[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 120 (Friday, September 20, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8957-S8958]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, at 10:30 we will vote on the nomination of 
Reena Raggi to be a United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit. 
Following that vote, the Senate will be in a period of morning business 
until noon. We are expecting to go out of session shortly thereafter.
  This is in preparation for next week which will be a very busy week. 
Everyone should understand that. Next week could be a very big week. We 
are going to do everything we can to complete work on the homeland 
security bill. I have tried previously, in the form of unanimous 
consent, and have been unsuccessful, but we really need to move off the 
Interior appropriations bill. It is obvious, because of the forest feud 
that is in that legislation, that that bill is not going to go forward. 
We should not be wasting the morning standing around here doing 
nothing.
  I hope the minority will allow us, by consent, to spend all day each 
day next week on the homeland security bill so we can finish that bill. 
The two or three big amendments on that legislation have not yet been 
offered. We expect that to happen early next week. Later today, we will 
reoffer the unanimous consent request that we temporarily set aside the 
Interior bill and move on to the homeland security bill on a full-time 
basis. That would be the thing to do.
  I have said before--and I really believe this to be the case; I sadly 
say this--that the minority is working toward our accomplishing 
nothing. They simply don't want us to complete the other appropriation 
bills. We have asked to be able to move off Interior and to go to 
another appropriations bill. They won't let us do that. They said there 
would be no more two-tracking of legislation, which is fine. But at

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least they should let us move off Interior so we can have full days on 
homeland security.

  The President says he wants this legislation. His wants cannot be 
accomplished unless we are able to legislate on a full-time basis on 
it. Once we get started on something, we are back on Interior doing 
nothing. It takes time to get revved up again on homeland security. I 
hope that can be accomplished today, that we can get off Interior.
  It seems quite clear that the efforts to arrive at a compromise have 
failed. People have tried hard, and certainly no one is to be faulted, 
but sometimes we have issues that are irreconcilable. In the Senate, 
simple majorities don't solve problems that are irreconcilable; it 
takes 60 votes. The proposition that the majority has offered can't get 
60 votes. The proposition of the minority can't get 60 votes. It would 
be in the best interest of the country that we move off that 
legislation. Maybe later someone will come up with some kind of a 
brainstorm to figure some way out of it, but at this stage we have not 
been able to.

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