[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 115 (Monday, July 14, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6620-S6621]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CONCLUSION OF MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have talked to the distinguished ranking 
member of the Foreign Relations Committee and explained to him where we 
are. I am very happy we have an agreement to move forward on PEPFAR. 
That agreement is that we have 10 amendments. They are amendments we 
worked on hard. We did it all day Thursday and Thursday night, and then 
Friday, of course, perfecting the agreement, and we now have consent to 
move to the bill.
  Here is the problem that faces the majority: By our moving to PEPFAR, 
it opens a spot where somebody can move to proceed to something else, 
anything that is on the calendar. Anyone can come in and move to that 
piece of legislation, and file a cloture motion with it, which would 
force us to be on that matter. I cannot allow that to happen.
  I say this with the deepest respect for all my Republican colleagues, 
but we have had a little bit of mischievous legislation being thrown 
about here, and so if I move to something else to fill that spot to 
keep someone else from moving to something else, we on this side would 
be very happy to leave that dormant, do nothing with it, and move 
forward and complete PEPFAR. There would be no harm to anyone in doing 
this. But it would seem to me there would be a lot of harm if--I will 
not mention any names--the two or three likely suspects walked over 
here and moved to proceed to something else. I think it would create a 
lot of problems.
  This PEPFAR legislation dealing with global AIDS is extremely 
important. The President wants it. I do not know of a single Democrat 
who does not want it. I think most Republicans--I think the vast 
majority of Republicans--want this. So I would hope we are not going to 
get off track because of some folks over here who have tended to make 
me kind of look for a sucker punch to be thrown at any time. I think we 
would all be ill-advised to not finish PEPFAR at this time.
  Mr. President, I would ask that morning business be closed. That 
being

[[Page S6621]]

the case, I think the order is now in effect that once it is closed, we 
would be on PEPFAR.
  Is that right; I ask the Chair?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would ask that morning business be closed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning business is closed.

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