[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 132 (Thursday, September 17, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9489-S9490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, following leader remarks, the Senate will 
be in a period for the transaction of morning business for 1 hour, with 
Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. However, I ask 
unanimous consent that the full 30 minutes of the majority be 
controlled by the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. The majority will control the first 30 minutes, the 
Republicans will control the second 30 minutes. Following morning 
business, the Senate will begin consideration of H.R. 2996, the 
Interior appropriations bill. Following the managers' opening 
statements, the floor will be open for Senators to offer amendments. At 
2 p.m., we will resume consideration of H.R. 3288, the Transportation-
HUD appropriations bill, and proceed to a series of up to six rollcall 
votes and complete action on that bill.
  I think it is important to say to everyone that we are now in a mode 
of doing some legislation. I appreciate very much the cooperation of 
all Senators, Democrats and Republicans. We are now in the mode of, 
when a bill comes up, people can offer amendments. For a number of 
years, that simply was not the case. When there are circumstances and a 
decision is made not to allow amendments, I understand, after people 
are in the habit of being able to offer amendments, how concerned they 
become. We will approach that whenever it comes about, if there is a 
decision made to so-called fill the tree and not allow amendments.
  In the way we are working, we are taking some tough votes. Democrats 
are offering some difficult amendments, Republicans are offering some 
difficult amendments. But that is OK. We are working through these 
bills. We could have been voting on cloture on the Transportation 
appropriations bill. We could have been invoking cloture on that bill 
this morning. It simply has not been necessary.
  We have some nominations we are still working our way through. One 
Republican Senator has held up a nomination for quite some time. He 
came to me yesterday and said: You can go ahead and put that one 
through.
  I am satisfied and confident this is the way the Senate should 
operate.
  We have the health care bill on the horizon. If we are able to get 60 
votes to proceed to it, it is going to take everyone's cooperation and 
patience to work through the amendments that will be necessary to go 
forward on that bill. I am hopeful and confident we can work through 
that bill. If not, we will have to go to reconciliation, which I hope 
we don't have to do, but if we have to, we have to do that.
  Anyway, I feel good about what we have been able to accomplish this 
week. I repeat, it sets a pattern of how we should be legislating.
  Behind me is Senator Specter. He came to me a number of times last 
year and said: Are there going to be amendments allowed? And I said 
yes. He said he would vote to move forward on the bill. I think there 
were other people who felt the same way, but they just were not as 
vocal as Senator Specter.

[[Page S9490]]

  I appreciate the good work, including that of my colleague, the 
senior Senator from Kentucky, who is one of the people who has stressed 
how important it is to have amendments. I recognize he cannot control 
his Senators all the time, nor can I. In spite of that, we have been 
able to work through legislation.
  I want to get the appropriations bills done, as does Senator 
McConnell. He and I have been members of the Appropriations Committee 
during our entire tenure in the Senate. It is important that we work 
through these bills. As of today, we will have completed five of them. 
We are going to do our utmost to do the conference reports before the 
first of October. We may have to--not may--we will have to have a 
short-term CR, and by the end of that short-term CR, hopefully we can 
complete all the appropriations bills.

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