[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 23, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S9227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--S. 1382

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, now we turn to another important piece of 
legislation. This is what we mentioned earlier, the Lou Gehrig's 
disease legislation. The bill would build upon, expand, and coordinate 
among pre-existing ALS registries, helping to collect data essential to 
the study of this dread disease.
  The reason this is important is the average time from discovering a 
person has Lou Gehrig's disease until they die is 16 months. Time is of 
the essence.
  The bill would create a Federal advisory committee on the national 
ALS Registry and promote research access to ALS data. The bill passed 
the House 411 to 3 a year ago. Both House and Senate committees marked 
the bill up with bipartisan support. Senator Coburn said he wanted some 
changes made so we have made those changes. Each change he told us he 
wanted we have made. Then he asked for an additional change and we made 
that. Now we have made extensive changes to the bill to accommodate the 
concerns Senator Coburn said he had with the bill, so I hope we can get 
it passed.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 518, 
the ALS Registry Act, that all after the enacting clause be stricken, 
the amendment at the desk consisting of the compromise amendment based 
on the language of subtitle (a) of title I of S. 3297 be inserted, that 
the amendment be considered and agreed to and the bill, as amended, be 
read a third time, passed, and the motions to reconsider be laid on the 
table, with no intervening action or debate.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Mr. COBURN. Reserving the right to object, again, after looking at 
this, if what the majority leader said is accurate, I plan on 
supporting this. But until I have had a chance to read what was sent 
over this morning--I will object until that time.

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