[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5370]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. LOTT. I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a 
period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak----
  Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object----
  Mr. LOTT. For up to 10 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant minority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the two leaders leave the floor, I 
want to say, first of all, the Democratic leader is being so generous. 
We, the Democrats, 44 of us, follow him in lockstep. But the fact is, 
he has gone a long ways towards accommodating the majority leader.
  I would just say this in passing: If we are going to be logical about 
this debate, then if you look at the underlying bill, that is the 
marriage tax penalty the Republicans are pushing forward, you will find 
60 percent of it is not relevant to the marriage tax penalty--60 
percent of it is not relevant. So if he is talking about relevancy, 
which I think should have no bearing on the proceedings here, 60 
percent of their own underlying bill is not relevant.
  So I think, I repeat, our leader has been so generous, trying to move 
things along. I think his statement is underlined by all the other 44 
Democratic Senators. We support every step he has made. We think he is 
doing the right thing in protecting the prerogatives of the Senate, 
having this debate in the Senate where there is free debate. We are not 
even asking for free debate; we are asking there be some debate, which 
is not being allowed.

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