[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 117 (Monday, September 9, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S6288]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                                 SYRIA

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, tomorrow the President is going to brief the 
Democratic caucus and the Republican caucus separately. He is going to 
address the Nation tomorrow night. As we all know, there are 
international discussions relevant to the matter in Syria.
  Normally what I would do in a situation such as this is file cloture 
today, but I don't think that is to our benefit. I don't think we need 
to see how fast we can do this; we have to see how well we can do this, 
so I will not file cloture this evening on the Syria resolution.
  I have spoken to the Republican leader. I have talked to virtually 
all of my Democratic Senators. We have enough votes to get cloture, but 
I don't think we should be counting numbers tonight. I think what we 
need to do is to make sure the President has the opportunity to speak 
to all 100 Senators and all 300 million American people before we do 
this.
  As I have said before, when we get on this, we are going to deal with 
this in a manner that is dignified and move forward in a way that is 
expeditious, yet thorough.
  I have discussed this with the President and other people in the 
administration. I repeat: I wish to make sure the President has a full 
opportunity to make his case to the Senate and the American people 
before we vote on this matter.
  As always, I will continue to discuss this with Senator McConnell, 
and we will see if we can reach some kind of agreement to move forward 
without cloture. If that doesn't work out, I will file cloture when it 
is appropriate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

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