[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21343-21344]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            VOTING SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we worked the day before yesterday and 
yesterday and did come up with a finite list of amendments on our side 
and on the majority's side. The respective staffs worked closely 
together, and we now have a list. We were hopeful last night we could 
have had that put into a unanimous consent request. We have been told 
that the issue holding that up has been the request that we had to have 
an overtime vote on Tuesday when all four Presidential candidates will 
be here.
  I will say, through the Chair to the majority leader, from the first 
day I started talking, as did Senator Harkin, to the Republican 
manager, the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, we acknowledged that we 
wanted to have a vote on Tuesday. So it is not anything that is new or 
unique that we have been setting that time aside tentatively.
  We would hope that before we leave here this morning, we can have 
some kind of agreement to that effect. Otherwise, we will do our best 
to cooperate, but we certainly need that vote. We think it would be the 
right thing to do to have as many of our people here as possible when 
that vote occurs. As the leader knows, we have a few Republican votes 
on that, but with the margins as small as they are, it would be a very 
close vote. We should have everyone whenever that vote occurs.
  We have been acting in very good faith. It was hard to get agreement 
on our side. That is why I was hoping we could have it done last night. 
I do hope we can have that done today.
  Senator Domenici and I have worked the Energy and water bill on many 
occasions. We feel we have a good bill. It is one I am glad the 
majority leader is going to move to quickly because we are going to 
have a very difficult conference with the House. There are some big 
issues we normally don't have to work with in our conference that are 
in dispute. I think we can finish that bill in a fairly short period of 
time. It is a bill that is very important to almost every Member.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. In response to the assistant Democratic leader, scheduling 
is always a challenge. I appreciate the straightforward way he presents 
it because it is very clear that on the other side of the aisle there 
are a number of people running for the nomination for President and the 
candidates are participating in the political process. But we do have 
business here in the Senate. To try to dictate the schedule entirely 
around their candidacy for President is just impractical. I cannot do 
that. I want to be respectful as much as possible as we go forward. It 
is difficult. I want to be as accommodating as we possibly can in terms 
of votes, allowing people to participate.
  On the other hand, we need to keep business going. We have made great 
progress in terms of the amendments on our side and on the other side, 
getting them down to a manageable number. Some might question ``a 
manageable number,'' but to a number that we can work with. I 
appreciate that. That is what it is going to take in order to bring 
real focus to this bill.
  In terms of agreeing to when we will vote on, indeed, a very 
complicated and complex issue at a specific time, at a day that is most 
convenient because of political candidates running around the country, 
especially since that amendment has not even yet been offered, is 
something we can't do at this time. That was explained to the other 
side of the aisle. That should not slow things down at all. But again, 
there is an orderly process. When the amendment is provided and 
debated, we have a lot of people who will want to speak on that. Again, 
the issue is a very important one.
  We are making real progress. I am pleased where we are in terms of 
having this manageable group of amendments. Systematically, we will be 
going through those over the course of the day and Monday and Tuesday. 
Hopefully, we will complete the bill.
  Mr. REID. If I may briefly reply, we shared the amendment Senator 
Harkin is going to offer with Senator Specter and Republican staff. The 
question is when he should offer it. He could have

[[Page 21344]]

offered it last night. He will offer it today. Everyone has had the 
opportunity to see the amendment.
  We are respectful of the majority leader's problems in trying to set 
schedules. That is why, when we have had very close votes, we have not 
asked for revotes when our people come back. It is not often we have 
asked to have a vote at a certain time, but we have telegraphed, so to 
speak, our punch and let everyone know we were trying to get something 
lined up for Tuesday. I hope we can do that. With the number of 
amendments we have, as the leader knows, we can finish the bill very 
quickly or it can take a long time. We hope on Tuesday we can have that 
vote to work toward ending debate on this very important bill.

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