[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 18, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S6547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following leader remarks the Senate will be 
in a period of morning business, with the Republicans controlling the 
first 30 minutes and the majority controlling the second 30 minutes.
  Following morning business the Senate will resume consideration of 
the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act.
  We have tried really hard to work on this Energy bill. It is no 
wonder the news is reporting today that this is the least productive 
Senate in the history of the country.
  We have a number of Republican Senators and lots of Republican House 
Members who don't believe in government. They want to get rid of it. 
They are doing everything they can to make that a fact. We are waiting 
now to see what is going to come from the House to fund government or 
not fund it. As the Presiding Officer knows, they are obsessed with the 
constitutional law that has been in effect now for 4 years, declared 
constitutional by the Supreme Court.
  The latest we got from our floor staff is that the Republicans on 
this Energy bill want five nongermane amendments and whatever other 
amendments are filed dealing with energy, which means we are not going 
to finish the legislation. That is an understatement. But we will 
proceed. We have a number of issues we are going to work on. We have 
one that we filed--what is called a rule XIV procedure--yesterday 
dealing with continuing to allow our high-tech industry to be 
competitive.
  We will move forward doing the best we can. We will wait and see what 
the House is going to do. They are still struggling to find out which 
absurd idea is going to prevail over there.

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