[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 29, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S1907]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, following any leader remarks, there will 
be a period of morning business for an hour, with Senators permitted to 
speak for up to 10 minutes each, the majority controlling the first 
half and the Republicans controlling the final half.
  Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of 
S. 493, the small business jobs bill. The Senate will recess from 12:30 
until 2:15 to allow for weekly caucus meetings. Rollcall votes in 
relation to amendments to the small business jobs bill are possible 
today. Senators will be notified when votes are scheduled.
  We have 10 amendments now pending. I spoke yesterday afternoon to the 
Republican leader, and I think we are in good shape now to hopefully 
resolve the 1099 matter this afternoon. We are looking forward to 
having a consent agreement we can vote on. I think we are at a point 
where, in the morning, we can vote on the McConnell amendment dealing 
with EPA and a couple other amendments relating to EPA to get rid of 
that issue one way or the other.
  There are other matters with the bill we would like to set up votes 
on, and if people are willing to allow us to do that, we could do some 
of those this afternoon. But we are making progress on this very 
important bill. With all the amendments being offered, we sometimes 
lose sight of the fact that this bill, which has been led by Senators 
Landrieu and Snowe, is an extremely important bill for creating jobs 
with small businesses. It is an innovation bill, and the programs this 
bill covers have done some tremendously important things for the 
country.
  With the CR, I spoke with the White House this morning, and there are 
conversations going on with the White House and the Republican 
leadership in the House, and I think this matter, with a little bit of 
good fortune, could move down the road in the next day or two to get us 
to a point where we could have something done so there doesn't have to 
be a government shutdown. I certainly hope that is the case.

                          ____________________