[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 154 (Friday, September 26, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S9622]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF BUSINESS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, in the morning we will likely come in at 
9:30, and we will have a half hour of debate prior to the vote at 
around 10 o'clock, and that will be in the wrap-up closing papers this 
evening.
  I would also say to all Members, there are negotiations going on 
regarding the financial bailout. We are hopeful and confident something 
can be reached in this regard, but we will see. Now all parties are 
negotiating. We have had some concern today if that, in fact, was going 
to take place, and it has, and it is now going forward. So we would 
hope that if agreement can be reached, we will do it this weekend 
sometime. Therefore, we are going to have to be in session on Monday. 
If we have a vote on Monday, it will be very early, as early as 
possible. That is to complete whatever work the negotiators had done 
over the weekend.
  We understand that at sunset on Monday night there is a Jewish 
holiday. We will honor that every way we possibly can. We would not 
consider being in session on Monday but for the fact that we have been 
told by Secretary Paulson and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve that 
there is a financial crisis out there, and that is what is being done 
in S-116 downstairs in the Foreign Relations Committee room today and 
will go on throughout the night.
  We are going to complete, before we leave here, the Defense 
Department authorization bill. It is important we do that. We have that 
from the House. We are going to complete that. Rail safety, Amtrak--we 
will complete that before we leave. I have had a number of 
conversations with the White House. We are going to complete the India 
nuclear agreement before we leave.
  Now, with all these things we are getting cooperation of Senators. If 
we do not get cooperation, we can get them done anyway, it just takes a 
lot longer--a lot longer. So I would hope the people who have 
objections to these pieces of legislation will be considerate, as I am 
sure they will be, to the schedules of other Senators. We have an 
election on November 4. We have tried mightily to finish our work on 
this Friday, today. But circumstances have weighed against us doing 
that with the financial problems we have had.
  The largest bank failure in the history of our country was yesterday. 
The bank that failed had more than 2,000 separate branches. So we are 
going to have to continue our work here. We just cannot leave with all 
the work we have to do.
  The vote in the morning is an important vote. I hope we will have 
good attendance at that vote. We will talk more in the morning to see 
if something has happened during the night that will change the 
statement I made today. That will be the only vote tomorrow, the one we 
will have at or around 10 o'clock in the morning. We hope we don't have 
to have a vote on Sunday. This is a cloture vote. There are 30 hours 
that runs, and we would hope that everyone would understand, if cloture 
is invoked, there is not much to be gained by waiting and making 
everybody come back and vote. But we will see what happens.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. COLEMAN. Thank you, Mr. President.

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