[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 9, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S6493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--S. 2731

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 698, S. 2731, at a time to 
be determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the 
Republican leader; and that the only amendments in order, other than 
the committee-reported substitute, be the Biden-Lugar managers' package 
substitute amendment; two amendments from each side that are germane to 
the Senate bill, the committee-reported substitute and the Biden-Lugar 
substitute; with second-degree amendments in order to the four 
amendments listed above, two per side, that are germane to the 
amendment to which they are offered; that general debate time on the 
bill be limited to 2 hours, equally divided and controlled between the 
leaders or their designees; that the debate time on any first-degree 
amendment be limited to 60 minutes, equally divided and controlled in 
the usual form; that any second-degree amendments be limited to 30 
minutes equally divided and controlled in the usual form; that upon the 
disposition of all amendments, and the use or yielding back of time, 
the substitute, as amended, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read 
a third time, and the Foreign Relations Committee then be discharged of 
H.R. 5501, the House companion, and that all after the enacting clause 
be stricken and the text of S. 2731, as amended, be inserted in lieu 
thereof, the bill be read a third time, and the Senate proceed to vote 
on passage of H.R. 5501, as amended; that the provisions of this 
agreement become effective only after each of the amendments covered in 
this agreement have been available for 24 hours for review and printed 
in the Record; and each leader notifies the legislative clerk that they 
have no objections, and places a statement in the Record; further that 
S. 2731 then be returned to the calendar.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, there is, and I would like to make a brief 
statement. The majority leader's long unanimous consent agreement 
pertains to an important bill that the President would like to get 
passed through this body.
  I think there is strong support for a bill along these lines. The 
consent itself, if one listened carefully, contains quite a few 
restrictions on the number of amendments, the time for debate, and so 
forth.
  Since there are ongoing negotiations--I am personally involved in 
some of them--with regard to provisions of the legislation, the 
unanimous consent agreement is too restrictive at this time. I would 
hope that we could work out an agreeable substance of the provisions as 
well as an agreeable procedure at a subsequent time.
  In fact, I think if we can reach an agreement on the substance, the 
procedure will be very easy to work out.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have spoken today to my staff, and they 
have been in touch with Senator Biden's staff. Senator Biden also 
thinks that something can be worked out.
  We have been hearing for a long time that is the problem. In 
conversations in the past with the President's people, this is 
important to him. It is an important piece of legislation. I would hope 
that Senator Kyl and others, working with Senators Lugar and Biden, can 
get an agreement worked out.
  This is a bill that should have wide-ranging support. I am going to 
file cloture, I say to my friend, so that we can have a cloture vote on 
this on Friday. You might want to check with your people and see if we 
could perhaps have it tomorrow. But that is a decision that people can 
reach. If cloture is invoked, we will see if we can work out a 
procedure for working with the amendments. Hopefully, we can do that.
  In fact, to be candid, my staff said Senator Biden wants to hold this 
off for a couple more days. I think we are going to have to go ahead 
and try to move with this. So maybe with what Senator Biden and you 
have said, maybe if we take a look at this either tomorrow or Friday--
that is, the motion to proceed--perhaps we can work something out to 
have some way of moving forward.
  I hope so, otherwise I would hope this will not go in the barrel of 
things that we cannot do this year. That would be a shame. This is a 
cloture petition. I could have gotten signatures on both sides of the 
aisle. So I appreciate the manner in which my friend has spoken. I hope 
this is something we can work out.

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