[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 133 (Monday, September 10, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11283-S11284]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will immediately 
proceed to executive session for an hour's debate regarding three 
noncontroversial--we hope, at least--District Court nominations. The 
time is equally divided and controlled between Senators Leahy and 
Specter or their designees, and Members can expect votes on these 
nominations to occur at approximately 11 a.m. this morning.
  Once the nominations have been confirmed, Senator Barrasso will be 
recognized to give his maiden speech, and he will be recognized for up 
to 30 minutes.
  I say to Senator Barrasso and others, sometimes these maiden speeches 
bear fruit. I remember my first speech. I was speaking on the 
Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, and presiding, as is the Senator from 
Virginia today, was Senator David Pryor from Arkansas, who was chairman 
of the IRS Subcommittee of the Finance Committee. Also listening to 
this speech, fortuitously, was Senator Grassley, who was a member of 
the Finance Committee--not a senior member but someone who was active. 
When I finished my speech, talking about the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights 
making it a more level playing field between the taxpayer and the tax 
collector, Senator Pryor had written a note, given it to a page, and he 
said to me he liked what I was trying to do and would help me. I also 
got a communication from Senator Grassley that he wanted to work on 
this.
  Well, to make a long story short, Mr. President, because of their 
involvement, I had to do very little. That legislation passed, and it 
was landmark legislation. It was not because of my ability to 
communicate as much as who was listening. So I say to Senator Barrasso: 
You never know what is going to happen with your maiden speech.
  Once he has completed his speech, the Senate will proceed to the 
Transportation Appropriations bill. Senators Murray and Bond are 
managers, and they are prepared to finish that legislation this week. 
There should be votes prior to 5:30 or 6 o'clock tonight. After that, 
we will have no votes.
  Tomorrow should be a very long, productive day because at 1 o'clock 
on Wednesday we can have no more votes. We can do more Senate business, 
but because of the Jewish holiday there will be no more votes after 
that time.
  Mr. President, on September 17, which is a week from today, there 
will be no votes but there will be work. I indicated to the 
distinguished Republican leader and others that we are going to do what 
we can to see if we can get the DC-Utah congressional thing worked out, 
the Voter Rights Bill. What we are working on now is to get some type 
of consent to have a cloture vote on that sometime next week. That 
hasn't been resolved yet but we are working on it. I have kept Senator 
Lieberman involved.
  Next week, also, we are going to move to the authorization bill for 
Defense, which has to be completed. We

[[Page S11284]]

need to complete this appropriations bill this week, because as soon as 
we complete the Defense authorization bill, we need to move to Defense 
Appropriations. That is what we have to complete before the end of the 
work period.
  There are other things we have to do. We have to have some extension 
or some agreement on what we are going to do with the farm bill. We 
have SCHIP that we need to work on prior to the end of this month. So 
we have a tremendous amount of work to do. Last week was a very 
productive week. We had to work a couple of late nights, but it was 
worth it. So that should set us up for this week and give us an idea of 
what we are going to do next week.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would ask one question of my good 
friend, the majority leader. I didn't hear him indicate whether--and 
maybe he doesn't know yet--the Iraq debate will occur in the context of 
the DOD authorization bill or separate from that.
  Mr. REID. I am going to try to work with the minority leader to see 
what we can work out as to whether we want to have the Iraq votes 
intertwined with Defense authorization or whether we do not. I have 
Members telling me on the Defense authorization bill that they are 
going to offer an amendment to close Guantanamo and offer habeas 
corpus, so it is going to be a contested piece of legislation. We have 
to complete that.
  There are some who believe we would be better off having the Iraq 
matters separate and apart from Defense authorization. I have to work 
that out first with Senators Levin and McCain. My initial report from 
them is that they would rather have them separate, but I will work with 
the minority leader and we will try to finish deciding what we are 
going to do by Wednesday or Thursday of this week.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I am going to make some remarks in my 
leader time. I would ask the Chair if this is the appropriate time to 
do that.

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