[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 64 (Friday, May 17, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S4547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, there will be no rollcall votes on Monday. 
The next rollcall vote will occur at approximately 11 a.m. on Tuesday 
on cloture on the steel amendment to the trade act.
  I would say all staff members and all Senators should understand that 
the majority leader, in consultation with the Republican leader, today 
announced we are going to do a much better job of condensing the votes. 
Votes will be 15 minutes, and we have, over months, said that we would 
extend those 5 minutes. But that extension has now gone 15 minutes, so 
our votes have now become 30-minute votes.
  People are going to start missing votes. I know they are going to be 
upset, but people are going to miss votes. We are not going to 
continually waste everyone else's time. We have numerous votes to 
conduct next week, as indicated by all these amendments that have been 
offered. Even if we did not have a lot of votes, there is no need to 
have people, when there is a vote, stand around waiting for other 
people to complete their business. People waste lots of time.
  One reason people are not here when they are supposed to be is they 
know the votes do not take the amount of time they are supposed to 
take. So I hope people cooperate. If not, they are going to have a 
voting record not as good as they would like.

                          ____________________