[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 3 (Monday, January 8, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I direct to the attention of all Senators 
that tomorrow afternoon Senators who have amendments to the ethics 
lobbying earmark reform legislation, S. 1, be prepared to start 
offering them. We are going to work until we complete this legislation. 
It is my goal to complete the bill the following week.
  I remind Senators that Monday is the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday; 
therefore, of course there will be no votes on Monday. The first vote 
on Tuesday will be at 5:30 on that day, Tuesday; the 16th, I think, is 
the date. It is Tuesday, a week from tomorrow. I will indicate the 
reason I am not moving more quickly is I have had a number of Senators 
tell me they have events on Monday dealing with the commemoration of 
the Dr. King holiday and that they could not be here in time for work 
on Tuesday.
  We are going to work hard. We are going to finish the bill the 
following week. I advise Senators we are going to finish the bill the 
following week. Everyone should be aware that we will finish it. Even 
if we have to go past Friday at noon, we are going to finish this bill 
because we are going to move thereafter to minimum wage. Thereafter, it 
appears at this stage we are going to move to either the stem cell 
legislation and then the negotiating for lower prescription drug prices 
for Medicare. I don't know if we are going to do stem cell first or the 
Medicare negotiation bill, but one of those will be the third matter.
  We have a lot to do. Today the Senate voted to adopt a resolution 
honoring the late President Gerald Ford. Tomorrow we are beginning the 
ethics bill at 11, as under a previous order. Tomorrow will be a full 
day for debate and amendments to that bill.
  As I mentioned, the bulk of the bill is under the auspices of the 
Rules Committee. Senators Feinstein and Bennett will be ready to go 
tomorrow at 11. We also will see Senators Lieberman and Collins 
managing certain parts of that bill when the Senate Homeland Security 
Committee's jurisdiction is primary.


              Order for the Expiration of the Morning Hour

  I ask, Mr. President, that the morning hour be deemed to have expired 
tomorrow morning when we reconvene.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                          Completion of Votes

  Mr. President, as I indicated in our conversations that we have had 
about the conduct of the Senate, one of the things that I have seen 
over the years is how much time is wasted, waiting for Senators to come 
from committee meetings, from airports and other places, causing the 
Senate, in effect, to be in lockdown until a vote is complete. We have 
had votes that take a long time--an hour. We had a first vote today. We 
finished the 15 minutes, the 5 minutes--the vote is over. That is the 
way it is going to be.
  Today at least one Democratic Senator missed that vote. I hope that 
Senator doesn't miss any more votes. We are going to get in the habit 
of completing the votes on time.
  I have told my counterpart, Senator McConnell, if there is an issue 
that is one vote here, one vote there, it is 50 to 50 and people are 
moving around trying to get someone to change a vote, we will extend 
the time. But 98 percent of the votes are not close; 98 percent of the 
time we are going to finish the vote in 20 minutes. Everyone should be 
aware of that, Democrats and Republicans. This applies to Senator 
McConnell and Senator Reid. If we are not going to be here, the vote 
will be closed.

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