clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: could we have order in the senate. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. reid: thank you for reminding me of that also. i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, the eyes of the world have been in

washington all this week. and that is a gross understatement. and while they witnessed a great deal of political discord today they'll see congress reaching historic bipartisan agreement to reopen the government andrea void default on the nation's bills. this compromise we reached will provide our economy with the stability it desperately needs. it's never easy for two sides to reach consensus, it's really hard, sometimes harder than others. this time was really hard. but after weeks spent facing off across a partisan divide that often seemed too wide to cross our country came to the brink of a disaster. but in the end, political adversaries set aside their differences and disagreements to prevent that disaster. i thank the republican leader for his diligent efforts to reach this important agreement. the republican leader's cooperation was essential to

reach an accord that could pass both chambers of congress and also be signed by president obama. as part of our agreement, in order to assure congress continues the work of setting this country on a path of fiscal sustainability this instructs congress to name conferees to set a long had long-term path to sustainability. what we do is hard here and this is really hard but i think we can get it done. the committee members selected must have open minds, be willing to exert every option no matter how painful to their own political ideas and even their own political parties. this conference committee led by chairman murray and chairman ryan which will produce its negotiated budget resolution in december, is the appropriate place to discuss our differing views of the best way to chart a course for economic growth.

this legislation also funds the government through january 15 and averts default through february 7 during which time we can work on a long-term budget agreement that prevents these crises. perhaps most importantly it sends a stand-off that ground the work of washington to a halt this fall. madam president, this is not a time for pointing fingers and blame. this is a time of reconciliation. i look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of this great capitol to pass this remarkable agreement which will protect the long-term health of our economy and of -- i'm sorry and avert a default on our nation's debt and and allow us to set a foundation for economic expansion. what we've done is sent a message to americans from every one of our 50 states but in addition to that citizens of every country in the world that the united states lives up to

its obligations. now congress must return to its most important job, fostering economic growth and protecting middle-class families. i appreciate through all this the steady hand of president obama who helped guide us to this conclusion. i'm optimistic that the spirit of compromise that has taken root in the senate over the last two days will endure. i do know this: senator mcconnell and i have sat in very, very serious discussions the last few days. we're going to do everything we can to change the atmosphere in the senate and accomplish things that need to be done for our country. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: this has been a long, challenging few weeks for congress and for the country. it's my hope that today we can put some of those most urgent issues behind us.

after yesterday's events the majority leader and i began a series of conversations about a way to get the government reopened and to prevent default. i'm confident we'll be able to do both those things later today. crucially, i'm also confident that we'll be able to announce we're broking the government spending reductions that both parties agreed to under the budget control act. and that the president signed into law. that's been a top priority for me and for my colleagues on the republican side of the aisle throughout this debate. and it's been worth the effort. some have suggested that we break that promise as part of this agreement, some have wade washington needs to spend more, that we need to raise taxes, that we need to just tax our way to prosperity and balance. but what the b.c.a. showed is that washington actually can cut spending and because of this law

that's just what we've done. for the first time since the korean war -- the first time since the korean war -- government spending has declined for two years in a row, the first time in 50 years. and we're not going back on this agreement. it's a lot -- there's a lot more we need to do to get our nation's fiscal house in order. hopefully once we're past the drama of the moment we can get to work on it but for now let's not understate the importance of the budget control act or the importance of the fight to preserve it. this legislation is the largest spending reduction bill of the last quarter century, and the largest deficit reduction bill since 1981 that didn't include a tax hike. preserving this law is critically important to the future of our country.

throughout this debate the public has rightly focused on obamacare for good reason. this law is ravaging our economy, killing jobs, driving up premiums, and driving people off the health care plans they have and like in droves. it's disastrous rollout is a sign of even worse things to come. and the refusal to delay it reflects a kind of stubborn ideological obsession that will do untold damage to our country and republicans remain determined to repeal this terrible law. but for today, for today, the relief we hope for is to reopen the government, avoid default, and protect the historic cuts we achieved under the budget control act. this is far less than many of us had hoped for, frankly,. but it's far better than what some had sought. now it's time for republicans to

unite behind other crucial goals. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, senators are permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. pryor: madam president, i had not intended to speak right now. i know the leaders are working on trying to get the process clear so that we can move this legislation forward, but i do want to mention a few of my colleagues that really helped in this process. we had a number of democrats and a number of republicans that met together and talked to try to

come to a resolution on a package that we wanted to present 0 the leaders and, in fact, the structure of what the two leaders have agreed on is very similar to what we had proposed to them. and i see some of my colleagues here today who were instrumental, i see the senator from alaska, senator murkowski, and i know that senator ayotte is here as well as senator flake, who happens to be in the chamber right now and senator kirk and senators johanns and mccain and, of course, senator collins. senator collins really led the effort and spearheaded the effort and she deserves a lot of credit for getting us together and helping to move the ball down the field. madam president, i hadn't planned on controlling the floor right now or even talking about this very much, but since we have the opportunity, i know that we on our side of the aisle

we have senator manchin, senator klobuchar, senator king, senator donnelly and senator heinrich that all played a critical role in this and, again, this had not been planned by anyone, it's just that it looks like we have a little bit of a time here and i also forgot senator shaheen who is not here on the floor right now. but if it's agreeable, what i'd like to do is yield to one of my colleagues if they want to say a word about the agreement that we reached or that we were working on to try to prevent to the leaders and just really say thank you to senator collins and thank you for all 14 of us. it turns out we had seven republicans, six democrats and one independent, and basically what we tried to do is just try to come up with a sensible framework that the leaders could use to get us to where we are today. they didn't accept every single thing we wanted but the framework was good and certainly

it was great to see everyone work together. madam president, i see the senator from arizona maybe would like to say a word so before i turn it over to him i'd like to thank him because he was great and very instrumental in moving this ball down the field. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i think it's obvious that we are now seeing the end of this agonizing odyssey that this body has been put through, but far more importantly, the american people have been put through. it's one of the more shameful chapters that i have seen in the years that i have spent here in the senate. but i would like to say that if there is a good outcome it is the fact that 14 of us were able to join together, republican and democrat, leadership i must fully admit was provided primarily by women in the senate. i won't comment further on that. but seriously, 14 of us got

together, we came up with a plan that after very spirited discussion and that plan i think was probably better than the one that we are going to act on today. but the fact is that this group of 14 people are committed to staying together to address other issues of importance and to tell the american people that there are at least 14 of us -- and there are many others who wanted to join that group and are welcome to join that group -- that we are going to not let this kind of partisanship cripple this body and injure the american people and i'm proud to have worked with my seven -- i'm proud to have worked with -- with the members from the other side and on my side of the aisle and this isn't the last crisis that we are going to go through, but i think we have the framework for the kind of bipartisanship that

the american people need and want. so i thank them, i look forward to working with them in the future and i also enjoyed the spirited discussions that we had. and i want to thank especially my friend from maine who enriched me with a small side wager that we made during the course of this discussion. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: i thank the senator from arizona. he brought a very experienced voice to our group, and i especially want to thank senator collins for bringing this group together. i think it shows what courage is going to be in the next year in this chamber and in the congress. it's not going to just be standing here by yourself making a speech with no one there. courage is going to be whether or not you're willing to stand next to someone you don't always agree with more the betterment of this country. this was very close to another

default, to seeing what we saw in 2011 with the dowr down 2,000 points, household wealth down over $2 trillion, that just can't happen again. thanks to our leader, senator reid, thanks to his work with senator mcconnell, we averted this this time and i think you will find a strong bipartisan vote in the senate for this compromise, for this idea of paying our bills, opening the government again, making sure that we have a reasonable time period to work out a solution long term, and that is our challenge. yes, we've averted this crisis but we need to stop having these crises. we need to actually come up with a long-term solution in a balanced way that brings down our debt while at the same time doing it in a way that won't start another financial crisis. i want to thank my colleagues for their amazing work, for their good humor during a very difficult time and for the fact that we are finally

moving forward expending the brinbrinksbrinksmanshipship. thank you. madam president. and i see my friend, the senator from alaska, is here. ms. murkowski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: again, i join my colleague, senator pryor. i don't think that any of us had -- had planned to do anything coordinated at this point in time. i just came to the floor and was anticipating the announcement from both leadership. but to see so many of our colleagues who have been working on this proposal that senator collins from maine, who has truly been i think remarkable in her persistence and insistence that we continue this effort to work collegially, to work collaboratively on these very, very difficult issues that -- that we have been facing in these past several weeks. so to -- to senator collins for

her leadership most particular particularly. but we all know, if you're just trying to move the ball just one person, you don't get anywhere. we do a lot of sports analogies around here and quite honestly, i am really tired of sports analogies. but what i do appreciate is that as a senate, w we cannot work together as individuals and expect to accomplish the work that is needed not only for my constituents in alaska but around the country. and regardless of who's in the majority or who's in the minority, in order to make it work for the country, we've got to be working together. and so as difficult as all this has been in the past several weeks, the thing that i have found encouraging is that there have been a nuclear of folks who would come together as the need

arose, or perhaps just for a little moral support, and -- and continue the effort to try to find common ground. we went from a small group to a group of six on each side to a group of seven on each side, and i think with every passing day, we had more colleagues that were interested in -- in exphepg participating to tr -- inhelpinn helping to find that common ground. and as we've noted, the agreement that has been reached by our respective leaderships, while it's not what our working group came up with, there are certain elements of it that -- that we had helped to shepherd. but this should not be about who claims authorship, who -- who puts their name behind it. what this should be about is whether or not we can get the government open again, we can get focused on dealing with our

fiscal issues, dealing with the fact that we're up against a debt ceiling perhaps tomorrow. our reality is in front of us right now. so getting caught up with whether it's the senate that should make this happen or the house that makes this happen, whether it's leader reid or the minority member mcconnell, that's not what the public really cares about. the news that's coming out today is that there's a deal. there's a deal. and that deal should give america hope. but it doesn't get us out of the mess that we're in. i think that we're still at pretty low approval ratings. it's going to take awhile for us to rebuild any credibility. but i think that the effort to rebuild credibility begins when we honestly and ernestly roll up

our sleeves, tackle the big problems, recognize that we have to do it together rather than to retreat into our respective corners and just hope that we can get it right without talking to one another. so, again, i thank -- i thank senator collins for her leadership on this issue and i thank all my colleagues on the democrat side of the aisle, the republican side of the aisle for coming to this point. and i am most, most hopeful that we will see quick resolve today so that the country can breathe easily and sleep a little bit better tonight. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. donnelly: thank you very much. i want to thank senator collins, who helped lead our group, senator pryor and senator manchin and so many others wh who -- who helped lead our group as well. this was not democrats and

republicans. this was americans who are sent here to serve our country. i am blessed to come from the state of indiana and they gave me this great honor to serve here. and i know precisely why they sent me here, which is to do the work of the nation, to protect our nation, to not worry about republican or democrat but to do what is right. and i take that charge very, very seriously. and that's why i worked with my colleagues here, was to see, is there a way we can help bring an agreement closer, bring an agreement together that protects our credit ratings, that protects our financial situation and that protects our countr countriment and so i was very lucky to be part of such an extraordinary group of partners in this effort. i want to thank all of them. and as the senator from alaska was saying, we have a lot more

work to do, as all the senators know, and so we stand ready to, on whatever front our nation needs us, to do that kind of work. that's not democrat work. that's not republican work. but that's american work. to move our nation and our country forward. thank you very much. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: madam president, later today, the senate is likely to consider legislation that we reopen the government, avert a default and put us on a long-term path to come up with a plan to deal with our unsustainable $17 trillion

national debt by reopening the long overdue budget negotiations. and hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will support the plan that has been put forth by our two leaders, senator reid and senator mcconnell. i'm pleased, madam president, that elements of the compromise that the two leaders have worked out have been taken from a plan that was developed by 14 senators who have worked very hard on both sides of the aisle. seven democrats -- actually six democrats and one independent, the senator from maine; seven republicans who have come together in good faith and have

worked very hard over the last two weeks to put together a compromise plan. a compromise plan i have to say i actually prefer to that which we will vote on later today. but elements of our plan have been incorporated into the plan that the two leaders have presented for our consideration. this was truly a collaborative effort. and i want to make sure that all of my colleagues who worked so hard on it receive the kudos that they deserve for being willing to do what this body does too rarely of our partisan

corners and stop fighting and start legislating. this great country deserves a congress that can govern, and that was the unifying theme of our group. on october 5, a saturday when we were in session and shutdown was in its early days, i was sitting in my senate office watching the floor debate and i was disheartened by what i heard. because what i heard were partisan speeches from both sides of the aisle and no one offering a path forward. i decided then and there to chart out, to outline a possible plan to end this impasse, and i marched over to the senate floor and gave a speech in which i urged our colleagues to work together. well, virtually immediately i

heard from colleagues on both sides of the aisle who wanted to be part of that effort and who have worked night and day to try to come up with a plan, a plan that i believe helped lay the foundation for the ultimate compromise reached by our two leaders. senator murkowski and senator ayotte were the first two members to call me up. now, i know that my colleagues are tired of hearing about the women in the senate, but the fact is they were the first two to contact me. senator joe manchin was the first person on the democratic side to call and say, "count me in. i want to work on this as well." senator pryor and senator king also very early on and senator mccain endorsed the proposal of our working together and the

outlines of this plan. senator johanns was such a thoughtful addition to our gro group. amy klobuchar was there for every meeting. senator kirk, senator heidi heitkamp, senator jeff flake, senator joe donnelly, senator jeanne shaheen. it was a wonderful group of people united by our determination to demonstrate that we could compromise, we could govern, we could bring an end to this impasse and do it in a way that was worthy of this great country and our constituents. we worked together over and over. there were a lot of tough decisions to be made, a lot of lengthy negotiations, and we came up with a plan which we presented to our two leaders, senator reid and senator

mcconnell. not all elements of our plan were incorporated by the leaders but i think that they would say that they built on our work and did, indeed, take some of our provisions verbatim. i continue to believe that our plan was a great path forward but i am pleased that it waived the way to what i hope will be a solution to the impasse that we -- that we have been facing. that has been so unfair to the american people and has hurt so many people. and, madam president, i think it's important for us to remember that the damage goes beyond the hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers through no fault of their own. it goes beyond the damage to the private sector employees who lost business because of 9 -- be

of the closure of our parks. it goes beyond the damage of our disabled veterans who have had to wait for their claims to be handled. it goes beyond the anxiety that many who are dependent on very important federal programs, the most vulnerable in our society, it goes beyond the impact on our national defense, although we were able to mitigate that to some extent. it goes to something far more fundamental and that is whether the people of this country can have confidence in our able to put aside partisan politics and act as patriots committed to doing what is right for our nation. and i want

to thank the 13 senators who joined with me, who worked so hard, and who did just that: they left their partisanship at the door, and they negotiated as real patriots who cared about america. so i thank them all. it's been a great pleasure to work with each and every one of them. all of them contributed so much to the bipartisan plan that we presented, and i am glad that it has helped to bring us to what i hope is an end to a very unfortunate chapter in america's history. thank you, madam president. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: i, too, rise, very proudly, to be part of a group that, truly, i watched put their country first. and i have been here probably a shorter period of time than most

of my colleagues, but not quite three years, and i think people know that i've been a little bit frustrated at times, if not sometimes quite frustrated, but i've heard the stories of how the senate used to work. and when the going got tough, the senators really got going. i haven't seen that too much in the last three years, so seeing a group of -- a dichotomy of senators coming from my dear friend angus king, an independent coming from maine, and then we had seven republicans, led by senator collins, and our democratic colleagues here -- so, coming together and maying off of each other's strengths. it wasn't playing off of egos at all. and two weeks ago i could not believe of the self-inflicted pain that was put upon the people of america by this congress by shutting it down. and also coming on the brink of

forfeiture, of a financial calamity, if you will, being able not to pay our bills. and i've said -- i've watched people get into financial problems before. i've watched businesses and individuals. financial problems come to in man--come to you in many ways. sometimes you have early warnings and you can step in front of that. you can restructure your spending and your habits and get yourself whole again. it takes a while. or you can wait until it hits you and then foreclosure comes, bankruptcy comes and it is almost impossible to get yourself out of it. this was really congressional-made. we're going to have to do extraordinary things keep ourselves afloat. this is not one. it shouldn't be because of political dysfunction. so when i saw every one of our colleagues playing off --

the presiding officer: order please. mr. manchin: when i saw our colleagues playing off of the strengths that each person brought to that group and it got stronger and stronger each day as we faced -- when we faced the shutdown that we thought was absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary, should never happen, and then we were looking at facing financial meltdown be, if you will, the insolvency of our country, and that could not be tolerated. as each person played off of each other to try to help and make this come together -- and i think senator collins explained it so well -- that we were able to have a piece of agreed-upon legislation that had a tremendous framework and a good template that was presented to both of our leaderships -- on the house -- i mean, on the senate side, as far as a republican, and on the democratic side. and i applaud both of our leaders, senator reid and senator mcconnell, for taking

that constructively appeared working with it and trying -- and working with it and trying to make the best possible piece of legislation that we believe and we encourage our colleagues on the other side of the house to accept. i'm hopeful for a large vote in the senate. i'm very much hopeful for that. i'm hopeful that our colleagues on the house will accept that in the spirit of a bipartisan greemengreement thatagreement t. we considered that based on what would be acceptable and palatable and what the american people would want us to do and sent us here to do. so in the spirit of this senate that i am proud to see the senate be able to rise for the occasion and work the way i heard it used to work. i was able to experience this in the last two weeks. i'm proud to have been a part of that. i want to thank all of my colleagues on both the republican side of the senate

and on the house side. this is when america rose to its best. on this bill, i will say this, the thing that we kept finding out why we couldn't come to a budget conference, this bill will have a mandatory budget conference. it has to report back and go back to some regular order. that was very important for all of us to agree upon. and the timing -- everybody said there would be some criticism with such a short time. we have the time to fix and repair the damage that's been done but the uncertainty that's lurking if we don't do something. i'm very pleased. i want to thank senator collins, senator murkowski, senator king, senator heitkamp, everybody who's worked 10 hard t so hard e this happen. i'm proud to be a part of an extraordinary group of people that really put the country before themselves.

ms. heitcamp: madam president madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. ms. heitcamp: i rise today to tell you that about five days ago i was wondering why came to the united states senate. i had the same belief that the american people had: this is a place that no longer is funking, this is a place -- is functioning, this is a place that it seems we're just locked in gridlock. then an amazing thing happened. under the leadership of some very strong and senior members, a group came together have to have a broader discussion, the plan "b," the potential to be able to present some ideas that could in fact find their way to compromise. and that under the strong leadership of senator collins, under the invitation of the great senator of alaska, lisa murkowski, weecia we were able g people together and bring the dialogue that really i think had an opportunity to present a template for resolution.

and today we're doing something that the american people have waited 16 days, doing the responsible thing, open up government, extending our debt limit, and doing regular order. no more special committees. no more, do we have the supercommittee and have the hopes on a bowles-simpson commission, or a domenici-rivlin commission. i think we have a lot of great hope that our colleague, patty murray and ranking member senator sessions from alabama will meet with their house counterpart in principled negotiations and discussions that will once again tell the american people we're serious about doing their bidding and their business much the proof now is in the pudding. we have taken what little confidence the american public had in this institution and our institution in the united states congress and once again shook it and it is time that we bring that confidence back.

and there's no better time than fulfilling the promise and the commitment of this agreement today and getting back to regular order. and so, madam president, i want to thank all of the colleagues -- senator manchin, senator angus king from maine, mark pryor from arkansas, who was instrumental in et going me to run for the -- in getting me to run for the united states senate. i occasionally remind him of that. we were attorney generals together. but i know that across the aisle in so many great opportunities to have conversations that i think bore fruit today but i think will continue to flourish and thrive and provide opportunity for a more bipartisan compromise. madam president, i yield the floor. mrs. feinstein: oh, you were here first, senator. you go ahead. i didn't see you. martin luther king madam

mr. king: winston churchill once observed that americans will always do the right thing ... only after they have tried everything else. i think the last two weeks demonstrates the wisdom of that demonstration. i want to join my colleagues in congratulating first the leaders for putting aside their substantial differences, their substantial partisan divide, to meet together over the last two or three days and hammer out an agreement that is not going to be acceptable or exciting to anyone but will, in fact, put america back together in terms of our government functioning, avoiding the threat of default, and alloying us t allowing us t. my first congratulation is to senator mar harry reid and senar mitch mcconnell for coming

together. i also have to acknowledge the leadership of my senior colleague from maine, susan collins. it was her -- i happened to be presiding the day that she made her speech last saturday, and it was really her initiative to stand up and take a risk and say, let's try to work something out. and she outlined a beginning of a framework which was then flushed out area of the last ten days of discussions among the group that we've been talking about. and i was interviewed recently on the radio, and they -- somebody said, well, don't you think senator collins may be subject to some criticism from some corner or another about her role in all this and i paused for a minute and i said, that's what leadership is. it's the willingness to bare ber criticism, to stick your neck out. it's like the turtle crossing the road. the only way the turtle can

cross the road is to stick its neck out. that's what we're trying to do on behalf of the american people. i see that senator pa patty mury is not on the floor now. i am so dpla so ghad that glad g into a process where we can work with her counterpart, congressman on. a underand d we'reng it as we should in the proper -- in the proper process. i am delighted that senator murray is now going to step into this role, which is one of the most important that we've had in recent years, and we'll be able to work towards a resolution. this is an important and perhaps historic compromise where congress was really looking into the abyss, where congress was really proving that it cay not function -- that it could not function and our system could nonot function in the divided

politics of america today. it now appears that our leaders have pulled us back from that abyss and given us an opportunity, an opportunity, not a guarantee, but an opportunity to continue the discussions that started with this terrible shutdown, and give us the opportunity to try to bring our country together and to resolve the problems that we face. it's a shame that we've spent so much time doing what i think is the obvious: run the government, pay our bills. but now that we seem to have passed through this moment, now we can move forward into the long-term challenges of our budgets, of our -- the challenges facing our people, our ability to solve problems and prove once again that this wonderful constitution that has been bequeathed to us can still function, can still produce results, can still govern this

country. abraham lincoln said that we can't escape history. we can't escape history. and this morning the chaplain's prayer talked about being accountable to history, and that indeed is what we are doing in this body, and i hope that history will judge today as a moment where the beginning of a new era of cooperation and civility and problem-solving -- not the loss of our differences, not the papering over of legitimate arguments of principle -- but at least the ability to try to work together to talk to each other, to respect one another, to listen to one another. those are the essential qualities of of leadershi leadei believe we're seeing demonstrated here today. the and i hope that it is a beginning. and i want to congratulate and thank all my colleagues but especially the two leaders for getting us to this moment. i yield the floor.

mr. pryor: madam president in. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. pryor: madam president, i i would just like to say a few more words. when we were -- when the democratic leader pointed to me to say something a few moments ago, we really weren't prepared for that. we'd actually talked about maybe coming to the floor later. i'm so glad senator collins is on the floor now because she deserves the lion's share of the credit here for pulling us together. i'm sorry we had no notice on that. let me also say something that they kind of joked about some during this process about the women of the senate. but the truth is women in the senate is a good thing. and you see leadership, and we're all just glad that they allowed us to tag along so we could see how it's done. isn't that right? it was a great experience for us to work on this. i think today really -- i know it's a reid-mcconnell product at the end of the day, and that's great.

that's really what we wanted it to be. we talked about in one of our first meetings that we understand that we would be the plan b. the problem was there wasn't a plan a. we thought if we could be the plan b and help move things along it would be beneficial and constructive, and i think it was. i think that the leaders knew we were working and trying to do problem solving, that helped. madam president, what i think today is all about as well is a victory for bipartisanship. when you look at the talk shows and you listen to all the talking heads and do all that stuff, they never mention this. but the truth is the only way to get anything done in washington is to do it in a bipartisan way. and it doesn't matter really if you're in the united states senate or on the local school board, if you want to get something done, you've got to w-rbg with the other people in the -- you've got to work with the other people in the room. you may not always agree with them, they may not be who you

elected. but that who is elected and that is one of the lessons today, that if we work together we can solve these problems. and that starts by putting the rhetoric aside, putting the party labels aside, sitting down and listening to the other side. we had to do a lot of listening here because, you know, sometimes people have different views on things. they come at issues from different angles. they have different background they bring to the table. nonetheless, you have to do a lot of listening. i hope today is a big loss for blame game politics. from my standpoint, when i turn on the television and i see either people here on this floor or on the floor down the hall or having press conferences and it's just blame, blame, blame, to me, that's dead-end politics. that's one of these situations where some people put on a red jersey, some people put on a blue jersey. we shouldn't do that. to me, that's how we get to where we've gotten to this week with shutting down the

government, running the risk of reaching the dress. -- reaching the debt ceiling. that is what's wrong with washington. we need to work to get this done. i think all 14 of us in this group together, the collins group, i think we can do this if cooler heads will prevail, and that's what happened. we were so delighted and pleased to be a part of it. i want to thank the leaders for their encouragement and getting behind to us get this done. the truth is we have a lot more work to do. we have a lot work and here. there is a lot of work in this city that's been left undone. and the congress is largely responsible for that. if we can work together and if we can do what we did today, if we can drop the rhetoric, if we can roll up our sleeves like they do in maine, like they do in arkansas and other places around this country, people in this country know that governing is hard work, but that's why

they sent us here. that's why we run for these jobs. we run for these jobs so we can make the hard decisions, we can make the big decisions. that's what the american people are starving for. they want us to work together. and here it is, i know it's the last day before the we have some terrible consequences to the economy, but that's what people want. they wish we'd do it a lot sooner than we did it today, but nonetheless, that's what they want. and i just hope and pray that in this body we will continue to work together. we'll be problem solvers, we'll get things done. the legislative process is not always pretty. we understand that; not always pretty. but it will get done at the end of the day. we'll reach those bipartisan agreements that will make this country proud. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much, madam president. i am not part of this group of 14, i believe it is.

but i want to thank them. i know a little bit about how hard it is to pull something together in an emerging situation and they have done it. i see susan and amy and lisa here on the floor, three senators who played a major role in this. i want to say thank you. thank you for taking the time, having the courage and putting forward the ideas that you did. i also want to thank the leaders: senators reid and mcconnell, because i think them coming together essentially averted what i saw as a potential catastrophe. although there's many a slip between the cup and the lip, i think we're in the homestretch. i think what we see is both a continuing resolution and the debt limit being extended, albeit not for much, coming over here somebody stopped me and said we're going to be right back here in three or four months.

our challenge is to make that not so. i also want to thank senator cruz, with whom i've had occasion to tangle. but he has said that he will not stand in the way of a vote. and to me, that is very important, because nobody knows what really will happen if we do not pass the debt ceiling in a timely way. and in a way, it's a big lesson in itself. let us not go there again, and let us use this three- to four-month period in a wise and willing way to sit down as the group of 14 did and work out issues before we are right back where we came to them. i think another part of the agreement that's very good is that it allows the budget committee to go ahead and conference. after -- senator murray sits

next to me, and after her 20 attempts to move this body to conference, all of which failed, it looks like that will not happen. well, here's what that means. that means that we will have a budget for next year from which the appropriation allocations will be drawn very quickly and which our bills can be brought into conformance with. i happen to chair one of the appropriations subcommittees. that's the committee that has the modernization of our warheads, the department of energy as well as the army corps of engineers. beginning tomorrow, seven big labs were going to begin to shut down. that's los alamos, sandia, lawrence livermore, lawrence berkeley. nuclear programs, reactors were being shut down in safe conditions. 30,000 contract employees were going to lose their work, and by

their contract, the contract says they cannot be reimbursed for any day that is not worked. so that present add particular special situation. in the time i've been here, the senate has become a very different body, and maybe now is not a bad time to say that. we used to be able to do much more along the lines of what the group of 14 has done. but i think scar tissue has built in this house, and i think it's built in this house for one reason, and that is the prodigious use of cloture, the significant change because a majority body has been turned into a supermajority body. now what do i mean by that? what i mean by that is

everything albeit but the simplest thing has to have 60 votes. we had a clean debt resolution and cloture, and we did not have 60 votes even to debate the issue on the floor. and that's never been what the history of this body has been. it's never been one of the reasons why i wanted to join this body. i've always felt that this body was sort of the prime of political officeholders. not the bottom, but the top. and show a willingness as to how this democratic process can work. by people sitting down together, understanding that our two-party system demands compromise to be able to make any progress at all. and what i found is that that is less and less available to those of us who want to problem solve, who want to sit down and work

out issues. so i think more efforts like this effort that just took place -- and i would very much like to join this esteemed new group of senators for the future because we cannot be here again in four months. i was surprised -- and i don't quite know what to do about it. but what i find is that people in the house too who come here with a very small number of votes believe that they so know what's best for this nation. above anybody else, and are willing to do whatever they need to do to get their way. and that's just not the way these bodies have traditionally worked. now, that hasn't worked so far. and i think what's before us, which is a very simple three-,

four-month advance of the continuing resolution of the debt limit, verification of income and the ability of the budget committee to go back to work, really signals that this next three to four months are so important to do what we need to do to restore comity to this body and the other body. just think, if we can find points of agreement in three to four months and then go ahead and regularly extend the debt limit for its full length of time, have a -- do away with the continuing resolution. it's been three, four years, no budget. and it's got to stop. so i am hopeful that with the leadership now that appears to have come together between senator harry reid and senator mitch mcconnell, that these months can really be dedicated

to a bringing together of both sides around problem solving. and all i can do is pledge myself to do my utmost to help us get there. so this is just one step on the road. and again, there's many a slip between the company and the lip. so i -- there's many a slip between the cup and the lip. i hope this measure will pass this body today, pass the house and that we go out with a resoluteness to come back another day and work together to solve what are some very major problems before us. so thank you very much. i yield the floor. mrs. shaheen: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: thank you, madam president. i'm very happy to be able to come to the floor this afternoon to join those who have already spoken, to commend the fact that we have finally come to an agreement, it appears, that will end this government shutdown, that will allow the country to

pay its bills, and that will hopefully address some of the uncertainty and harm that has come to families, to businesses and to this economy over the last several weeks. i want to thank and applaud the leadership of majority leader reid, of republican leader mcconnell for being able to come together to reach this agreement. and i also want to commend the many people who have come to the floor led by senator collins this afternoon who have been working over the last week to try and come up with some ideas to provide a framework for an agreement. i was especially appreciative to be part of that group of 14 of us, along with senator collins. and i think her leadership was very important, along with senator klobuchar, senator pryor, the many people who have

been down to the floor, and providing some impetus for people to work together and to move forward an agreement that could finally end this shutdown. i certainly appreciated the comments of senator pryor talking about the need for us to work together, to listen to each other, to put aside the blame game and address the many challenges face this go country. that is clearly where we need to go next. i certainly hope that we will all in this chamber recommit ourselves to doing that. we need to pass this compromise quickly so that we can end the shutdown's negative effects on our economy. and we need to move forward and think about how we can get some agreed long-term in the future. and i think the bipartisan

efforts that have been shown over the last week will be very important to doing that. the fact is while this agreement is good news, we know that the agreement is only short term. and that we're going to have to figure out a way to address keeping the government open, address paying the nation's bills, address coming up with a long-term budget agreement, and that we don't have a whole lot of time to do that. i hope that people will understand the very real impacts that i have been hearing in my office. i know senator collins has been hearing that as well and people throughout this body have been hearing from people across the country about what the impact has been. yesterday, i participated in a small business committee hearing

to hear the impacts of the shutdown on small businesses across the country, and i appreciate the leadership of senator landrieu in organizing that hearing. it really gave a voice to many of the small businesses to many of the people across this country who have been suffering as a result of the shutdown, and i thought it would be helpful to share a few of those stories today as a reminder that, as happy as i am that we've reached agreement today, we've got a lot of work to do in the future to make sure this doesn't happen again. one of the people we heard from yesterday was a new hampshire community banker, chuck withey. he is the president of provident bank. they have four locations in new hampshire. he told me that small businesses, as we know, are the backbone of what they do at his

community bank. he said the shutdown has had a material and profound effect on many small businesses in southern new hampshire. because of the shutdown of the s.b.a. loan programs. and we all know how critical access to capital is to making sure businesses can operate. well, chuck testified that provident bank has 12 loans that are stalled right now. they are just waiting for s.b.a. to open back up. they have a total of $2.7 million in small business loans. that's just one small bank, that are currently on hold because of this crisis. and sadly, according to chuck, the consequences of this holdup may be permanent for some of those businesses. there are purchase and sale agreements hanging in the balance that may lapse and have to be renegotiated. the small business owners may lose credibility and lose their ability to negotiate similar contracts in the future.

and he went on to say that the numbers don't really include the dozens of applications for loans that would have come through the door but didn't because of the shutdown. he also talked about a new program that provident was just about to launch before the shutdown, a program that would focus on microloans for very small businesses. those businesses that usually have borrowing needs of between $10,000 and $100,000 that would have been able to get loans as part of this program. because of the shutdown, the bank had not continued that program. he indicated that they hoped to roll it out as soon as government is operating again, but clearly there are businesses that have been hurt in the interim. we heard from people across the country at that hearing yesterday, from another s.b.a.

lender, sally robertson, who pointed out that one of the borrowers that she is working with has posted $149,000 deposit on a new project, that if they can't close in a timely fashion, they're going to lose that deposit. we heard from some small businesses with federal contracts who were on -- they have their contracts on hold so they have had to dip into their cash reserves or furlough workers. and we also heard from a representative from the tourism industry who pointed out that travel and tourism in this country is losing $152 million a day during this government shutdown. well, i know everybody here has heard stories like that from their home states. i'm sure you have heard those kinds of stories from the state of wisconsin. hopefully, we will reopen the government, we will pass this agreement today, we will be able

to get those small businesses up and running again, we will be able to provide some certainty for those federal contracts, we will be able to bring back to work those furloughed workers and make sure that they get back pay, but the challenge is that we can't let this happen again, and i am hopeful that because we have a budget conference committee going forward, that there will be a process by which we can put in place a longer term budget agreement, so we're not facing another shutdown in january, right after the holiday season. we don't want people to think they can't spend money during this holiday season because there is going to be another government shutdown or because the country might think about again defaulting on its debts in early february. as chuck withey said from provident bank yesterday, that

small businesses will remain uncertain. they could face higher borrowing costs if congress comes close to the brink yet again. it's an admonition that i am certainly going to take to heart, and i hope all of us will. so, again, i thank everybody who has helped in reaching an agreement today. hopefully this will be approved by both houses of congress, we'll get the government open, we'll pay this country's bills, and we won't let it happen again. thank you very much, madam president, i yield the floor. mr. sanders: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you very much, madam president. this country has gone through over two weeks of very difficult

times. it is extremely distressful that approximately a million federal employees have not received a paycheck, and these federal employees have gone three years without a raise, they have been furloughed because of sequestration, and now they have been sent home in many cases without any pay, and like every other american, every other working american, these are people who are worried as to how they are going to pay their mortgages, how they are going to pay their car loans, how they are going to pay their college loans, and they are extremely anxious. but it is not only the million or so federal employees who are hurting. obviously, it is the tens of millions of americans today who are in enormous anxiety about

whether or not they are going to get the federal benefits that they are entitled to and the federal services that they need. i am talking now as chairman of the senate veterans committee about veterans who have written to me from vermont and elsewhere who are worried that they may not get their veterans' disability benefit. just think about that. people who put their lives on the line for this country were wounded in action, and they are sitting home wondering whether they are going to get a check which they desperately need in order to keep their family going. i'm talking now about people on social security who are wondering that if this government actually defaults and for the first time in our history does not pay our bills, that they may not get a social security check. and millions and millions of seniors depend on that social security check in order to pay their bills and to maintain a

very minimal standard of living. and i'm talking about moms who today are walking their kids into the head start program and then going off to work, and they're worried about what happens if that head start program is shut down, what does that mean to their child, what does it mean to them? how are they going to get to work? who is going to take care of their kid? are they going to lose their job? so what has happened in the last few weeks has brought a whole lot of anxiety and pain to tens and tens of millions of americans. and why? because over in the house, we had a handful of right-wing extremists who have decided that they were going to hold hostage the american government unless they were able to defund obamacare. that was last week. and then more recently, they were going to hold the government hostage unless we made major cuts in social security, medicare and medicaid, and that was a few days ago. so i think what has happened has

been incredibly unfortunate to our country. the damage done in terms of our position in the international community will take many, many years to overcome. what do you think the international community, people in latin america, people in europe, people in asia believe when they say the united states, the largest economy on earth, presumably the leader of the free world, and this government is shut down and this country is debating whether or not we pay our bills. how does the president of the united states go to the united nations, go to the world community and say listen, there is an international crisis, you need to follow our lead, and we are the country that can't even pay its bills or is threatening not to pay its bills for the last couple of weeks and have

shut down the entire united states government. so the damage already done by right-wing extremism is irreparable. i think people's confidence in the united states government has been shattered. i am thinking, madam president, about kids in wisconsin or kids in vermont who are now looking at the united states government as some kind of joke, where maybe at some point they were thinking of running for office, getting involved in the political process, and now they say it's not something that i want to do. it's not something that i want to do. and that is very, very sad. now, i intend to vote for the agreement hammered out by the majority leader and the minority leader, but i want to make something very, very clear. if anybody thinks that this sequestration and budget is a good thing for america, they are

very, very mistaken. now, as i understand it, the sequestration budget, sequestration will be extended until january 15. now, we don't know what happens after that. presumably, that's going to be based on negotiations. but according to the c.b.o., the congressional budget office, if, in fact -- and i will do everything in my power to see that that does not happen, but if the $988 billion sequestration budget were to go throughout this year, it would cost us some 900,000 jobs. now, i have heard many of my republican friends and perhaps some democrats making the point, and an important point, that we have got to do something about the budget deficit, we have to do something about our national debt. i agree with that. i'm proud that along with other members we have cut the deficit in half from $1.4 trillion to

$700 billion. anyone who doesn't think that that's progress i think is very wrong. cutting the budget deficit in half is significant progress. but, madam president, let me make a point that is not made terribly often here on this floor. yes, the deficit is a serious problem. yes, we have got to work on it. but every poll that i have seen, and in my discussions with people in vermont, they say yeah, the deficit is a serious problem, do something about it, but let me tell you, senator sanders, what's a more serious problem, and that is that the middle-class of this country is disappearing, median family income is lower today than it was 24 years ago, real unemployment is 14 -- close to 14%, youth unemployment is somewhere around 20%, african-american youth unemployment is somewhere around 40%. and what the people of america

are saying, do something about the economy. make sure that when my kid graduates high school, there will be a job available for him or her. do something about the high cost of college education because i don't want my son or daughter to be leaving school 25 or -- $25,000 or $50,000 in debt. make sure, they tell me, that you don't cut social security because social security is one of the few bedrocks remaining to protect some of the most vulnerable people in this country. make sure you don't voucherrize medicare as -- voucherize medicare, as the ryan budget in the house proposed, and medicare as we know it and give senior citizens an $8,000 check, and when they get diagnosed with cancer, good luck to them because that $8,000 will last two or three days.

make sure you don't slash medicaid. so, madam president, the important point that has to be made is deficit reduction is an issue, but the more important issue that the american people want us to resolve is to create the millions and millions of jobs this country desperately needs. and the sequestration budget that we're voting on today moves us in exactly the wrong direction. if that budget were to go on for a year, right now it's scheduled to end january 15, but if that were to go on for a year, it would cost us 900,000 jobs rather than growing the many, many millions of jobs that we currently need. madam president, let me again raise an issue that many of my colleagues do not talk about but i think the american people understand. at a time when we have more income and wealth inequality in

this country than since the 1920's, what morality demands and, in fact, what good economics demands is you don't balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, working families, the poor. but i don't hear much of that discussion here. now, if you have a situation in america where the top 1% owns 38% of the wealth and the bottom 60% owns 2.3% of the wealth, who should have to experience austerity? should we go to working families who in many cases have seen a decline in their income and say guess what, we're going to have to balance the budget on your backs. we're going to have to cut medicare, cut medicaid, cut nutrition programs, cut the

ability of your kid to go to college because we need to balance the budget and guess what, the rich and the powerful have too many lobbyists here and so we're going to have to cut programs that impact you. well, i know that many people here in the senate want to move in that direction. i do not. not only do we have an obscene, unfair distribution of wealth, it is as bad when we talk about income inequality. madam president, you have seen, i know, the same studies that i have seen which talk about how in the last few years 95% of all new income generated in this country went to the top 1%. 95% of all new income went to the top 1%, while tens of millions of other americans saw a decline in their income. now, madam president, if

in --. the presiding officer: the senator has used ten minutes. mr. sanders: i would ask unanimous consent for two more minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: madam president, i think if you had a discussion in some diner in wisconsin or i did the same in vermont, and you talked to people and said look, the wealthiest people are becoming much richer, the middle class is dedeclining, poverty is at an all-time high, how do you think we should deal with deficit reduction? do you really think we should be cutting programs for the elderly, working families, the children, the sick or the poor or maybe do we ask the wealthiest people in this country to start paying their fair share of taxes? maybe, madam president -- i know this is a terribly radical idea -- today one out of four major corporations pays zero in federal income taxes because a lot of these multinational corporations are stashing their money in the cayman islands and in bermd and other -- bermuda

and other tax havens. i guess i'm an extremist for thinking maybe it is more important for corporate america that is enjoying record breaking profits, one out of four major corporations pays no federal income taxes, maybe we ought to ask them to pay taxes so we don't cut he medicare, social security, medicaid and nutrition programs. i think what goes on around here is our sense of reality is distorted because surrounding this building are not working families. they're too busy back home trying to maintain their families. not children, and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world, they're not here but all of the lobbyists from the billionaire organizations and for corporate america, they're here telling us what we should be doing. well, i think maybe the time is long overdue that we stood up for the working families of this country, for the children and for the elderly. and not move to deficit

reduction on the backs of the most vulnerable people. and with that, madam president, i would yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: thank you, madam president. i come to the floor first of all, i've come to the floor a number of times during this government shutdown, just to say how absurd this has been for the american people, that we have found ourselves where we are to have the government shut down and those who brought forward a strategy to defund obamacare, the exchanges have opened anyway, that's why i never supported this strategy because i didn't think it was smart for the country or achievable, and we've been coming up against the debt ceiling issue. so i come to the floor today after having come to the floor

on several occasions expressing my concerns and frustration to -- i want to thank, i want to thank our leader, mitch mcconnell, and the majority leader, harry reid for coming together around an agreement and the -- to end the shutdown, address the debt ceiling even if on a short-term basis so we can get out of the hole we're in and start to deal with the big picture problems facing the nation. and around this i was very heartened that a bipartisan group of senators came together to solve this problem, led by senator collins from maine and seven republicans and seven democrats. let me just say among the seven democrats was my colleague from new hampshire, senator shaheen, who i see in the chamber and if the chair would recognize senator shaheen, i want to thank her because what

we've been able to do in new hampshire is that she and i even though we come from opposite sides of the aisle have been able to find ways to work together on behalf of our state and on behalf of the country. and she was in this group of seven senators, as a democratic senator, and i was there as a republican, both representing the state of new hampshire, ready with an agreement to solve this crisis we were in and so i want to recognize my colleague and thank her for being part of a group that wanted to solve these problems for the nation. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. shaheen: thank you, madam president. i appreciate my fellow senator from new hampshire, senator ayotte's nice remarks and i would echo those. she and i have been to the floor to talk about the devastating impact of this government shutdown. it's been unnecessary, and the

hardship, the very real hardship that it's placed on so many new hampshire families, so many new hampshire businesses and the challenges that it means for the economy of our state and for the nation. and i would just say -- i would ask my colleague if it would be important as we think about going forward and trying to deal longer term with the need to come up with a budget for this country, the need to address the paying our bills in the long term, if this kind of bipartisanship that we try to exhibit for new hampshire would be important for all of us to think about as we try to solve those challenges long term. and also just for us to try and reassure the people of new hampshire that i believe we're going to be working together to try and do that and hopefully everyone else here will do the

same. ms. ayotte: let me just say to my colleague from new hampshire hampshire, the senior senator from new hampshire, i agree with that. we can't go through this again. and it is incountry on all -- incumbent on all of us to work together even though we come from different parties, so that we don't go from crisis to crisis in managing this nation and i do hope with this agreement that we are able to come to a longer term -- a budget for the nation, a longer-term fiscal agreement for the nation to address our $17 trillion in debt, to address the challenges facing our economy, to work together to show people that we can solve problems on behalf of this country and that we can make sure that we aren't continuing to go from crisis to crisis as we represent new hampshire and this nation, and i know that both of us join that -- joined

that group because we had had it with what was happening here and we were ready to solve some problems together. mrs. shaheen: i thank my friend and colleague from new hampshire, senator ayotte. ms. ayotte: thank you, senator shaheen. madam president, i wanted to continue just to thank the seven senators on both sides of the aisle that were working together to resolve and working with our leadership, and i mentioned this was led by an effort by senator collins. senator murkowski from alaska, senator mccain, senator johanns, senator kirk, senator flake, on the republican side of the aisle, and on the democrat side of the aisle, senator manchin, senator begich, senator pryor, my colleague, senator shaheen as i've mentioned, senator klobuchar, senator donnelly, senator heinrich and we even were tripartisan because we had senator king with us as well in these efforts. and i think what we demonstrated

is that we can come together as a core group when things break down here, that are many of us that desire to solve the problems facing the nation, and we know that we can do it with -- we can't do it with juan party alone. it took two parties to get us $17 trillion in debt and it's going to take two to get us out of this hole. just like this fiscal crisis, it takes two parties to get us out and some solve the nation's problems. i think that's what we learned from this experience and i want to thank those who worked so hard on it. let me just say this: i'm blessed to be the mother -- i'm children just turned 6 and 9 years old during this crisis situation, and my daughter -- because it's been hard to get home during this, and my family is still in new hampshire, i still live in new hampshire, and my daughter kate asked me mom, why can't you just get the

government open? what's wrong? why can't you get this solved? such are the commonsense questions i got from her and from our son jacob, and think about the lessons we try to teach our children. aren't we always trying to teach them that when they get into a conflict, you got to work it out, that yes, you don't get to get everything your way, that it isn't always your way? well, those are the lessons i think all of us regardless if we're republicans, democrats, independents trying to teach our children and so i found myself in a hard position here where she is asking me the tough question. i said you're right, kate, we have to work together, even though i feel really strongly about my principles i know my democrat colleagues do also and what kind of lesson am i showing if i can't help get this resolved? that's why i was proud to be part of a bipartisan agreement. let me just bring us back to why we got into this government

shutdown for a moment because the other thing, being a mother of two children, when something goes wrong, i always ask my children when you make a mistake, what did you learn from this? what was the lesson you learned from the mistake? and i did not believe that the defunding obamacare strategy was going to succeed from the beginning. not because i'm not a strong opponent of obamacare. i absolutely am. but the fact of the matter was that the government shutdown, the exchanges opened anyway and yet the government was shut down and we put all these people who were worried about whether they were going to get their paycheck, veterans worried about what's going to happen, we can go on and on, i've heard the impact in my state, and i just -- i guess i would ask -- and, by the way, all the flaws

that those of us believe that do exist in obamacare, that was all overshadowed by the fact that the government was shut down. and i do want to fix this law. i want to repeal it, i want to replace it with commonsense reforms but this was not a strategy to make that happen. and i guess i would ask the question i've. a senator: of my children, what did we learn from all this? what we learned is that this was not a successful strategy from the beginning, that yes, you can be against obamacare as i am, i am for repealing it and replacing it, but shutting down the government was not a smart strategy and not the right direction, and i hope we never do this again. and i hope we learn our lesson from this. so i ask my children to do that, and i'm going to ask myself to do it and i'm going to ask others to do it. and let's move forward. let's work together, let's find ways as we get to january and

when the funding for the government expires again in february, let's take on the big challenges facing this nation. the $17 trillion in debt, let's get a budget for the nation, let's move forward from here, learn our lessons, work together and get it done for the american people. thank you, madam president. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president, i'd like to speak about the issue at hand. madam president, thank the good lord that we are finally having, as the good book says, people that will come, let us reason together. i am so grateful for the hundreds of thousands of people

who have been directly hurt by this shutdown, i am very grateful that we will avoid a default that would not only hurt the people of this country but that would irreparably damage the financial foundation of this nation but this should have never happened in the first place. you've heard the two previous senators -- one a democrat and one a republican -- say the same thing. it shouldn't have ever happened in the first place. you don't hold the country hostage and disrupt people's lives to get your particular agenda done, particularly when

you're dealing with an existing law which has been upheld as constitutional by the supreme court. but that's exactly what has happened. we -- we now are in a situation in the politics of this country where narrow certain special interest claim that their position is the only position and have that reflected up here in the congress so that a narr narrow, small group of extremists political ideology can direct the affairs of the congress. and that group, especially in the house, can cause the trauma and the turmoil that we've been

through. now we apparently have an agreement. i assume we are going to volt on that in the senate -- vote on that in the senate and it should pass overwhelmingly sometime today. and then the question is: will it be put in front of the entire house so that republicans and democrats alike can vote for this and get us over this immediate potential crisis? then comes december and january and february, the deadlines that are set in this agreement that we will pass today. the first challenge will be for the budget committee, a conference committee from the senate meeting with a conference committee from the house to

hammer out the difference between the two budgets which are substantial differences. and we'll get our first test shortly when the conference committee is named and goes to work as to see whether or not you can start bridging some of those differences. simultaneously, there are going to be many senators meeting to talk about what has been referred to as the grand bargain which really could be under the umbrella of what the budget conference committee does, but since the budget committee is talking about top-line numbers of appropriations and the details are left to the individual committees, there's going to have to be a lot of goodwill negotiations with

respect for each other in order to build consensus. and we haven't seen a lot of that around here. we're starting to see glimmers of it here today. the real test is going to come in the next couple of months up to the deadline of december the 13th and then, of course, january the 15th. now, i don't think anybody with commonsense would want to approach us not getting an agreement before january the 15th because that's when this next tranche of severe budget cuts, spending cuts, across the board, including half of those spending cuts in defense -- and

we've heard defense official after defense official tell us that this is not a good thing for the national security of this country. hopefully the budget committee can achieve an agreement in conference committee that will avoid that sequester. and if all of that is done and the wheels are set in motion about the fleshing out of a budget committee agreement -- for example, tax reform done in the finance committee here, done in the ways and means committee over in the house -- if that can be done, tax reform, getting rid of a lot of the loopholes, producing revenue, utilizing, for example, some of the revenue to lower tax rates, some of the revenue to pay down the -- the

deficit, to lower the deficit, and some of that revenue to replace that sequester that is going to have such negative effects on the common security of this country. and if all that's done by january the 15th, then won't have a problem come february the 7th, which is the time that the artificial statutory imposed debt ceiling comes around, because that crisis of potential default will have been absolved by virtue of the agreements fryer that. -- agreements prior to that. that's a lot of goodwill that's going to have to take place in

the next few months. that's a lot of mutual consideration and respect that is going to have to reign instead of a lot of what we have seen here in the past few weeks. so i am grateful that we have this agreement and that in the next two days it can be wrapped up and default can be avoided. i am hopeful, albeit cautious, that we can avoid this again with good public policy. madam president, i would close by saying that a public office is a public trust. we as public officials ought to

recognize that our upon the is to represent all of the people, not just some of the narrow interests represented in this country. and if we will approach these next two days and then the next civil months -- next several months representing and recognizing that a public office is a public trust, then we can get it done. that is my hope. that is my prayer. and that's why i am very grateful that we've come to this point. madam president, i yield the floor. i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: