[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19403-19404]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       A TIME FOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Republican leader and the Democratic 
leader appointed Senator McConnell and this Senator to work on the 
legislative aspects of the 9/11 Commission. If the cooperation among 
Members is as good as Senator McConnell and I have had, we are going to 
be able to move forward on this bill, I think with bipartisanship. And 
we need to move forward. I think the 22 of us who serve on this task 
force feel that way.
  We have to understand how much there is to do these next few days. 
There is a lot to do. We had a very productive last 2 weeks when most 
people expected a tremendous amount of partisanship this last little 
bit before we break for the elections. But from my observation it has 
been the opposite. There has been cooperation, and we have gotten a lot 
done. The next 2 weeks are important.
  Also by virtue of the schedule we will have a difficult time this 
week because Tuesday we have an event for retiring Senators. That has 
been scheduled for months and there is no way out of that. That is 
Tuesday evening. Then, of course, Thursday is the first Presidential 
debate. It makes a lot of sense to me that we be in tune with that. I 
know there are some Senators who have events related to that. We will 
have to keep those things in mind.
  I hope we can move forward on these matters which the leader has 
talked about. There is an opportunity to get a few things done with a 
limited time agreement. During the time we are working on this matter, 
we should go ahead and do that to prevent a lot of backlog next week 
before we head home before the recess.
  I appreciate the leader's comments. I hope my observation is a 
correct one. We have been doing very well in spite of what some of the 
political prognosticators have said. This isn't a time for meltdown. 
This is a time for accomplishing a lot.
  When the Chair announces morning business, we have two on the 
Democratic side who wish to speak, Senator Harkin and Senator Nelson of 
Florida.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.

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