[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 193 (Thursday, December 15, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S8619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          RESOLVING THE ISSUES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Republican leader and I have done enough 
back and forth, staking out our positions, and our positions are fairly 
clear to the American people. What we are going to try to do during the 
next few hours is work toward resolving some of the outstanding issues.
  I just had a very comfortable conversation with Senator Inouye and 
his Appropriations chief of staff Charlie Houy, along with my chief of 
staff David Krone, and I think we have made pretty clear the issues 
that relate to the omnibus. I think, according to Senator Inouye, those 
issues should be resolvable. We have a few issues that are still 
outstanding, but they are small in number.
  The House is suggesting moving forward on an individual bill. I think 
that would be a mistake. I think what we should do is the conference 
report, and I think that is the direction we are headed. There are a 
couple of issues we have to still work out with the White House, but I 
am in touch with them also.
  On the payroll tax and unemployment tax extenders and SGR, the 
Republican leader and I have been in discussion on that issue. We hope 
we can come up with something that would get us out of here at a 
reasonable time in the next few days.

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