[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 5, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S1549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SCHEDULE
Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the
Republican Leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business
for an hour, with the time divided and controlled between the two
leaders or their designees, with the Republicans controlling the first
half and the majority controlling the final half.
Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of
the Consumer Product Safety Commission legislation.
Mr. President, I certainly complain when things do not go well here
on the floor and we are unable to legislate. I think that what has
transpired on the CPSC legislation is how we should legislate. I hope
it continues that way. In that regard, it appears we have a piece of
legislation--it is bipartisan in nature, it came out of the committee
after much consternation. We were concerned that we could not get
anything out of there. We finally did get something out of the
committee. It looks like a very good piece of bipartisan legislation.
We are going to finish this bill this week. I hope we can finish it
sooner rather than later. I alerted my caucus that we would be in
session until we do finish the bill, but there is no reason we cannot
finish this very quickly. I see no reason we have to move to cloture.
If that becomes necessary, I will certainly talk to the distinguished
Republican leader. But I do not see that on the horizon at this stage.
I hope we can move forward on this legislation. I would comment on
this: The managers of the bill are somewhat hesitant on an amendment.
They did not know if we should vote on it. That was handled properly
when the manager of the bill, Senator Pryor, moved to table an
amendment.
That is the way to go, not worry about people talking too much or,
well, they are not going to let us vote on it. The manager of the bill
has that prerogative when someone offers an amendment. They say their
piece, they move to table. It is nondebatable. And we need do that on
this legislation and other pieces of legislation and not worry so much
about a difficult vote.
So I hope we can move forward as we have and finish this legislation
as quickly as possible.
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