[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 73 (Thursday, May 24, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5571-S5572]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period for 
morning business until 11:30 a.m., with Senators Thomas and Durbin in 
control. Following morning business, the Senate may begin consideration 
of any legislative or executive items available for action. The 
conference report to accompany the tax reconciliation bill is expected 
to be available no later than Friday. Therefore, we expect votes 
throughout the remainder of the week.
  I thank my colleagues for their attention.


                       conference report progress

  Mr. REID. Will the Senator from Wyoming yield?
  Mr. THOMAS. Absolutely.
  Mr. REID. I see the chairman of the Finance Committee. I ask him if 
we made progress on the conference.
  Mr. THOMAS. The chairman is going to take a few minutes.
  Mr. REID. The reason I say that, it is Thursday morning early, but we 
have already been getting calls on this side about people wanting to 
make parades on Saturday and things of that nature. I hope the Senator 
will be good enough this morning and during the day to keep us posted 
on how the conference is proceeding so we are better equipped to answer 
the phone calls we get.
  Mr. THOMAS. I yield to the chairman of the Finance Committee.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I thank the distinguished Democratic leader for asking 
the question. I hope I can answer it. Remember, I have tried to conduct 
the work of the Finance Committee in a very transparent way and with 
open communication with everybody. So there will not be anything about 
this conference committee, except the specific negotiations, that will 
be kept from anybody.

  Last night there were some--well, yesterday over the course of the 
afternoon and evening there were three informal meetings, and they are 
going to continue this morning, probably in just a few minutes. There 
have not been any decisions made yet, but the normal give and take that 
has to be done before settling down to serious negotiation is done and 
out of the way.
  What I can best inform you about is that at the trail end of our 
visiting yesterday the Speaker of the House came to our meeting and he 
informed all conferees that he had instructed the House of 
Representatives that they would stay in session into the weekend until 
this conference report was adopted. That does not mean we have to be in 
on the weekend.
  There has to be a realization that there has to be a slot of give and 
take. There is good spirit about the conference at this point, and we 
will just have to work our way through it. That is all I can tell the 
Senator. I will be glad to keep him informed anytime he wants to ask, 
and even if he does not ask, I know I have a responsibility to keep him 
informed, and I will try to do that.

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