[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 166 (Tuesday, December 20, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14072-S14073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             VOTE SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have, for example, Governor-elect Corzine 
who is doing work in New Jersey, and we need some notice as to when the 
vote will take place to get him back here. He is, of course, coming. It 
appears very likely that the Vice President may need to vote on this 
himself. From the numbers we have, it is going to be extremely 
close. It would be important we have some notice as to when the leader 
would like to handle and have that vote. If all the hours are used and 
even if we charged the time for debate during our caucus lunches, it 
would be 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock. If all time remaining is used on this, 
when would the vote take place if we go straight through?

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. About 6 p.m.
  Mr. REID. I know the Vice President has been in Pakistan. At least I 
have been told he is coming back. Does the leader know when?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I do not, but we will be able to decide 
shortly after talking among everyone when that vote will be. For sure 
we will have these cloture votes tomorrow morning. We need to make sure 
all Members are back for the postcloture votes with regard to the 
deficit reduction bill. If we use all time, it would be 6 o'clock, but 
over the course of the morning we can decide when the most appropriate 
time for that vote would be.
  Mr. REID. One of the things that could be done to make sure everyone 
is here, when we move to the Defense appropriations bill we could have 
that cloture and point of order. I am thinking at this time, even 
though the leader has filed cloture on the Defense authorization, I 
don't think we would have to have cloture on that. We could have final 
passage. One of the things the leader should think about is maybe doing 
them all at once. We could start fairly early in the morning and try to 
get them all done.
  If that were the case, I assume we could speed through them fairly 
quickly tomorrow if things turned out the way we think.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, a couple of things. First, we do not want 
to delay any votes that will delay when we finally are able to depart. 
Within the next 48 hours we will have a number of votes. We will work 
on scheduling so we can let people know with certainty. I have told our 
people to be around and ready to vote when we decide. I don't want 
Members staying in New Jersey, New York, California, or Texas waiting 
for us to give a final time. We need to have people accessible and 
ready to get back.
  Having said that, let's try to consolidate these votes at a time 
where people can come back, can be here, and we vote all at once or in 
a series.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I think I have outlined the major votes I 
know of. There would be some housekeeping stuff to do. Who knows, we 
might get lucky and be able to do some other things.
  Mr. FRIST. And with regard to that, we have a number of nominations, 
we have a number of judges, as well, we very much would like to be able 
to address. There are other issues with regard to the PATRIOT Act, 
Labor-HHS. We have a lot to do, all of which we need to address in the 
next day, 2 days.
  We will maximize, from a scheduling standpoint, when everyone can be 
back.
  Mr. REID. The other thing I mention is, in a meeting I had this 
morning, I think it is fairly clear it will not be necessary, even 
though we do not like the conference report on HHS, I don't think there 
will be a necessity for cloture on that. The leader should anticipate 
having a straight up-or-down vote on that at some time.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will speak on another issue and then we 
can come back and talk further.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Will the leader yield for a question on the last subject 
of scheduling votes?
  Mr. FRIST. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. BAUCUS. I don't see any reason why we can't finish all our voting 
tomorrow. We all know what the issues are. We all know what the votes 
are. I don't see any reason to delay. We ought to vote.
  There are so many families here, so many spouses, so many children, 
families want to get together. This is, after all, Christmas. I don't 
know why in the world we don't schedule all of our votes by tomorrow so 
at the very least by tomorrow we can start to head home with our loved 
ones. Can't the leader work that out?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, indeed, he is going to do his very best.
  Votes tomorrow, where the other side of the aisle causes us to have 
rollcall votes on motions to proceed and then cause us to file cloture, 
make it difficult. I was ready to get out 2 days ago. If we could do 
the up-or-down votes instead of filing the cloture motions, I am all 
for it.
  Mr. BAUCUS. All the cloture votes can occur tomorrow.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, my goal would be to be out, for sure, 
tomorrow. I think we can work on that. I appreciate the appeal from 
that side of aisle to be out tomorrow. We can't have obstruction. 
Getting the votes done and finishing everything tomorrow would be a 
good goal. I am all for it. It means we cannot have delay and 
obstruction.
  Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. FRIST. Let me make a statement now. I ask unanimous consent

[[Page S14073]]

my statement be made on our time on the reconciliation.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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