[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 150 (Monday, September 22, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S9174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--TITLE I OF S. 3297

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a bill at the desk which is word for 
word identical to title I of our bill, which is the health care 
provisions. I ask unanimous-consent the Senate proceed to the immediate 
consideration of the bills at the desk, which consists of title I of S. 
3297, the health care title of that bill, the bill be read three times 
and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I will 
object on behalf of Senator Coburn, I would note two things: First, 
that we do not have to wait until 7 o'clock tonight. I came over to the 
Chamber so the majority leader could posit his unanimous-consent 
requests and there would be somebody here to speak on behalf of my 
colleague Senator Coburn. That is why I am here.
  Secondly, as I said, some of these bills, there are eight of them, 
that Senator Coburn has said, let's pass them right now. We do not have 
to go through the whole rigmarole of filing cloture and 30 hours of 
debate and all of the things the majority leader talked about.
  One or two of those are on the list he spoke about. There are eight 
in total here. So I would note that it boils down to ``take it or leave 
it,'' either all 35 or none, whereas Senator Coburn's view is that some 
of these bills could be passed without the necessity of filing cloture; 
let's just do it. But he and the majority leader have not been able to 
agree on which ones they are. Therefore, the objection must be made.
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, through the Chair, then are you saying 
that if I offer unanimous-consent on the Stop Stroke Act, the Mothers 
Act, ALS Registry, Downs Syndrome Support, Christopher Reeves, do these 
individually, that you will allow those to pass?
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, it is my understanding that there are eight 
bills on the list Senator Coburn has developed that do not need 
modification. There are three, at least, one of which was mentioned, 
the ALS Registry, that he believe need changes. I assume he and the 
majority leader have discussed that.
  Mr. REID. So you say there are eight we can pass right now?
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I think it is important, since I am speaking 
on behalf of another Senator, that staffs make sure what I have said is 
accurate. But my understanding is there are eight bills Senator Coburn 
has no objection to proceeding with. Obviously, he and the majority 
leader, you and he have been discussing how to put these together and 
get them done, but there may be changes necessary in the ALS Registry 
and Emmett Till Unresolved Civil Rights Crime Act, and the Protect Our 
Children.
  Mr. REID. So what I say, if there are eight of them that we can pass, 
let's do it right now.
  Mr. KYL. Well, I am speaking on behalf of someone else. I want to 
make sure what I have represented here is accurate. I am perfectly 
willing at this time to get the two staffs together to see if that can 
be done.
  Mr. REID. I say respectfully, our staffs have spent, with his staff, 
unending hours. And I will be anxious to see, whenever he shows up, 
because it is always, when you get right down to it, you cannot do it. 
If there are eight we can do right now, let's do them right now; do 
them one at a time.
  I will ask unanimous-consent. We will do them right now. The ones we 
cannot do, we will wait until next year when we get a new Congress and 
a new President. And the people who are sick and need this help will 
have to wait until we have a Congress that is willing to pass those.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, in further clarifying with staff, we know 
there are some that could be cleared right now, at least three. There 
are others where someone else has posed an objection, and I do not know 
who that might be, or which side it is on.
  But our staff indicates if the two staffs can get together, they 
think at least on some of these it can be resolved very quickly.
  Mr. REID. We have gone in the last minutes--this is what I have dealt 
with--from eight to three. I will take the three. What are the three?
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, with all due respect, that is not fair to 
what I said. I am not in the middle of this. There are staff on both 
sides who have been working on these. My understanding is that Senator 
Coburn is not the sole objector with respect to some. There are three 
where he was the sole objector. He is willing to let them go.
  I cannot speak to anyone else, to whatever objections might exist. 
But staff informs me they believe if we were to sit down and have the 
two staffs of the majority and minority work together, that perhaps up 
to eight of these bills could be cleared today.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say with all due respect to my friend, the 
junior Senator from Arizona, he is in the middle of this. Every 
Republican Senator is in the middle of this, because we could not move 
forward on these bills previously. So you cannot--because someone is 
objecting, it does not mean that is grounds for your not being a part 
of it. People on the Republican side of the aisle voted overwhelmingly 
not to move forward. So I tell you what, Mr. President. I will be happy 
to take the suggestion of my friend from Arizona. In the next hour or 
so we will sit down, my staff--I do not know about Senator Coburn's 
staff, maybe they are in Oklahoma also. But we will be happy to sit 
down and work to get some of these bills passed, so I will return at a 
later time.
  Mr. KYL. Would the majority leader indulge me one moment here? My 
staff has indicated there are four ready to go right now. I will read 
the title and then your staff will have those. One is the Prenatal 
Conditions Bill; another is the Child Pornography bill, that is S. 
4136; another relates to Child Pornography, S. 4120; and then there is 
a House message accompanying S. 496. Apparently all four of those are 
ready to go. That is the Appalachian Development bill.
  Mr. REID. We will take the first three. Let me think about this for a 
moment. Are these all Republican bills?
  We will do them all, except for the Appalachian whatever it is.
  Mr. KYL. If the majority leader wishes, I will ask unanimous-
consent----
  Mr. REID. And the language has not been changed in any way?
  Mr. KYL. Let me combine the three then to make it simpler.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous-consent, since these are different 
committees----
  Mr. REID. If I can interrupt my friend, there are a couple different 
versions of the bills floating around. On these three, which I am very 
happy to get done, we will make sure that the minority and majority 
staff agree it is the right piece of legislation so we do not make 
another mistake.
  Mr. KYL. What we will do is have your staff confirm that this is, in 
fact, the version, and then either you or I or someone else can ask 
unanimous-consent to clear these three bills?
  Mr. REID. We will wait for Senator Coburn's arrival.
  Mr. KYL. That is certainly fine.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, you can now announce morning business.

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