On the recordMarch 20, 2012
I say go ahead and vote against a bill you favor. It is very clear. The only way to ensure that this program, the Ex-Im Bank, advances is to see that it is attached to the House measure. Clearly, that is it. I am very, very tired of this bill, the IPO bill, being referred to as a jobs bill. That takes a lot of gall, to talk about that as a jobs bill. We have a jobs bill that we, on a bipartisan basis, passed after 5 weeks on the Senate floor. Have I heard one word from my Republican colleagues about a real jobs bill, saying, why is the Speaker driving a nail in this bill that we worked on for 5 weeks? Understand that the surface transportation bill is a jobs bill. The IPO bill is a nice thing to do, if it were done in the right manner and we had some amendments that got rid of some of the bad provisions. Before this is all over, that may be just what happens. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican Leader. Mr. McCONNELL. If I may say to those who are watching and those interested in the Ex-Im Bank, if I had my good friend Harry Reid's job and I were the majority leader, we would be turning to the Ex-Im Bank next, right after this, and we would be doing it with very few amendments because the advantage to being the majority leader, obviously, is you have the ability to schedule. I want everybody who is following this issue to understand that if I were setting the agenda, the next item up, right after this bipartisan jobs bill, would be the Ex-Im Bank.
