[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 113 (Thursday, July 10, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S6512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following the remarks of Senator McConnell 
and myself, there will be an hour for debate prior to a cloture vote on 
the motion to disagree in the House amendments with respect to H.R. 
3221, the housing reform legislation. Senators should expect a cloture 
vote to begin sometime around an hour from now.
  Last night we reached an agreement to consider the nomination of 
General Petreaus and Lieutenant General Odierno at a time to be 
determined by me and the Republican leader. We will set a time to do 
those votes. There will be 20 minutes of debate, equally divided and 
controlled between the chairman and ranking member of the Armed 
Services Committee, prior to votes on their confirmations.
  Finally, last night we were unable to get consent to move to global 
AIDS legislation, and therefore it necessitated my filing cloture on 
the motion to proceed to the bill. I am hopeful we can reach some kind 
of agreement on a way to proceed.
  I had a conversation on the floor with Senator Kyl, a public 
conversation on the floor. He is hopeful and confident something can be 
worked out. I hope that, in fact, is the case. As I have indicated, 
this is one of President Bush's pieces of legislation that he is 
pushing. We, on this side, are ready to move forward on it. We would 
like to be on something that is agreed upon between Senators Lugar and 
Biden and other people who have some interest in this matter. I hope 
that can be done; otherwise, we are going to have a cloture vote on 
that tomorrow.
  I hope we can work something out. If not, I hope we would be allowed 
to proceed to this legislation. As I have indicated to the Republican 
leader, if cloture is not invoked on the motion to proceed, then that 
will be the end of that legislation for this work period. If necessary, 
we will have to come back to it in the next work period. But with time 
constraints we have this work period, this is our opportunity to 
complete that legislation.
  I have been told that S. 3236 is at the desk and is due for a second 
reading.
  It obviously is not ready yet.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The matter will be read on the next 
legislative day.
  Mr. REID. I am sorry about that, Mr. President.
  We are going to vote in a short time on cloture, a final cloture vote 
on this housing bill. It is so important we get this done as quickly as 
possible. I am disappointed in that Senator Shelby and Senator Dodd, 
who worked very hard, had a little tight managers' package that would 
have made it so much better to take to the House, but I have been told 
Senator DeMint is objecting to that. As we know, in the Senate, one 
person can hold up things, and it is my understanding he is going to 
hold up things.
  The reason it is important we do this and move forward on this 
legislation, Mr. President, is that in the news today, the Associated 
Press reports that the number of homeowners stung by the rout in the 
U.S. housing market jumped as foreclosure filings grew by more than 50 
percent compared to June a year ago.
  Nationwide, 252,363 homes received foreclosure notices in June. That 
is 1 month. Foreclosure filings increased a year ago in all but 11 
States; in 39 States they went up.
  The highest foreclosure rates: California, Arizona, Florida, 
Michigan, Nevada. This is a very desperate situation we find. It is 
more than the people whose homes are being foreclosed upon; it affects 
neighborhoods where the homes are being foreclosed upon; it affects 
communities where the homes are being foreclosed upon. It affects, of 
course, the lenders who do not want to foreclose upon the homes. It is 
a loss for them when they do that. It is a loss for the community where 
the home is located because they lose revenues, tax revenues for that 
home.
  So foreclosure is a lose-lose situation. I hope everyone would 
understand the importance of it. I hope Senator DeMint would reconsider 
holding up this managers' package which has been worked on for more 
than 2 months now by Senators Dodd and Shelby and other Senators.
  But we are going to send it back to the House today, I hope today. I 
also hope that Senators would not require the 30 hours to be used. But 
we will see. They have that right, to use at least part of that 30 
hours postcloture.
  I am glad we are moving along. I hope we can complete our work today. 
If not, we will complete it tomorrow for this week.

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