[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2] [Senate] [Pages 1735-1736] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 1586 Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to Calendar No. 36, H.R. 1586, and that the Reid substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be considered read; that the Republican leader, or his designee, be recognized to offer a substitute amendment, and that there be 60 minutes for debate with respect to that amendment, with the time equally divided and controlled between the leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, and if a budget point of order is made against the amendment, a motion to waive the relevant point of order be considered made, and the Senate then vote on a motion to waive the point of order; that if the waiver is successful, the amendment be agreed to and the Reid substitute, as amended, be agreed to; that if the waiver fails, the amendment be withdrawn; further, that there be 30 minutes for debate with respect to the Reid substitute amendment, with the time equally divided and controlled between the leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, and if a budget point of order is made against the amendment, a motion to waive the relevant point of order be considered made, and the Senate then vote on the motion to waive the point of order; that if the waiver is successful, the Senate proceed to vote on adoption of the Reid substitute amendment; further, that no further amendments or debate be in order; that upon disposition of the Reid substitute amendment, the bill, as amended, be read the third time; and following the reading by the clerk of the budgetary effects of pay-go legislation with respect to H.R. 1586, the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended; that upon passage the title amendment, which is at the desk, be considered and agreed to. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Mr. BUNNING. Mr. President, I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. Mr. REID. Mr. President, as usual, prior to coming to call off the quorum, I had a visit with my friend from Kentucky, who is someone for whom I have the greatest respect. I am going to miss him so much, as I have said publicly and privately. In the days of my youth, I, of course, wanted to be the baseball player that he turned out to be. But that is another story. I didn't want to pitch. I wanted to be something else--a catcher or a shortstop. Mr. President, I regret that my friend has objected to this modest request. Earlier today, I was advised by the Republican leadership that they needed to have an amendment to be offered on this bill. As noted above, we agreed to that request. The items that we are proposing to extend in my substitute amendment include unemployment insurance, COBRA, flood insurance, highway funding, small business loans, and small business provisions of the American Recovery Act, the Satellite Home View Act, SGR--the so-called doctor fix--and poverty guidelines. All of these provisions will expire on Sunday, February 28. That is this coming Sunday. Agencies have been already sending out notices to unemployed workers--agencies such as a number of transportation departments around the country have sent out notices that their work had come to a stop, so they would not be getting benefits. It is critical that these programs continue so that Americans who are already struggling can continue to get this modest relief. Therefore, I regret the objection of my friend from Kentucky. I hope we can work through this objection and continue these important programs. Mr. President, we have been told by the Congressional Budget Office that the No. 1 stimulative to our struggling economy is to give people who are out of work, and have been out of work for a long time, unemployment benefits. That money goes right into the economy--whether it is in Anchorage, Las Vegas, or Louisville. COBRA--there are people who are losing their jobs and they need the ability to buy insurance. Statutorily now they can do that, but this is going to expire. Highway funding--I have already talked about that. It is just a [[Page 1736]] real shame, and I am sorry that we can't get this done by February 28. But we can't. This month would give us the time we need to complete our work. As far as unemployment benefits, notices have already gone out to thousands of Americans that their benefits are going to be terminated-- these unemployed workers. They are already crushed with all the problems they have, and now they are not going to have unemployment benefits. That is simply not right. I say to my friend again, I regret that we weren't able to work this out today. I hope there is something we can do to work through this objection. We need to continue these important programs. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky is recognized. Mr. BUNNING. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 36, H.R. 1586; that the amendment at the desk, which is the text of the Reid substitute, with an offset, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read the third time and passed; and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, with the provisions that we are seeking to be extended, there are some of them that cost money. They all cost a little bit, but there are three items here that cost more than any of the others; that is, unemployment compensation, COBRA, and the SGR. If there were ever an emergency--ever--in this body, certainly it would be unemployment compensation and COBRA moneys. I came to the floor earlier this year--it could have been late last year; time flies--to try to get a permanent fix, as we call it, for the SGR for 10 years. That did not get enough votes. That is unfortunate. And this is really unfortunate. This SGR, the Medicare payments that will be allowed to doctors, is for more than doctors; it is for doctors who will take Medicare patients. Many doctors in America today will not take Medicare patients. If we do not get this extended, a lot more will not take Medicare patients. Our Medicaid programs throughout America are in deep trouble. I met Monday with 12 Governors. Everyone said they were in desperate shape for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons is what has happened to Medicaid. Not only is it important to the doctors--and that is important--it is more important to the patients, and many programs to reimburse medical professionals--doctors--are based on what we have for Medicare reimbursement. If we do not get Medicare reimbursement, it is a cyclical thing that winds up tearing down the whole system. I say to my friend that I hope someone can come up with an idea during the night that would allow us to get this done. We are going to take up this bill, all these items permanently next week or at least most of it is for a year or so. That will give us time to complete all this business. Even though we passed the so-called jobs bill which extended the highway bill for a year, the House cannot get it done that quickly. They can move more quickly than we can, but they cannot move that quickly. Again, I hope we can work something out in the next 12 hours or so. Therefore, I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The Senator from Kentucky. Mr. REID. Mr. President, I was going to propound a unanimous consent request. Mr. BUNNING. Go ahead. ____________________