[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 156 (Thursday, December 6, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S7663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF BUSINESS

  Mr. REID. Madam President, this morning Senator McConnell came to the 
floor. He made a serious offer dealing with the debt ceiling--one of 
the most important issues facing this country. As I said, it is a 
serious offer. I have not personally read it. My staff looked at it, 
and it is important enough that I would like to have a vote on it this 
afternoon. I need to have a caucus and explain to my troops what this 
is all about. If we can work something out with Senator McConnell, I 
would like to have a vote sometime this afternoon. I do need to have a 
caucus. We have another vote right now, and if my Republican colleagues 
think there is not a chance of having a vote this afternoon--I can only 
do it by unanimous consent. If someone is going to object to it, they 
should do it now and we will arrange another time to address this 
issue.
  So the issue is that Senator McConnell has made a proposal on how we 
handle the debt ceiling, and we have to get permission from my 
Republican colleagues as to whether we can have a vote on it this 
afternoon at a time that would be as convenient as possible. I don't 
think we need a lot of time to debate it. We have done that lots of 
times.
  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, how about 1 p.m.?
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I know there are airplanes that people 
want to leave in, but this is very important. This vote will end at 
about 1 p.m. I scheduled the caucus for 1:30 p.m. There is no reason we 
couldn't start the caucus at 1:05 p.m. We can move it up.
  I need some direction from my Republican colleagues. So if I hear no 
one yelling no, then we will go ahead and schedule this as soon as we 
can this afternoon, to vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I know there are those on my side 
who would also like to have a conference to talk about this. Could we 
have an indication as to the timeframe of the vote?
  Mr. REID. Madam President, to my friend from Texas, the conference we 
will have won't take very long--half an hour, maybe 45 minutes. I am 
sure we could finish that by 1:45 p.m. or something like that, and we 
could have a vote.

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