[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21372-21373]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF PROCEDURE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, while the distinguished majority leader is 
on the floor, let me make a couple of comments.
  First, if I can ask the Parliamentarian: What time will the vote take 
place on final passage on the border security bill?
  Mr. FRIST. It should be 3 a.m.
  Mr. REID. That is a fairly good estimate, Mr. President--about 3 
o'clock on Saturday morning?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, while you are checking that out, it is my 
understanding, based on discussions last night, that we started at 9 
o'clock last night. That is when the time officially started, and it 
would be 30 hours from 9 o'clock last night, which will be about 3 a.m.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, on the bill that is now before this body, I 
hope that if there are going to be amendments, one of the amendments we 
need to take into consideration--I am sure the leader has heard from 
his Members, as I have heard from mine--is disaster relief. I hope we 
have this vehicle moving through here today and that we do something 
regarding agricultural disaster assistance legislation. We passed it 
three times in this body, and it has never made it out of the House.
  It is not just the Midwestern States that we know produce a lot of 
food. We have had natural disasters all over. The State of Nevada has 
had raging fires. In California, there is one fire that has been 
burning since the 1st of September and they still haven't put it out. 
So I hope the leader will consider that legislation.
  Also, I wasn't able to respond to my friend, the distinguished 
majority leader, last night, but on the India nuclear bill legislation, 
the reason this matter hasn't been to the floor much earlier is there 
was a provision put in this legislation by Senator Lugar. I agree with 
it. I support the legislation. But on the majority side, there are 
people who have held up the legislation because of that provision.
  This is important legislation. I have said on a number of occasions 
that I strongly support this legislation. It is important we find time 
to consider this bill before this Congress comes to an end. I think 
this legislation will be strongly supported by a bipartisan majority in 
the Senate. It was reported out of the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee in June on a strong bipartisan basis.
  We must understand, it has been many months since the committee 
action took place. I hope we can take a limited number of amendments 
with very short time agreements and have it set up so that when we get 
back here, when the elections are over, this would be the first order 
of business we move to. We could set it up that we can finish the 
bill--it will be a very long day--but do it in 1 day.
  I believe we should do this, this important legislation. Passage 
means a lot to our vitally important United States--India relationship. 
I pledge to do what I can to ensure that we do just that. I hope before 
we leave here today, tomorrow, or Sunday--whenever it might be--that we 
will have this bill on so-called automatic pilot, that we can take this 
up when we get back. I hope that will be the case.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3994

  Finally, on the Iran matter, I hope we can do something on that bill. 
As the Republican leader said last night, I couldn't think of a worse 
time for this Iranian matter to lapse. So I now ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 3994, a bill to 
extend the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 until November 17, 
2006; that the bill be read a third time, passed, and the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table.
  If we did this, it would put everything in order until that date. It 
would extend this matter until then. The House has put a lot of other 
stuff in this bill very recently. There have been no hearings on it. I 
think it would be in the best interest of the country if we

[[Page 21373]]

did this. I hope we can. If the leader cannot agree to this request 
now, I hope we can do it at a subsequent time before we leave in the 
next few days.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, did the Senator make a unanimous consent 
request?
  Mr. REID. Yes.
  Mr. FRIST. Reserving the right to object, and I will object, I saw 
for the first time 10 seconds ago what the minority leader has 
proposed.
  I had a unanimous consent request that we proceed to the bill the 
House passed last night when we started the discussion, and this is a 
continuation and a response to the fact that we do have to act today.
  What I prefer to do is work through the bill the House already 
passed, H.R. 6198, which has been received from the House. But what we 
can do is for us to get together and see how best to address this 
matter, either with the approach the Democratic leader put forward or 
the approach that I think is much better and much more complete, the 
House bill.
  So I object to his unanimous consent request. Rather than go through 
the formal unanimous consent request on the House bill, which I have 
before me, why don't we try to address it.
  Mr. REID. I withdraw my request.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The request is withdrawn.
  Mr. FRIST. On the India Nuclear Act, it is something we are working 
on. I believe we do need, before we leave, to put together a package, 
as the Democratic leader and I have been working toward, something 
along the order of a day, as he mentioned. Both of these issues are 
very important. I brought them up last night and we do need to act on 
those today.
  Mr. President, in closing, I wish to say this is a good example. 
There is going to be a lot happening over these next 24 hours. If we 
can work through these matters and we can receive the final legislation 
to be considered on the floor, legislation such as homeland security 
and port security, I think we will be able to act in a fairly 
expeditious manner. The clock will run on the border fence bill until 3 
a.m. That is when the vote would occur. If, through working together, 
we are able to manage things in a more orderly way, we will be able to 
do that.
  Following that vote, we have one more vote on child custody 
protection. Again, these are issues that are very important, but we 
will do our best working together to get things as coordinated as we 
possibly can, given some legislation isn't quite ready yet for the 
floor.
  With that, I hope everybody will be very patient over the next 24, 36 
hours, and then we will have everybody out and have our Nation's 
business done.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Idaho is recognized.

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