US Senate - Obama Presidency Oral History Back US Senate Index / Organizations Transcript Richard Trumka ...and we had sixty votes originally in the Senate , sixty. Now, Teddy [Edward M. Kennedy... ...It was for the House, and it was for the Senate , and it was for everybody but hi... Steven Chu ...was incredibly impressed with the Senate Committee on Energy and Water [read... ...Alexander called for this report, on the Senate side. And I was also sent to Congres... ...he carried the House and he carried the Senate . There was a euphoria. The wind was t... ...when I was there. You mentioned the Senate Committee on Energy and Water [Energ... ...point of view, the Congress and the Senate would come to the Department of Energy... ...And then it moves from the House to the Senate , and it got stalled in the Senate. I... ...to the Senate, and it got stalled in the Senate . It seems that Senator Lindsey [O.... ...shifted, and why this failed in the Senate ? Were you involved? I was, again... ...needed sixty percent to do anything in the Senate . Anyone could raise their hand sa... ...and especially after the House and then the Senate two years later, there was ... ...have a majority or even fifty-fifty in the Senate , so we'll have blocked stasi... ...was incredibly impressed with the Senate Committee on Energy and Water [read... ...Alexander called for this report, on the Senate side. And I was also sent to Congres... ...he carried the House and he carried the Senate . There was a euphoria. The wind was t... ...when I was there. You mentioned the Senate Committee on Energy and Water [Energ... ...point of view, the Congress and the Senate would come to the Department of Energy... ...And then it moves from the House to the Senate , and it got stalled in the Senate. I... ...to the Senate, and it got stalled in the Senate . It seems that Senator Lindsey [O.... ...shifted, and why this failed in the Senate ? Were you involved? I was, again... ...needed sixty percent to do anything in the Senate . Anyone could raise their hand sa... ...and especially after the House and then the Senate two years later, there was ... ...have a majority or even fifty-fifty in the Senate , so we'll have blocked stasi... Show more... Sylvia Burwell ...percentage than they're represented in the Senate or the House. One reason you were fo... ...court case after thing. Attacks from the Senate , attacks from the House, votes to und... ...appropriators from the House and from the Senate , Republicans and Democrats, and it wa... ...percentage than they're represented in the Senate or the House. One reason you were fo... ...court case after thing. Attacks from the Senate , attacks from the House, votes to und... ...appropriators from the House and from the Senate , Republicans and Democrats, and it wa... Show more... Todd Stern ...Gore wanted to send the agreement up to the Senate for advice and consent under th... ...for a while before I moved on to the Senate . But candidate Obama, senator at tha... ...top, you would've gotten no votes in the Senate . You would've gotten Democratic votes... ...you couldn't have got it approved in the Senate . We were not going to get sixty-seve... ...the thing would need to be approved by the Senate . It's fundamental. Nobody reall... ...comfort. Kerry, with a lot of years in the Senate , said, “We're dead if this—we canno... ...get a legally binding agreement through the Senate on that kind of basis—and because i... ...Gore wanted to send the agreement up to the Senate for advice and consent under th... ...for a while before I moved on to the Senate . But candidate Obama, senator at tha... ...top, you would've gotten no votes in the Senate . You would've gotten Democratic votes... ...you couldn't have got it approved in the Senate . We were not going to get sixty-seve... ...the thing would need to be approved by the Senate . It's fundamental. Nobody reall... ...comfort. Kerry, with a lot of years in the Senate , said, “We're dead if this—we canno... ...get a legally binding agreement through the Senate on that kind of basis—and because i... Show more... Tom Harkin ...from 1985 through 2015, as chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor... ...Labor, and Pensions, and as chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition... ...administration. Prior to serving in the Senate , Senator Harkin served in the House o... ...professor that I had had ran for the Senate in 1962, and so I worked on his Senat... ...B. Smith, this guy who was running for the Senate in '62, we didn't have any money... ...So that goes on. I talk to him later in the Senate , ask him how he liked it. He said h... ...on which I served. On the floor of the Senate , there was an amendment to take som... ...Cures Act. Of course, I'm not in the Senate then, but I went after him publicly. ... ...cap and trade. In your longer career in the Senate and in the Congress, did tha... ...has a great leader in the House and in the Senate , [George J.] Mitchell [Jr.] an... ...election. We lost the House and lost the Senate . After that, it was, just, Katy ba... ...option passed in the House. But we had the Senate . And there were a few people tha... ...speech a lot of times on the floor of the Senate . “Look, I've been doing earmarks sinc... ...doing earmarks since I first came to the Senate .” That's twenty years now, twenty-som... ...the House Appropriations guy, and I was the Senate Appropriations guy. And we were talkin... ...have I seen, in my thirty years in the Senate , people who would vote one way on ... ...to bring it to the floor, to see what the Senate wanted to do.” People understand that... ...the House with Tip O'Neill. It went to the Senate , and Jimmy Carter would not suppor... ...not support it. And it got killed in the Senate . Well, then we went ahead. The nex... ...got it past the House. It came to the Senate . We got it through Kennedy's committe... ...Mark, whose father was also in the Senate — Mark Pryor? Pryor. Mark Pryo... ...For some reason—I fail to remember it— the Senate came to a halt in October. Th... ...from 1985 through 2015, as chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor... ...Labor, and Pensions, and as chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition... ...administration. Prior to serving in the Senate , Senator Harkin served in the House o... ...they finally passed it after I left the Senate . [Laughter] Let me think about this ... ...was not good. And he finally told me on the Senate floor, “Yes, you're right.” He allowe... ...your investigation while you were in the Senate was veterans. Yes. Oh, yes. Becaus... ...if that's okay. In November of 2013, the Senate voted fifty-two to forty-eight t... ...[Laughs] We lost the majority in '94 in the Senate , '95, '96. Well, I'm sorry. I though... ...Because if you're in the majority in the Senate , the most important thing you have... ...We're still in the majority in the Senate . The Democrats are in the majority i... ...The Democrats are in the majority in the Senate . But the Republicans have th... ...with a lot of my former colleagues in the Senate . I've talked to former Majority Leade... ...So Harry—and I've talked to others in the Senate now—if Biden wins this election, an... ...now—if Biden wins this election, and the Senate goes Democratic, one of the firs... ...I think there's a good reason for the Senate to be an institution where laws ar... ...weren't going to seek a sixth term in the Senate , that you were going to retire at th... ...back to the decades that you spent in the Senate , do you think that progressives ha... ...forums. You think back. When I was in the Senate , we had liberal Republicans an... ...high-water marks was in my last term in the Senate . My last two years, '13 and '14—... ...that you were going to retire from the Senate at the end of your last term was—an... ...governor. The person who replaced me in the Senate , Senator Joni Ernst—comes from, by th... ...wait a minute. When did we take back the Senate ? Two thousand six. Yes, that's right... ...was the farm bill. I was chairman of the Senate Ag [agriculture] Committee at the time... ...from 1985 through 2015, as chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor... ...Labor, and Pensions, and as chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition... ...administration. Prior to serving in the Senate , Senator Harkin served in the House o... ...professor that I had had ran for the Senate in 1962, and so I worked on his Senat... ...B. Smith, this guy who was running for the Senate in '62, we didn't have any money... ...So that goes on. I talk to him later in the Senate , ask him how he liked it. He said h... ...on which I served. On the floor of the Senate , there was an amendment to take som... ...Cures Act. Of course, I'm not in the Senate then, but I went after him publicly. ... ...cap and trade. In your longer career in the Senate and in the Congress, did tha... ...has a great leader in the House and in the Senate , [George J.] Mitchell [Jr.] an... ...election. We lost the House and lost the Senate . After that, it was, just, Katy ba... ...option passed in the House. But we had the Senate . And there were a few people tha... ...speech a lot of times on the floor of the Senate . “Look, I've been doing earmarks sinc... ...doing earmarks since I first came to the Senate .” That's twenty years now, twenty-som... ...the House Appropriations guy, and I was the Senate Appropriations guy. And we were talkin... ...have I seen, in my thirty years in the Senate , people who would vote one way on ... ...to bring it to the floor, to see what the Senate wanted to do.” People understand that... ...the House with Tip O'Neill. It went to the Senate , and Jimmy Carter would not suppor... ...not support it. And it got killed in the Senate . Well, then we went ahead. The nex... ...got it past the House. It came to the Senate . We got it through Kennedy's committe... ...Mark, whose father was also in the Senate — Mark Pryor? Pryor. Mark Pryo... ...For some reason—I fail to remember it— the Senate came to a halt in October. Th... ...from 1985 through 2015, as chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor... ...Labor, and Pensions, and as chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition... ...administration. Prior to serving in the Senate , Senator Harkin served in the House o... ...they finally passed it after I left the Senate . [Laughter] Let me think about this ... ...was not good. And he finally told me on the Senate floor, “Yes, you're right.” He allowe... ...your investigation while you were in the Senate was veterans. Yes. Oh, yes. Becaus... ...if that's okay. In November of 2013, the Senate voted fifty-two to forty-eight t... ...[Laughs] We lost the majority in '94 in the Senate , '95, '96. Well, I'm sorry. I though... ...Because if you're in the majority in the Senate , the most important thing you have... ...We're still in the majority in the Senate . The Democrats are in the majority i... ...The Democrats are in the majority in the Senate . But the Republicans have th... ...with a lot of my former colleagues in the Senate . I've talked to former Majority Leade... ...So Harry—and I've talked to others in the Senate now—if Biden wins this election, an... ...now—if Biden wins this election, and the Senate goes Democratic, one of the firs... ...I think there's a good reason for the Senate to be an institution where laws ar... ...weren't going to seek a sixth term in the Senate , that you were going to retire at th... ...back to the decades that you spent in the Senate , do you think that progressives ha... ...forums. You think back. When I was in the Senate , we had liberal Republicans an... ...high-water marks was in my last term in the Senate . My last two years, '13 and '14—... ...that you were going to retire from the Senate at the end of your last term was—an... ...governor. The person who replaced me in the Senate , Senator Joni Ernst—comes from, by th... ...wait a minute. When did we take back the Senate ? Two thousand six. Yes, that's right... ...was the farm bill. I was chairman of the Senate Ag [agriculture] Committee at the time... Show more... Zeke Emanuel ...combine the Health Committee bill and the Senate Finance Committee bills. The Healt... ...bill included a public option, but the Senate Finance Committee Bill didn't include ... ...option ended up in the final version of the Senate bill. Do you have a sense for when th... ...and ultimately the House passing the Senate version, WellPoint released rates fo... ...Scott Brown thing—between the House and the Senate , trying to reconcile certain parts o... ...there and take the information back to the Senate . That didn't seem like it was hig... ...source of tension between the House and the Senate , if you remember, and also why it wa... ...you learned that the House had passed the Senate version of healthcare reform on Marc... Show more... Nancy-Ann DeParle ...majority, I believe, in the House and the Senate at the beginning of the Clinto... ...nature. So that's the House. And in the Senate , you—you never have as high of ... ...some friends up there. The House and the Senate were both in Republican control by th... ...was engaged in a similar exercise in the Senate Health Education and Labor Polic... ...a full day, where I was waiting outside the Senate chamber. There were votes going on. H... ...Baucus's office, but it was in one of the Senate meeting rooms. That the people from th... ...revenue measure, passes something, and the Senate passes something, and then it goes t... ...want to get tied to either the House or the Senate version of the law. My goal was, get t... ...Pete Rouse, who also spent decades in the Senate and understood all of it; and th... ...So that was part of the negotiation in the Senate , was that the industry wanted to avoi... ...saying, “Okay. We can support this in the Senate bill. But that doesn't mean that that'... ...The Senate Finance Committee and the Senate as a whole had a lot of Democrati... ...Waxman a heads up—so I literally left the Senate and went over to the House, and it wa... ...reform, and this won't stop the bill in the Senate , I get it. So just do what you have t... ...very helpful. The other committee in the Senate , not Senator Baucus's committee, bu... ...not Senator Baucus's committee, but the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor... ...in the House did not support it. And in the Senate , it could not pass in the Financ... ...she could pass the bill that had passed the Senate , and the Senate couldn't pass th... ...bill that had passed the Senate, and the Senate couldn't pass the House bill, and w... ...bill because we couldn't go back to the Senate to try to get sixty [votes] over ther... ...I should say, when the House passes the Senate version of the bill. Where were you... ...Republican lawmakers in the House and the Senate . At least dozens. I met with anyon... ...and anyone on Finance and Health in the Senate . And then, it went beyond that. I'... ...maybe there could be an amendment in the Senate , or they could help us get somethin... ...Kennedy, Senator Kennedy's widow, in the Senate gallery. How did that come about? Ho... ...when the health reform bill passed the Senate , the first bill, I remember I was u... ...where the leaders from the House and the Senate were in the room. And I remember bein... ...of my colleagues, Shawn Maher, who was the Senate liaison on Phil Schiliro's team and Ro... ...came to adopt the Pete Rouse theory of the Senate . Which is, each senator, as a... ...majority, I believe, in the House and the Senate at the beginning of the Clinto... ...nature. So that's the House. And in the Senate , you—you never have as high of ... ...some friends up there. The House and the Senate were both in Republican control by th... ...was engaged in a similar exercise in the Senate Health Education and Labor Polic... ...a full day, where I was waiting outside the Senate chamber. There were votes going on. H... ...Baucus's office, but it was in one of the Senate meeting rooms. That the people from th... ...revenue measure, passes something, and the Senate passes something, and then it goes t... ...want to get tied to either the House or the Senate version of the law. My goal was, get t... ...Pete Rouse, who also spent decades in the Senate and understood all of it; and th... ...So that was part of the negotiation in the Senate , was that the industry wanted to avoi... ...saying, “Okay. We can support this in the Senate bill. But that doesn't mean that that'... ...The Senate Finance Committee and the Senate as a whole had a lot of Democrati... ...Waxman a heads up—so I literally left the Senate and went over to the House, and it wa... ...reform, and this won't stop the bill in the Senate , I get it. So just do what you have t... ...very helpful. The other committee in the Senate , not Senator Baucus's committee, bu... ...not Senator Baucus's committee, but the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor... ...in the House did not support it. And in the Senate , it could not pass in the Financ... ...she could pass the bill that had passed the Senate , and the Senate couldn't pass th... ...bill that had passed the Senate, and the Senate couldn't pass the House bill, and w... ...bill because we couldn't go back to the Senate to try to get sixty [votes] over ther... ...I should say, when the House passes the Senate version of the bill. Where were you... ...Republican lawmakers in the House and the Senate . At least dozens. I met with anyon... ...and anyone on Finance and Health in the Senate . And then, it went beyond that. I'... ...maybe there could be an amendment in the Senate , or they could help us get somethin... ...Kennedy, Senator Kennedy's widow, in the Senate gallery. How did that come about? Ho... ...when the health reform bill passed the Senate , the first bill, I remember I was u... ...where the leaders from the House and the Senate were in the room. And I remember bein... ...of my colleagues, Shawn Maher, who was the Senate liaison on Phil Schiliro's team and Ro... ...came to adopt the Pete Rouse theory of the Senate . Which is, each senator, as a... ...majority, I believe, in the House and the Senate at the beginning of the Clinto... ...nature. So that's the House. And in the Senate , you—you never have as high of ... ...some friends up there. The House and the Senate were both in Republican control by th... ...was engaged in a similar exercise in the Senate Health Education and Labor Polic... ...a full day, where I was waiting outside the Senate chamber. There were votes going on. H... ...Baucus's office, but it was in one of the Senate meeting rooms. That the people from th... ...revenue measure, passes something, and the Senate passes something, and then it goes t... ...want to get tied to either the House or the Senate version of the law. My goal was, get t... ...Pete Rouse, who also spent decades in the Senate and understood all of it; and th... ...So that was part of the negotiation in the Senate , was that the industry wanted to avoi... ...saying, “Okay. We can support this in the Senate bill. But that doesn't mean that that'... ...The Senate Finance Committee and the Senate as a whole had a lot of Democrati... ...Waxman a heads up—so I literally left the Senate and went over to the House, and it wa... ...reform, and this won't stop the bill in the Senate , I get it. So just do what you have t... ...very helpful. The other committee in the Senate , not Senator Baucus's committee, bu... ...not Senator Baucus's committee, but the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor... ...in the House did not support it. And in the Senate , it could not pass in the Financ... ...she could pass the bill that had passed the Senate , and the Senate couldn't pass th... ...bill that had passed the Senate, and the Senate couldn't pass the House bill, and w... ...bill because we couldn't go back to the Senate to try to get sixty [votes] over ther... ...I should say, when the House passes the Senate version of the bill. Where were you... ...Republican lawmakers in the House and the Senate . At least dozens. I met with anyon... ...and anyone on Finance and Health in the Senate . And then, it went beyond that. I'... ...maybe there could be an amendment in the Senate , or they could help us get somethin... ...Kennedy, Senator Kennedy's widow, in the Senate gallery. How did that come about? Ho... ...when the health reform bill passed the Senate , the first bill, I remember I was u... ...where the leaders from the House and the Senate were in the room. And I remember bein... ...of my colleagues, Shawn Maher, who was the Senate liaison on Phil Schiliro's team and Ro... ...came to adopt the Pete Rouse theory of the Senate . Which is, each senator, as a... Show more... Arun Majumdar ...worked; so quickly—I was voted in by the Senate . Senate confirmation and everythin... ...the preparation. Then, of course, was the Senate hearing. It's a window into th... ...committee of both the House and the Senate . Which I did. At the end of the day... Jeanne Lambrew ...organizing force to bring the House and the Senate Democrats together, for example, t... ...which was slow to move through the Senate . And I wanted to ask: In your memory... ...to get healthcare reform moving through the Senate before the August recess? It's ... ...to develop our own bill so that, should the Senate fail, we come in with our own bill. Bu... ...of 2010, which, of course, is after the Senate had passed its bill. President Obam... ...The vice president has an office in the Senate Office Building, since he was presiden... ...Building, since he was president of the Senate . And he gave us that room to use a... ...House meetings, I would stay back in the Senate working with our team and the drafters... ...back to races against clocks. When the Senate passed the bill on Christmas Ev... ...caucus and get them to sign off on the Senate bill, what could be changed technicall... ...was no way we could go back and get the Senate to agree to that, given the Senat... ...get the Senate to agree to that, given the Senate dynamics of fifty states, etc. S... ...Senator Chris Dodd gave you a copy of the Senate roll call list from the night—right o... ...you're sitting, yes—from the night the Senate passed healthcare reform, which h... ...back and forth between the House and the Senate a lot. That was my job. Along with Mik... ...well, Ted Cruz was on the floor of the Senate . We had all our challenges. I think w... Show more... Jim Houser ...Mr. Houser has testified before the US Senate Committee on Small Business an... ...who were very much involved, on the Senate side, with healthcare reform. And fou... ...like that. We had seen previously both the Senate and the House in the way that an... ...the building. Plus, both the House and the Senate , and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and th... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Healthcare Healthcare go to the Climate, Environment, and Energy Climate, Environment, and Energy Middle East Coming soon Atlantic Relations Coming soon Financial Reform and Regulation Coming soon