Faithful as we anticipate a long and challenging day remind us that you call us not to success but to faithfulness. Give our senators and the members of their staffs wisdom to make the commitment to be true to you and to serve your purposes. Let not discordant notes destroy the melody of their labors as they seek your counsel and wisdom. Lord guide our great nation. Help it to be a lighthouse to a dark and turbulent world. Prosper the works of our hands until the kingdoms of this world become the spring board for your eternal reign. We pray in your holy name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting 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. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell for years the democratled senate refused to pass a balanced budget. It usually failed to produce any budget at all. Maybe this made special interests happy but it was infewer infuriating for many in the middle class. They called for change and today the senate is delivering that change. The new senate is prepared to deliver a balanced budget which could raise annual wages by as much as 5,000 per family and drive Economic Growth for hardworking americans. Thats what the Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tells us, and its no wonder. This balanced budget would embrace the Energy Revolution and allow for more environmentally responsible innovations. It would repeal unfair taxes like those in obamacare and set the table for more comprehensive replacement of the outdated tax code with one thats simpler and more effective. And it would provide tools to repeal and replace obamacare itself leaving the laws higher costs and broken promises where they belong. In the past. In favor of a fresh start and the opportunity for real health reform. So while this balanced budget might upset special interests thats okay because it focused on the middle class instead. Its focused on helping the most vulnerable too. Heres what we know about important programs like medicare. We can make commonsense improvements to save these programs today or we can allow draconian cuts to fall on the most vulnerable in the years ahead. These are essentially our only two options. We cant tax the problem away. Denying the facts wont help either. So we invite all of our friends to join us as positive reformers, not insensitive deniers. Lets Work Together to improve medicaid as this balanced budget proposes. And while our balanced budget cannot solve every challenge, it will move us further down the path of positive reform. It will make government more efficient, more effective and more accountable to the middle class. The budget also contains a goodfaith compromise to begin the legislative process for the Defense Authorization bill well consider later this year. When additional o. C. O. Funds can be reallocated against the procurement and modernization needs of our military if only for the coming fiscal year. This is the best strategy short of refusing the e. P. A. For keeping faith with our Armed Services and its the best option we currently have for leaving the next president in a better position to face global challenges. So i want to thank chairman enzi for all of his good work in putting this balanced budget together. It certainly wasnt easy. Its a good balanced budget that everyone should want to support. Its especially true when you compare it to the other alternatives here. Well the only alternative actually since our friends still dont seem to be in the habit of producing a budget of their own. The alternative on offer was the budget we voted on tuesday from president obama. Someone called it the lets dream budget. But that dream ended up being so unserious and embarrassing that not more than a single democrat could muster the courage to vote for it. In a way its hard to blame our friends. It would be pretty embarrassing to support a budget that contained almost 2 trillion more in taxes and hardly any serious ideas to save the programs for the most vulnerable. No wonder this budget went down in flames. 981. 981, that was the vote on the president s budget. The 98, by the way was against. And so only one budget remains. Its the balanced budget which focuses on growth, common sense and the middle class. It isnt perfect but it does represent honest compromise and the promise of a better tomorrow. If senators would prefer to amend it, theyll have that opportunity this evening. Members of both parties will be able to offer amendments. I know many of our friends across the aisle are eager to do that. Republicans will have their chance too. Theres a lot we expect to consider. Do senators want to be seen supporting a policy that will cost up to a million jobs or will they stand tall for american jobs instead . Will senators support more tired tax hikes or will they support the jobs those higher taxes threaten to destroy . Do senators want to raise the cost of energy or do they want to see the American People reap benefits of our Energy Revolution . So tonight the American People will have their voices heard again here in the senate under new management. Theyll see a new congress thats back to work again and on their behalf. And after considering all these amendments, well take a vote. When the budget passes, well conference with the house. Thats how this process has worked historicically. Its what the American People have a right to expect now. And thats what we hope to see again shortly. Mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Reid before the republican leader leaves, in the weather reports today they forecast snow starting late today. So maybe thal that will calm down the generosity of offering amendments today because snows going to continue until tomorrow. Mr. Mcconnell i would say to my friend the democratic leader, the history of this exercise is the lateness of the evening affects the number of amendments we have, and well finish the process just as early as members would like to finish the process. I know the democratic leader and myself both look forward to it. Mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Reid i appreciate the cooperation between senator sanders and senator enzi in our arriving at the point were now here. The republicans had a totally different vision of what the country is and should be than we have. But the debate between these two good senators has been civil. Its been very polite and its the way things should happen around here. I appreciate that very much. Mr. President , the republican budget makes clear the priorities of the republicans. The republicans with twothirds of their cuts to lowincome americans but would not plug one single loophole for corporations and the rich. And i mean the megarich. Not a penny. They doubled down on harmful sequestration. This is automatic cuts that our across the board. We know how disastrous this has been. For the one year it was in effect take for example the National Institutes of health, almost 2 billion they lost that one year. On the floor is the senior senator from the state of illinois. Ive heard him talk here on the floor about how difficult the people at n. I. H. What a difficult time theyre having because they dont have enough money to do basic research. The sequestration that was put upon us the last time at n. I. H. , it caused n. I. H. To stop their research on the universal flu vaccine. Hundreds of thousands of people die around the world every year. Tens of thousands of people die in america every year because of flu. And they were close to having a universal flu vaccine that would take care of this. Sequestration is awful. Its part of the republican budget here. It would theyre doubling down on this harmful sequestration on health, education and Even National defense. Talk about a gimmick, this is a doozy what theyre trying to do with defense to try to pretend theyre going to put 38 billion more in the Defense Budget. But it is pretend because even looking excuse me at the republican budget, it is not possible to do. And once even the republican hawks look at this, theyll say maybe were not going to get that 38 billion. So mr. President their budget has lots of gimmicks. Lots of gimmicks. Its been written about all over the country in editorials from east to west, from north to south. But fortunately for the country the republican budget will not become law. Would the chair announce the business of the day. The presiding officer under the previous order the leadership time is reserved. The senate will resume s. Con res. 11 which the clerk will report. The clerk calendar 31, s. Con res. Setting forth the congressional budget for the United States government for fiscal year 2016, and so forth. Mr. Enzi mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from wyoming. Mr. Enzi good morning. This has been an important week for the senate as weve worked to set spending goals for our nation. And for this year the senate has only been able to pass two budgets in the past six years. Now that congress is under new management were on track to pass a budget after only threel threel three months. The reason were working so hard to restore the trust of the American People who want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, this week as part of the senates regular order weve been debating and have voting more than a dozen times on how best to set spending limits and make government live within its means, including votes to protect Property Rights of all americans and to save medicare. The spending goals and limits we have set are why passing a budget is so important to our nation. They let congressional policymakers who actually allocate the dollars get to work by following our spending limits. Without that, theyre delayed. Weve had that for a number of years where the fiscal year actually ends and we dont have the spending bills done. Thats what happens with government shutdowns. Thats what happens with extending their ability to operate without having a budget. That shouldnt happen. So we want to get a budget passed by april 15 so that the spending committees can get busy looking at the specific areas that theyre in charge of, the specific areas that theyre desperately interested in to come up with the best policies possible to have a total spending package that will keep government operating and meeting the objectives that we as an American People expect. But today is the day weve all been waiting for. Soon the senate will begin voting on many amendments offered this week, affectionately known as a votearama. Well start voting early this afternoon and well continue until were exhausted until were done, until people think that their amendments have been could have had sufficiently. Thats the way we do it in the senate. The senates debate of this balanced budget demonstrates that congress is doing its part to deliver a healthy economy for each and every american. The important first steps we have taken this week will help deliver a government thats more accountable which is absolutely essential for strong job growth and job creation. This budget will help every american who wants to find a goodpaying job and a fulfilling career. Im incredibly proud of my colleagues who are working together to deliver real solutions, real results and Real Progress to hardworking taxpayers. I find this a little bit stressful. I am an accountant. I have found a way to escape some of that tension. Ive been reading the tax code, and it is time for us to reform the tax code. There are hundreds of pages on minor decisions on different ways of calculating it. I am excited that were going to do that. One of the things that both sides of the aisle talked about has been speculation on tax reform. Tax reform needs to be done in a bipartisan way. And if i know that the chairman of the finance committee and the Ranking Member on the finance committee have already been working on it. Theyve got sub groups set up to solve different parts of the tax code and im confident that we can do that. There are instructions in the general instructions in the budget bill that allow some latitude to the finance committee in a number of different ways, and im hoping that we can wind up with a simpler tax code, one that will not take care of my frustrations in future years but will ease the frustrations of the American People on handling taxes. There have been a lot of speculation on where budget cuts are being made. I know theres a lot of frustration on the other side. Our budget sets limits for the different spending groups. It doesnt get into the detail. The people that know the detail in those areas are on those committees and they can make better decisions that we as a Budget Committee can make. I do point out frequently that part of my discovery during this process was that there are 260 programs whose authorization is expired. That means the specific committees that came up with the idea for these programs havent looked at them for some time. And that didnt stop us from going ahead and funding them anyway. Theyve expired but in some cases, were spending four times as much as what was originally envisioned for that particular program. Does it amount to much money . It amounts to 293 billion a year. 293 billion a year. If the committees do their work, theres a lot of money available for the areas outside of defense. Defense has had their authorization done every year, so theyre in a different category than all of the rest of the programs that the federal government does. So if you if youre thinking theres a lot of hands tied on what can be done, theres 293 billion out there thats being spent thats expired that ought to be looked at. In businesses, they have to look at their expenses every single year and see where they can cut in order to be able to continue the business. Around here, one of those programs hasnt been looked at since 1983. So theres a lot of work for us to do. It isnt all included in the budget. Im hoping we can get a budget finished tonight and get everybody busy on these extra tasks. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the assistant democratic leader. Mr. Durbin mr. President i just heard my friend from wyoming say that hes relieving his stress over the budget by reading the tax code. In my religion, when you go to confession youre given a penance for your sins. I cannot think of a more awesome penance than reading the tax code and i certainly hope that it gives my friend from wyoming a good frame of mind as he attacks this votearama. Im going to be brief because our Ranking Member on budget has arrived on the floor at this point, but i do want to say this budgets make choices and there is one or two choices certainly more than one or two but one or two id like to highlight that i think are worrisome. The republican budget eliminates Health Insurance for 27 million americans. Thats about 9 of the people in america who would lose their Health Insurance protection because of the republican budget. Part of it is the passionate refusal of the republicans to accept the Affordable Care act which now in itself protects 15 million to 16 million americans. We have said to them if you dont like the Affordable Care act, give us an alternative and they have yet to do so. And frankly because its very, very difficult as it was passing this bill, but to take Health Insurance away from 27 million americans and say thats going to make better a better life for working families no, it wont. Itll create a challenge for these families which will be extremely difficult. Secondly, i am worried and i think other members from both sides of the aisle share concerns about sequestration cuts when it comes to areas like Biomedical Research. How in the world can we justify Cutting Research at the National Institutes of health to find cures for diseases like cancer, alzheimers, diabetes . The list just goes on. And if we believe were making a better america by cutting back research and innovation particularly Biomedical Research its extremely shortsighted. When i take a look at the 200 or so pending amendments before us on budget resolution, it looks like there are about ten of them including one im going to offer, relative to medical research. Democrats and republicans are saying spare this area of federal spending. I would like to propose that all of us who share this goal on both sides of the aisle join in an effort to make sure that this is treated differently in our budget. It shouldnt be subject to mindless and deep cuts in Biomedical Research which will deny to a lot of suffering people the hope that they need and deny cures that will not only save lives but save dramatic amounts of money. I yield the floor. Mr. Sanders mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from vermont. Mr. Sanders when we look at budgets, we look essentially at two things. For a start we look at what the budget actually does because it is a set of priorities, and we look at what the budget does not do. Any sensible group of people, whether it is a family, whether its local government, state government, whether its a business, people sit around the table and say okay, these are our needs, this is what we have got to address or this is no longer relevant or this is wasteful and weve got to get rid of it. Thats what a budget process is about. And when you examine the republican budget, it almost seems that they turn that equation upsidedown and that they do everything that we should not be doing and they dont do what we should be doing. The overall reality of america that most people understand is the middle class of this country for the last 40 years has been shrinking. Yes, we are in a lot better shape today than we we