Ed Markey — Senator Markey Discusses Bipartisan Budget Agreement

is so that I can bring a very important subject you know to the attention of my colleagues mr. president sequestration is just a fancy word for cuts mine was cuts and that's why I have always opposed sequestration this thoughtless across-the-board approach to the federal budget has harmed states across the country but its effect on Massachusetts has been disproportionate sequestration significantly reduced federal research and development funding for science and medicine that is Massachusetts investments in those fields are critical to our economy with its world-class universities Medical Center's industry-leading bio and high-tech companies clean tech industry exploding with new technologies this is the future of our country this is the future of the 21st century this is what you must be investing in research in technology research in science so I am pleased that for the next two years this budget agreement will give us desperately needed relief from sequestration and will extend the debt limit this legislation will also protect vulnerable Americans who rely on Medicare and Social Security it will ensure that for the next seven years millions who depend on the Social Security disability program do not face a benefit cut the legislation will also help millions of seniors by avoiding a Gronk like spike in Medicare premiums but this deal comes with a price more unwanted calls and texts to Americans back in 1991 consumers were constantly harassed by unwanted telemarketing phone calls that interrupted their family dinners my bill a 1991 the telephone Consumer Protection Act stopped these intrusive and unwanted calls from telemarketers yes in this budget being debated today it actually makes it easier to harass consumers on their mobile phones that is wrong just plain wrong current law contains important safeguards against abusive practices before a caller can make auto dial the pre recorded calls or send texts that column must have the consent of whoever is being called but section 301 of this legislation before this body today removes that pre call consent requirement if someone is collecting debt owed to the federal government the provision opens the door to potentially unwanted robo calls and texts to the cell phones of anyone with a student loan or a mortgage calls to the cell phones of delinquent taxpayers call summers to veterans or anyone would get backed by the federal government and that's why once the Senate takes action on this budget bill I plan to file a bill that strikes that provision I also intend to ask the majority leader for a vote on my bill at the earliest possible time we must protect American students and consumers but that rollback of protections against abusive telemarketers is not the only problem with this legislation the bill also would sell off part of our nation's oil stockpile simply to raise revenue of the the president the presiding officer is an expert in this area our strategic petroleum reserve is there to protect American consumers and our security in the event of an emergency but now it is increasingly being viewed as a piggy bank to fund other priorities if we're going to sell oil from our strategic reserve we should at least do so strategically to get the best deal for our taxpayers but the budget deal that we're considering would require the sale of a specific amount of oil each year from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty-five regardless of its price when the majority attempted to use similar Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to fund the highway bill senator Cassidy from Louisiana and I authored a bipartisan amendment to fix the problem our common-sense amendment gave the Secretary of Energy the flexibility to sell more oil when prices are high by maximize the return for taxpayers unfortunately that bipartisan fix is not part of this legislation but I will continue to work with Senator Cassidy on this important issue and you know that we're right when it is a conservative Republican from Louisiana and a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts that agree on an issue it is foolish to buy high and sell low that's essentially what this legislation is now mandating rather than saying to the government that you have to find just the right time when the price of oil is high to sell it over the next seven years it just says sell it on this schedule regardless of whether or not you're going to get a good return on your investment that's not the way this government should be operating we should be using some common sense especially since the senator from Louisiana and I had already drafted the legislation and already attached it to the transportation bill when that was going to be the place where they use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve money so this is a very bad provision that's in a bill which is going to pass and it should pass but it's a flaw it's going to lose a lot of money if it continues on with the language that's in this bill so I'm going to continue to work with the presiding officer the senator from Louisiana so that we can correct it it'll save a lot of money if we do it the correct way we need to ensure of that we have an rational approach to budgeting unlike sequestration which will finally allow us to get back to the business of legislating instead of lurching from crisis to crisis that is not possible unless we begin a new era in this institution and hopefully that's what today and perhaps tomorrow will represent maybe we can now work together again across the aisle the way I think all Americans want us to and I pledge to work on these two pieces of legislation going forward to correct real flaws that are built into this legislation I thank you for allowing me to have the floor at this time and I hope mr.

president that you and I can partner to correct at least one of the problems that are in this bill and at that with that I yield back the balance of my