[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 14377]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 728

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in a few moments, we will be doing a 
unanimous consent request on water resources development as well as 
stem cells. Before doing that, I turn to my colleague, the Senator from 
Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, let me tell you something about what is 
about to happen if the unanimous consent request goes through. It is a 
significant bill. We have been working on it now during the last three 
authorizations, since the year 2000. Now, for 3 years, we have been 
working on this bill. We have had incredible cooperation, as everybody 
in the Chamber knows. It is always difficult to get something like this 
through, but it is necessary to keep this country moving.
  I will single out the members of the committee. I chair the 
Environment and Public Works Committee: Senators Thune, DeMint, Vitter, 
Warner, Isakson, Chafee, Murkowski. And Senator Voinovich of Ohio has 
been particularly helpful on this. He has a lot of interest in this 
bill. Of course, more than anybody else on the Republican side, Senator 
Bond, who is chairman of the subcommittee, has been very helpful.
  The big four in this case, of course, would be Senators Bond, Baucus, 
Jeffords, and myself. We have worked closely together to overcome some 
of the obstacles. Early on, there were several holds on this bill 
because it is complicated. It is one that almost is of the magnitude of 
the Transportation reauthorization bill. But we had several people who 
had concerns and we worked with them, including Senator Snowe, who was 
nice enough to help us with some of the facets she had objections to; 
Senator Sessions; Senator McCain; and, of course, the Democratic 
members of the committee who worked so well, including Senator Carper 
and Senator Lieberman, and Senators Clinton, Lautenberg, and Obama. 
Everybody was there working together. It was quite an undertaking to 
get us to the point where we are today.
  I will single out several others. Senator Gregg had some concerns 
also. Probably one of the persons I was really gratified to work with 
is Senator Feingold, the Senator from Wisconsin. I thank him for his 
cooperation. He had a number of amendments that I thought would be more 
than we could really handle. We had to get the number down to a certain 
number that is workable so we could have a time agreement to get this 
bill passed. I thank Senator Feingold for his cooperation and for 
agreeing to offer limited amendments under short time agreements. If he 
wanted to be hard to get along with, he could have had long agreements 
and this would have gone into many nights. He didn't do that. He agreed 
to short time agreements, which will make this possible to pass. His 
willingness to work with us is very much appreciated by me.
  Over the past few months, he consistently has been helpful and 
responsive in working on the WRDA bill. I thank the Senator from 
Wisconsin for his cooperation.
  This is going to be the first time that we have a lot that we need to 
authorize the Corps of Engineers to do in navigation flight control and 
environmental restoration. This bill will allow us to do that. I thank 
everybody for his or her cooperation. Let's go forward.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to 
be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the 
Democratic leader, on Tuesday, July 18, the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of Calendar No. 93, S. 728.
  I further ask that the committee-reported amendments be withdrawn and 
the managers' substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to as original 
text for the purposes of further amendment and that the only other 
amendments in order be the following, the text of which are at the 
desk, with specified time agreements equally divided in the usual form:
  Boxer, Folsom Dam, 1 hour; Feingold-McCain, mitigation standards, 1 
hour; Feingold-McCain, peer review, 4 hours; Inhofe-Bond, independent 
reviews, 1 hour; Inhofe, fiscal transparency, 1 hour; McCain-Feingold, 
prioritization report, 2 hours; McCain-Feingold, chief of engineers, 1 
hour; Nelson of Florida, water projects, 1 hour; Specter, Federal 
hopper dredges, 1 hour.
  I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 hours of general debate on 
the bill, and that following the disposition of amendments and the use 
or yielding back of time, the bill, as amended, be read the third time, 
and the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 166, H.R. 
2864, the House companion, and that all after the enacting clause be 
stricken and the text of S. 728, as amended, be inserted thereof; that 
the bill, as amended, be read the third time and the Senate proceed to 
a vote on passage, and S. 728 be returned to the Senate calendar.
  I further ask that no points of order be waived by virtue of this 
agreement.
  Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object, first, I want the Record 
spread with the fact that the Senate can work together. This is an 
example of that. Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe are polar opposites 
politically. I don't know if we could find two stranger people to work 
together on a bill than the two of these Senators. But this is a bill 
that takes cooperation and building consensus. That is what they have 
done.
  This is not a Republican bill, it is not a Democratic bill, it is a 
bill for the Senate. I also want the Record to reflect that Senator 
Feingold, who has three amendments on here, is a person who is 
dedicated to looking at the substance of legislation. I express 
publicly my appreciation for his cooperation and for allowing us to get 
to this point. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Allen). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we are currently talking to some other 
Senators about the water resources bill, so I will have more to say 
about that later. In the meantime, I will go on to other business.

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