[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 36 (Monday, March 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S2937]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                                PROGRAM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, a short while ago I filed a cloture 
motion relative to the JOBS bill. That cloture vote will occur on 
Wednesday of this week. The chairman will be back tomorrow to discuss 
the importance of this legislation, and we hope to finish the bill this 
week. Amendments may still be considered prior to the cloture vote, and 
we will continue to look for an opportunity to consider amendments that 
are relevant to the underlying bill. Rollcall votes are, therefore, 
possible during tomorrow's session. Senators will be notified when the 
first vote is scheduled.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if my friend will allow me to make one brief 
statement, we understand the importance of the underlying bill. That is 
the reason we have agreed to have a list of finite amendments. It is 
not often we have tax bills come across the floor. This is a tax bill. 
We have been told on many occasions: do the overtime vote later. This 
bill is important. As I explained earlier today, the Senator from Iowa 
has withheld on a number of important pieces of legislation in an 
effort to move them through the Senate. But that time has come to an 
end. He is not agreeable to doing it at a later time anymore. We are 
going to have a vote on this legislation.
  If this legislation is important to the administration--which I am 
hopeful and confident it is--we should have a vote on this overtime 
issue.
  I repeat: The reason the administration doesn't want a vote on this 
overtime issue is it will pass. There is no question about it. Members 
in the majority and virtually everyone in the minority will vote for 
this most important amendment.
  I hope this legislation is allowed to go forward. If it isn't, it 
will be directed back to the President of the United States for doing 
what he has done affecting the rights of millions of Americans, which 
is the overtime issue.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, at the risk of repeating myself, we 
have had this vote once. I am sure there will be other opportunities in 
the very near future for repetitious votes on the same issue. I know 
our good friends on the other side will insist on an opportunity to do 
that. The question is whether we should move the underlying bill now 
and terminate these sanctions being imposed on American businesses 
which cost us jobs. Jobs is an important issue here in America. We want 
to get this bill passed because it will preserve existing jobs and 
offer the opportunity for more jobs. The overtime issue, to the extent 
our good friends on the other side of the aisle think is a good issue, 
is already out there. A move is on by spending millions of dollars of 
George Soros' money running soft-money issue ads on this subject. I am 
sure those ads are not going to go away, whether or not we have this 
vote on this particular bill which, of course, would be our second vote 
on this issue without further debating the issue.

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