[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S14651]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. GRASSLEY. For the information of all Senators, the Senate will 
begin the final hour of debate on the Wellstone amendment at 9:30 a.m. 
on Wednesday. By previous consent, the Senate will proceed to a vote on 
the amendment following the use or yielding back of all the time. A 
vote on the Moynihan amendment, No. 2663, has been ordered to occur 
immediately following the vote on the Wellstone amendment.
  Therefore, Senators may expect two back-to-back votes at 
approximately 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. If my plans work out, I prefer to 
have a third vote immediately afterwards on an amendment on which we 
are working to try to get consent. Then, in addition, other votes may 
be anticipated during tomorrow's session in an effort to complete the 
first session of the 106th Congress.
  Therefore, Senators should adjust their schedules for the possibility 
of votes throughout the day and also into the evening on Wednesday. The 
leader appreciates the patience and cooperation of all of our 
colleagues as we attempt to complete the appropriations process.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wish to renew what I said earlier today. 
We have taken this bankruptcy bill a long way. When the bill started, 
we had 320 amendments that had been filed. We are down now to a handful 
of amendments, literally--12 to 15 amendments.
  I suggest to the majority, after we complete our votes in the 
morning, we should go immediately to offering some of these amendments. 
I think, without a lot of work tomorrow, we can complete this bill. 
There is no reason at this stage to even consider invoking cloture; we 
are so close to being able to complete this bill. I can't speak for the 
entire minority, but if a cloture motion were filed at this late day, I 
am confident it would not be passed.
  I think we should do everything within our power to complete this 
bill before we adjourn.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I don't take exception to anything the 
Senator from Nevada stated. I simply add, we have been on this very 
important bankruptcy reform legislation over a week and we have gotten 
to where we are on this legislation only because we have had an extreme 
amount of bipartisan cooperation, starting with the introduction of the 
bill by Senator Torricelli and myself, getting it out of the Judiciary 
Committee in April by a vote of 14-4, awaiting our place in line to 
come up on the floor of the Senate, and having had considerable success 
eliminating a lot of amendments and hoping to get it to conference 
before we adjourn for the first session of the 106th Congress.
  We have had that bipartisan cooperation. I expect to continue to work 
with the Senator from Nevada; the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, the 
ranking member of the Judiciary Committee; and Senator Torricelli, my 
partner on the subcommittee, to bring this bill to finality.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I agree there has been bipartisan 
participation to this point. However, the majority of the time that has 
been spent on this bill has been in quorum calls and other matters. 
Rather than being involved in quorum calls, we should proceed on this 
legislation.

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