[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 12 (Monday, January 22, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S868-S869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, cloture has been filed today on the line-
item veto offered by Senator Gregg. I filed a cloture motion on the 
underlying bill,

[[Page S869]]

which is a straight minimum wage with no small business set-asides on 
it.
  Today, we have had 4 amendments laid down, and there has been good 
debate. Tomorrow, we can have our party caucuses at 12:30. We may vote 
in the morning. There are four amendments pending. We have the Enzi 
amendment, and the HELP Committee majority is working with him to see 
if there can be a couple of changes made and, if so, we can vote on 
that.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me just say, with regard to the 
cloture motion just filed by the distinguished majority leader, that if 
cloture were to be invoked on the underlying bill, the opportunity to 
pass what has developed into a bipartisan minimum wage proposal, 
including both an increase in the minimum wage and tax provisions, 
which are important for the small businesses that tend to hire people 
who work at the minimum wage, would be lost. So certainly it is my hope 
that cloture will not be invoked on Wednesday on the underlying bill so 
that we could continue in the bipartisan spirit in which we have begun 
this session of Congress and move forward on a bill that in all 
likelihood will receive, at the end of the process, a very large 
bipartisan vote of support, and that is a combination of the minimum 
wage increase and the small business tax provision.
  So I encourage my colleagues on this side of the aisle to, in the 
spirit of bipartisanship, defeat that so we can continue to deal with 
the substitute that I think will enjoy broad bipartisan support.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, during the next couple of days, until we 
vote on the two cloture matters, if cloture is not invoked on the 
matter relating to Senator Judd Gregg, then that matter, it is my 
understanding, would be withdrawn and we would go to cloture on the 
underlying bill. If that is, of course, passed, it would be just as 
Senator McConnell said--it would eliminate the matters the Finance 
Committee placed on the bill. If it is not invoked, we are right back 
where we started from and would work off the substitute.

  Mr. President, I hope Senators would look at and offer whatever 
amendments they want on this matter. There is going to come a time, 
because we have so much other business to do and, besides, there is 
ample opportunity to file amendments on this bill, that I will be 
required to file cloture. It would be great if I didn't have to. We 
could agree on a finite list of amendments, dispose of those 
amendments, and move to final passage of the bill.
  Next week sometime it is likely, as I explained to the distinguished 
Republican leader, we are going to have to go to the Iraq resolution or 
resolutions reported out of the Foreign Relations Committee. What the 
Republican leader and I have talked about doing--and we don't know if 
that is doable in the Senate--is to limit the votes that would be on 
that issue, whether we have a couple competing resolutions or one 
resolution. Whatever we do, we will try to work something out to the 
satisfaction of the body.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, briefly, five amendments have been 
pending, three have been filed. I will have a better sense, I say to my 
friend, the majority leader, after lunch tomorrow how many amendments 
my side will be interested in filing. I certainly share the majority 
leader's view, provided cloture is not invoked on Wednesday, that we 
would work with the majority leader in the hopes of winding up this 
bill at the earliest possible time.

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