[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 36 (Monday, March 2, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2597-S2598]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GOOD FAITH

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as a majority, we have done a good job of 
showing that the Senate can act in a reasonable manner. We have had 
amendments. We have shown good faith by allowing amendments on 
basically everything. This bill that is now before us is a big bill. I 
know there will be speeches given about how big it is. But keep in mind 
what is in the bill. Last year, we couldn't work anything out with the 
President, so we funded everything except Defense, Homeland Security, 
and military construction with a continuing resolution that took us 
until March 6. March 6 is upon us. The reason I am talking about the 
bill being the size it is, remember, it includes appropriations for the 
year dealing with Agriculture--extremely important--Commerce, Energy, 
Treasury, Interior, Labor, legislative branch--I was chairman of that 
subcommittee for a long time, and very important items are included in 
that--State Department. Of course, there are lots of other things that 
go into those. I have just mentioned the main name on the bill that is 
in the omnibus.
  This process has been as open as anything could be. The full 
committee was open. Each one of the subcommittees had full input by all 
ranking members. It is time we move on to get into a regular process 
where we have not 9 bills but 12 bills that we bring before the Senate. 
That is what I intend to do.
  As we have shown good faith, I think the Republicans have shown good 
faith. Although there are some amendments I wish they had not offered, 
that is how things work out here. On this bill, we have to make sure 
that reciprocity is also the same. We have shown good faith. I have had 
a lot of people come to me and say: Look, this bill is so important. 
Let's not have any amendments. Let's go ahead and get 60 votes and get 
it out of here. I think that is not the right thing to do. As I have 
announced, there will be amendments. As much as we can, we are not 
going to have a bunch of amendments pending because we are working on a 
very short timeframe, and we will work as closely as we can with the 
minority. We have two terrific managers of this bill, Senators Inouye 
and Cochran.
  I was told Senator McCain was going to be here to offer an amendment. 
I was told he was going to offer an amendment and that we would have a 
CR and not the omnibus. That is a reasonable amendment to offer. I 
think that is appropriate. We will need a little time to talk about 
that. But I think

[[Page S2598]]

that is appropriate. I believe in reciprocity and good faith. I had a 
conversation the other day with the Republican leader. He didn't 
mention who was going to offer the amendment, but both of us thought 
there would be such an amendment offered.
  I look forward to completing this legislation. We need to do it by 
Thursday. I hope we can work our way through this. If it is the CR 
amendment--and I have no other information other than staff told me 
walking in that that was going to be the case--I think that is an 
amendment that will take a little bit of time for us to discuss. There 
is not much to look at. It is probably one line long. I think I have 
made myself clear. This is an important piece of legislation for our 
country. It is an important piece of legislation for the Senate so we 
can get back to our regular appropriations process. We have done a good 
job of cutting, significantly, Government-directed spending. I have 
been on the record some time ago saying we have a constitutional 
obligation to make sure we are involved in how the country spends its 
money. We shouldn't leave how it is spent to bureaucrats in big offices 
here in Washington, made up of people who I don't think know my State 
as well as I do.
  We should have a good, stout debate on a number of issues in the next 
few days and hopefully move on to other matters next week.

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