[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 77 (Monday, May 12, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3987-S3988]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader time, the Senate will 
proceed to a period of morning business, with the time until 5:30 this 
evening equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their 
designees. As has been previously announced, there will be no rollcall 
votes today. There will be votes, though, tomorrow, as early as 11 
a.m.--probably about 11:10 a.m.--and we will begin voting in relation 
to the following items: McConnell amendment on energy, with a 60-vote 
threshold; the Reid amendment on energy, with a 60-vote threshold--of 
course, my name is on the amendment because I offered it as part of my 
leadership responsibilities, but that is an amendment that has been 
worked on very hard by Senator Dorgan of North Dakota--and passage of 
the flood insurance legislation. I say, Mr. President, it will be a 
good day for America when we pass that. That will affect millions of 
Americans. The Banking Committee did an outstanding job of getting it 
here ready for passage. Senators Dodd and Shelby did a wonderful job in 
completing that legislation. And we will also have, tomorrow, a cloture 
vote on the motion to proceed to H.R. 980, first responders collective 
bargaining. With that being the case, we will probably complete our 
last vote--let's see, we have four votes an hour--maybe about 12:15, 
something like that, we will start the last vote, give or take a few 
minutes.
  So between now and the Memorial Day recess, we have a tremendous 
amount of work to do. There is so much unfinished business. But let me 
mention a few of the things we are going to complete or give it our 
very best.
  The first responders collective bargaining bill: We will be on that 
tomorrow. The farm bill conference report: We expect the House to 
consider the conference report as early as Wednesday. We need to 
complete it before we leave this week, which brings me to the point: We 
are going to do everything we can to see that we can complete our 
business by noon on Friday. But that is no guarantee. There will have 
to be some cooperation among Senators; otherwise, we are going to have 
to work--I know this is difficult because people have responsibilities 
other places outside Washington, but we very likely could have some 
work Friday afternoon, hopefully not very late in the day. But I do not 
know. Everyone should be prepared and arrange their schedules 
accordingly.
  We have this week and next week. One of the things we need to do is 
appoint conferees to the budget resolution. The House is expected to 
appoint conferees this week. There is a statutory 10-hour limitation on 
debate to go to conference. As Senators know, motions to instruct are 
in order. I will work with the Republican leader on an agreement to 
move the process forward in an orderly fashion; otherwise, we will do 
it in a disorderly fashion, and we will have only 10 hours to be 
disorderly.
  We also have a statutory direction to complete a resolution of 
disapproval, either yes or no, regarding FCC media ownership 
rulemaking. The reason we are able to do this, Senator Don Nickles of 
Oklahoma and I worked in the early 1990s to pass--and we did--a piece

[[Page S3988]]

of legislation that says if the administration or an agency promulgates 
a regulation, and we do not like it, we can overturn it. We have done 
that in the past, and that is what this is all about. It is a 
nondebatable motion to proceed to the resolution, and there are 10 
hours of debate with no amendments in order.
  We also have--even though we can say it quickly, it is going to take 
some time--the emergency supplemental, which will be on the floor next 
Wednesday. We need to complete this before the recess. We are not going 
to be panicked into completing this. We know there is enough money to 
fund the troops for a considerable period after the Memorial Day 
recess. We want to get it done, and we will do our best to get that 
done, but we are not going to be pushed into doing something we do not 
think is appropriate.
  On judges, I committed to Senator McConnell that I would use my best 
efforts to have the Senate consider three court of appeals nominees 
before the Memorial Day recess. I have been working with Senator Leahy 
to meet that pledge. The nomination of Steven Agee to be a Fourth 
Circuit judge should be available for debate late this week or early 
next week.
  We are also trying to move forward on two court of appeals nominees 
from Michigan. The problem we have had with that is Republicans on the 
Judiciary Committee complained that Chairman Leahy is moving these too 
quickly. So, Mr. President, they cannot have it both ways. If I am 
going to do what I said I would do, we need some cooperation from the 
Republicans. I cannot push the committee to take up nominees they do 
not want. It is my understanding these two appeals court nominees from 
Michigan have been worked out over a period of 6 years. It has taken a 
long time to get to where we are now. So I would hope the Republicans 
would back off their slow-walking this. Otherwise, we are not going to 
be able to complete these nominations before the Memorial Day recess.
  Finally, we are going to do our utmost to get a vote on an energy 
package before we leave for the Memorial Day recess. I repeat, we will 
likely have to have votes on this Friday. We will do them as quickly as 
we can. There will be no votes on Monday. We have had a number of 
requests over many months for people who have things to do in their 
home States on that day. There will be no votes on Monday. So that is 
going to make everything very difficult next week because I have 
outlined the many different things we have to do.

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