On the recordSeptember 27, 2016
the Republican leader just said: What are the Democrats trying to do, have built-in dysfunction? During the 8 years I was majority leader, we had to overcome 644 filibusters led by the Republicans--644. A comparable time: Lyndon Johnson, who was the majority leader for 6 years, had to overcome one and, arguably, two filibusters. Two compared to 644, so don't lecture us on building dysfunction. They have invented it in the modern Senate. This afternoon the Senate will vote on cloture on the CR proposed by the Republicans. I appreciate the good work done by appropriators, on our side lead by Senator Mikulski. They have done good work, and tremendous progress has been made. The Republican proposal will likely fail to get cloture this afternoon, and for good reason. The Republican legislation misses the mark. It seeks to keep in place the status quo with regard to undisclosed, unaccountable dark money that is flooding our political system. On the way to work this morning, I learned that the National Rifle Association is placing another $1 million of TV ads in Nevada. We all know that the National Rifle Association was really good at direct mailing. They raised that money from their members. That is not how it works now. Most of the NRA money comes from the Koch brothers. We are fortunate there are not two Trumps. That is the dark money we are talking about. Those ads will say NRA, but it is not NRA money.…





