[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 34 (Thursday, March 16, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S2291]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Amendment No. 3081 Withdrawn

  Before I do that, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the pending 
amendment No. 3081 at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, we are now able to go to final passage. 
Before we go to final passage, I wish to begin by thanking Senator 
Conrad and his extraordinary staff, led by Mary Naylor. They have been 
incredibly cooperative. They are always extraordinarily professional. 
There is no question but we would not have been able to complete this--
in what may not seem timely to most folks because we have been here all 
day but is--quite honestly we could have been here into tomorrow or 
Saturday without the extraordinary cooperation of the Senator from 
North Dakota and his team. I thank him for his professionalism and 
their team.
  I also thank my Committee on the Budget staff. They have worked 
tirelessly and continuously on this budget for the last 6 weeks. They 
literally have gotten very little sleep, especially, of course, Scott 
Gudes, my budget leader, and Denzel McGuire, his top assistant. They 
did a great job of organizing, especially today, the amendments.
  Jeff Turcotte, Dave Myers, and Sam Donoghue of our communications 
team, who has tried to compete with the chart machine on the other side 
of the aisle, they have come close. They have done a great job. Jim 
Hearn and Cheri Reidy, David Pappone and Gail Millar, are the 
specialists who make this place work. The cornerstone of the great 
team, John Mashburn, and Vas Chrisopoulos, my AA who keeps everything 
humming along and does an incredible job on my personal staff, and I 
thank the leadership staff. There are an awful lot of good people 
working for the leadership around here. They should be acknowledged for 
their tremendous work.
  Let me thank the clerks and all the Senate staff. They have worked 
all day with virtually no break, along with the Reporters of Debates. I 
thank everyone for an extraordinary amount of commitment to making this 
place work correctly.
  This budget is now on the verge of being passed. It is the first step 
in the process. As I have said before, it is the responsibility of 
governance to pass a budget. That is our responsibility as 
Senators. This is a responsible budget. It is not everything I wanted, 
obviously, but it is a step in the right direction. It is a step on the 
road, and it is a positive step on the road.

  Rather than prolong the discussion, because we have had a lot of 
discussion on it, I will now yield the floor to the Senator from North 
Dakota.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, first, I want to indicate that we may have 
one matter to conclude before we end.