[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 86 (Thursday, May 24, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S6577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate will conduct a period of morning 
business for the next hour, with Republicans controlling the first 
half. Following that, we will resume consideration of the immigration 
legislation.
  Mr. President, I walked by the President's Room today and said hello 
to a bunch of Senators in there. They were in there working on the 
immigration bill, Democrats and Republicans. We don't see enough of 
that. It was really, for me, a good scene. They were in there and had 
stacks of papers. They are trying to figure out a way to get through 
the immigration bill.
  We all acknowledge that the immigration system in our country is 
broken and needs to be fixed. I am not foolish enough to think we are 
going to make it perfect with this bill, if we can get it out of the 
Senate. We need to try. We have an obligation to try. That is what is 
happening on a bipartisan basis.
  I want Senators to keep working and see what we can do. There are 
certain issues, they have told me, they think will give Democrats 
heartburn and other issues that will give Republicans heartburn. 
Therefore, they are trying to get an agreement on some amendments, to 
have a 60-vote margin. That is the way it should be. We should not be 
in a posture where somebody is filibustering something they don't like. 
I hope people will be reasonable and continue to work as they have.
  I spoke to the distinguished Republican leader late last night, and 
we talked briefly this morning. We are looking forward to, when the 
House finishes the emergency supplemental, moving to that as soon as we 
can. It is an important issue. We have struggled on this now for 
months. Emotions are high. I think it is time to move on and see what 
we can do to fund the troops in an appropriate way. So we will keep 
Members informed. I have told the distinguished Republican leader that 
I will keep him informed on any word I get from the House.
  I have gotten calls, and people are upset that some of their things 
are not in this piece of legislation. It is very difficult--the 
President's Chief of Staff, in the first meeting Senator McConnell and 
I had with Josh Bolten, said: On this issue, I speak for the President. 
He said: If I don't have authority to speak for the President, I will 
go back to the President. When he called me, as he has on a number of 
occasions, and said: I am telling you that if this provision is in the 
bill, the President is going to veto it, we worked through some of 
these. We had to take certain things out of the bill. It wasn't a 
pleasure to do that because Members are affected on both sides. We had 
some issues that only affected the Senate. The President was unhappy 
with that. I wish he would let us do what we wanted to do, but we are 
in a position where that cannot be done.
  I hope the bill is in a position where we can fund the troops without 
a lot of animosity at this stage. People can make whatever statement 
they want regarding the war, and I am sure that will happen. I think we 
need to get to this as quickly as we can.




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