[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S11192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               RECOGNITION OF THE ACTING MINORITY LEADER

  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would like to respond to my friend. He is 
absolutely right. He and Senator Harkin have set an example after which 
many of us have modeled our responsibilities on the Appropriations 
Committee.
  I would say this. I think we should. I agree with the Senator from 
Pennsylvania. Why don't we go ahead and finish this bill? I think we 
have lost the time--we won't be able to do it today, but maybe we could 
do it tomorrow.
  I had suggested and made a unanimous consent request that there be a 
vote at 3:15. When do you want the vote today? It is the pending 
amendment. When do you want the vote? I would say that. Let's vote on 
that. We have a number of amendments on which we can go ahead and vote. 
We have a couple more people who want to speak on the overtime issue, 
but they could do that quickly.
  I say to my friend from Pennsylvania, check with the majority leader. 
See when he wants the vote. He can set the vote on overtime. We won't 
set it. Let him set it. Set the time for that. We can go ahead and 
dispose of other amendments. I think if he came back and said fine, 
vote on it at 2:15, or whenever--give us a suggestion--then we will try 
to finish this bill.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I would direct this question to the 
Senator from Nevada. He says let the majority leader determine when the 
vote should be set. I would agree with that. But suppose the majority 
leader says we ought to take the Harkin amendment vote after we take 
the votes on the other amendments?
  Mr. REID. Fine.
  Mr. SPECTER. And vote, but not necessarily today.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would say to my----
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, let me add, I personally don't object to 
voting today, but there are a lot of people on this side of the aisle 
who do as a matter of protocol and principle.
  That is why I am going to leave the Chamber in a few minutes and, 
along with the President pro tempore, who is the chairman of the full 
committee, discuss the matter with the majority leader.
  But as I understand the position of the Senator from Nevada and his 
side of the aisle, it is that they insist on the vote today.
  Am I incorrect about that?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have never in the past 6 months, during 
the time four Members are running in the Presidential campaign, said to 
the majority that we can't vote today because people are running for 
President. We have never done that. We have lost by one vote. And we 
have gone ahead and refiled amendments. We have taken our lumps.
  On this occasion, we gave adequate notice that we think it is a good 
idea to vote on Tuesday. But we never tried to play games as to why we 
wanted that. We have done this on one occasion. This is an extremely 
important vote for the country.
  What I am saying is that I guess we are in a no-win situation. If the 
majority leader says we are not going to vote on it today, then I don't 
see any alternative. But we are not going to be able to finish this 
bill. This is an important bill for the people of the State of Nevada.
  It is an important bill for the people of this country. But the 
overtime issue is also an important issue.
  I say to my friend from Pennsylvania that we are going to vote on 
this issue whether it is on this bill or if we are unable to finish 
this bill when it comes back or on a continuing resolution--however it 
gets here. We have a right to vote on this amendment.
  I don't understand why we cannot have a vote sometime today. That is 
my point. Let the leader schedule it, if he wants to, right now. Do it 
now. If he wants to do it at 6 o'clock tonight--whenever he wants to do 
it--we can set it up and get rid of all of these other amendments and 
be in pretty good shape to finish this bill tomorrow sometime.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, we will try to find the position of the 
leader on this issue as he represents the majority. We will report back 
as promptly as we can.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if I may say one other thing, this kind of 
reminds me of Roger Miller. He was a songwriter. He wrote songs which I 
identified with more than my friend from Pennsylvania who probably 
likes opera and other things. But one of the lines in one of the songs 
which Roger Miller wrote was pride is the chief reason for the decline 
in the number of husbands and wives. I think that is really true. That 
is what we have here. We are being prideful saying I got you and you 
got me. Why don't we, as adults, try to work this out so we can have a 
vote on overtime. We want it at 3:15. Have the leader set it any time 
he wants today but complete the other amendments that are important. It 
is a tough vote. There is no question about that. Most of them are 60-
vote waivers.
  I would like to finish this bill. I know the Presiding Officer has a 
real interest in this. Once we knock this out, we have eight more 
appropriations bills to go. We might be able to do another one this 
week. That would leave seven. That puts us in pretty good shape to 
finish all of this.
  We want a certain time this afternoon, but we can do it some other 
time. We will swallow whatever pride we have, and hopefully you folks 
will, and we can finish this bill.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the Senator from Nevada has articulated 
some wisdom this morning in his comments about pride. I think of the 
statement ``pride goeth before a fall.'' I think we can retain our 
pride and also get this worked out.

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