[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 7, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S1656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        INSIST ON A FAIR PROCESS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Listening to my good friend, the majority leader, 
should remind us all that the debate we had anticipated having this 
week--and I might say Members on our side were certainly prepared to 
have the debate--would not have had any impact on the surge. These were 
nonbinding resolutions. I would not argue that they were not 
significant, because Senators would have been put on record. But we 
were certainly prepared for the debate. What we were not prepared to do 
is to have a process that denied our side other options in addition to 
the Levin proposal.
  As we were frequently reminded last year by Democratic Senators, the 
Senate is different from the House. In the Senate, a minority of at 
least 41 can insist on a process that is fair.
  Senate Republicans were united, including members of our conference 
who support the Levin proposal, in insisting on a fair process. We 
started out with five different options, gradually pared them down to 
two--the McCain-Lieberman-Graham proposal and the Gregg proposal 
relating to supporting the troops. My good friend, the majority leader, 
objected to allowing us to have two proposals. He only wanted us to 
have one proposal. So we narrowed it down to one and picked the Gregg 
``support the troops'' proposal as our one, and the majority leader 
objected to that unanimous consent request as well, leading us to 
believe that not only did he want us to limit ourselves to one, he 
wanted to pick which one. Of course, in the Senate, that is just not 
possible. This is a deliberative body. It insists on having votes on a 
wide variety of proposals. Certainly, when we were in the majority last 
year, we had to vote on a lot of things we might not have liked to have 
voted on in order to advance a particular proposal. That is the way the 
Senate works.
  At whatever point the majority would like to begin the debate again 
on Iraq, we will certainly be happy to have it. I particularly wish to 
thank Senator Gregg for his very important contribution to this debate. 
That is a vote we will have at some point, on some measure, when we 
return to the subject of Iraq.
  With regard to the continuing resolution, let me just say to the 
majority leader, he has suggested that I survey our members and see 
what amendments we might like to offer, since he has indicated 
amendments may or may not be allowed on that proposal. I would say to 
him we are paring that down and hope to be able to get him--we have 
about seven; we are going to try to pare that down to three, submit 
those amendments to the majority leader, and hope they might be allowed 
when we do move to the continuing resolution.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to my friend, we would also see what 
amendments, if any, we want to offer on this side--maybe three and 
three or whatever we can come up with that appears to move the ball 
along.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican whip is recognized.

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